A feed of the latest posts from the journal.
Spent the past couple of weeks back and forth to the peak district, London twice, and home. It’s been a lot of moving around on trains. Emma and I went to London for the week, travelling from Stockport early in the morning to get into London around 8:30. The trains were actually excellent and not crowded at all. I hear a lot of bad things about Avanti on that route, but I reckon it was 50% less…
It’s a funny time of year. We’ve had so much hot weather, the trees think it’s autumn. The grass hasn’t grown significantly in weeks. Every tree is stressed because the lack of groundwater and dropping leaves as it hunkers down ready for a sleep over winter. I expect those growth rings to be tiny this year. Yesterday morning was blown up by my internet connection going down at 3:30am. Five years…
Design critique is how we get better. Just as peer review is the life-blood of science, critique is the life-blood of design. Here’s my guidelines and thoughts on running successful crit in design organisations: This is how we get better quality. There is probably no other ritual that is more important in improving quality than crit. Having a safe, productive environment that welcomes robust…
Two things. What we ship. And good teams. I think I first heard this analogy in 2006 at a conference in Berlin and it was in relation to describing an MVP. If a product is a layer cake, they might look something like this: Icing (frosting): ‘Delight’ for want of a better word Fourth layer: Interface Third layer: Features Second layer: Capabilities First layer: Technical architecture Often, when…
Well, here we are again. I’m not going to beat myself up. I stopped writing for a bit, and now I’m going to try starting up again. I told someone today that the main thing is about frequency not quality. Don’t second-guess myself. Just write and see where I get to. I read a book on holiday. I do not prioritise reading if I put it alongside all the chores, walking the dog, being in the gym, riding…
Be in the work. No ifs. No buts. There is no-one else who can do it like you can. I was asked yesterday: ‘Mark, do you design anymore?’. I had to pause. ‘What do you mean?’ I replied. Of course, they meant do I make things with pixels, directly. Do I spend time in Figma making things from scratch. No, I don’t. But I still design. Just in different ways. Design leadership is not (always) about…
Years ago, I started writing down the things I’ve learnt being a designer and running teams and companies. Mostly so I could articulate a challenge, a thought, a mistake. Like a little handbook. I found it the other day, and listening to the talks for the past couple of days at Leading Design has spurred me into action to add to them, but also to type them out, and publish them here. I miss…
Don’t under-estimate the value of routine. Routine can be an anchor in rough seas. When things are hard, simple routines provide a comfort. It could be having a coffee at a particular time of day, or sitting with your cat for a quiet 5 minutes. But routine can be for others too, and they can also be for your team. Started by my ex-colleague Christian Palino, every Friday afternoon I post an update…
Ok, admittedly, that didn’t get off to the best start. So I’m writing last week’s weeknotes and I’ve missed/skipped a few weeks. Work ate my weeknotes. It’s been very distracting and busy in work recently. To the point where, at the end of the day, if I’m not on my bike or cooking, I flop in a chair, the dog spoons my leg, and I nod off. I hate this time of year. November. January to March. At…
Well, that was a while since the last one, eh? Tiny bit ashamed. No excuse, really, but after stumbling across my blog this week, I read back a few weekenotes and it brought a smile to face. It was the little things, you see. The small details of the thoughts and things that happen in and around a week that matter. I’ve also realised i’ve missed articulating my thoughts in words here. My own site.…