I’ve been speaking with many junior designers trying to hire someone. One question I ask them is how good they are at their design tool. (Figma, Adobe XD, etc) The answer I have been getting is about 7/10. This is really shocking to me, especially considering they are graduating from prestigious design colleges. What are…
One thing people who know me say is that I use more metaphors than the average person. It has become the way I speak, especially at work. Someone recently asked me how that works and how the metaphors come to me. The technique starts with an understanding of how your mind works. Based on several…
The Design System or Library in Figma is a critical tool in scaling your operation beyond a single designer and project. Like everything, it can be done well or poorly. It’s all about the details. My best version of this was at Treasure Data where it was the backbone of all designs. Tiffany Trinh led…
I’ve used three systems (that I can remember) for applicant tracking. This is a brief summary of each. Lever.co I used Lever at two different companies. It was not a perfect system, but after using others, I think it’s the best I have experienced. My summary: The chrome extension for LinkedIn is actually very useful.…
Often an organization argues about what the feature priorities should be. There is a simple framework that you can use to sort features in a backlog. This works best when you have a large backlog of features and limited engineering bandwidth. (So basically everyone) Backlog items A backlog item is usually a story or epic…
This has been covered pretty extensively, but I often find myself wanting to have some stuff compiled for easy access. Drag and drop patterns are different depending on what you are doing, but I generally put them into two camps. Grid drag-drop The two most obvious examples are a spreadsheet and a Tree. GMail uses…
Marketing should not include shenanigans. Marketing should give you value, not trick you. When you read this promotion, it makes you think “Oh good, half off my order!” No, read the last part. It’s only up to $10. Keep in mind that Doordash is not free. It costs alot to have it delivered. So this…
I’ve covered differentiation in detail before. There is one thing about it that I didn’t cover. I talk to design candidates about this all of the time. Premise: 100 people are looking at your product or site or portfolio. Case 1: It’s the same If everything you have is the same as the competition, then…
Over the years, I have had excellent luck hiring people right out of school and training them to design with my approach. With this in mind, I have a new job opening for a Junior Designer. Referral Fee: If you introduce me to someone who we hire, I will send you a $500 gift card…
I’ve been talking with a few people about the concept of keeping in touch. Like most things, it gets more interesting the more you look at it. Keeping in Touch means meeting over video, phone, or in person at least once per year. Glen’s arbitrary definition There are multiple categories, I think. Personal, Professional, and…
After three years of using MacOS, I have finally switched back to Windows. There are things I remember fondly and there are other things I feel Windows has not kept up. My laptop is a brand new Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 360. It’s very lightweight and powerful with a beautiful screen. It supports tablet mode,…
Apologies: This is a super long post, but because of the details, I had to hold back for a few weeks. I have decided to move on from Treasure Data and join a small startup named Warmly. It’s an exciting change but I certainly have feelings of sadness for leaving people I have grown to…
I have been using the Roku Soundbar with remote speakers for about a year. The speakers are by far the best part. They connect immediately and provide excellent surround sound. Plus the built-in Roku means significantly fewer wires. We have most streaming services including YouTube TV. Unfortunately, Google and Roku are in a spat. Let’s…
Users are not reliable witnesses to past behavior of future preference. Glen UX Rule #81 The problem is that our brains are complicated and don’t work logically all of the time. They work emotionally. Luckily, there is a workaround. Body language and facial expressions. When you interview a user, don’t focus on their words. Watch…