An interview with Ximena Vengoechea, author of ‘Listen Like You Mean It’ — Not long ago, I received an advance copy of a new book called Listen Like You Mean It. I quickly judged it by its cover (intriguing, fun), flipped through a few random pages (amazing illustrations, witty writing), then decided to actually read it. It was great, and also not what…

33 tricks for facilitation and teamwork over video — Hey there! This post is a cheat sheet version of The Remote Design Sprint Guide which I created with John Zeratsky, Jackie Colburn, and the input, advice, and smart ideas of over one hundred Design Sprint experts from around the world (see below). This cheat sheet is pretty good, but…

A quick pep talk for those feeling lost or discouraged — I just moved back to Seattle after eight years in San Francisco. It feels really great to be home. And it reminds me that I’ve been a designer for a while. In Seattle, phantoms of my earlier life are everywhere. The University of Washington campus, where I stubbornly majored in…

An interview with Range co-founder Braden Kowitz — When I joined Google in 2007, everybody said, “If you want to learn how to get things done, watch Braden Kowitz.” Braden was a designer who’d worked on the first versions of Google Sheets, Google Trends, and Google for Business (which is now G Suite). Over the years, I learned…

(and how to try your own low-stress experiment) — In 2012, I realized I had a problem. My iPhone made me twitchy. It called to me from my pocket, the way the Ring called Bilbo Baggins. My moment of clarity happened in my living room. …

My friend Stefan once said “Books are cheap” and I asked him what he meant. He said that even if you only get one idea or mental model from a book, it’s a great return on investment, and it’s pretty easy to get one idea from most books. And I…

The small stuff needs to get done now. The big stuff is overwhelming. Here’s how to tackle the stuff in the middle. — Co-authored with John Zeratsky If you want to make time for things that matter, the Busy Bandwagon will tell you the answer is to do more. Get more done. Be more efficient. Set more goals and make more plans. It’s the only way to fit those important moments into your…

This summer I got to do a super fun project, and I thought I’d write it up. It started several months ago, when I got an email from Laura Prah, who leads culture and engagement at The New York Times. Among other things, Laura is in charge of an event…

There’s plenty of great advice out there for making a design portfolio, much of it written by excellent designers who hire other excellent designers. If you’re a designer, you should do what they say. Me? You should be skeptical of my advice—I’m a solid designer, but not amazing, and I’ve…