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Clear the calendar
On any given day, your brain could give you a burst of energy to do something you’ve been putting off; it might feel like a whim. Consider giving this more attention than you’d think. Clear an afternoon off for it if you can, and let the inspiration take you where it wants you to go.
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Five themes in the creative process
In preparation for a podcast, I put together some themes that I’ve seen common to many creative processes. Here are five: If you’re just starting out, learn more about the 4 step creative process. A linear representation of the process usually helps, particularly with production. A reader recently applied it to their data visualization project.…
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Plugging in and powering up
My latest for Figma is up, “How to plug in and power up your designer-developer handoff with Figma and Jira.” In order to make this post, my team and I interviewed several customers over phone and email, and drew five insights on how product development teams can work better together: This is my new standard…
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A technique if you can’t figure out what you want
One of the more challenging questions you may come across is, “What do you want?” In The Alter Ego Effect, Todd Herman shares a powerful prompt: I leaned back in my chair, waiting for Michael, a fairly successful real estate professional, to answer my question: “What do you want?” He looked pained, like he couldn’t…
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Spot the difference
Early in my career, I worked at Lifehacker as a staff writer. I needed to write three short posts every day, and two long ones each week. My editors were giving me comments and suggestions on all of these posts, but I noticed a tension: as I accepted these changes and resolved comments, they would…
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Two product and content marketing prompts
What your customers should do after they buy your product These are particularly useful for new customers, as well as prospects who are really close to buying: How your team uses your own product These are a fun, engaging way to cover two important things your buyers will want to know—what it’s like to work…
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Three lessons from Peter Yang
I recently worked on a post with Peter Yang for the Figma blog. While the post is about 10 rules for making products that customers love, I learned a lot about Peter’s work as a creator while doing research for the post. Peter works a full-time job as a product lead at Roblox, and writes…
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The 90% tax on your creative work
Mahershala Ali says: You really only actually act between action and cut. 10% of the time. The rest of it is prepping for [it]—the wardrobe, the costume elements of it, the building the psychology and getting ready for the piece itself. Actually getting to act is such a miniscule part of the experience that you…
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The 50 best 50 Cent quotes
During the commute to work, I find myself returning to the audiobook of 50 Cent’s Hustle Harder, Hustle Smarter. While he’s best known for his music and TV productions, 50 Cent’s quotes, opinions, and ideas have resonated with me more than I’d expected (like here and here). In this post, I’ve put together a list…
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It’s not real feedback until it hurts
If you want to learn, you need feedback. There’s a reason that Marshall Goldsmith’s method involves interviewing the people around his clients; because he interviews them and takes in their feedback about his client. Without someone like Marshall, it’s a bit more difficult to take in real feedback from people. Cate Hall suggests one way,…