Everything, organized by how you read.
Purple Was the Missing Dimension
A cross-functional color decision won on brand strategy rather than taste.
Naming Is Information Architecture
Why one capability with several names is an IA problem, not a branding one.
AI Agents Reward Decomposition, Not Delegation
The real bottleneck to AI adoption on design teams is task decomposition.
The AI Users Respond To Is the AI They Can't See
Holding the tension between an AI-forward brand and users who prefer AI unlabeled.
The Scalability Argument Hiding in a Color Choice
A crit about button placement was really a debate about information architecture.
The Cost of Being the Optimistic One
A leadership assessment, a hard piece of feedback, and the cost of optimism.
Taking Point on AI Adoption Inside the Product Org
94 percent of what?
Trust, Not Access
A clinical product I'm partnered on right now wanted to ship an open-ended AI query interface.
Start with the Controversial State
The wedge is conservative. The destination is bold. Putting them in that order is the right move.
Where the Work Went
The velocity dashboard lies by omission. It captures the part of the work that moved fast and nothing else.
I'm Not Backfilling Designer X
A designer in one of our squads is leaving the team. I'm not backfilling the role.
Sacred Ground
There were six of us in the room.
The Lockout Spectrum
A spectrum for any forced rollout, sketched on a whiteboard during a 2FA push.
Accuracy Is Not Usefulness
A correct number with no call to action is functionally invisible.
Disagree and Commit Upward
The hiring criterion that decided a senior loop, and that isn't on most rubrics.
The Carver and the Joints
A reading list anchored on Christopher Alexander's Notes on the Synthesis of Form.
Exact Copy Informs Design
Typography, spacing, and rhythm aren't properties of the structure. They're properties of the words inside it.
Designers Pushing Code, One Quarter In
Early signal from a six-designer pilot. The autonomous-agent demo isn't the right shape yet.