For the last six months or so I've been leading the charge for recruiting design talent at Etsy. We've hired at a brisk pace in that time and I've been asked on a few occasions how we're doing it. And though I'm pretty happy with the results we've gotten so far, I think it's important to share some …
For years, my career has been centered around one short, simple phrase. When you're the only designer at a five-person, seed-funded startup, "just ship" is the name of the game. You're sprinting to launch the product, to get the next feature done, to fix that bug in production. If you stop …
I was telling this story to someone the other day and thought it might be worthwhile to post it. A few years ago, I found myself on a phone interview with a design manager at Amazon. In the middle of the usual bevy of questions ( tell me about your work history, hardest design problem you've …
Whenever I hear someone speaking about their company's iterative culture, they're usually talking about product development. Ship fast and break things, lean/agile development processes, learning-through-failing, etc. are all pretty great ways to ensure your product isn't stagnant and that you're …
As I've spent more and more time recruiting designers over the last six months, I've had a lot of chances to consider the interview process and what works well for us and what doesn't. With every person we interview, even if it's a phone screen, we're creating a reputation for our company amongst …
When I started my Creative Writing degree, I was a bit of a perfectionist. I'd write, rewrite, tweak, fiddle, throw it all away, write it again, etc. until I would, finally, feel comfortable turning in a piece for class critique. I'd hand it over proudly, certain that I'd squashed every typo, found …
Recently, my team at Etsy and I have been doing some roadmap planning for next year. First, we made a huge list of ideas and pain points we could address, then bucketed them, then gave them some prioritization. We honed and crafted our plan until we had a short, achievable list of what we think are …
"Everybody thinks they're a designer," is a phrase I hear time to time from frustrated designer friends. I'm personally guilty of using this phrase myself, likening design recommendations from non-designers to me being in charge of database design (spoiler: that would actually be bad). But lately, …
As organizations grow, it's incredibly easy for teams to accidentally become islands, silo'ing themselves and their work until it's time to ship. The new release email goes out to the company, only to be met with a dozen or so responses that look something like: This impacts what I'm working on. :( …
Every time I go running, it's begins and ends in exactly the same way. I start out bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, confident that I'm stronger than last time. Faster than last time. Know exactly what route I'm going to run and about how long it will take me. About midway through, I'm a bit tired, but …