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AI is changing the product design landscape at a breakneck pace. It's important that we embrace these new tools, but don't sacrifice the quality of design for speed.
Ro Fernandez, founder of Nova, shares some white-hot wisdom about strategy.
In the modern world of continuous delivery, "releases" are no longer the important mega-event they once were. So why are we still planning everything around them?
In the fervor around artificial intelligence, it's important that we remember that creativity and innovation is about far more than completing tasks.
My friend Rodger Otero reminds us that lasting and meaningful change is about cultivation, not revolution.
The need to be "right" can stop you from being effective.
First articulated by iconic industrial designer Dieter Rams in the 1980s, these principles are timeless and universal.
There is nothing noble about not caring.
You never change anything by fighting it; you change things by making them obsolete through superior technology. Telstar replaced five hundred tons of transoceanic cable. It used...
With change of any significance comes uncertainty. Uncertainty is never fun, but it doesn't have to be crippling.
Modern politics tells us to forget diversity and focus exclusively on inclusion, but fixating on inclusion without first addressing underrepresentation actually leads to less inclusive workplaces.
When we needed to demonstrate that our century-old company was still innovating, I quipped that we could just show people by building a product in real time at our customer conference like some technological zoo exhibit. Nobody seemed to realize I was joking.
In the chaos of early adulthood, a friend's wise word—protect your margins—became my secret to finding peace amidst the overwhelm.
In the pursuit of speed, many organizations stumble—not from a lack of effort, but from the pressure to rush.
Returning to my writing roots revealed a truth: the journey of creation starts with a single, imperfect step—daring to make a mark on the blank page.
After decades in tech, exhaustion and escapist fantasies set in—but despite the challenges, my career has always been about one thing: people. As diversity, equity and inclusion come under assault, I continue to fight for people.
Leaders, it’s time for some tough love: accountability, communication, and respect are not just expectations for others, but for you, too.
Effective hiring goes beyond filling positions; it's about building relationships and ensuring a positive experience for every candidate.
Charismatic laborers may save the day, but true leaders build a future. Sustainable progress thrives not on heroics, but on empowering teams and creating lasting systems.
A framework I created to explain how managers still have a huge role to play in coaching Agile teams' performance
Just as a successful garden requires preparation and the right conditions to thrive, true leadership is about cultivating an environment where innovation and growth can flourish.
Cascading communication is like a flawed game of telephone: everybody hears a message, but did they hear the right message?
Great leaders don’t just react to exceptions—they redesign systems to prevent them. Progress comes from refining workflows, not just playing whack-a-mole with disruptions.
Authentic leadership isn’t just about being genuine—it’s about being humane. Leaders must balance their authority with empathy, bridging the gap between their humanity and the power they hold.
Save those encouraging notes and emails in a 'For Bad Days' folder. When imposter syndrome hits, pull it out and let those kind words remind you that you are great at what you do.
Most designers know the famous Double Diamond framework from the British Design Council. First, explore the problem. Then define it. Then explore solutions. Then refine. It’s not always linear, but the principle holds: you need time to explore before you commit.
In the early days of digital product design, we honored that. We sketched with Sharpies. We ran design charettes to generate ideas. We moved fast, threw things away, and stayed loose. Then came Photoshop, Fireworks, Sketch, and Figma. These tools gave us polish—but also made it easier to converge too soon. Once something looked “real,” it became harder to change. Stakeholders got attached. Designers got fixated. Exploration slowed. Premature convergence set in.
Now, we’re entering a new era—one where AI tools don’t just generate mockups, but actual front-end code. You type a prompt, and out comes a working UI. Not a sketch. Not a wireframe. Code. This is a leap in capability—and in risk. When a design is already functioning in code, it doesn’t just look finished—it is finished, at least to many stakeholders. And that makes it harder to step back, rethink, and explore alternatives.
This is how the creative process gets short-circuited. Teams skip the first diamond entirely—jumping to solutions without understanding the problem. They build interfaces that are functional but misaligned. Products become polished but shallow, fast but fragile. Design becomes reactive instead of reflective.
The damage isn’t always immediate. But over time, it compounds. You ship faster, but learn less. You optimize for delivery, not discovery. You stop asking “what if?” and start asking “how fast?” Eventually, you lose the space where real innovation happens.
AI tools aren’t the enemy. They’ll make great designers even better—especially those who can resist the gravitational pull of polish and code. But for teams without that discipline, or for stakeholders who equate working code with final product, these tools could quietly erode the very process that makes design valuable.
Without divergence, we don’t explore possibilities. We don’t test assumptions, challenge defaults, or uncover better paths. We don’t design with empathy—we just rush to solutions. And when that happens, we are shortchanging more than the process; we are shortchanging the people we’re designing for.
Design’s power has always been its focus on outcomes. If we reduce the value of design to visible output, we give away its superpower.
Speed at the cost of value is no bargain.
