I’m getting ready to launch a bunch of things for Design System University over the next few weeks. Before I do that, though, I’d like to share with you WHY I’m doing any of this in the first place: 🧵

Great morning at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History with the family.

Really great article from Jeff Patton on why product companies behave the way they do. Includes references to some of my favourite concepts like Optimism Bias, Skinner Boxes and Underpants Gnomes. Go read. jpattonassociates.com/underpants-gno…

Last fall, my mother’s sister passed away after a long cancer battle. A cool hippie, a talker, and a rocker. On my way to celebrate her life. Here’s my aunt (shorter) and mom holding puppies in the late 1940s or early 1950s. And also at Metallica with her brother in 2019.

We should all aspire to operate with the blind optimism of an organizational wide email announcement.

This band was great, this album is great, and this new remaster is great. For fans of the rock. open.spotify.com/album/4uQcC8zL…

You will never get caught up. The to-do list will never be completed. The inbox never empty. It's all like a river and you are blessed that it is flowing rather than dry.

The true measure of design prowess isn't in creating for oneself, but for others. Design involves deciphering implicit cultural cues through research and dialogue, then transforming these insights into tangible outcomes.

Each province and territory in Canada, represented by a Muppet who lives there. Generated by AI. 1. British Columbia

For perhaps the first 21 years of life or more, my experience of the relationship between the complexity of parenting requirements and human mental and physical capacity seems to be inverse.

Iron Maiden Motley Crue Bad Brains Guns and Roses Kings X

It’s The Record Company teaching a class!

What if we had problem leaders in place of product leaders? Would it better incentivize teams to ship outcomes? The job to be done doesn’t fluctuate nearly as much as the “solution” may.

Father’s Day trip to the National Zoo

I talk to lots of people who are discouraged about their #designsystems. Some are a few days/weeks in + intimated by the amount of work ahead of them. Others are years in and dejected about the amount of debt they’ve accrued. Here’s what I usually tell them: 🧵

Three reasons why we see tension between designers and product managers 🧵

“Meetings are a design problem.” Yes! Excited to dig into this on long flights home from 🇿🇦 Kevin M. Hoffman

The VA.gov design system includes our content style guide which is sneakily one of the best plain language government writing resources in the world design.va.gov/content-style-…

Alison Buttenheim @amybphd Kevin M. Hoffman Leah Bulley Tomer Sharon 🇮🇱🎗️🇺🇸 Donna Lichaw @steveportigal @apolaine My latest book! ❤️

For the last two years, I’ve been writing a book about #designsystems, and I’m so excited that it’s finally out in the world! Announcing “Design That Scales: Creating a Sustainable Design System Practice,” now available for pre-order from @rosenfeldmedia.