Hot TakeThe user does not come first. The user is not the center of design. The user is one of many factors in a good product. Glen Lipka, 2023 I have never liked the terms User-Driven, Data-Driven, and User-Centered. I think it fundamentally weakens the design team and devalues creativity, innovation, inspiration, risk-taking, and experience.…
I live in “Silicon Valley” halfway between San Francisco and San Jose. I moved to the Bay Area in 2002 and have loved it ever since. My first impression was that “everyone here loves technology like I do!” and that has stuck with me for 2 decades. However, I see a trend now that is…
I feel like most designers put very little design thinking into their own design portfolio. This is weird, right? I mean, there is literally only one website in the whole world that you get to control 100%. No engineers, no product managers, no executives or sales people. Its just you. Why in the world would…
WordPress just keeps getting better and better. I am now using the 2023 theme on top of WordPress 6.1. It has many nice features making vanilla WordPress of a full site editor. It certainly doesn’t have all the bells and whistles like Webflow or EditorX, but for my purposes (a content blog), it is quite…
The phrase “Burn the Boats” comes from historical military events. It’s a phrase used once in a while in the tech industry. I used it recently and thought to write about it. Origin In 1519, Hernan Cortez wanted Aztec treasure. He invaded the Yucatan shores with only 600 men. Clearly, he was vastly outnumbered by…
It’s recruiting time again! This time in Tel Aviv, Israel. My new company, SenintelOne has a strong engineering and product management presence there. Since my budget is limited, I decided that it would be best to replicate the success I had at Treasure Data by hiring junior folks and training them. I visited Tel Aviv…
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a psychological tool proposed by Abraham Maslow in his 1943 paper “A Theory of Human Motivation”. In short, it shows how people focus their energies in a cascading series of needs. The idea is that you can’t really focus on self-esteem when you are dying of thirst. The diagram looks…
Note: I was one of the first 100 users of Figma and use it daily for work. It’s a terrific tools and has inspired me for many years. Adobe is a fascinating company. Almost all of their products have been acquired over the years. They are one of the last “desktop software” vendors, yet they…
As a new employee, I am meeting lots of new people. I have never been an avid note taker, but with a large group of new information and new people, I am finding it crucial remember names and what was said in meetings. It has me thinking of all the ways you can take your…
I used to use Trillian, a long time ago. It consolidated all of my different communication channels. Unfortunately, Trillian stopped keeping up with the different protocols. At this point, it is out of hand. I am using the following to talk with friends, colleagues, mentees, and other folks: Telegram WhatsApp Signal LinkedIn ADPList Slack SMS…
QUESTIONWhat is the role of the product design department? I have always felt that the product design department should bring creativity, empathy, cognitive science, and problem solving to every possible facet of a company. Unfortunately, this is usually not the case. Design is often relegated to “make it look pretty” tasks. It is my belief…
I was thinking back over the last three decades in terms of product design and product management. There are certain people who made a significant impact on me. I thought it might be useful to list them down in a chronological order. Joel Spolsky The year was 1991 and Microsoft Excel was being produced. The…
Rule #1: Understand The Details This is the most paramount thing. I only have one rule. You must understand the details at least as well as the engineers or product managers. How can the organization possibly trust designers if they don’t know the details. Never put a button on a UI if you don’t know…
Lately, I have been mentoring (about twice a week) junior designers through ADPList. I have the philosophy that everything in life is designed (for better or worse). Everything from your house/apartment, to the things inside it, to how you dress and talk and run your meetings. Everything can benefit from basic design thinking. When I…