It’s coming together now.

Merging my Product Design and Urban Planning branches

So… I just started a new job as a UX Designer / Program Manager at UrbanSim,¹ making software for planners. 🎉

View of Eliott Bay from UrbanSim’s new Seattle² office. I’m just here for a few weeks for the onboarding and then working remotely from LA.

Going back to school, my goal was always to merge my tech background with my planning interests, I just didn’t expect it to happen so soon. I thought I’d be at Gruen for at least a few years, there are still a lot of interesting projects to work on there.³

But this position just felt too aligned with my end goal to pass it up, and timing-wise, I think it’s a great time to join the company and have a meaningful impact on its trajectory.

In some ways I feel like I’ve been preparing for this role for the past ten years. I’ve learned how to make products. And I’ve learned a lot about the field and the people. So I feel like I should be ready.

At the same time, I know everything is about to get a lot more complicated.

Source: Julie Zhou

I’m looking forward to sharing more as things evolve. In the meantime, here’s another one of my favorite Jonathan Harris quotes:

Inside each of us is a little ten-year-old child, curious and pure, acting on impulse, not yet caring what other people think. Remember what you were doing at ten, and try to get back to doing that thing, incorporating everything you’ve learned along the way.

— Jonathan Harris on Navigating Stuckness

When I was ten, I was playing SimCity 2000, so I think I’m heading in the right direction?

1. One of the planning programs I applied to in 2018 was UC Berkeley’s MCP program. My little Statement of Purpose essay mentioned wanting to work with one of the faculty members, Paul Waddell, because he started this company called UrbanSim. I didn’t get into Berkley, but now I’m working for him. Funny how things work out sometimes.
2. Also funny to me that one of my Odyssey Plans had me moving back to Seattle around this time, while I’m not quite moving I imagine I’ll be here a lot more often.
3. I’d love to share more about the projects I was working on during my time at Gruen but it’ll have to wait until things get publicly released, which in Planning Time might not be for another 2–10 years.