We rarely see the constraints, pushback, perspectives, and objectives others are working with. We can hardly know whether the work was even meant for someone like us, or if the audience is an entirely different group of people with different beliefs, ways of seeing things, or needs.

The solution is making design a more transparent process. The problem, well...

Design and art serve two different needs in two distinct ways, yet many inexperienced designers end up creating art where there should be design.

Trying different tools is of course important, and sharing details about the tools we love and how we use them is also valuable too. But when we obsess and salivate over every new thing in the industry we mistakenly fool ourselves.

When should a design team build out a design system? What tools help make a design system effective? How do you scale a design system for a team of 10 to more than 100?

Let's get one thing out of the way: there isn't really a "trick” to solving design challenges, apart from: do what you'd do in every day life.

Debashish Paul is a meticulously detailed product designer whose work over the last three years at Facebook has greatly inspired other designers in the company, including myself.

If you're a designer who wants to collaborate well: learn to include others in your process early and often, share and gain insights into how each side works, and focus on removing friction from your partnerships.

Knowing when to tune-in and probe or when to ignore criticism is valuable. It will save you time, help you avoid headaches and heartaches, and get you to a place where you're growing and producing good work.

Comparing your work or abilities to someone else's can be an unproductive and self-destructive activity. Yet we compare ourselves all the time.

Talk about your side projects whenever you get a chance. When you do, remember to start with the problem, talk about how you approached it, share the challenges you faced, express the outcome of your efforts, and end by defining what you'd do differently.

As a designer, your best work is going to always be invisible. It'll be invisible because the best part of what you do will be everything that takes place behind the scenes, where nobody will ever see it.