Healthy design systems are built on contribution, which can take many forms. Building a governance process enables an organization to link arms in creating and tuning a toolkit that has deep impacts on culture and speed. — Design systems exist to document decisions Design tokens are visual styling decisions reduced to their simplest form: a key (or name) and a value (like a hex code or pixel number). …

Life is a wild ride. Some seasons grow us, some deepen us, others just feel like waiting. Work-life included. As a coach and mentor, it’s important to recognize where teammates are in life and what they’re needing most from their career. Acceleration is not always the best path for high performers. — From designer to manager As a designer, I’ve spent most of my career striving for more responsibility and the next level as a contributor (that might sound headstrong, but I didn’t say I was successful 😬). I’ve been searching for more responsibility and operating under the impression that everyone shared my mindset. What was…

When defining how a team gets work done, it’s crucial to be very intentional about every detail. Creating a “design process” can clarify the individual steps, but it can also polarize non-designers and become too prescriptive. A “creation system” brings the whole team together and adapts more fluidly based on environment and output. — What’s the difference? A design process and a creation system might sound like the same thing. Am I splitting hairs here? Maybe. But I think the distinction is an important one that can have big impacts on how a team adopts a way of working and collaborates over time.

These days, designers have a thousand skills they could be growing. From kearning to AI prompt generation, there’s no limit to the “what.” I’d like to dive in to the “why” behind the skill and practice of writing which refines thoughts from a passing notion to a polished point of view. — A dose of humility First of all, I don’t think of myself as a writer. I do think of myself as someone who benefits from writing throughout the day. I also see strong writing and communication skills in…

As a designer, a total redesign with a news-worthy release date feels much sexier than small, incremental, possibly unnoticed change over time. The only problem — people don’t like massive change. It causes anxiety even if the new experience is lightyears ahead. — Natural vs. digital We’ve all been there before. We open up an app we use on a daily basis to complete a simple task. We just want to hear a certain song, check a feed or pay a bill.

A lot of time and energy goes into removing chaos. But too much structure and predictability can hinder growth and innovation. How can we set up sturdy, repeatable processes while embracing disorder and the beauty it makes? — Mastery + ambiguity = meaning In Jordan Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life, he addresses some very big questions and common lies we all tell ourselves. He presents the concept of finding meaning by being rooted in mastery and exploring something unknown. Deep engagement in work and life exists in the space between chaos and order…

As design systems grow, the teams creating and maintaining them mature to shape policies like governance, themeing and contribution. The rationale contained in these policies drives major impact on an organization’s culture. We need a balance of expert creators and iterative service designers to be effective as design system owners. — First, consider the pedal board 🎸 Systems exist all around us. A whole slew of folks have defined design systems in much more eloquent ways than I can, so instead of a definition, let’s check out at an example…

After a year and a half of serving as a Design Manager, I’d like to take a moment to reflect. I don’t assume my perspective after this limited time will be earth-shattering, but I’ll take cues from others (looking at you, Julie Zhuo) and write anyways to share the guidance that I would have appreciated just starting out. — My job is to guide, not produce First things first, it took me time to grasp a very different focus. As I moved into a role as a Design Manager for the U.S. Bank design system team, my daily work changed drastically. Instead of practicing hands-on, pixel-lovin design through hours of heads-down working time, my day began…

The best products are a balanced blend of Design, Policy and Technology. When these 3 pillars work together, they create something authentic and deeply useful. — Form follows function I believe that form is secondary to function. That might sound shocking; a designer who doesn’t put all his money on the pixels. As a designer, the design itself is equal parts form (typography, color, motion, white space) and function (state changes, API delays, user journeys). A product that focuses…