Broadly, I believe that designers hold a lot of power in their hands and posses great influence over where they choose to put it. If you think about it, everything in our lives is designed—a choice people made that ended up leading to a stream of decisions, turning into something tangible. A tea pot, our transportation system, societal matters. Everything is designed, somehow.

The responsibilities are listening and engaging in honest dialog with people who will use what we are working on, to listen and give voices to everyone alike. To design for joy, for usability, for usefulness and peace of mind. All that we do should have thorough intent and kindness woven into it.

Focus plays a big part. There is so much to do, to explore, to learn and build that, at times, it feels very daunting. Letting go of ideas is hard, but I like to say that quantity breeds quality. Every idea has its purpose, but knowing when to pick and move on is a great strength that doesn’t come easy.

It is also not always easy to get people to understand certain decisions. Perhaps their intuition or taste tells them something different than yours, even though you might have all the plausible reasons on your side. Design is about educating, muting one’s ego as best as possible and, objectively, narrowing on the best solution there may be.

I notice that I tend to regularly skip designing in Figma and jump directly to code. Mostly in the validation process, because it is fast and I get a better feeling for that actual product. Otherwise I do love to spend hours in Figma to polish things and build overly sophisticated components.

Linear is just great for planning, which I like to do very neatly.

Nobody can run from AI these days, and I appreciate it a lot as a tool to aid me in my work, not so much as a threat that it’ll that it away from me. Claude Code especially is immensely helpful.

Learn how to articulate your thoughts and make use of that skill. Asking the right questions is a much less painful way to a goal than to pretend knowing more than you do. Also know that feedback is never a personal attack, but simply a kind gesture from someone more advanced to nudge you into the right direction. Think twice before saying yes to a project, no matter how exciting it seems.

Putting work over anything I that knew, deep down, was more important. No matter how aspiring a designer one is, it is no fun being one all on one’s own. I’ve learned so much from my friends and all the work I do always includes a part of me that would not be there if not for them.

Just engaging in life with all it has to offer. Listening to music, watching movies, playing the piano, engaging in photography, writing. There is so much to take in if we find the time to pause and notice. Taking interest in other people’s lives can only make one more curious.