There is a famous quote about design from former Jaguar and Tata motors head, Ralf Speth: “If you think good design is expensive, you should look at the cost of bad design.” Nowhere is this more true than in healthcare. www.hardproblems.com/articles/hid...

The hidden costs of bad design

In fields like public health, education, and climate action, poor design is undermining success.

hardproblems.com

Our team at Hard Problems has pulled together our favorite books that will help you on your path to working on gnarly problems. www.hardproblems.com/articles/boo...

Books for people who want to work on hard problems

A curated reading list for designers moving into public health, climate change, healthcare, and the public sector — with our top picks and category-by-category recommendations.

hardproblems.com

Shaboozey's country album is legit very good. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Where_I...

Where I've Been, Isn't Where I'm Going - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Damn, sorry to hear Kavinsky died. Take care of your hearts, people. www.theguardian.com/music/2026/j...

French music producer Kavinsky, known for Drive soundtrack hit Nightcall, dies aged 50

French authorities investigate death of musician who performed at Paris Olympics, but say ‘no suspicious elements’ at play

theguardian.com

So, I guess you're supposed to stretch now? Tore my Achilles while playing basketball...

A designer complaining that their job is full of “solved problems” is like a doctor saying they only want to treat novel diseases. The job is mostly not finding new cures. It’s helping teams adopt what’s likely to help in their context.

We published a new article on Hard Problems.

Hard Problems@hardproblems.com · 2w ago

Joining a charity’s board is an excellent way to use your design, product, and strategic skills for good. We think that joining a charity’s board is an excellent stepping-stone to working full-time on a hard problem. www.hardproblems.com/articles/joi...

I can't be the only one who finds the countdown clock on 2-Factor Auth apps stressful, right? 😬

Fun little game. Guess the World Cup winner by different categories. I got Life Expectancy and Happiness right and CO2 emissions very very wrong. www.dataguessr.com/world-cup-20...

Dataguessr World Cup 2026 edition

Pick a metric, guess the champions, and see the knockout phase play out.

dataguessr.com

Our job board now has email alerts. Filter jobs by your location and criteria and you'll receive daily email updates. www.hardproblems.com/jobs

Hard Problems

A nonprofit helping designers to work on the hard problems that matter in the world.

hardproblems.com

Self portrait in Toronto.

We just made a huge update to Hard Problems. Please share with anyone who is looking for more meaning in their work.

Hard Problems@hardproblems.com · 4w ago

We just made a massive update to hardproblems.com with a better job board and lots of original writing. Comments and suggestions are very welcome, please.

I added 30 new jobs for designers, copywriters, and PMs who want to work on health, climate, education, and public services to the Hard Problems job board today: www.hardproblems.com/jobs

Hard Problems

A not-for-profit helping designers to work on the hard problems that matter in the world.

hardproblems.com

Each morning, I spend 45 min searching for design and product jobs at orgs that actually make the world a bit better. E.g., today I saw that Genomics England is hiring a senior service designer. I think we already have one of the best job boards for designers: www.hardproblems.com/jobs

Hard Problems

A not-for-profit helping tech people to work on the hard problems that matter in the world.

hardproblems.com

I just ordered a cappuccino in NYC and it was... drum roll... $10.89 plus tip. That, my British friends is an £8 coffee... plus another dollar tip.

See you soon, NYC ✌️

eng leaders, how are you handling the gap between “vibe coded demo” and “production ready feature”? i mean from both the software development and the managing the expectations of senior leadership POVs? do you give estimates for time it would take to make the demo production ready during the demo?

This article on Minimum Viable Ethnography by Erica Hall is such a treasure. She explains how simple revelatory ethnographic research can be. I highly recommend you give her approach a try. Read Erika’s Article: https://medium.com/mule-design/minimum-viable-ethnography-a047e9358df0

Over at the newsletter I wrote about the unholy scourge that is "CEO said a thing!" journalism:

"CEO Said A Thing!" Journalism

"CEO said a thing!" journalism involves parroting the claims of a business leader or executive with absolutely no context, correction, or challenge whatsoever, no matter how elaborate the delusion.

karlbode.com

Anyone have advice where to stay in Hong Kong for a few days in March?

Great team. Great company. Spread the word for this excellent opportunity.

silverorange@silverorange.com · 6mo ago

We're hiring for two remote-first web development positions in Canada. One is focused on #frontend and the other on #python. www.silverorange.com/job

hallo, I am hiring again! - SF Digital Services is looking for a new Engineering Director careers.sf.gov/role/?id=374... This reports directly to me, & I’m looking for a practical & flexible technical expert with excellent communication & coaching skills, who is excited to do both. More below...

Engineering Director - Digital Services (0932)

The Office of the City Administrator and its 25+ divisions and departments operate core internal and public-facing services in San Francisco.   The Office of the City Administrator’s Mission and Visio...

careers.sf.gov

"If we do a great job, whose life do we improve and how?" is the most critical question a UX professional can answer about their work. Far too many UX folks have no idea how to answer this about their current work. They're lost in a world of "improving the product" and not the people they serve.

An excellent content design leadership position at one of the most interesting tech projects in the UK: the not-for-profit genetics project Our Future Health. apply.workable.com/j/A2032FE81B...

Head of Content Design - Our Future Health

Our Future Health will be the UK’s largest ever health research programme, bringing people together to develop new ways to detect, prevent, and treat diseases. Diseases like cancer, dementia, diabetes...

apply.workable.com

if you had "malicious website content compliance" on your 2025 card, please collect your prize (christ, this is infuriating)

Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD@elizabethjacobs.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Apparently RFK Jr. promised Senator Bill Cassidy that he wouldn’t remove the statement “Vaccines do not cause autism” from the CDC website. So what RFK Jr. did instead is spit in his face by leaving the statement there and adding this:

Interesting event coming to London on Nov 27 for people interested in design and entrepreneurship. Organized by CIID. www.eventbrite.com/e/discover-y...

Starting without a plan feels risky, so we gather requirements. We aim for certainty when we understand the least. Great products are an art of discovery, not perfect planning. What matters most is building and learning quickly. www.timcheadle.com/plan-for-lea...

Plan for learning, not certainty

We spend time planning to avoid time adjusting. But great products emerge from trying things, not gathering requirements.

timcheadle.com

Japan House in London has a wonderful exhibit right now featuring pictograms. The 3D renderings of pictograms are especially cool. (ends in a month, so hurry!) www.japanhouselondon.uk/whats-on/pic...

Does the news reflect what we die from?