What I’m Working On Now
Leading in design and product means staying a student. Here’s where my learning and practice are focused right now.
Building depth in AI-enabled design
I’m going deep on how AI changes the way design teams work, not just which tools exist. Through Claude Academy, I’ve completed:
I’m applying that learning to a practical workflow for designers. They start in Claude’s planning mode with a well-structured initial prompt, which helps the model think more deeply and organize the work. That produces a product requirements doc, which feeds Claude Code to build a stronger first prototype. Claude Code also identifies the design system components and folds them into the requirements.
What used to take about a week of calendar time, with meetings and syncs eating into hands-on hours, now takes about an hour. The result isn’t perfect, but it’s about 90% there, and that’s enough to move quickly. The time designers get back goes to deep thinking, research, and ideation.
Practical service blueprints
Most teams treat a service blueprint as a glorified journey map. Engineers often overcomplicate it into exhaustive diagrams. Meanwhile, product, support, engineering, and QA rarely see where they fit in the service.
My approach treats the blueprint as a collaboration tool, not a deliverable. When everyone builds it together, they see what happens at each step, why it matters, and what powers it behind the scenes. That shared picture explains why some solutions aren’t simple, and it gives the whole company a common starting point for improving the service.
I’m developing this into a conference talk and a hands-on workshop, building on the work of Erika Flowers. In development.
Product-led growth
I’m currently studying User-Centric Product-led Growth in the AI Era with Kate Syuma, through Maven and Product-Led Organization.
The biggest lesson so far is to show value early and often, sized to what the customer is trying to do. Push upgrade messaging so hard that it gets in the way of their task, and you lose them. Deliver the right value at the right moment, then give them a natural opening to do more. That shapes how I think about design and product decisions in every platform I work on.
Value shown at the right size and the right moment, never in the way of the task.
Speaking and teaching
After several years away from public speaking, I’m easing back in. I’ve recently given my talk, The Shift from Design to Product, at York College of Pennsylvania and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, to audiences of students and local professionals.
The talk argues that designers have always had the power to be product partners. Many undercut themselves by owning only the visuals, UI, and prototyping. Designers need to think in metrics, KPIs, and market pressures, and to be seen as partners who drive business outcomes. None of the ideas are new. I’m standing on the shoulders of others, and what’s different is the delivery.