Every product or feature should be based on a set of design principles. I’m not talking about universal design principles like “less is more” or “simple.” Instead, I’m talking about design principles that uniquely apply to the specific product or feature that you’re building.

Think of it this way: Universal design principles apply to everything. They’re like air or gravity or other things inevitable and necessary. Just learn then, apply them, and move on. On the other hand, the kind of design principles this article focuses on are those specific to the product or feature you are designing now. Which…

One of my favorite activities is facilitating career planning conversations with team members. As a general rule of thumb, we focus on long-term career planning at least once a year while observing progress on a monthly basis. This article describes the career planning process I use when working with teams. It boils down to 8 easy steps.

Before getting to the steps, I’d like to offer up a sailing metaphor to make career planning more tangible. When thinking about career planning envision yourself, the captain of your career, charting a course over a vast ocean of possible career directions. There…

If you’re an interaction designer you know that design systems are important. It’s hard not to take notice when your favorite design tools are becoming evermore optimized to support designs systems as a core way of working. If you’re a business, engineering, or product leader you’ve probably heard about design systems either from folks on your design team or via industry chatter.

If there is are concerns left in your mind about the importance of design systems, I’m here to quell them. From my perspective — having worked with design systems at Adobe, Google, Uber, Airbnb, and Slack — there…

Hello world! Over the years I’ve learned lessons about work and life from great leaders at some of the world’s most successful and innovative companies. Their mentorship helped me grow and become a more experienced human. Now, it’s time to give back. To do so, I’m starting a new project to share my knowledge, insights, and perspective on design, leadership, business, and life.

Here’s how it will work.

Every week I’ll post one article on a unique topic. While I love writing it’s time-consuming for me to do it elegantly. Frustration trying to convert an idea into a clear and…

Maintaining Creative Prowess Even When It’s Hectic

As managers and leaders, we can never lose perspective on the work. This is especially important as your team grows larger and you are required to spend more time and energy on the wonderful arts of people management and team leadership. It’s natural that as you increase focus on your team, it becomes harder to maintain the perspective required to nurture great design into the world.

I started my career as a design intern at Adobe, apprenticing myself to remarkable creative talents. I learned the hard way, through tough and occasionally heated critique…

How Uber designs for citizens in 450+ cities and on 6 continents

In just 6 years, Uber has become integral to the way people in cities around the world get from where they are to where they want to be. I’ve been here for a little over a year, and one of the biggest challenges — and also one of the most gratifying parts of my job — is helping to design a service that works for so many different people in so many different places. With over 50 million monthly riders worldwide, and over 1.5 …

I’ve been at Uber for four months. It’s been an exciting ride, and full of surprises. For example, I didn’t expect one of my best moments at work would be overlooking Chengdu, China riding up an elevator on the way to lunch with our local city team. Nor did I expect to be editing this post from an airport in Manila, Philippines. But then, the platform we are building is global, and the speed we’re scaling is accelerated, and so here I am at Terminal 3 in Manila Ninoy Aquino International Airport having been to 4 countries in as many…

I have two kids ages 2.5 & 4, lead a team of designers at Google, and have practiced design for many years now. What do I know? The following is a short collection of things learned during the course of my life. The contents of this list will change and grow, I hope, as life progresses.

• Be concise. Say more with less.
• Learn from your mistakes. The only failure is to make the same mistake twice.
• Be authentic. If you feel fake, it’s because you don’t trust yourself.
• Find a mentor. Find someone better than you, who you admire. Observe…