How I think, out loud.
Essays on clarity, judgment, and the work of designing things that hold up. Written for people making product decisions — not for other designers.
Not a content calendar. Pieces land when they are ready, and stay useful long after.
27 essays
Start here
Three to begin with.
If you only read a few, these set the frame for everything else.
- 1Mentorship as disciplineMentorship gets romanticised. The actual practice is closer to a craft: deliberate, structured, and oriented around judgment, not motivation.
- 2Judgment over processFrameworks are scaffolding. At some point you have to take the scaffolding down and just decide.
- 3Small bets on yourselfCareer change rarely arrives in a single leap. It is much more often the cumulative result of a long series of small, deliberate bets.
Archive
Everything, by topic.
27 essays · All
- 01Slow clarityWhy some problems get worse the faster you try to solve them, and what it looks like to design at a pace that actually fits the work.on work8 min read
- 02Mentorship as disciplineMentorship gets romanticised. The actual practice is closer to a craft: deliberate, structured, and oriented around judgment, not motivation.mentorship7 min read
- 03Judgment over processFrameworks are scaffolding. At some point you have to take the scaffolding down and just decide.on design6 min read
- 04Small bets on yourselfCareer change rarely arrives in a single leap. It is much more often the cumulative result of a long series of small, deliberate bets.career5 min read
- 05Designing for trustUsability gets you a working product. Trust is what makes someone come back, recommend it, or forgive a mistake.on design7 min read
- 06Designing for the quiet userMost products are designed for the loudest user. The quiet majority deserves better.on design5 min read
- 07Designing without egoHow to take feedback, kill darlings, and stay attached to the problem instead of the solution.on design5 min read
- 08Good enough is good enoughA defence of shipping at 80%, and an honest look at the cost of waiting for perfect.on work4 min read
- 09On being a juniorWhat I wish someone had told me in my first three years as a designer.career5 min read
- 10The one question that changes everythingThe single question I keep coming back to when a project stalls, a team disagrees, or a brief feels off.on work4 min read
- 11Your product is not perfectWhy imperfect, useful products beat polished and irrelevant ones, and what to ship even when you would rather wait.on design4 min read
- 12Simplicity is a disciplineSimplicity is not the starting point. It is the result of choosing what not to include, over and over.on design4 min read
- 13The cost of clarityClarity is not free. It costs time, ego, and the comfort of staying ambiguous on purpose.on work5 min read
- 14Why I writeWriting as a way to think, not just to share. Why I keep doing it even when nobody reads.personal3 min read
- 15Craft vs outputWhen output stops being a proxy for craft, and how to tell which one you are actually optimising for.on work4 min read
- 16The design review that actually worksA practical structure for design reviews that produce decisions instead of opinions.on design6 min read
- 17Beyond the portfolioThe portfolio gets you in the room. What you say in the room is what gets you the job.career5 min read
- 18On being wrong in publicWhy being publicly wrong is a faster path to being right than waiting to be sure.on work4 min read
- 19Small teams, big decisionsThe advantages of small teams when the decisions are large, and the trap of confusing size with seriousness.on work5 min read
- 20Designing with strangersHow to do good design work with people you have never met, in industries you do not know.on work4 min read
- 21The quiet skill of saying noA defence of polite, well-reasoned no. The most senior skill nobody teaches you.on work4 min read
- 22When to redesignMost redesigns are emotional decisions dressed as strategic ones. A short test to tell the difference.on design5 min read
- 23Process is a prostheticProcess is what you reach for when judgment is not yet there. When judgment is there, process should fade.on design4 min read
- 24What clients actually buyClients do not buy deliverables. They buy a future feeling about a decision. Design around that.on work5 min read
- 25Mentorship and the second brainThe role of a mentor is partly to be a temporary second brain. What that means in practice.mentorship5 min read
- 26On leaving a companyA short note on how to leave well, and why it matters more than how you arrived.career4 min read
- 27Design as translationMost product design is translation work: turning ambiguous intent into something a team can build, defend, and learn from.on design5 min read
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