So your boss built a prototype
It's Monday morning. Your boss pulls up something on their laptop. "I had an idea over the weekend," they say. "Just knocked this together on the train.
Martin Wright — Blog
Blog posts and weeknotes from Martin Wright.
Latest posts
Leaving Squarespace
Squarespace got me publishing again by removing friction, but it also limited the parts of the work that matter most.
Beware fast tools
Fast tools make it easier than ever to get something working. But they also make it easier to inherit decisions you didn’t make.
How I’m dealing with the pressure to adopt AI as a designer
It's hard to move in the regular spaces right now as a designer without noticing the continuing noise about AI. It's loud at best, and braggadocios...
Execution Is Cheap. Thinking Isn’t
This week I launched a small web app, Tone Ladder, which was my first serious step into product development assisted by AI. I took notes during the...
Building Tone Ladder
The process of building Tone Ladder and how trying to make a half-formed idea real forced me to rethink the problem entirely.Tone Ladder grew out of...
Introducing Tone Ladder
I’ve been building a web app called Tone Ladder to solve a problem I believe exists in digital design: we’re really bad at colour, and our tools...
One year of freelance
A year after making the decision to go freelance, here’s a report from the fieldSo, we made it a year. It feels worth pausing to acknowledge, take...
Mapping is thinking
We often treat maps as deliverables - neat, tidy artefacts to show what we’re building. But the value of mapping isn’t in the artefact; the value of...
Designing the ecosyste.ms brand
I recently had the pleasure of designing the brand and identity for ecosyste.ms and promised myself I’d keep track as we went so that I could write a...
Weeknotes 117
It’s been a little while since my last weeknote; Not because I haven’t had a lot to say, but because I found writing falling down the priority list...
Weeknotes 112
I love designing, all aspects of it - from the squishy people side: the way organisations should be set up to function, to the technical side:...
Weeknotes 110
I turned 42 this week. While I have no specific feelings about the age of 42 (beyond the cultural significance some of us may recognise in the...
Weeknotes 109
I took a couple of weeks off weeknoting. The work didn’t stop, but the writing did. I’m finding the internet a difficult place to inhabit at the...
Weeknotes 106
A short weeknote for 106. Stickers. Back pain. Outfit spotting in classic 80s moves.The big highlight this week was agreeing to continue working with...
Weeknotes 105
This week, I juggled some design work, betrayed my design roots with Canva, and got out of my comfort zone for a local networking event.It’s FOSDEM...
Weeknotes 104
Balancing work with having builders in at home. Preparing for user testing. Escaping to Wales. Quite a busy week for 104.This week has been a bit...
Weeknotes 103
This was a short week, broken up with a catch up with old friends and punctuated by a day off helping move house. Is it just me or has January...
How I weeknote
I’ve been writing my weeknotes a little while now, and since starting I’ve wanted to codify exactly what weeknoting means to me, what I do it for, in...
Weeknotes 102
Incredibly cold weather didn’t stop me this week, starting a new phase of my project, looking towards the speculative next contract and enjoying some...
Weeknotes 101
It’s Sunday, I’ve got washing in the machine, a beef stew in the slow cooker, and a hot cup of tea. It’s time for the return of weeknotes.I left 2024...
Weeknotes 011
Week 11. This will be a short weeknote to follow a busy week. Christmas is ramping up, and my time is feeling the bite.We launched. I’ll write a case...
Weeknotes 010
Ten weeks. The big 1-0. As my week notes enter double figures this week was another a busy one, as Christmas social events start to pick up and the...
Weeknotes 009
This was a bit of a tough week, we’re in the last moments of preparation before a soft launch of the project I’ve been working on and the 80:20 rule...
Weeknotes 008
This week I had a little think about money and opportunity cost, and I bought an obnoxious new cycling jacket.This week felt the most normal since...
Weeknotes 007
Weeknote seven, and week two of freelancing. There’s a lot to write about this week, enough that I’ve bumped a couple of bits to next week. I...
Seven lessons from leading a large design team
For three years I was part of an operational leadership team running a large design department, which at its largest was over 120 strong, with...
Weeknotes 006
What a week. My first week of freelancing was both very different and extremely familiar. The work I’m doing, the day-to-day activities are the same,...
Weeknotes 005
An eventful week of mixed emotions. For the first time in 18 years I’m not in traditional full-time employment, I am now a fully fledged,...
Ten reflections on design leadership
As a Design Lead at TPXimpact, I've had the privilege of leading teams through many projects, each with their own challenges and opportunities. The...
Weeknotes 004
We’re really on the home stretch now, with four working days left at TPXimpact. I’m hoping that my last four days will be as relaxed as possible,...
Weeknotes 003
Two weeks left at TPXimpact I find myself not quite wrapping up, but definitely on the home stretch.On my project we’re coming to the end of a set of...
Weeknotes 002
I made it back for a second go. Shocking. It’s been an odd week, I’m not quite done with the day job and I'm not quite ready to kick off the...
Weeknotes 001
It’s time for a new season of weeknotes. Last time I attempted this was three years ago, when I’d changed jobs and was trying to figure out exactly...
Going freelance
After years of flirting with the idea, I've recently decided to take the big, scary step of going freelance. So, at the end of October of this year...
Thoughts on moving to Squarespace
It’s been a couple of months now, and it’s probably time I wrote (and thought) about the biggest change to my web presence since I dropped WordPress...
Building visual literacy: Making good diagrams
We’re back for a third and final part of my series about diagrams. Here we discuss a couple of quirks to watch out for, how to get started with a...
Building visual literacy: advanced tips for better diagrams
Continuing from my previous post about making simple diagrams, here’s a follow up set of tips and information to give you the confidence to present...
Building visual literacy: Simple diagrams to sell ideas
Recently a colleague asked me to give them a 101 on how I make diagrams. I wrote out a few pages of thoughts to prepare for our one hour session, and...
Transforming caution into critical thinking
How I unlock better decision-making with my favourite coaching promptWhen coaching, I have a prompt I fall back on time and time again, I picked it...
Designing how change happens
After a couple of years working in central government teams I noticed something. Individuals who had been through constant change didn’t respond the...
Being people centred
One year and a bit into my new role at TPXimpact I’ve begun to reflect on how my first senior leadership role is going, and how adopting the...
Adjusting to remote work
So, you’re working from home? Is it everything you hoped it would be? Still in your PJs? Did you eat your lunch before 12 today? Welcome to the...
A review of Ikea’s Bekant Standing Desk
For the money, the Ikea Bekant standing desk is a great choice for any workspace. It looks smart, the mechanics feel right and the range of heights...