Better by Design Community Digest #1
Ideas that resonated with the community in November & December
Hello! I’m Pat and Better by Design is my newsletter devoted to helping you get a strategic edge in the next era of creative technology. If you’re new here, join our tribe of creative tech generalists as we uncover new insights each week.
The longer I’ve worked as a creative professional, the more I understand a simple truth: I may think I know a lot, but I still know infinitely less than the community.
However, one of my strengths is interpreting and synthesizing community wisdom into practical insights that we can collectively apply to improve our craft.
With that in mind, I recommitted to using social media daily in the last 6 weeks to engage with the broader community and test ideas that might take Better by Design to the next level. To date, I’ve been hesitant to pursue social media consistently because I found it hard to balance the benefits with my sanity. However, many of you discovered my work as a result of seeing it shared on a social platform, so I decided to suck it up and give it another go. I’m now posting daily to X/Twitter and, to a lesser degree, Threads.
The rest of this post recaps the 10 most viewed ideas from the last two months along with extra thoughts and related articles I’ve written along the way.
If you’re also on X or Threads, say hello! Your engagement never goes to waste on my posts; it feeds directly into what I can give back to the community via this newsletter each week. If you’re not on those platforms, no worries! You’ll just get this handy digest every few months instead to give you the best insights without the noise.
Sending you great holiday vibes from California,
Pat 💚
10. If I were restarting my career…
I’m grateful that I started my tech career as an engineer. It helped me get my foot in the door, increased my earnings, and put me in a junior role with plenty of structure which helped me grow while keeping my stress low. Great benefits all the way around. Although I chose to later shift into design, that engineering foundation continues to serve me well to this day.
9. My burnout
I shared my burnout story last month and was surprised by how many people reached out with similar experiences. While I’m bummed for us as a group that this kind of struggle is so common these days, I’m encouraged by the camaraderie I felt as a result of being more open about my experience. If any of you are feeling this way, don’t hesitate to reach out. I’m happy to be a sounding board and support you as a friend.
Related Article 👇
8. Creative technology misfits
I’ve felt like a misfit my entire career. With Better by Design, I hope to create a place where fellow generalist misfits can support one another in our creative pursuits. It’s something I’ve wished for for many years but could never find. Now, thanks to all of you, we’re building our way towards making it a reality!
Related Article 👇
7. Fancy words
Every profession is full of jargon and while it has its place, let’s face it… it can be pretty pretentious. Nothing quite like a good meme for poking fun at one of the most foundational and fancily named design methods.
Related Article 👇
6. The coldness of remote layoffs
I wrote about my three layoffs earlier this fall after the most recent one took place. While I had emotionally prepared myself better following my second layoff back in 2020, remote layoffs still strike me as remarkably cold. It sucks that so many people have had to experience this in recent years.
Related Article 👇
5. Who’s worse off?
I talk with a lot of designers and product managers and have come across an interesting paradox: each discipline thinks it’s doing worse than the other. The many replies I received to the question above sparked some interesting thoughts that I’ll likely turn into an article in the new year.
4. Design system timeframe
I’ve tried to establish a new design system at three cybersecurity companies in the last 6 years. Those companies ranged from 2-10 years old and had 50-1000 employees. On average, it took about 18 months for the new design to come together. Design system and UI overhauls are arduous and expensive endeavors and few outside of UI veterans know how deep the rabbit hole goes.
Related Article 👇
3. Red flags
This question prompted last week’s article about job hunt red flags. The community came through with a lot of good suggestions that I chose to generalize so that they might be more useful across disciplines.
Related Article 👇
2. Figma presentation tips
This thread summarized my Figma presentation tips article from two weeks ago. It seems that the community is divided over using Figma for presentations: while some loved it and appreciated the tips, others trashed it and told me to stick to the basics. To each their own.
Related Article 👇
1. Required reading
The replies to this question served as the base for The Design Growth Library database that I now send to every new Better by Design subscriber. Combined with my personal favorites, the community recommendations came together to create a great jumping-off point for building a well-rounded design skill set, regardless of whether or not your official job title says “designer.”