Keely Powell

Not sure how I missed this podcast with Lenny Rachitsky but this episode with Katie Dill is amazing. There's a reason it has 47k views on YouTube. Just furthering my claim that the very best of Lenny's podcasts are not about product development or traditional product management. His best episodes are about design and business. "The use of the word beauty in books that have been digitized by Google has decreased,  like pretty dramatically. And it's aligned with this idea of, "Well,  functionality is king. Functionality is what matters." As if people think about  functionality and beauty as like two opposite things. No, they're not two  opposite things. Functionality is important. And actually beauty enhances functionality  because it does make things easier to use, more approachable, more comp elling to use.  And the other piece of it that is not talked about in business as often is just  the importance of how people feel. Things that are more beautiful, increase trust. You see that  we've put painstaking detail into this, and we care about the details of how something works,  and that gives you assurance that we care about other details that you can't see too." —Katie All I have to say is YES.

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2 years with Nectar! 🤘🔥 My favorite highlights: → Our team’s growth from 23 employees to 90 employees. Product alone grew from 6 of us to 21 strong now 🙌🏼, and we’re a sleek, efficient, resilient team under Brian Cressall and Nate Tingey. → Established Nectar’s Design System and built our component library, significantly improving speed, consistency, and quality of design and implementation. → Completed a massive UI design refresh for the existing product (bless the devs still building it 🫡 ). → Launched Nominations, the largest and most impactful new feature we’ve built at Nectar yet. → Completely scrapped a project, because it was the right thing to do. Grateful to work on a team that’s hyper-focused on our ultimate goals, and is sincerely willing to let sunk costs be irrelevant. → Ideated, designed, and launched our new product Internal Communications in 8 weeks with a small, mighty team 🤯 I’m still amazed we managed it. → $40M Series B funding in April 2024 with PeakSpan Capital. → Saw our efforts, motivation, and passion pay off when Nectar was recognized as the 2nd Fastest Growing Company in Utah County, 1st fastest growing software company in Utah, 8th fastest growing software company in the U.S., and 87th fastest growing company in the U.S. (across all industries). → 300% increase in revenue in Q3 2023 vs Q3 2024 (Q3 was also 50% above our revenue Q2 2024). → Saw every department at Nectar grow in excellence. I’m in awe of the caliber of Engineering, CS, Marketing, Sales, and what they accomplish. → Relished the challenge and variety of asks in the beginning as Nectar’s sole designer, including working on print design (looking at you, 28’ tradebooth) and animations for the first time. That animation announcing Nectar’s new logo a year ago? That was my first animation, and I’m still proud of myself for figuring it out enough to make that 😂. → Spent way too much on Holiday gas station runs (RIP old office). This is a long list, but for the record I cut it in half from what it was 😅. I’m grateful Nate reached out on LinkedIn right at the perfect time when I was looking to switch things up, and that we’ve made a great team ever since. Getting to work closely with our little product design team—Nate, Mason, Tyler, and Maya—and many, many others keeps me growing and keeps me motivated on the daily. Nectar’s mission and way of working resonated with me from the beginning. It’s rewarding to see our company continue to gain momentum and maturity, all while seeing how much room we still have to grow. Very, very grateful to be part of the journey. As we say, it’s still Day 1 at Nectar. 🚀

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AI and Design: Navigating the Red Flags As AI continues to advance, Figma's role as an intermediary is diminishing, This shift brings both opportunities and red flags for designers. 1. Over-reliance on AI: Remember, your creativity is irreplaceable. Don't let AI overshadow your unique touch. 2. Skill Gaps: Focus on enhancing skills in UX Research, UX Strategy, and conceptual design as AI takes on more technical tasks. 3. Job Displacement: Specialize in areas that AI can't replicate to avoid the risk of roles becoming obsolete. 4. Data Privacy: Prioritize ethical use of data when utilizing AI tools. Privacy should be paramount. 5. Innovation Stagnation: Guard against solely relying on AI by continually innovating and pushing creative boundaries. To thrive in this evolving landscape, strategic design thinking, purposeful decisions, and an assertive perspective are essential. How are you preparing for these challenges? Share your thoughts! #AI #Design #Innovation #UX #DataPrivacy #Creativity #FutureofWork

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The final frontier for "automated testing" Read the full article: Whither AI "Users"? ▸ https://lttr.ai/AZK51 #GenerativeAI #GenerateTheFuture #uxdesign #uxresearch #AiMake #UXR #Freelance #SlowLoadingTimes

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Determine high-priority features in less than an hour. Get everyone in a room. Pass out stickies. Document every task users perform on your app. One task per sticky. Write furiously for 15 minutes. Group similar stickies into feature sets. (Below you’ll see a photo of a workshop I led where we condensed ~70 tasks to 17 features.) Vote for the 3 features you believe are most important to the user. Initial beside your desired feature to cast a vote. The two features with the highest vote count are your high-priority features. Congratulations. 1. Document 2. Group 3. Vote sinpl rlly 🥂

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The 4 Stages of AI Image Generation: An Experience Map #GenAI #UX #productDesign https://buff.ly/3VKxjKs

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For anyone wanting to learn more about how we're working on AI as a design team here at Klaviyo, have a listen to this interview with Alexandra Holness

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Really annoyed at Figma's price gouging here. There is no reason other than greed: https://lnkd.in/gfdrEiWH Oh, and I emailed them about it and this line from their reply was particularly poignant: "Additionally the minimum for enterprise is a $5k invoice minimum. 6 enterprise seats or made up with other products." To put that in context... our monthly Adobe bill (for 8 CC, 7 PS, 6 Acrobat licenses) is ~NZ$2k... Amazing how quickly enshittification sets in... #Figma #Design #SoftwareLicensing

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When the custom GPT store launched earlier this year, I created Design Critique GPT 🌟 and was amazed by the positive feedback it received. It’s resonating with designers at all levels, becoming a valuable resource for both newcomers and seasoned professionals alike. Though it’s not the end-all-be-all, it’s a great starting point to refine your ideas. And don’t hesitate to use it 🤖 for writing copy—the context you give helps deepen product understanding, improves content, and sparks valuable squad conversations, ultimately enhancing the overall UX ✨ Start incorporating AI into your design process today 🎯 https://lnkd.in/gVKvH7Vx

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Pivot or persevere? 🧐 When you hit a roadblock during product development, deciding whether to stay the course or make a strategic shift can be tough. . As #product expert Dan Olsen says – it's a balancing act. Quitting too early might mean missing out on untapped potential. Bit being overly attached to your vision can blind you to the need for change. Every #startup #founder grapples with this question, repeatedly. So how DO you strike the right balance? To find out, watch this: https://lnkd.in/gkcD8qFs #productdesign #productdevelopment #adaptability #feedback

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Why not all voices should be equal in the design process. If we are serious about social change and equity, we need to start centring the knowledge and decisions of those deeply impacted. #UX #productDesign #designProcess

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Nice to see the tasty evolution of the Nest thermostat as it gets sleeker, more contemporary while raising the bar on UI. Love the analog watch face dial option. How about a Rolex face option Google? #google #UI #UX #productdesign #smarthome

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EP01: How Airbnb is bringing soul back to their design I chatted with Airbnb's VP of Design (Teo Connor) and prototyping extraordinaire Janum Trivedi... From those convos it's quite clear that Airbnb is making a concerted effort to introduce: → more haptic feedback → more motion interactions → (a lot) more 3D And these investments are changing the way that Teo is thinking about hiring and even how the team explores new ideas. So this first episode goes deep into how Airbnb is elevating their product and "empowering designers to be designers again" My bet is their recent shift inspires a whole wave of products to push past "good enough" and truly innovate with design (YT link in the comments if you'd rather watch there)

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AI tools will soon help us pull patterns from design systems, creating more personalised user experiences. See Google's example below of Gemini compiling UI from Material Design. Many B2B software companies are behind the curve in this respect, but those teams who are investing in design systems today are setting themselves up for faster, more consistent, and AI-enabled development in the future. #UX #UI #DesignSystems #B2BSoftware #SaaS #AI

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🤹‍♂️ “I had no idea you could do that” As we attempt to scale and white-label our design systems, we've run into providing some options that leave our team a bit stumped and scratching our heads. After doing some research, I’m appreciating all the efficiency gains you can pull off with just a few Figma tricks and tutorials. → Small components are easy, but as components get more complex or resemble layouts, tracking all the possible nested variations is impossible. → Sometimes components have optional elements that show and hide depending on the needs of a specific client or context. → “You get a logo, you get a logo, everyone gets a logo“ Everyone has their own branding, which means toggling between multiple logos and lockups. With some digging, we found resources to help with all of these use cases: 🖼 Building flexible components with "slots" by Luis Ouriach is a super useful walkthrough for experimenting with the concept of slots in Figma. “Slots” allow you to create a placeholder component inside a more complex “container” component allowing you to build more flexible and context-specific layouts. https://lnkd.in/gp2JEFFU 🙈 An Introduction to Boolean Variables in Figma by UI Collective offers a simple overview of how to apply use the hidden gem of variables options. Boolean variables allow you to show and hide elements not just in prototypes but in component variants. This was useful when we wanted to toggle elements within components for various themes. https://lnkd.in/gWt8QRit 🎭 Modes: Changing a Branded Header by Nate Greenwall was exactly the solution I was looking for when I needed to offer multiple logo options from a centralized library. The playground file maps out how you can pull this off with string variables and modes. https://lnkd.in/gJhcemcm 💎 I hope some of the resources that we've leveraged at Exygy can be helpful for you and your teams working in Figma. → Leverage slots for nesting smaller components within larger container layouts. → Utilize boolean variables to show and hide elements across variants. → Experiment with using string variables to switch elements like logos for different brands. #figma #ui #design #DesignSystems #variables

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🌐 Navigating the Tech Rollercoaster: A Designer’s Reflection 🌐 The tech industry’s rapid shifts have been felt by everyone, but designers—at the heart of innovation—have proven their resilience. 🎢 From layoffs and hiring freezes to adapting to AI-driven tools, it’s been a wild ride. Yet, we’re still here, still creating, still thriving. 👉 How are you navigating these changes? Is AI a threat, or is it enhancing your creativity? Let’s explore what it means to be a designer in this ever-evolving landscape. Find more reflections here: 👇 https://lnkd.in/eamAavEb #TechIndustry #DesignThinking #Resilience #AI #Innovation #CreativeProcess

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Etsy was recently seen A/B testing AND eventually shipping a more visible search with the help of a higher contrast orange background button color (instead of a ghost-like icon only approach). Full screenshots: https://lnkd.in/gVJThW3W Now I don't work for Etsy (as much as I'd love to design some experiments for/with them) so we can't see the actual numbers beyond this feint probabilistic residue from the public domain. However, the amazing Andrey Andreev who runs experiments at Metro recently ran a very similar one and shared a solid result on GoodUI - with a positive impact to sales and searches. N = 896,009 SRM Check = Pass p-val on Increased Sales = 0.0139 (I know some people might like this to be even lower for a primary metric; but there is also reinforcing evidence on increased searches with an even lower p value at "ultra stat-sig" levels using Ron Kohavi's language; p < 0.00000001). I inverted the a/b test and categorized it under the Filled Vs Ghost Button pattern - further weakening the ghosts and strengthening the high contrast filled button styles on multiple metrics. https://lnkd.in/gmD8Exvc Thanks Andrey for a somewhat of an unintended replication, as I know your source of inspiration came from somewhere else on this one. :) Have you tested anything similar or different. If so, what did you discover? I'd be super curious to see more examples where increases to search have either ❌ failed or ✅ succeeded. Please share independent of outcome. ps. We also have a handful of similar "visible search" experiments where companies tested adding or hiding search: https://lnkd.in/gvWqzrK5 - further supporting this direction. [EDIT]: Note the additional confounders / variables in the Metro test - a stronger border, a change in background color of the search box as per Jakob Nielsen comment. They may be similar along the lines of the increased visibility theme - but possible additional variables nevertheless. #experimentation #ecommerce #replication #optimization #ui #ux

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Working on freshmind.ai, I keep catching myself obsessing over product details. Gotta keep reminding myself: the slickest AI tool isn't worth 💩 without solid marketing/distribution. Time to shift focus and get this in front of more eyeballs.

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Working on Freshmind.ai, I keep catching myself obsessing over product details. Gotta keep reminding myself: the slickest AI tool isn't worth 💩 without solid marketing/distribution. Time to shift focus and get this in front of more eyeballs.

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