…grouped by theme and (I hope) in alphabetical order. Strategy + Planning Change by Design by Tim Brown Measure What Matters by John Doerr Outcome-Driven Innovation By Anthony Ulwick et al Start with Why by Simon Sinek The Jobs-to-be-Done Playbook by Jim Kalbach Value Proposition Design by Alexander Osterwalder et al Research + Design A Designer’s…

Mentoring doesn’t have to take a ton of time to be effective — The response I’ve been getting to my articles about mentoring designers — linked at the bottom, in case you missed them — has been unexpected. I’m humbled by all the responses I’ve been getting, from “this is really great,” to “I wish ALL hiring managers thought this way,” to “YAAAAS…

Be careful about the emotional baggage you bring with you on the next leg of your career journey — A designer on LinkedIn asked me this question recently, and I thought it would be valuable to share our exchange out to others who may find themselves in a similar situation (names, locations, and pronouns redacted). “What do you do when your boss doesn’t care about the research, like personas…

Making sure your Cloud-based software tool is still useful when there’s no Cloud isn’t just good design, it’s good business. — I live on an island. Not in the metaphorical or transcendental sense. I actually live on a fucking island. Bainbridge Island is a quaint little rock 35 minutes across the water from downtown Seattle. If you’ve never visited Seattle, you should. And if you live in Seattle but have never…

Are you doing what you can to help the next generation of designers find their way? — Getting a “no-hire” decision from a potential employer is rough on any job candidate. But given their tendency to be emotionally invested in their work and their chosen profession, it can be particularly disheartening for designers. To make matters worse, many companies have nondisclosure policies regarding candidate feedback — we’ve…

Why you should commit to being a mentor, and some tips and techniques for making it easier and beneficial for both sides. — Seattle, May 1991: Grunge was the thing, radio station 107.7 KNDD had just launched, and a fresh-faced designer-wannabe was in town for the summer. I’d recently changed my undergrad major from architecture (because math was hard and my handwriting sucked) to graphic design, and I was looking to act on…

Musings on why we should stop calling ourselves hybrids. Picture if you will, a conference room on Microsoft campus, circa 2006. A designer sits in a team meeting, discussing a project with the PM and the Dev. After listening to the dev say things like “it can’t be done…

This is a brief list of some of the “don’t ever do this” advice I’ve received from various mentors over the years. Feel free to add yours to this list. Fluff your resume. Have a portfolio that shows only finished work. Ignore LinkedIn, or worse, treat it like Facebook. Refuse…

Embracing play in our creative field can make us happier and more productive. — As the father of a young child, I bear daily witness to the value and joys of play. I watch my son navigate his world in the purest ways — he looks, touches, pushes, pulls, builds, breaks, throws, and drops… everything. It’s part of his process, his method for learning…