On good design.

I wanted my bedroom to feel like a surf shack– casual, fun, earthy. At 10 years old, I ripped down the ‘80s mauve wallpaper and bought a papasan chair with my hard-earned chore money. Good design can create a feeling.

Good design is collaborative. It’s give and take, a hot-potato handoff. It’s hard to achieve the same mental model and build trust. Sit together. Over-communicate. Share assumptions.

Good design can happen fast or slow. I might choose to skip steps like wireframing to get prototypes in front of people faster. Or, I could spend a lot of time on a single component– getting it right because it’s high-impact.

Good design is decentralized. It’s not owned by a VP or a designer. It’s not a single tool or a single stakeholder.