Hi Zoe,
Writing is something i’ve always put off as it doesn’t come natural to myself. The reality is the best way to get better at writing is by practising. So let’s do this.
After meddling in Figma for months i’ve finally put together a few template i’ll be using. I’ve made the templates and code open source so you can grab them too.
The last month i’ve been off social media and focusing my attention on Ramadan and taking a break. When you watch videos about growing audiences on social media they talk about consistency.
The reality is how can you be consistent if you don’t have the same energy as you first did? In the UK, “normality” is getting very close, priorities and focuses naturally change.
That’s why it’s okay to take a break and step back and think about why you started in the first place and get that spark back. Something that isn’t talked about enough in the tech world.
The Intercom podcasts are great especially the series around “Intercom on Product”. This episode focuses on the value of having principles when developing a product and making decisions. It puts all stakeholders on the same page aligning with the same vision. Key when making decisions.
Des and Paul touch on Intercoms principles around “Following fundamentals”, the value of using existing design patterns, instead of reinventing the wheel. As innovation at Intercom is happening at the product level rather than the UI level. Conversely look at Tinder and Snapchat who innovated at the UI level and have made famous design patterns, with swiping cards and stories.
Is it realistic to expect your engineers to match your designs and get everything spot on the first time of asking? It’s a really tough ask. Having close colloboration with your engineers is key to get to this goal.
This template helps you create documentation to help with alignment between your production designs and what’s being developed or has been developed. The secret sauce is having good communication and putting emotions aside when comes to design alignment.
This book really puts into perspective the value of status and ego. Why do you really want to chase the title of “principle”? , what are you here to do? Does having 100k followers on social media make you better than someone else?
Still at the early stages of my career this book has opened my eyes up, making sure I’m driven by reason as well as passion. Impressing people is totally different to being impressive. You can progress in your career by playing the “political” game and impressing people but for me personally I don’t find much value and reason in doing this. A great read.
That’s all folks!
Sweet potato. Want to hear more of some things? Less of others? Just want to say hi? Let us know below! I’d love to hear from you.