Originally posted on The Forever Pace: www.nonfiction.io/blog
They say experience is the best teacher. That’s certainly true, but gaining that experience can sting. It’s a lot less painful when someone shares their experience with you so that you can avoid the hard knocks. Imagine setting out on a long hike, when someone comes out of the woods to let you know where the trail is washed out. Sure, you would have figured it out eventually — but a little proactive advice from someone who has already been there can be invaluable, too.
When I was starting out in my design…
Originally posted on The Forever Pace: www.nonfiction.io/blog
Tune in to product development conversations online and the topic of design systems and live style guides will undoubtedly find its way in front of you. It’s easy to feel like your organization is the only one left working without one. A sense that there is greener grass out there can seed doubt about your own process.
Live style guides are a critical tool for some product teams. For others, it still suggests the style guide of yesteryear — dusty, irrelevant documentation that someone once put together only to have it go unused.
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Originally posted on The Forever Pace: www.nonfiction.io/blog
I’ve helped amazing teams proactively plan and gracefully sidestep each potential pitfall that comes their way. But, I’ve also witnessed some wincingly bad situations. It’s hard for anyone on the team to be in the room at those times, and that can make it tempting to point fingers and place blame. Blame quickly becomes a monster in the room that we all fear.
Perhaps you’ve felt that monster breathing down your neck. Or, in that situation, are you quick to point a finger of your own?
As writer and lecturer Dale Carnegie once…
Originally posted on The Forever Pace: www.nonfiction.io/blog
Have you ever been around a group of creative types when the conversation turns to what coders don’t do and don’t understand? It happens more often and more casually than I’d like to admit. It’s nonsense, and I don’t stand for such talk in the name of shooting the breeze.
Engineers think and work differently than creatives, so wasting time dismissing them only subverts your role in the product development process. We all share in the success or the failure of our work together.
Great engineers are practiced craftspeople just like designers, researchers…
Mike Scopino
Product designer and founder of www.nonfiction.io. Thoughtful, thorough, and keeping it real. Cambridge, MA
