Business and strategy are not taught in design school and it’s not something every designer is drawn to, but senior designers should know the basics and be able to communicate the value of design from a business POV. — There’s a scene in the first Matrix film where a newly freed Neo progresses through his training, gains confidence, and even one-ups his mentor Morpheus in a sparring contest. Seeing how Neo is ready for the next level, Morpheus leaps a giant gap from rooftop to rooftop and invites Neo…

If not just a pixel-pusher, then what else? — Diógenes Brito — A mentee of mine asked me to share my perspective on what it takes to advance one’s career as a product designer. I want to continue growing in my career, what steps should I take aside from doing the work here? The mentee was already a senior product designer with…

Questions I ask candidates in product design interviews that give me the strongest signal about what they’d bring to our team and what it’d be like to work with them. — I’ve interviewed a lot of product designers over the last couple years. To help inform my hiring recommendations to my team, I try to find out what each candidate is passionate about, what their strengths and growth areas are, and preferences regarding the kinds of teams on which they like…

The product design playbook I use to break down and execute on design projects. — At the start of 2021, Dialpad’s core product was a business phone platform. We supported several use cases, but making and receiving phone calls over the internet was our bread and butter. By the end of the year, however, we acquired two companies and pledged to add email, chat, and…

Most designers jump into their UI tools too quickly. — What typically happens when you start a new design project? Maybe a kickoff meeting is organized. In an effort to keep things efficient, the guest list is kept small(ish). Some folks can’t attend. Ideas are brainstormed. A few do most of the speaking while others listen. Attention wanders as folks check their messages. Hopefully someone’s taking notes. When the meeting…

A Short Guide to Working Remotely for Co-located Teams COVID-19 is unlike anything we’ve seen in our lifetime. Companies are taking precautions to protect their employees and (hopefully) curb the Coronavirus’s spread. This means many are closing their offices and asking employees to work from home. That’s the right call…

“Good design is good business!” Makes a nice sound bite, but how does design actually contribute to the bottom line? It’s almost become a reflex at this point. My timeline was abuzz, I clicked, I saw, I ooh-ed, and aah-ed. I scrolled up and down, viewed source, and wondered, ‘How?’ …

Design is not just about pixels. It’s also about sharing, coaching, and giving back to the community from which you’ve learned so much. — This year, I had the opportunity to be one of Stack Overflow’s first design mentors for Phoebe Leung, one of our new hires this year. I love the people part of my job and dove headfirst into this opportunity. A good mentor is someone whom the mentee would describe as…

Earlier this year, I wrote an internal guide for my co-workers explaining some of the common gotchas that make coding HTML emails for Outlook so tedious. This is a lightly edited version that that article. There are more than 400 million users worldwide using what might be the best corporate…