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A man who procrastinates in his choosing will inevitably have his choice made for him by circumstance.
Hunter S. Thompsonundefined
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People who think well, write well. Woolly minded people write woolly memos, woolly letters and woolly speeches.
David Ogilvy
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2015
When you don’t take the time to recognize what you have accomplished, nothing will ever be good enough. - Poornima Vijayashanker
Reflection is a drag, and we have too many things to think about in the future for us to spend time looking back. It’s too easy to move on to the next big thing, without first internalizing what we have achieved, small or big. So on the last day of 2015, I want to list a few things I’m proud to say I got done this year.
Me
Getting comfortable with and understanding yourself better takes longer than a year, but I aimed to do what I could.
• Meditated with a group, a few times every week.
• Learnt the big 4 lifts, how to track macros (to gain and lose weight) and became generally a little less of an amateur.
• I decided reading was important to me. I read about 30 books!
• (Almost) paid off my student loans. I learnt how to properly invest and save money.
• I learnt to drive on the other side of the road, in Chinatown, NYC. Passed with flying colours in in Red Hook.
• Got a credit card, a reputable credit score, and got on my buildings lease. Which means I’m officially a grown up.
• Bought my first proper bike, and first proper suit.
Experiences & Relationships
If 2014 was understanding what it truly feels like to be alone, and being ok about it, 2015 was about surrounding myself with people I liked and who liked me.
• Learnt how to salsa dance (kind of), in an aggressively latino Brooklyn dance studio.
• Learnt how to play volleyball (kind of).
• Went on many first dates (and subsequent dates).
• Did fun stuff with friends in Tennessee, Florida, New Jersey, Maine, Vermont, California & Massachusetts.
• Like running a Spartan race in an army base on the border of Kentucky.
• Like riding a bike really fast downhill somewhere in the forests of Maine.
• Like renting a Jeep and driving to the southernmost point in the U.S.A
I was literally the furthest from my family I’ve ever been, yet I’ve never felt as much warmth, support and love. Distance makes the heart grow fonder.
• Thanksgiving with my Mum’s side of the family in Petaluma, California
• Summer in Provence with my immediate family (pictured).
• Spoke with my grandparents probably more than every year prior combined.
Many of my good friends from Australia made it to New York to say hi too! The benefit of living in a destination city.
Ruby, Nic, Katie, James, Emily, Sarah
• Listened to smart, accomplished people talk, like Werner Herzog, Alex Bloomberg, Lemony Snicket, Neil Gaiman, Milton Glaser, Paul Ford and many, many professional designers too.
• Rode my bike through all 5 boroughs with 32,000 other cyclists for the Five Boro bike tour, and later through the Hudson Valley too.
• Made it to a basketball (Nets), baseball (Mets), football game (Titans).
Work
My career in 2015 was a bet made a few years before, that started paying off.
• Launched a new product from scratch, to beta, to thousands of new customers
• Participated in 2 hackathons (one was 24 hours straight)
• My team started a post-it art war, later deemed a ‘reason to love New York’ by NY mag.
• Now officially a human centered designer
• Started a design email newsletter promoting design thinking
• Got a promotion, and a job title that validated this journey to America in the first place: ‘product designer’ :)
All in all, a fine year. Probably the best so far. But there’s more to come. A few days ago I was told by a stranger that “2016 will be the best year of your life.” I’m going to take their word for it.
My 14 favourite design links of 2015
“If you teach a man anything, he will never learn.” - George Bernard Shaw
I agree. Doing, or teaching something is a more effective way to learn.
But, I still love to read!
These 14 links that I’ve collected have made a huge impact on me, and the way I think about designing experiences. Hopefully they might help you too.
Some were published longer than a year ago, but I think that says something about their quality and longevity, attributes that most design writing lacks.
Wait, what is UX?
UX Maturity Model: From Usable to Delightful - Prachi Sakhardande, Rajiv Thanawala
There Is No Such Thing as UX Design - Peter Meholz
What Makes Great Product Design? - Braden Kowitz, Leland Rechis, Liz Danzico, Kim Bost, Katie Dill of Airbnb
Design Teams
How to Organize a Team that Designs End-to-End Experiences - Katie M Dill
Shaping Organizations To Deliver Great User Experiences - Peter Meholz
The Design Process
How We Design At Intercom - Paul Adams
Inside Design - Invision
Open the Kimono - Soleio Cuervo
The Business Value of Design
What Every Executive Needs to Know About Design - Prashant Agarwal, Mahin Samadani, and Hugo Sarrazin
The User Experience - Ben Thompson, James Allworth
Design Thinking Comes of Age - Jon Kolko
Empathy
Please Pay Attention to Your Tour Guide, A Practical Type of Empathy - Indi Young (for people)
What Is Code? - Paul Ford (for developers)
Punting won’t get you far in life
Recently, I’ve noticed a product manager use the word ‘punt’ as an informal business phrase. To him, it means to give away something, or to delay something for an undetermined amount of time. It doesn’t map directly to the football term, but it’s close enough.
An example would be, you are specifically asked to handle something, and instead, for whatever reason, you delegate to someone else equally or less responsible than you.
It’s not a negative move, it’s a tactic, that can be helpful to deploy once in a while. I mean there’s no shame in delegating. And in football, you’re punting because it’s usually the only option you have. You’re not going to score a touchdown, or even a field goal, so you punt.
This made me think. Punting happens outside your projects slack channel. It’s signalled by your behavior and decisions. Eating McDonalds is punting on dinner. Cancelling an interview is punting on your career. Wearing the same old shoes is punting on your wardrobe. Lifting less than you know you can lift is punting on your strength. Complaining about someone is punting on resolving your issue with them directly.
Like punting on a simple duties, there’s a time and a place. There’s certainly situations that call for a punt. But most of the time, the world rewards hard work, and smart thinking, not shortcuts. As much as I can, I’ll try not to punt.