A Working Feature Isn't the Same as a Trusted One
A feature that worked but didn’t feel safe, the pause a squad chose on their own, and the question I’m adding to every product review as automation grows.
Latest work from the portfolio
Everything, organized by how you read.
A Working Feature Isn't the Same as a Trusted One
A feature that worked but didn’t feel safe, the pause a squad chose on their own, and the question I’m adding to every product review as automation grows.
Good Isn't Great
A designer’s agent-built fix for sideways card photos, the thumbnail choice that refused to pretend, and the gap between fixing something and finishing it.
Know What to Doubt
Why tickets now carry a human-written and a machine-written version, how to label which is which, and a better headline for designers who build.
Three Lattes, One Order
What goes wrong when the same work lives in 3 documents, why blurred roles in a builder model make it worse, and the one-table PRD I’d put in their place.
Silos Aren't the Price of Autonomy
What leaders owe teams building the same thing in parallel, why working in silos isn’t what autonomy costs, and 4 moves for converging without slowing anyone down.
New Patterns Are a Tax
The 2 design principles that came out of design crit this month, the one-line CSS change that made a table easy to scan, and 4 books on keeping a product simple as it grows.
Building Is Not the Constraint
A senior leader's case that building is cheap now and picking is the hard part, the 2 gut-checks I'm handing my leads, and why customer absorption is the new limiter.
One Chat, and It Grows
I changed my mind twice in one week on how many chats a product should show, the argument for explicit doors even with smart routing, and where we landed.
The Bottleneck Moved to Review
Two design leaders shipped PRs with agents this week. What broke was the review: comments they couldn't read, reviewers nobody wanted to be, and the fixes we're trying.
What the Loading State Promises
Four questions a designer brought to silent crit about an "explain this chart" moment, the loading-state trap he called out himself, and how a crit became a convergence board.
Week 2: Hand Them the Map
The walkthrough assignment I give a senior hire in week 2, what I asked her day-to-day lead to stop doing, and how her arrival revived a dead stand-up.
Your Squad Is Who You Spend Time With
Where the friction is on the road from discipline-first to squad-first identity, the annual cadence that lets teams figure out the rest, and 4 books on teams that hold.
The Layer Above the Design System Has No Owner
Why every product org ends up with 4 assistants and 3 hubs, and the small pilot I'd run before arguing for a new team.
Own the Gates on the Home Surface
What a home surface is for, the 2 rules I gave the designer who owns ours, and why workflow software can't run the consumer experiment model.
What I Ask in Week 1
The questions I ask new hires in their first week, the 1:1 shape they're walking into, and how I set up a pairing with a lead who isn't their manager.
Parity Is Where We Get Into Trouble
Why I'd let a mobile team diverge from the desktop design system when the rationale is strong, and the order I'd give a design system team so it doesn't cost them.
We Already Know Every Request
Why voice-of-the-customer programs stall at the routing step, the agent-driven flow I'd pilot instead, and 4 books on making discovery stick.
Point the Prototype at Real Data
What a full day of building taught us, the loop that turns a prototype into a plan, and the small things (test accounts, open sessions) that decide whether designers build.