Recent Posts

Design with restraint

1 minute read

Christopher K Wong in Why you shouldn’t be too eager to share your work:

Designing towards hurdles

1 minute read

A key idea in product design is to make things easier and simpler as much as possible so people are faster at whatever they are doing, with the assumption th...

e44 Nonviolent communication for designers

5 minute read

As designers become more seniors, there is a common expectation of also becoming better at communication. It’s often unclear what’s it that actually needs to...

Generative AI’s automation trap

1 minute read

A constant thing with creating new software seems the tendency to automate things people can do easily while leaving the more complicated stuff for people to...

e43 The team’s common rituals build the team

6 minute read

When a design team is formed from individual designers, it needs to have certain rituals in place to grow into an actual team. Besides the usual suspects of ...

e42 Facilitating participatory design

5 minute read

Designers might describe what they do as designing, but more often than not, it’s more facilitating. The modern design process calls for participation not on...

e41 Articulating the design team’s value

8 minute read

Some design teams have a vague understanding of how they contribute to their organization beyond the daily tasks of producing UIs. However, the value the tea...

e40 Prototypes model experiences

6 minute read

Since we design interactive systems, prototypes are the most important artifacts we can produce in our work. Prototypes expand what we can create, model the ...

Switching from Evernote to Joplin

3 minute read

I’ve been an Evernote user for more than 10 years, but finally decided to switch away from it. I started to use Joplin, an open-source note-taking app a coup...

e39 2023 Retrospect

2 minute read

2023 is drawing to an end, which is a good time to take a pause, reflect a bit on the year, and chart a path for the coming year.

e37 Nurturing designer and researcher careers

6 minute read

Effective nurturing of designers and researchers is not only crucial for their career development but also essential for building a high-impact design organi...

UX & PM: A Strategic Duo part 2

1 minute read

This is the second post in a series that Greg and I are publishing on the strategic role of UX in product development and how PMs and UX professionals can de...

e35 Develop your leadership style

6 minute read

Design leadership style is a powerful determinant of a design team’s effectiveness. By understanding and articulating your style, you can be a more intention...

e34 Wartime - peacetime design leadership

7 minute read

Product design and research leaders are facing a shift from peacetime to wartime conditions. With shifting priorities, layoffs, budget cuts, and higher deman...

e33 Activating insights for the design process

8 minute read

Evidence-based design serves the users truly, and actively using user research insights provides the evidence. Use workshops and other collaborative tools to...

Anatomy of a UX strategy

4 minute read

Senior designers and even design leaders are often asked to go more strategic. Makes sense, that’s what more experienced people do to increase their impact a...

e32 Rigor is essential in user research

11 minute read

Rigor is a key ingredient in any successful user research project. But what does rigor mean, exactly? And how can you ensure that your research is rigorous?

e31 Why writing matters for designers

6 minute read

Writing is a valuable skill for product designers, especially in distributed teams. Besides its inherent use for async communication, it’s a valuable tool fo...

e30 Raising the team’s empathy

7 minute read

Empathy is a key skill for designers and design teams. The ability to understand another person not only helps in creating better products but also in establ...

Yet another post on designer job titles

6 minute read

Digital design is still in its storming phase, that’s why we have so many posts, debates, and comments on naming, terminology, etc. Part of it is philosophic...

e27 Onboarding designers

6 minute read

Onboarding new design team members in a good way is essential for their success and the overall productivity of the team. Planning this right fosters a suppo...

e26 Product trios for designers

7 minute read

Product trios is a great team setup to do product discovery, yet working in this type of close collaboration is not for everyone. Designers need to be prepar...

e25 Writing useful hypotheses

7 minute read

Writing useful hypotheses in the product design process helps understand user and business problems better while fostering critical thinking about the produc...

e24 Problem space, solution space

6 minute read

Understanding the concepts of problem space and solution space is crucial for achieving exceptional product outcomes. While these two realms are intricately ...

e23 Celebrating successes is a team effort

7 minute read

In the fast-paced world of product design, celebrating successes often takes a backseat to chase the next goal. But failing to acknowledge achievements toget...

e20 Designing meaningful products with AI

9 minute read

AI has become a buzzword in tech, but simply adding it to a product does not guarantee value. Designers need to have an understanding of the underlying techn...

e18 Sustainability for product design teams

6 minute read

Product designers should think about including more sustainable practices in their work. They should consider carbon consumption, influencing business models...

e09 What is good design

4 minute read

Design teams and leaders need to define what good design looks like within their context to be able to push for better outcomes.

e07 Player-coach leaders

4 minute read

Player-coach roles in design teams are getting more common again but come with tradeoffs for both design leaders and their teams. Leaders need to balance the...

e06 Delight is great UX

4 minute read

Well-polished details on their own are not enough for delight, the users’ goals need to be met exceptionally too.

e05 Teams of T-shaped designers

5 minute read

Product design teams are more effective and produce higher quality output if they have deep expertise in each design discipline, while they also need general...