Imagine this scenario:

You were called up for a meeting to discuss the next feature your team is about to launch. Your Product manager took the floor and said,

The next quarter is around the corner and our goal is all about revenue. So our first feature in the list is, XYZ and our goal is to increase the revenue by xx to yy%

Sounds easy huh?

But it’s not as easy as it sounds. Designing is one thing, but making it sensible to users is another. Making users understand it is hard. Why? Because it is money and users…

I want you to bear with me for a minute, and just open the biggest search engine in the world (oh well, that’s Google) and try to search for the traits of a UX designer.

If you’ve done so and did the job perfectly, then most probably you’ll see the results such as:

User empathy
Being empathic
Empathy

and a lot more Empathy…

And to be honest, it is actually a no-brainer for any designer who has been practicing UX design to identify the most important quality of a designer. Even in design interviews when they ask you, what are…

It was 2019 when I moved out of my home, packed my bags, and took the plane ticket from the Philippines to Singapore to work as a product designer in a decacorn startup.

It was a dream come true.

I can still remember gazing at Singapore from the skies above as we landed at its airport. I remember myself beaming with a smile as I walked past the immigration, knowing that this is real. I’m in! …

I really reject the idea of soft skills. There is nothing soft about them. We have hard skills & we have human skills. We need more human skills in business today. — Simon Sinek

Human-skills weren’t taught extensively in schools and universities. I remember being taught what subject-verb agreement was, which helped me to write in perfect grammar but never the ways of how to communicate perfectly so that my product managers and I would come to an agreement. I was taught the importance of creating an outline first before doing any kind of writing but never how to present…

For the past years, the way we measure Design has evolved. Previously, the measuring stick we use is how visually appealing it was, how great the color schemes were, and how on-the-spot the layout of such designs. But today, we’ve shifted our mindset from the aesthetic point of view, to how much Design has impacted user’s behavior and the number of delighted users we have at hand. But with this given new mindset, the big question is…

How do we measure the impact of our designs?

I know the word “measure” would make us all back-off. But I promise this won’t include any formulas (I hope 🤞)

And…

I’ve been wandering around the Product design realm and been into some great quests where I earned badges and gems along the way. Some of them were earned through winning customer’s love, increasing business revenue, but most are from the pitfalls and failures — and this is where I found the valuable ones.

So in this article, I’ll be sharing with you the 5 principles I’ve learned along the way that I keep with me.

💎 Copy. Steal. Make it better.

These lines might resonate with you if you’ve read Steal like an Artist by Austin Kleon. Even before I read the book, I’ve always copied…

If you change what people pay attention to or you change what’s important, and by changing something important, you can make something bad, good, and something good, bad. — Rory Sutherland

In the year 1774, King Frederick the Great ordered his peasants to grow potatoes as protection from famine. The potatoes were first cultivated in South America and was brought to Europe in the 16th century. King Frederick saw its benefits, and he wants it to be the staple diet of his country because of its health and economic benefits. …

I know you’ve been tired. You’ve went through N design reviews, iterated your work, showed it to your peers, and it is the same feedback. You iterated it again, showed it to your mom, and yet still, even her, she gave the same feedback. Your last hope was your 2 year old brother. You showed your work to him, but he cried because he was too hungry.

“I’m done” you told yourself, while opening that damn Sketch file at 12am and moving the button 8px to the right.

“I’m done” you told yourself, as you lay your tired being on…