How Designers Learn to Lead the Work
Early in our careers, many of us wait for the perfect process to appear. Clear steps. Defined rituals. Someone else setting the structure. But over time, you realize that senior...
Design Flows Better When You Know Code
Designers often hear that coding isn’t required to do their job well. And that’s mostly true - design is about empathy, clarity, and solving problems through experience. But for...
Why Pods Often Fall Short for Designers
Lately, I’ve been reflecting on how pod-based team structures actually feel from a designer’s seat. On paper, pods make a lot of sense. Small, focused groups. Fewer dependencies...
Understanding Vibe Coding in Product Design
I've been noticing a new trend among designers - something people casually call 'vibe coding.' It’s the practice of designers jumping into simple code, AI-generated components, ...
Consistency Starts with Shared Thinking
A few months ago, I joined a design sync between two product streams - one focused on merchants (B2B) and the other on customers (B2C). Both teams were doing great work, but somet...
Design Works Best When Everyone Builds Together
I still remember a design review where the product manager, engineer, and I were staring at the same screen - but seeing three different things. I saw layout issues, the PM saw ro...
What Keeps a Design Team Truly Alive?
Have you noticed how some product design teams seem unstoppable while others struggle to deliver? Often, the difference isn’t talent - it’s collaboration. When designers, PMs, eng...
Stop Chasing Design Feedback Alone
Last week, I joined a session where the team gathered in one room - designers, product managers, developers, even a marketer. The goal was simple: resolve all pending design decis...
Conversations Save Time in Design
Early in my career, I spent three full days polishing wireframes during a sprint. Every flow, every edge case, every detail was mapped out. I was proud of it - until the review me...
Why Figma Replaced Sketch for Good
When I started using Sketch, it felt like the future of design. Clean interface, vector-first, and purpose-built for UI work - it quickly became the tool of choice for many design...
The Mindset You Need for Design Collaboration
During my time at Microsoft, one of the most valuable lessons I learned was the power of a growth mindset. Early on, I sometimes saw collaboration as a test of defending my idea...
Design Execution: Where Ideas Meet Reality
Design ideas are exciting, but they only matter when they make it into the hands of users. Early in my career, I thought the hardest part was wireframing and UI polish. But I qu...