Michela Frecchiami

Design matters because it helps us solve problems, think creatively, understand the world around us, develop empathy, and be critical. Just as you would hire an architect when building a house, design plays an important role in creating functional, beautiful, and meaningful solutions in all aspects of life.

Ben Shih

The thing when designing - especially B2B tools in particular - is that there are so many guardrails and constraints to consider. This is where true creativity shines! Rather than thinking of designing within constraints as a boundary, I think we should embrace it.

You can only optimize what you can measure. This explains both why it’s impossible to optimize for happiness (not measurable), and why we so often optimize for things that don’t actually make us happy (money, social media likes, how much you can deadlift, etc—all easy to measure!)

Julie Zhuo

"I was waiting for something extraordinary to happen, but as the years wasted on, nothing ever did unless I caused it.”

—Charles Bukowski

Availability doesn’t mean being ready

The first design management role you have might be because you’re handed the opportunity: there is a need, the manager left/got fired, or something else. Availability does not wait for you to be ready. It asks you to give a direct answer if you will say yes to the call of duty². When I took on the responsibility

When someone offers you a challenge, don’t think of all the reasons why you can’t do it. Instead, say, ‘Yes!’ Then figure out how you’ll get it done.” This is the foundational principle for leading with a yes. — Tom Greever

For whatever action scares you (and isn’t life-threatening), remember this surefire way to eliminate the fear: do it 100 times.

Julie Zhuo

“One of the superpowers a designer has is to envision a world that doesn’t yet exist and lay out the steps to get there and make it a reality.

There’s a piece of that that means some designers never really settle for accepting reality as it is, and they do what they can to influence and shape reality into one that’s closer to what they like.”

Dan

A talented person can quickly become mediocre when you force them to be someone they aren’t.