Welcome to my personal (ever-evolving) guide for how I work. As I continue to improve my self awareness, I'll update this page to keep myself accountable and be as transparent as possible.
People describe me as...
- Resilient: I am not afraid to fail and will try whatever it takes to solve problems
- Empathetic: I constantly consider how decisions impact others
- Adaptive: I approach problems with an open mind and can quickly pivot when needed
My values
- Being heard: I really appreciate when my feedback is acknowledged (i.e., replying to a Google/Slack/Figma comment)
- Sweating the details: I strongly believe the details separate mediocre experiences from delightful ones
- Collaborating: I love when everyone on the team, regardless of discipline, is invested in solving problems together
How I solve problems
- Talk to real people: I first schedule time with people who could be having the same problem to understand their experience and see if they have suggestions for improvement
- Analyze the data: Document my learnings and define common themes
- Experiment: Throw together a quick low-fidelity prototype to test a few ideas
- Get buy-in: Create a pitch that describes the customer problem, business impact, proposed timeline, success metrics, and attach the low fidelity concept to sell the vision
- Deliver: Once I have buy-in, I can then work with the team to design and develop the end to end experience
- Learn: Compare results against success metrics
- Repeat
A typical day
- I start the morning catching up on Slack messages, reading up on the latest design/tech news on twitter, and taking the time to document my mood and what my primary stress will probably be for the day.
- Disclaimer: I am NOT a morning person
- Because most of my coworkers are on the west coast, I prioritize tasks where I don't need to collaborate or ask questions (catching up on documentation, heads down code/design work, etc) before they wake up.
- Since our design system supports multiple business units and repos, it's helpful for me to knock out all the tasks for a given repo before moving to another one.
- I thrive when I can hop on a quick call with someone, do a bit of pair programming/design, establish a clear plan, and move forward.
Personal growth
- Stay more focused when explaining something, instead of getting lost in the details
- Pause more when speaking to allow people to ask questions
- Being more explicit when it comes to asking for help on projects