Nov 24How to find team activities that are inclusive and fun for everyoneHaving a diverse team means that people enjoy doing different things, for example, what people enjoy as a team activity for team building purposes might differ. As a leader of a team, I never want a team activity to feel like “forced fun”. …Team Building2 min readTeam Building2 min read
Sep 29My hidden agenda with the survey I send out to my team to measure team healthI send out a survey twice a year to people in my team to ask 1) how happy they are in their role, 2) how proud they are with the work they do, and 3) to gather anonymous feedback. …Team Management1 min readTeam Management1 min read
Sep 8How to know what design work designers in your team are proud of having doneIn some cases, I know it’s still important for a designer’s career advancement to be able to showcase design work in their public portfolio to highlight their skills. …Designer2 min readDesigner2 min read
Published inBootcamp·Sep 23, 2022Two questions to ask to help you align on expectations (and clarify any miscommunication)One important thing for a leader is to set clear expectations. They are only clear expectations if they are clearly understood by everyone involved. Miscommunication can cause unnecessary problems later on, but I’ve learned that there are two questions you can ask to help with clarifying expectations. …Leadership2 min readLeadership2 min read
Sep 2, 2022How to create a to-do list in SlackI know I’m not the only one who creates lists. I’m sure I’m not the only one who creates to-do lists in Slack. I’ve come up with a way to create a visual to-do list in Slack that I want to share. I might be unreasonably excited about this, but hopefully someone else out there also finds this helpful. And satisfying to look at. I use three different emojis to reflect the status of each tasks. :white_square: for uncompleted task :large_yellow_square: for ongoing tasks :white_check_mark: for completed tasksSlack2 min readSlack2 min read
Published inBootcamp·Updated Aug 28, 2022Five reminders to a team of ambitious and highly productive designersApart from the typical ways of working guidelines and team contract bullet points, there are a couple of things that I keep as reminders for my team of ambitious and highly productive designers. Apparently it’s five things and I try my best to live by them as well: Don’t work…Team2 min readTeam2 min read
Aug 19, 2022The Double Diamond Design process is not reality — real design work is messyDoing design work and talking about design are two different things. One is messy, while the other one should be clean. Don’t confuse the two and enjoy both. — The Double Diamond Design process describes the messy design process in a neat and structured way. It’s a visualization of the different steps of a design process emphasizing divergence and convergence of problem solving. It’s clean. It makes it easy to explain and talk about the general concepts of a…Design2 min readDesign2 min read
Aug 12, 2022Just a thought: on alternative ways of workingIt’s Friday and I have apparently been working from home all week. Before the pandemic I would have to plan for days when I would work from home, now it’s become the other way around; I plan for days when I will work from the office. …Ways Of Working1 min readWays Of Working1 min read
Aug 5, 2022Wrapping up each work week by sharing a highlightDo you have an end-of-the-work-week ritual that helps you enter weekend mode? In the book “The making of a manager” Julie Zhuo describes her end-of-the-week habit. …Design2 min readDesign2 min read
Jul 28, 2022Celebrating my first crappy Medium postI’ve been hesitating too long to write my first Medium post in the same way that I hesitate to write on the first page in a blank new notebook. Whenever I get a new notebook, I trick myself by starting to write on the second page just to avoid the…Learning2 min readLearning2 min read