Been thinking a lot about where I want to be, my values, and how I live my working life.

Today;

Solo product designer at a unicorn startup is not really where I saw things heading when I joined MT but things change and I can adapt. If some doors close there are other open ones. Being able to have a say in what areas to develop is a privilege.

Some values though don't align. The tradeoffs seem worth it certain days and out of the question others.

My life outside work though, I've never been more grateful for and fulfilled.

Growth;

In the absence of other designers and team process, I've been able to set up workflows and structure that best fit my working style. Roadmapping design issues and triage in tools like Linear, setting up open office hours, and working as an embedded service across product teams rather than going to the depths on specific product areas. It's all flexible enough to scale and adapt a bit if we end up hiring more designers as well.

I'm using more tools like v0, claude, gpt, and val to develop prototypes quickly in code. Some other more technical folks are working on bringing systems into v0 so we can do this together at a higher degree of fidelity.

The coursework I've been doing through code academy on a front-end dev track is going well. Not trying to be on that side of the business fully, but the effort into tooling and literacy has benefited my work, partners, and this site. Feeling encouraged there. Hard to find the time some days though.

Walls;

There are some things I'd love to do more of, always are but feels like these things are more out of reach today than I'd expect.

I joined MT to work on a growing design team at a sustainable business. While the business is sustainable, the design team ultimately was not. I'd attribute most of this to misaligned values. MT wants to value design and put out a quality customer web experience, but has failed to develop a degree of what folks often refer to as "design maturity".

By default, everything I puy my energy into should meet a certain bar. Life is short, no time to waste on bad work.

Priorities;

Staying organized with a high output and volume of the best work I can do
Avoiding burnout by being sharp with my time management and structure
Continue pushing on the organization to support front end development work
Developing my craft as a designer but also in understanding web frameworks
Staying remote which creates flexibility for my partner's own career path in textiles
Engaging in side projects, photography, zines, this site, my portfolio - and life; family