a lil' bit ryland grace

howeverrrrr… as much as i love ryan gosling playing a goofy, lovable scientist who wakes up with zero memory in the middle of space — there was a tinge of sadness that creeped over me as time passed

most people will never read the book.

only 1 in 3 kids say they enjoy reading in their free time — the lowest it’s been in 20 years, per the National Literacy Trust.

i wish everyone and my enemies, the joy that i felt from reading as a kid stuck in the suburbs. i can’t ever forget the fresh cool smell of the library doors opening on a hot summer day.

what makes the book so rich is all the internal dialog — ryland grace wrestling with imposter syndrome, trying to piece together who he is after a medically-induced coma. that’s hard to put on screen.

the film does a lot right, but it can’t replicate being inside someone’s head.

but it made me think about the kind of designer i want to be during this fresh age of AI advancements piling on at lightning speed.

i want to be the type of designer you can count on to get in the weeds with you — a kind caring human first, impact-driven always.

you can count on me to mull over the problem on a sunday night,
on the way to the grocery story,
standing on the bus,
in all the mundane spaces
where thoughts float

and breathe.

my original goal was 30 designers, 15 teams. i knew it was ambitious. i ended up with 12 designers and 6 teams. smaller than planned, but more focused and more intimate.

i also made an executive call early on: transform week 1 into week 0. give everyone mental space to actually prepare before the sprint begins. it also allowed me to work out any issues.

and then i decided to sprint alongside the cohort as my own team.

meet the internal dialog partnership: Business Kai and Portfolio Kai 😂

Business Kai’s one month goal:
Launch Summer 2026 publicly and convert first 10 paid spots by April 21.

Portfolio Kai update:
Redesign my portfolio to present myself as a design engineer that specializes in learning and tool experiences.

in the background i’ve been fixing bugs and trying to narrate what’s happening as i go, giving designers a behind-the-scenes look at what debugging actually looks like.

it’s messy and nonlinear. that’s kind of the point.

one designer applied for a founding product designer/design engineer role at a startup. instead of sending a resume and a portfolio link, he built a quick website, edited a video that plays on the site, and submitted that as his application. he got an email saying they liked what they saw and asked if he was available for a paid project. he said yes.

another found her person. she said this about her sprint partner:

“I met with my partner twice. I love my partner, by the way, we’re aligned perfectly. Our needs and goals are exactly the same. And the struggles as well… we’re like two peas in a pod.”

my take: you don’t have to choose. find the balance that makes sense for you, but use AI to make more impact. the system you build in the process is the thing worth showing. that’s not replacing the work. that’s clearing the path so the work actually happens.

i recently read Lenny’s Newsletter on the product job market. two data points that stuck with me: PM openings are at the highest levels seen in over three years. design roles have plateaued.

that’s not a reason to panic. it’s a reason to build. designers who can also ship — who understand the product, who know how to use the tools — are exactly who teams are looking for right now. that’s you. that’s what this sprint is.

one designer came in having been out of practice for over a year. she was worried she’d be behind everyone else. i encouraged her just to have fun. focus on getting better at the craft. that’s it. she came back surprised — it was actually fun.

i won’t pretend i have it all figured out either. but the goal was never to have it figured out. it was to stay motivated, stay creative, and bring people along for the ride. nobody has to do it alone.

wanna join us for summer? grab a spot - only 20 spots.

grateful for this one. more soon.

— Kai