"you stop designing AT developers, and start designing WITH them" Tech Takes | How do I actually get my designs used by my dev team? __ #productdevelopment #productdesign #startup #webdev #webdesign #ai #design

Prepping my JavaScript for Designers course! After lots of iterations, I feel like I've finally cracked how to sequence all the JS content so it just clicks right away for designers 😁 We're up to 6 sections and over 50 lessons--can't wait to start filming!

Anyone else naming their Figma layers like this? 👀 Feels like it helps dev/ai <> design collaboration, but could also get confusing on larger teams. Plus, it assumes design team can work with HTML/CSS structures.

If you're a designer who's always been curious about how JavaScript variables work, then tomorrow's Technically Lit newsletter is just for you 😄 Sign up today to make sure it lands in your inbox: technicallylit.com/newsletter

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How do product designers keep up with today’s ever expanding list of responsibilities? On the season two premiere of Technically Lit, I sat down with Sylvia Nguyen Dang, Principal Product Designer at DIG, to explore this question and a whole lot more.

Our latest Tech Take episode gets into one of the most overlooked parts of product design: loading states. As designers, we love to obsess over finished screens, but the in-between moments are where trust is built (or lost).

And… that’s a wrap for season one of the Technically Lit podcast! Thank you so much to all of the incredible guests who joined us on the show. I feel so lucky to have had the chance to speak with each of you.

Most of our Technically Lit conversations have been with people building in scrappy startup environments. That’s why I’m so excited for our latest episode with Adam Wilson who brings a very different perspective straight from Microsoft.

Stop thinking perfect code = a great product. Your team ships clean architecture. You polish the UI until it gleams. You document every edge case. But none of that guarantees you’re building something users actually need.

Tomorrow’s Technically Lit newsletter dives into a question I’ve been obsessed with: what actually makes a great product team and how you can spot them. We’re now on Substack, so if you want the full breakdown (and future issues) grab the link in the comment 👇

Stop confusing process with culture. Your team does standups. You run retros. You’ve got a Notion doc for everything. But a full calendar and all the docs in the world won't magically translate into a stellar culture.

Are product and marketing the ultimate frenemies? Different tools. Different timelines. Same goal: build something people actually want. And when they don’t get along? Everything breaks. 🧵

Wrote about dealing with the paradox of scaling (how adding more people does not linearly translate to more output) for tomorrow's Technically Lit newsletter. Join us to read all about it: technicallylit.beehiiv.com/subscribe

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Learn how to make smarter technical decisions, build better products, and collaborate more effectively with developers, without learning to code.

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If your product touches data (hint: it does), you need to understand CRUD. Not just the acronym - Create, Read, Update, Delete - but the full data lifecycle behind every user interaction. Let’s break it down 🧵

Have reached the point where I'm building mini custom apps for YouTube videos, let's see how long I can keep this up 😆

Most product teams obsess over features, the best ones obsess over team cohesion. Just dropped a pod w/ Jason Chen from Trestle on what makes great product teams actually work 👇

An under-appreciated characteristic of the best product teams? Specificity. Let me explain 🧵

Great products don’t win because they have the most features. They win because users feel like they were built for them. On the latest Technically Lit, I talked to Salesforce dev Dee Knell about what it really takes to build with empathy especially when you’re not a technical founder. 🧵

Wow 🤩 500 YouTube subscribers. Nothing like a little digital confetti to start the day! Thank you for being part of our journey so far. We have so much awesome content planned for Technically Lit, and I’m so excited to share it all with you! Next stop 1,000 💫

The Design Paradox: The more attached you are to your mockups, the harder it can be to ship. Try not to let let pixel perfection cost you progress! Ep 003 - Start ugly: a product design process that drives results - Tech Takes __ #productdevelopment #productdesign #startup #tech #webdesign

BEWARE of the mockup trap 🪤 Ep 003 - Start ugly: a product design process that drives results - Tech Takes __ #productdevelopment #productdesign #startup #tech #webdesign #marketing #design #webdev #AI

Build first, polish later. In the latest Tech Takes ep, I walk through my actual product design process - and why *starting ugly* leads to better products. Also: -Why polished mockups can block real feedback -How messiness actually reveals user pain -Why rough drafts build team trust

"[AI] will be just as important as electricity over time" Ep 001 - Why great developers don't just write code - Josh Knell __ #AI #productdevelopment #coding #productdesign #tech #startups

Looking at the same data doesn’t always mean you’re reading the same story 🤔 Ep 002 - Why every marketer should think like a product team - Mitchell Wright __ #productdevelopment #productdesign #startup #tech #data #marketing #vercel #design #webdev

It's not just about WHAT to build, it's also about WHY. Ep 004 - The Art of Product Alignment - Jason McCarty __ #tech #startup #productdevelopment #productdesign #UI #UX

One of the most underrated (and misunderstood) skills in product development? Alignment. Not just sprint planning. Not just stand-ups. We're talking real, strategic, vision-level alignment. On Ep 4 of Technically Lit, I sat down with product leader Jason McCarty to unpack it:

If you're looking for product-market fit, you need to break out of the office and find your users 🔎 Ep 003 - Smell your users: why distance kills good product thinking - Emiliano Villarreal __ #tech #startup #productdevelopment #productdesign #UI #UX

Plenty of product teams say they care about users, but few actually understand them. If you care about building products that truly serve those who use them, then Episode 3 of Technically Lit with Emiliano Villareal is for you! 👇

Every handoff is an opportunity to build trust with your team 🤝 Tech Takes - Ep 2 - How to become your dev team's favorite designer

If you’ve ever had a design get “lost in translation” on its way to production, this is for you. 🧵 On today’s Tech Takes, we're sharing how we prep our Figma files for seamless hand-offs.