Category: Figma
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Why applying to 100+ jobs doesn’t work
When I was entering the job market in early 2023, I caught up with my friend Fadeke. She had just started a really good job at DigitalOcean. She shared her process with me, and let me know that she did fewer than 20 job applications. This quantity was a really helpful anchor for when I…
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Teenage years, interfaces, and classic technology
When I was a teenager, I spent hours trying to improve my computer’s interface. I can’t tell you how many times I changed my Windows XP interface to try to look like a Mac. When Windows Longhorn was out in beta, I spent many afternoons trying to get it to work too—even partitioning my hard…
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Four ways to reach out to your network for (job) opportunities
I recently contributed to a discussion on Hacker News about the pains of job hunting. In particular, my comment was on the topic of tapping the people you know on the shoulder, without sounding too desperate or forward. Rather than worrying about how you come off, focus on being intentional instead. You want to know—and…
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Clear structures for creative visions
When a creative vision for a project is too ambiguous, you need a person to drive it forward and clarify it. That person probably needs to be you. To do this, you might find it helpful to channel a creative vision through a clear structure. One example: at Figma, I was involved in a transmedia…
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Everything I shipped in 2024
Self-initiated creative projects: I worked at Figma as a content strategist (I wrapped up my gig there in June), here are three projects: I joined FGX as its director of marketing, here are three projects: I didn’t count all of the blog posts that I published here (including my 1000th!), which I’m absolutely delighted by.…
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Action vs. declaration
The smallest action is worth a thousand bold declarations. A declaration merely tells somebody else what you want; an action shows them what you want and your drive to make it happen. Championship coach Bill Walsh puts it this way in The Score Takes Care of Itself: Someone will declare, “I am the leader!” and…
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On my 366th day at Figma
Today I ran a distribution workshop for the editorial team. To prepare, I also dropped in a dozen thought starters for promoting two posts in a distribution workshop I run. I also promoted a blog post for a feature that our team announced today. I was particularly hands on with this promotion and we tried…
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Starting, developing, and finishing
A little over a year ago, my friend Michael asked me, “Are you a starter, a developer, or a finisher?” He explains the differences, which he learned from Kevin Kelley, in this issue of his newsletter: While I initially saw each of these elements in my work, it’s become much clearer to me that I…
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On franchises
When you make something on the internet, you’re best off making something that stands out. Even if you follow someone else’s template or structure, you want to put your own little twist on it—so that it cuts through the noise, but also so that people know that you made it. You do this by following…