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Reflecting on writing this newsletter for 1 year
Video: How to design innovation
π Welcome toΒ π paid-only edition πΒ of my weekly newsletter, I'm providing you access to the video presentation and keynote slides for my talk on "How to design innovation". 84% of company leadership believe innovation is a high priority, but 94% of them are dissatisfied with the performance
How to speak about complex topics
Last week, I presented a talk called "How do you design innovation" at the University of Chicago and SAIC, focusing on customer-centric design and exploring Jobs-To-Be-Done. I aimed to cover this complex subject in less than 18 minutes. To prepare, I studied various TED Talks, identifying key factors
A word from my mentee...
Last week's satire "There should be a course for being laid off" went viral on Linkedin. After the article launched on Faangboss, two people texted me "this is really funny." Based on 2 texts, I figured it passes the bar for funny on LinkedIn.
There should be a course for being laid off
"Cat, are our jobs safe? Google is laying people off." There's practically a course for just about anything, except for the most important problem designers face today, laid offs. π Introducing... Layoffs for Designers This is your ultimate guide to navigating the waters of job instability with
The fallout of moving fast and breaking things
π€οΈ Weather Report: 3 exciting personal news βοΈ 1. My post on 5 stories from 2 decades of design was noticed by an AWS manager, and he nominated me into Amazon Design social program (27K) where I will be writing weekly Linkedin posts on .....? I haven't started and don'
Imposter syndrome for writing
Happy Tuesday. Last week's post "5 stories from two decades of design" took me two weeks to write. I wrote that 3 times, each time when I read it, I thought "what is this?" π«£ I had imposter syndrome. I forced myself to post an
5 stories from two decades of design
Celebrating two decades in design this February, I hope my story highlights the qualities that define not just successful designers, but individuals who thrive in an environment of constant change.
From good to great, don't be well-rounded
Surprise! An email on a Friday. Warm welcome to 5 new subscribers in January! Sxd4383, Pooja, Miyu, Lanre, and Emylie. You know what I do on Fridays? I briefly summarize: 1. What were my top 2-3 focus tasks this week? 2. What small wins did I achieve with these tasks?
What do I want to achieve?
Last Wednesday at the office was eerily quiet. Layoffs of 2024 happened with a few teams (Audible, Prime Video, Twitch).
Develop yourself with growth themes in 2024
Before the end of the year, we had drafted our year-end summaries, including wins and growth areas. Last week, we had to turn in written descriptions for "above and beyond" actions, expectations exceeded from role guidelines.
Career strategy and documenting accomplishments
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A somber end to 2023
Reflective trip to Seattle. I was given the gift of clarity and broadened perspectives.
Season of job change
I don't know what's in the air this past week, but my mentees were asking me about internal transfers and changing teams. Changing teams internally requires a smaller, less painful interview process...
How to tell a story
Six arcs to help you craft a better story.
AMA
November AMA: relevant to your interests
Subscriber lead question post for November.
Burnout
Sunday scaries
π» Sunday scaries is a slang describing the anxiety of starting the next workweek. The best time of the week to think about quitting or quiet quitting.
Influence
How to get better at influence
Six pillars of influence and what it means.
Leadership
Design thought leadership
Everybody gets to choose their version of a hard choice.
Life
Reorgs... navigating work life with courage
"you can't change the past, but you might learn something from it."
Writing
Reflecting on writing this newsletter for 6 months
What it's like writing for 6 months...
Frameworks & Mental Model
Time management start with "NO"
Say No more often.
Vision
How to get buy-in on your ideas?
Keep an idea humble, succinct, and outcome oriented.
Leadership
The challenges of leading change
What does it mean to be a leader?
Career Growth
Junior vs Senior Level
"I just want to design"....
Life
Summer β23 musings config, authenticity, and kardashians
How is your Sunday? From my last update in June, I had an intense month of May and decided to take a break from posting weekly. I'm happy I slowed things down. I went to physical therapy and found out I have a frozen shoulder! π₯Ά I have a
Communication
Disagree and commitment
Thank you for your patience while I took a 1-month hiatus from posting weekly. It wasn't planned at all, the last 4 weeks have been an overload and I didn't have the mental/physical capacity to write on my downtime. Highlights: 1. Got Club Suite seats
Burnout
Pitching proposals to leadership
This past week, I had the biggest personal win in the last 2 years at Amazon. I presented a 12-page proposal to 7 directors proposing to shift the organization from Engineering to UX/Product. Given the leadership team are SDMs, it's a long shot at the moon. I
Design
Delivering short-term vapid improvements
Let's define what it means when we say design is not good? 1. When the users of the design say, it's not good. (Obvious? π³) 2. When after you've explained the rationale, the audience doesn't understand. 3. When you turn in incomplete designs,
Promotion
10 tips on getting a promotion
If you attended my session on Developing a Career Strategy on ADP last Saturday, thank you. It was a great turnout. I learned a lot from the questions; they gave me ideas for iterating upon my content. A nice bonus was making new connections, even with people who couldn'
Career Growth
Tune into "Developing a Career Strategy" talk on April 8, 1 pm
I'm doing a 45 min talk on ADPList where I will share my experience developing a career strategy. This session is not about troubleshooting Jobs but an overview of how to frame impact effectively. I'm taking one of the posts I've written a few