One thing I do with people I manage is a yearly journey map. Basically, I sit them down and give them a whiteboard or printed piece of paper with this template: Then I ask them to draw their yearly journey from left to right. The line goes up and down based on their own perceptive…
I have been mentoring for over 15 years. I find tremendous gratification in helping someone else succeed. Lately, I have been trying out some mentor platforms that help mentors and mentees connect. They are PlatoHQ and ADPList. For the mentees, PlatoHQ is a paid service and ADPList is free. Neither provide any incentives for the…
A Product Manager whom I mentor occasionally asked about getting a team in alignment about a product feature. I told him about story telling. Without further ado, here is how you tell a great PRD story: Examples of great stories Before we get started let’s look at two great stories. Lucas and Noah Meet brothers:…
Inbox Zero is a technique (coined by Merlin Mann) for managing your email account with ruthless efficiency. I have been maintaining this technique for about 5 years and can show you how to achieve it. Note: The technique is possible in other mail tools, but for the purposes of this post, we will only be…
Adoption Marketing is a concept I have been working on for over 10 years, but for some reason never blogged about it. Warning: This is a long post because it’s a big topic. Sorry. Adoption Marketing is the effort to influence existing users to adopt the new features you design and develop. Glen Background At…
Figma (much to my sadness) has no built in UI components like a tree or a table. These are UI elements I use every day. So I have been experimenting with how to make these in the most efficient manner using auto-layout, and interactive components. . I just published my interactive tree component to the…
To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow. – Audrey Hepburn The Garden Every organization is like a garden and they come in all shapes and sizes. It might be a backyard garden meant to grow edible (useful) food. It might be a rose garden meant to experience and delight. It could be a…
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.…
UPDATE: (Jan 6, 2022) the position has been filled. Ill post more as they open. Thanks! Falkonry is growing and has several positions open! Product Designer Right now, I am designing alone, but the workload is too much. I need a full time design partner to work with me. Remote is OK, but Bay Area…
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…
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…
Life is funny. You make your decisions, but your predictions end up moving down a different path than you expected. I wish I had that magic crystal ball I’ve been asking for. TL;DR I’m stepping down as Head of Design at Warmly and will be a part time executive coach for them. Additionally, I will…
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…
My son just started an internship with our Congresswoman, Jackie Speier in Washington, DC. He arranged for housing and got himself settled there this week. This is the first job that he has where he needs to wear a suit and tie. We were on zoom and I was walking him through how to tie…