Mar 16What I learned after shifting from in-house to consultingIn early 2022, I reached a crossroads in my position as an in-house Staff Product Designer. Asana wanted employees to shift back to working in person following two years of remote collaboration. Some roles could get exceptions, but Product Designers were not allowed to work from home. …Career Paths6 min readCareer Paths6 min read
Jan 29Member-onlyMoving from execution to strategy as a designerThis is an adaptation of a talk I gave at the inaugural Design in Product Conference from December 2022. If you’d like to see the original slides, go here. Designers often find themselves under pressure to focus on aesthetics rather than impact and outcomes. Let’s explore techniques to shift from…Product Design6 min readProduct Design6 min read
Jan 21Principles for living outside of boxesI’ve balanced identities as a game dev, speaker, artist, product designer, and writer for many years now. I enjoy this variety, as it gives me the space to explore and find inspiration from different sources. …Creativity3 min readCreativity3 min read
Jan 16Turning remote work cons into advantagesManaging a remote design team comes with many benefits. As someone who has worked remotely for three years and on a hybrid team for a large portion of my career, I value the role that remote work plays in designing more inclusive experiences. …Remote Work5 min readRemote Work5 min read
Dec 31, 2022My year in review: 2022 (Yeeting everything everywhere simultaneously)Once again, it’s the end of the year—we made it! I want to keep the streak going for the second year in a row, so here’s a recap. …Updates7 min readUpdates7 min read
Dec 23, 2022Finding meaning in design when nothing is fineThis is an adaptation of a talk I gave at the Game UX Summit in September 2022. It was my first IRL speaking engagement since March 2020. If you’d like to see the original slides, go here. Content Warning: pandemic burnout This piece is supposed to be inspiring. However, it does cover some bleak…Burnout7 min readBurnout7 min read
Dec 20, 2022Member-onlyFacilitating effective design workshopsBrainstorms and workshops can be a highly impactful, quick way to align one or more groups of people in a short amount of time. However, I often hear people—non-designers and designers alike—speak negatively of these activities. …Design Process4 min readDesign Process4 min read
Jun 30, 2022Trading pixels for peopleLast year, I wrote a post called Should you become a design manager? where I shared my past experience with people management. That experience inspired me to dig deeper into the world of leadership as an individual contributor. At the time, I hadn’t planned a shift away from hands-on product…People Management4 min readPeople Management4 min read
Jan 31, 20224 lessons from my dozen-year design careerHappy new year! Believe it or not, it’s been 12 years since I first became a Junior Web Designer. You can read my story on my About page if you’re curious; this will be more of a retrospective than a timeline. Below are a few points I’ve had my mind…Design Career5 min readDesign Career5 min read
Dec 22, 2021Member-onlyIf you’re risk-averse, you’ll never have a diverse leadership teamAt the end of August 2021, I tweeted a story about an experience with bias that impacted my career. It resonated more than I expected with thousands of people across Twitter and LinkedIn. In case I decide to delete those tweets later, I’ll recap my story here and share some…Diversity7 min readDiversity7 min read
