Alec Gorge

Another week, another handful of conversations about pace layers and design systems: https://lnkd.in/d7BVsrAy This article by Big Medium's own Josh Clark continues to be one of the most-important concepts that we apply in our work. Product teams need to be able to move fast and innovate, and it's important to not put crap in the design system: https://lnkd.in/epK_X95r One of my favorite things about coaching design system teams is helping them establish clearer boundaries, transition from pattern police to helpful sherpas, and navigate the architecture, people, and process of everything. #designsystems #uidesign #uxdesign #frontenddevelopment

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Hey Friends! 'Tis the season: Over the next couple months, I'll be looking for my next role and adventure. If you know any companies looking for a seasoned DevRel or DevRel lead, hit me up. A bit about me: I've been in web dev/design for 18 years now. I've worked on large-scale news websites, small marketing sites, and multiple startups. I've been: * An IC dev and designer * An IC DevRel * Managed a design team * Managed a hybrid design/dev team * Managed a small DevRel team As a DevRel, I've done the full breadth of tasks: * Content creation (social media, blog posts, video content, courses, and even a book published by Packt) * Managed continual docs improvement * Organically grown product communities AND organic communities of practice Before getting into DevRel officially, I helped build local communities: * Ran a monthly tech meetup for 7+ years * Founded and helped run an annual hackathon for 5 years * Helped work to combine all a city's tech events under 1 umbrella to work better together From a product side, I've helped iterate all the products I've worked on through: * Industry knowledge and UX experience * Being "User 0" and finding all the bugs and edge cases * Working with communities to test and provide feedback * Creating friction logs, organic feedback lanes, feature request prioritizaiton and more * Creating PoCs And honestly, there's a lot more, but chances are good you’ve already stopped reading, because this is super long at this point… So, maybe instead, have folks reach out 😆

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I finally found the time to read Steve Krug’s classic UX design book “Don’t Make Me Think, Revisited”. Despite some dated screenshots and examples (they really take you back to the good old days of web design), its insights resonated deeply with me. It was enlightening to realize that my interest in the UX/UI aspects of projects is actually part of a significant movement in digital product design. Previously, I believed that only designers could influence a product's look and feel, and I felt hesitant about my contributions. Now, I feel validated and more confident in my ability to impact UX design. I'm excited to explore this field further and apply these principles to my work! #UXDesign #UIDesign #UserExperience #SteveKrug #ProfessionalDevelopment

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This is a perspective I've been thinking about for a while, and I appreciate how colorfully pg puts it here. However, he does not explicitly define Founder Mode, except for contrasting it with being "a faker." I don't disagree, but I think I have a more subtle take. With the "don't just hire good people and let them figure it out" sentiment - I think that advice hits failure modes because people take it too literally and end up abdicating their authority instead of scaling it. I also think some founders should fully step away from their company as their involvement can hinder the company's success instead of nurture it. In both cases, you're not making decisions grounded in reality. I do know that managers and leaders who aren't zoomed in and present in the day-to-day work with their teams tend to make really crappy decisions. And because they have large areas of ownership, they can really steer the company into the rocks because they are - unwittingly or otherwise - willfully flying blind. So if being in Founder Mode means that you're in the work with skin in the game and not just phoning in your remit, you've got your hands in the dirt enough to understand what's growing and what's dying, you're constantly responding and adapting to the dynamics of your context, you're making timely decisions that keep your teams productive and grounded, and you're hiring good people and empowering them to do their best work, then I don't see much of a difference between being in Founder Mode versus being someone who is owning their work. That's just doing your damn job, and doing it well.

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Looking for a contract project (10 hours/week) where I'd love to help you go from 0 to 1 with an LLM-powered product or feature quickly. A bit about me: - Launched https://jakeai.org/ and went from idea to first revenue in 2 weeks. - Built two bootstrapped startups that generated a total of $200K in revenue. The first one was an AI analyst for business angels. The second one was a hilarious chatbot psychologist, Josef Freudman. - ex LLM-product builder at Reface🇺🇦, a16z-backed gen AI company. What I can help with: - Taking LLM-powered products from 0 to 1 fast - literally taking an idea and validating/iterating it. - Validating and implementing an LLM-powered feature in your product. Who I can help the most: - Startups that want to launch and get their first customers. - Startups and companies exploring the launch of a new product or feature. If this sounds like something that could help you out, feel free to message me here on LinkedIn or by email: [email protected]

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Another example of how Knapsack helps teams go from design to code quickly and efficiently to deliver real value to the product teams that use your design system. So many folks are focused on documentation being the way to connect design and code (and docs do matter), but having a structured, codified, version controlled way to specifically define how you connect Figma to a coded component is really what helps us deliver value to product teams that use the design system.

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In addition to my talk at Write the Docs, I created the sketchnotes, which are posted here: https://lnkd.in/g5Jmej-v

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An honest and empathetic view of how generative AI (or more correctly LLMs and Stable Diffusion) are transforming the UX industry. Beautifully written and wise. I think the recommendations are widely applicable. It is an opportunity to be strategic, authentic, and to act with purpose. The time of re-wrapping the ideas of others is a vanishing part of all of our work.

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Last week I locked up Privy's Engineering and Design teams in a barn near Cape Cod. (Don't worry, they're free now). It was all in the name of our first In-person Hack Week—a week where we pause all regular work to focus on experimentation and learning with one rule: Learn something worth sharing every day. This time it was all about AI. So I got the coffee brewing and a full kegerator and they dove in. Our biggest learning? While AI makes hard things easy, it also makes basic tasks surprisingly difficult. If you've ever tried generating an image with specific text, you know what I mean. But you can't truly grasp these limitations until you've tested the tech yourself. Hence, hack week. When someone discovers something interesting, they can instantly grab 3 other team members, get around a laptop, and build it. Here's what else we've learned: → Daily demos were great for breaking down product visions into bite-sized projects. Details reveal themselves as you build. Typically, your assumptions from the morning are thrown out by lunchtime. → It’s hard to see how companies without an “AI Native” approach will survive, given the exponential productivity gains internally and for customers. Fittingly, we were just a mile from New Bedford—the 19th-century whaling capital, known as the “city that lit the world”—a reminder that nothing lasts forever. But this is less about new tech and more of a history lesson. Most companies talk about AI, but few have truly “burned the boats” and are going all-in. And I admire that courage—it reminds me of the courage of the whaling expedition sailors! It’s easier to go all-in on AI when there’s not a foundation to change. That’s why over 80% of the last Y Combinator batch described themselves as “AI companies.” But what if you’re more like New Bedford, built on a world where you were the only option? Enter kerosene. Invented in the 1850s, thanks to a perfect storm of events like the massive railroad expansion, it became the preferred choice for lighting cities and towns. What if kerosene followed the same path as AI Today? Kerosene was introduced and within 2 years, it was 98% cheaper and exponentially more powerful. That’s exactly what’s happening with AI. Taking a week off with your Engineering team might seem costly, but isn’t taking a week off to think, reflect, and tinker, the least expensive initiative on your roadmap today? Do you not think AI will play a 10x or 100x larger role in the coming years? And aren’t those “AI First” YC companies likely your competition soon? AI is having its Cambrian explosion moment. As with every hype cycle, there will be a peak of inflated expectations and a trough of disillusionment. But the last thing I want is to sit on the sidelines and miss the journey. I want to get deep in the details, because the better we understand both the power and limitations of AI, the more we can delight our merchants.

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Friends, next Wednesday i'll be sharing some tangible ways to leverage a designer's mindset while building a startup or doing your job. Though design has come under some heavy scrutiny the last few years for being perceived as "too abstract" or "too far away from the business," I remain bullish on design's ability to fuel innovation. I'll be sharing practical examples of how we leveraged a designer's mindset at VMHA to: 1️⃣ Prototype our market positioning 2️⃣ Create a culture to foster the free flow of ideas 3️⃣ Establish our managerial controls and business processes 🚨 Spoiler Alert 🚨 The designer's mindset allowed us to listen to our customer and learn quickly through prototyping and iterating! I'm always excited to share space with ambitious veterans and their supporters and am looking forward to the discussion! #designersmindset #prototype #iterate #learn #listen #adapt #culture #innovation https://lnkd.in/g6-UFnn7

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💩💩 Don't Put Crap In The Design System 💩💩https://lnkd.in/ei-ubFsA It's one of my favorite Josh Clark lines that cuts through the noise of a conversation. What is crap? Crap is rushed work, low-quality work, shortcuts, experiments, first drafts, one-offs, and other unvetted/untested/unverified work. Let’s be clear: crap is inevitable and is produced for reasons both unfortunate and understandable. But while crap is an unavoidable part of product design and development, it has no place in a design system. A design system is critical frontend infrastructure, therefore it needs to be sturdy, reliable, and dependable. Design systems contain boring, tried-and-true, vetted, high-quality solutions to common problems encountered at an organization. When consuming teams encounter crap when working with the design system, trust is broken and the integrity of the system erodes. Those experiences can very much impact the long-term success of the system. For those reasons, a design system needs to be protected from crap. So how should we deal with crap? - Slow down (easier said than done!) - Establish a layered UI ecosystem (https://lnkd.in/eKm7ysDi) - Recognize the design system and products move at their own pace (https://lnkd.in/d7BVsrAy) - Create a recipes layer in the ecosystem (https://lnkd.in/dAcUGprA) - Formalize a governance process and prioritize conversation and communication (https://lnkd.in/eeSRU2t) - Always use branching in your workflow Crap is inevitable, but implementing these tactics can help organizations manage it in a controlled and thoughtful way. At Big Medium, we help teams deal with crap all the time, so if your organization could use some help, get in touch! https://lnkd.in/gk3JpKbN #designsystems #crap #process #governance #uidesign #uxdesign #

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Why are we overcomplicating the hiring process? I’ve hired many designers and built effective teams over the years.  Recently, I've observed an increasing frustration among designers during their job search. It’s tough enough to secure an interview after applying for dozens, sometimes hundreds of jobs, but then candidates face multiple rounds of interviews and tests. What’s funny is that some of my colleagues think I’m particular when hiring designers, especially UX designers, because I’m focused on finding strong, thoughtful candidates. But my process is actually quite straightforward. If I spot quality in a candidate, I don’t need 3-4 rounds of interviews to make a decision. Here’s how I hire UX designers: (the process differs slightly for creative designers and other roles) 1. Review CVs & portfolios (HR sends me a shortlist).  2. Narrow down potential candidates.  3. 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝗮𝗻 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄 to explore your attitude, thought process, UX methodology, and walk through your portfolio to understand your decisions on specific projects. I also ask technical questions to gauge your knowledge.  4. 𝗔𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁—to evaluate how you create a user journey for a simple feature/product and assess its usability. That’s it. If you have the skills, knowledge, and the right attitude, you're hired.  To fellow hiring managers: You don’t need 5 interviews and 3 tests stretched out over 3 months to make a decision. Let’s simplify the process. 

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Polls can be a cheat code for earned media, and a great way to build authority. But there are levels to this. Here's how one of the best I've seen - Capital One - does it. (And what I'd do differently to increase earned coverage). Led by Shena Ashley, PhD, Capital One's Insights Center is a masterclass in leveraging polls to create unique insights that would do incredibly well via earned syndication. Here’s what they do great: ✅ Content that sticks: Crucial issues > fleeting trends. Focusing on topics like financial stability, mobility, and entrepreneurship, it's easier to rationalize investment on topics with a longer shelf life. Their insights + stories can drive coverage for months to come. ✅ Visual storytelling: Data doesn’t have to be dry, and Capital One presents original insights through clear and eye-pleasing visuals that are easy to understand. Publishers like charts, they love colorful charts, and they LOVE colorful charts that are easy to understand. Check, check, check. ✅ Strong methodologies and extensive polling numbers: Capital One frequently involves 7k+ participants in their studies - they are not half a**ing it. Well explained methodologies are table stakes to get your polls covered, and Capital One does a great job outlining their data collection process, sample size, and research methodologies.   ✅ Easy to steal: Each report has multiple easy to take stories/soundbites, and are also written as full pieces of content, which can be taken as whole. Finally --- if I could change one thing... Add a byline. Brand publishing NEEDS a byline - no news outlet wants to cover a story that can't be credited back to a human. All in all, polls can be incredibly valuable for driving earned syndication - check out Capital One's Insights Center in comments for killer examples.

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where’s OpenAI ‘s sama? oh look. he’s in elon’s shadow. makes sense. he’s shorter. Lol. the island of cannibals that is silicon valley has a new co-chair as mayor of sf. unelected. uninfluential in washington. has weasled his way into a transition team for sf. I wonder is watching elon w trump he found his trump locally in sf. sama is a mirror. he was for pg. he was also for many others. including elon. I guess this is a way to perhaps shore up political points locally in sf. to protect himself as best as he can. washington is a country wide, global game. kinda reminds me of another rebranding. im just jenny from the block. https://lnkd.in/e_jNXXRD if ai companies are to flourish OpenAI Google Microsoft Amazon Apple will require that startups are not somehow impeded. this is a game of davids and goliaths. where the slingshot appears innocuous. that is llms, transformers, access to privileged data. this out of no-where announcement demonstrates that this is a defense tactic by sama. he speaks fondly of sf and has done nothing until now. so his disingenuous nature finds yet another loop hole to worm into. we would be more supportive of his efforts except he’s created an industry for himself through a con game approach. why is he ceo of OpenAI when he’s there 6-7 hours a week. forgive me. isn’t a ceo supposed to be singularly focussed. his game is getting funding that invests in companies that he’s already invested in and as it’s a non for profit there are no conflicts of interest applied. wow. he uses other peoples money to invest in what he’s already invested in. sounds like y combinator showed him how to play the sv players. the next trick will be to do something no one has ever done. take a multi-billy non for profit and flip to for profit. as a non for profit there is no reporting required. there are tax incentives. a moral narrative to spin. then. oooops. how do we monetize this. we believe he will not succeed. to do so would cannibalize capitalism as it’s structured. it also would create a new pathway for universities which are by definition research centres. creating this precedent would alter their business. given that elon has beef with sama. and elon has never been more on top of his game. well. we find local political maneuvering is a way of squirming. OpenAI investors chiefly Microsoft are about to be thrown under the bus. unwittingly. recall it’s the talent at OpenAI that makes it special. the a team has left. the b team is in place. 2025 will not be good for OpenAI elon will have his revenge. 44 millys invested. for what. for sama to throw his weight around. he’s a lightweight. just look at him. lol. source: https://lnkd.in/e9WtQ48k < . >

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The idea for Decipad came when I was building YLD. YLD is an engineering and design consultancy, and while working with a range of business clients we noticed the gap between tools for programmers and everyone else was massive. It was just so complicated for non-developers to collaborate and meaningfully contribute to a modern company in a data-driven way. They either: 1) Got stuck with excel on their own. 2) Needed help from a developer/analyst. I'm an open-source developer and know how much knowledge we create from working together. But outside of that, people are still emailing excel files to each other. And the worst part is that those files waste people's time because they always lead to the “Can you explain this excel sheet to me?” question (I bet most of you got this question before or asked it to someone else). We are building Decipad because most non-developer users know the problems they want to solve with data. They just lack the tool to do it.

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Take it from me, there’s no better way to learn excellent and practical ways to overhaul your experimentation efficacy! Erin makes critical thinking fun and highly accessible in this workshop, June 11:

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