Caring for people matters. And it’s good for business.

Investing in customer and user experience communicates a genuine concern for people, fostering loyalty—a critical factor for sustained success. That will always be the value of human-centered design.

Design is a verb.

Design often gets confused for the end product or a deliverable, whether that’s a screen, a prototype, or a logo. I believe that the value of design is the process or the act of doing, trying, iterating, collaborating, and all of the effort that goes into the final artifact.

Trust, but verify.

When doing research, empathize and trust what people are telling you, but also try to verify with data. This phrase also holds true with ideas. Trust your gut when you have “a good idea”, but find a way to test it. I believe that experiments should be run to test the validity of hypotheses and data should inform major design decisions.

Aesthetics are valuable.

While I don’t believe aesthetics should interfere with function, I do believe there should be more emphasis placed on the visual appeal of applications, particularly in the B2B space. Spending time on aesthetics communicates quality and improves the usability of a product.

Research is never done.

The world is constantly changing around us. Our understanding of challenges established a year ago may not hold true today. I believe ongoing research is critical to maintaining a pulse on the current human experience, especially in times of such fast technological progress. That research should be done by someone who has been trained to do so - it takes expertise to ensure quality data.

Work smarter, not harder.

This is not exactly a design-specific philosophy, but a general mentality I have. Open source resources are abundant, so unless there’s a really good reason to do so, don’t reinvent the wheel (this includes design systems!). I’m always looking for new tools and plugins to improve my workflows because I believe the value of design is creative problem-solving, not manually changing the font of every text box on a prototype screen.

Product Quality > Speed to Production

I know many will disagree with this statement and I acknowledge the balance between speed and quality of a product is a tightrope to walk. That balance will largely depend on the company’s particular situation, maturity, and goals. But let me clarify; many preach the Lean Startup mentality of “ship early and often” (even if it’s crappy) as a way to gather user feedback quickly. What they forget to mention is that there are methods for learning from customers before a single line of code is written.

In today’s market, most startups are building products for mature markets. In this scenario, it doesn’t matter how quickly you can release a Functional MVP, if you don’t offer something that is materially better than what’s already in the market, good luck with adoption. You must offer a better, higher quality experience.

Part of my role as a Designer is to decrease feature risk and increase experience quality by researching to understand user needs and testing assumptions with prototypes. I can do this in a fraction of the time it takes Engineering to develop a feature, leading to higher quality products and creating a more productive organization.

I hold myself to high standards because I believe that offering a high quality product is a required step in building a sustainable business, even if it takes several iterations to get there.