Are you stuck in reactive mode? by Jeff Humble Dear Reader, Some designers spend their whole careers reacting to other people's moves. As a design manager, I remember being in this position. I had to brace myself every Monday morning for some radical change in company direction. We never knew what the new agenda would be, but we knew that it would throw our work into chaos. Sometimes, all it took was for the founder to read a single article to change the company agenda. When a competitor...
about 1 month ago • 4 min read
Why Your Portfolio Isn’t Working (and How to Fix It) By Hannah Baker Dear Reader, Let’s talk about a harsh truth: Your UX portfolio might be the least important thing in your job search. Yep, I said it. You spent hours making sure it showcases your best work. You structured your case studies just right. You ensured your problem statements, research insights, and solutions flowed together. And yet… hiring managers are ghosting you like a bad Hinge date. Well, the problem isn’t your...
about 2 months ago • 5 min read
Chasing Competitors Instead of User Needs by Jeff Humble Dear Reader, Have you ever had a CEO who was overly obsessed with beating the competition? I know I have. You may not have realized exactly how this can be toxic. So, I'd like to help you out with two case studies. Here is a tale of two companies and how they handled the competition. The first took a company-first approach while the second took a user-first approach. It goes like this... Company-First: The Rise & Fall of Google+ Google+...
2 months ago • 4 min read
Stop Being the ‘Nice’ Designer. Start Running the Room. By Hannah Baker Dear Reader, Product design isn’t just about creating great experiences. It’s about getting sh*t done in a world where no one agrees on anything. You’ve been there. Stakeholder meetings where opinions fly, decisions stall, and somehow, you’re tasked with making it all make sense. What is Facilitative Leadership? Facilitative leadership is about leading without authority. It’s not about being the loudest voice in the room...
3 months ago • 3 min read
Designing an AI-Powered Automation System by Jeff Humble Dear Reader, This week, I want to share something I use behind the scenes. I want to share something very nerdy that I've been working on 🤓 It's an automation system that I'm using to experiment with AI. If you've ever used a tool like Zapier, then you might like this sort of thing. I built it with Discord and Activepieces, and it's completely free. It looks like this: Here are some of the use cases: Work Automation - a productivity...
3 months ago • 1 min read
Leadership Isn’t a Ladder—It’s a Leap By Hannah Baker Dear Reader, Most people think of leadership as a ladder: start as an individual contributor (IC), climb step by step, and eventually land at the top. My journey was far from that. I never had a traditional design job or a managerial title handed to me. Instead, I jumped straight into founding and leading a business—without a roadmap, a role model, or even a clear sense of what leadership was supposed to look like. It wasn’t always smooth....
4 months ago • 3 min read
Every 2024 Newsletter You Missed by Jeff Humble Dear Reader, It's that time of the year again! Here are all the newsletters you missed in 2024 from the Fountain Institute: A Designer's Uncertain Path to Success Design Strategy vs. Design Vision: What's the difference? Is Poor Communication Hindering Your Projects? Balancing Freelance Life with Maya McBeath Innovation by Design with Cristina Colosi Shaping the Future of the Guild of Working Designers Figma Skills Won't Get You Promoted See...
4 months ago • 1 min read
Turning Challenges into Confidence: Lessons from Dyslexia By Hannah Baker Dear Reader, When I was seven, I was an expert at pretending. I could "read" picture books without actually decoding the words, using context to fill in the gaps. It wasn’t until my mom, a teacher, noticed I was faking it that I was tested and diagnosed with dyslexia. What followed were years of frustration, advocacy, and learning how to embrace a brain that simply worked differently. While my initial reaction was...
4 months ago • 4 min read
28 Ways to Test an Idea (that is NOT an A/B Test) by Jeff Humble Dear Reader, Today I'm thankful for all the ways you can test that are not A/B tests. Executives and product people think A/B testing is the only thing on the testing menu. 🍽️ For me, it doesn't usually make sense to A/B test. Here's why: A/B tests should happen as late as possible. They might be the most scientific approach, but they require a lot of traffic. Plus, they're usually live and in code, so everything must be...
5 months ago • 5 min read
