Ideas are promises

In my new talk, I share that I like to think of ideas as promises. The word “promise” holds dual meanings, each of which is equally valuable AND necessary to deliver positive outcomes. To hold promise means to have the capacity for excellence. To make a...

Designing Serendipity

Resources and references from my recent talk Designing serendipity: intentionally crafting our success From the Sky Down documentary OK Go: How to find a wonderful idea (Ted Talk) OK Go Sandbox: Inspiring tools for playful learning (website) The One Moment music video...

What Wordle can teach us about mistake tolerance

If you struggle to understand the very direct relationship between mistake tolerance and creativity, I often reference Wordle (and similar games) to demonstrate this. How would your approach (and attitude) change if you only got one guess? How about two guesses? How...

Why design systems fail

I got 99 problems but components ain’t one. (With respect to Jay-Z) I worked on my first design system back in 2006 (as a point of reference, the original iPhone launched in 2007, and the first iPad in 2010). At the time, I worked for a large enterprise software...

Talk: How We Get Wicked Good

Just getting ready to debut a new talk in a couple of days at the Spring edition of UX Camp: Home by the Chicago Camps crew (a great group of organizers – check them out!). Here is the talk summary: Did you ever wonder why so much of our work seems harder than...

How I make remote work work

Recently there have been a flurry of articles and tweet threads about remote work, perhaps because we are at the one year mark when it was forced upon most of us. It is likely no surprise that I have OPINIONS about this topic. The background: I have been working...

What I Wish I Knew Twenty Years Ago

A question on design twitter prompted me to create this short list of the things that ultimately helped me navigate a career in tech and design. Understand that the bulk of your work is actually about understanding human behavior and not about any specific tools or...

The Eternal Beginner

Early this year, I had a dental appointment for a teeth cleaning. The hygienist was out sick, so the dentist did the cleaning himself. Before he started, he told me “I just want you to know I’ve done a lot of cleanings, but I’m probably not going to be as graceful as...

Collaboration as a Practice

One thing I like to do on every project is to set aside dedicated collaboration time as one of our standard rituals. If something is important, you need to be proactive about it. Let me tell you how this worked on a past project. One of the first things I put on our...

The Hits We Take

I used to be an avid follower of pro football. My Sundays were spent parked in front of the TV. Then I realized I already had too much disappointment in my life; I didn’t need to add continual frustration over the Detroit Lions inability to get their shit together....