Everything, organized by how you read.
Taking Point on AI Adoption Inside the Product Org
The adoption headline said everyone. The seat data said a handful.
Trust, Not Access
A team I partner with 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 small designer pilot. The autonomous-agent demo isn't the right shape yet.
The Database Test for AI Strategy
When AI shows up as a pillar in a strategy diagram, ask whether the rest of the diagram could function without it. If not, you do not have a pillar. You have a substrate, and substrates do not go in the pillar row.
A Great Design Gathering
Seven ideas, six quotes, and one book recommendation from sixty design leaders in a SoMa space under the Chatham House Rule. The most useful frame: AI does not automate design, it exposes what design was actually responsible for in the first place.
The Power Share Paradigm: Function, Form, Scale
Non-designers are doing design work, and gatekeeping does not work in 2026. The job is to teach, in a specific order: function first, form second, scale third. What gets shared is the access. What gets kept is the bar.
Tying Infrastructure to Churn
Stop pitching infrastructure investment as revenue acceleration. Start pitching its absence as churn. The math is more honest, and the conversation moves from speed to durability, where design leaders tend to do better.
Saying No When You Can't Stop
There are three kinds of darling worth killing: feature, process, and personal. The discipline of stopping is harder than starting, and it is the rate-limiting skill in any craft-led practice.
The Vibe Tribe is a Job Now
The people building things outside the official roadmap are usually quiet, easy to miss, and producing the work that will redefine the practice in eighteen months. Curating them is a real leadership job in 2026.