I sense a lot of people are forming a love/hate relationship (or maybe, it's just become a hate relationship) with AI when it comes to creative pursuits. It intrinsically feels wrong to offload something so human to the machines. Being creative is so essential, so rewarding, that to use AI in any way evokes a primal knee-jerk reaction - as if we're trekking far too into the uncanny valley that our lizard brain keeps telling us "This is wrong. Go back." Am I fan of using AI to generate music, books, movies, or art? No. But do I enjoy using AI when I'm being creative? Absolutely, yes. Whenever I use an LLM (a good one, at least), I notice a few things happen: Even before I send my initial prompt, my creative idea is getting more refined. It's like talking to the rubber duck and critically evaluating your own thoughts - but, it's even better because the AI rubber duck actually responds. Putting emotions into words can be very hard. Capturing complex feelings...

So, they were doing "professional photos" at the office... And maybe it was my misinterpreting "professional photos" to mean "photos of you, taken by a professional" rather than the intended "photos of you looking professional..."  Or, maybe it was that I'd forgotten about it and so I'd failed to dress professionally ( still undecided which narrative I prefer... ) Either way, with only a few minutes to spare before my allotted slot I decided to have some fun - so I grabbed a few of my desk ornaments, and off I went. It was only after seeing the awesome final results (big shout out to Ted Warner !) that it had me wondering: Why, oh why, don't we (as adults) get "school photos" done anymore? Sure, I'm looking a bit older these days, but that doesn't mean the kids should get to have all the fun. Why aren't we getting fun photos each year and sharing them with our pals? Why aren't we autographing each other...

Was talking to a friend about their job hunt. My friend made an observation that (with their permission), they're letting me share: It's strange to call it a job "hunt." If you're hunting/fishing - you're usually sitting out there and waiting. And while you're waiting, you don't really have visibility into all the animals or fish passing you by. Job hunting is not like that at all. There's no waiting. You're constantly putting yourself out there, feeling each miss deeply. Imagine if you were fishing, and you could easily see beneath the surface of the water - seeing each fish as it swims past your bait. It gets you wondering: "Do they even care about my bait? Is it good enough? Is it me? What am I doing wrong?" Then imagine, they nibble on your bait - ever so slightly that you feel the tug on your fishing line... but then they dart off, and now you're wondering: "Why? What did I do wrong?" For the most part, it's a l...

I do my best at being handy around the house - and lately, I've been exploring how AI can help. For a few projects now, I've been using a mixture of GPT & Gemini to help me think through how to build things - especially when there are some weird complex things I hadn't anticipated (and there always are...!) One thing I really like is how easy it's become to visualize changes - and better than Photoshop. We've had this pointless ledge in our house... one of those designs from 90s that is just begging to be decorated with fake plastic trees and a green plastic watering can. After doing a quick sketch, I fed the original photo and my sketch to Gemini, and asked it to render it for me. I made some tweaks along the way - at first, it was a stained wood without any trim, then it had the back of the bookcases painted the same color as the walls. But within 5 minutes I had a close enough rendering of what I wanted (though, for the life of me, I couldn't get it to re...

Someone once told me how much they appreciate that I use the correct flow chart shapes. Now, at the risk of disappointing them, I am deciding to break convention. I appreciate the jarring disruption a diamond creates to highlight where a workflow may diverge, but I am done with the aesthetic tradeoffs. I don't want to make a larger diamond. I can't always shorten my text. Sometimes I need more than 3 divergent paths. Enter the hexagon. Easily matches the dimensions of the other shapes. Provides more space for text. Supports 7 paths! Sure - it may get trigger someone to question your knowledeg of conventions, as they spit out their coffee and arrogantly belittle you as they proclaim that hexagons are meant for initializations. That's why I'm sharing this post. It's time to build a movement. It's time to disrupt the status quo. If someone gives you any guff, you just point them here and let them know we're #DoneDecidingWithDiamonds . If hexagons are good enoug...

PSA to all my engineering pals... The worst (best?) thing you can do for an Engineer-turned-Product-Manager is giving them read-access to the databases & logs. Queries and joins and more joins for linking, Dashboards and charts to show what I’m thinking, AI and BI put the insights on springs, These are a few of my favorite things. 🎶

Throwback to almost 15 years ago when I made my funniest coding joke  on StackExchange.  Do people in non-English-speaking countries code in English? I'm from Canada, but live in the States now. It took me a while to get used to writing boolean variables with an "Is" prefix, instead of the "Eh" suffix that Canadians use when programming. For example: MyObj.IsVisible MyObj.VisibleEh

I use GPT & Copilot a lot for brainstorming and a sounding board to refine ideas. One thing that's bothered me is when it comes to generating images (for example ideas for logos) it can suddenly slow me down as I wait for an image to render. And then I make individual refinements and iterate much slower than if I were doing it independently. Today, I tried something different which worked spectacularly well: "Given the description, and aesthetic, generate 10 different possible logos all  within the same image so I can look at them all and compare." Ignoring the fact that it only provided me with 9 (where's #7??? 😅) I was then able to make targeted refinements and iterate faster. "I like number 8 - adjust the colors so the hand is more like the colors in #6 (but keep the lightbulb yellow and turn the element into a leaf)" A reminder that AI can multitask in ways that are typically harder for people.

I came across this article about how middle management is dead. While it reads a bit as an "advertorial" it does make a compelling argument. The future is not about building skills in managing people. Growth is not about how many direct reports you have. Orgs trees are flattening and growing wider. AI (+ plenty of productivity technology, and the many years of learnings from the evolution of Waterfall to Agile to Kanban/Continuous Improvement) has made the direct management (as in the organization, coordination, and progress measurement) less and less a thing needed to be done by people.  People Management is increasingly becoming unnecessary overhead while  Management of Tools, Processes, Strategy, Products - with a clear end goal of a value focused impact is what matters. That being said - Management and Leadership are two very different things. People Leadership still matters and, arguably, it matters more. We need to think more about how we probive guidance, mentoring, t...

1999: The favicon was first introduced in IE5. Early 2000s: Other browsers adopted the favicon and expanded support to PNG file types. 2006: (The) Facebook introduces a red notification counter badge to increase engagement. ~2007: GMail and other apps begin putting notification counts in the page title. 2014: The favicon became standardized in the HTML5 spec. 2025: I formally request major browser makers to create a dedicated button for notifications to appear on the tab chrome for a more consistent, elegant and accessible experience. Clicking the button directs you to a notifications page or can expand as a drop down to show all recent notifications. < link rel = "notification" value = "3" href = "/notifications" /> or < link rel = "notification" value = "3" > < notification text = "You have a new friend request" href = "/freindReqests" /> < notificatio...

I've been building an app with Claude Sonnet - purely vibe coding. The app is strictly a business utility application to help streamline some recurring team coordination activities - fairly straightforward, with some simple UI and some outputs to Excel and PowerPoints. Everything was going swimmingly - like 'AI is coming for us' swimmingly until 1 single line of code, that turned out to be a nightmare. cell.GridSpan = 2; That single line took all the productivity improvements and efficiencies I'd gained through prompt-only vibe coding and threw them out the window. Instead it became a really interesting deep dive into how poorly documented libraries and online forum comments guide AI. I wanted to generate a table with 2 columns with the first row spanning across both columns. This is a common ability users have in Word, Excel, PowerPoint. The user just selects both cells on the desired row and clicks 'Merge'. To achieve this with code, it can be harder than it n...

Early in my engineering career I used to chase novelty - the shiny new idea that piqued by curiosity and let me explore solving new and exciting problems. The issue with this is, of course, you end up with a lot of half-baked/semi-developed projects. Once you've "solved" the core problem you were curious about, everything else suddenly feels like a bore and a chore - and then you never build up the skills required to deliver something. It's an easy thing to slip into when you're new to coding - you've been given a powerful hammer, and everything looks like a very hammerable nail. Somewhere along the way, I stumbled upon some sage words that helped me break the cycle: "There's novelty in nuance." Rather than chase the shiny new thing, stick with the old thing and instead the novelty in the details of the old thing. This strategy helps you stick with a project and helps you see it through to completion. As an aside, one of my long-time favorite bl...

And ... now, programmers turn to GitHub Copilot. You ask it to make a soffritto and instead of regular carrots, it references new things you've never heard of. Purple dragons?!? "What's a purple dragon?" you ask it, as you learn about the hip new carrot all the younger cooks use. You continue vibe-cooking and end up with a Marco Pierre White-level pasta dish , faster than you ever could on your own. Your guests love every bite. "How'd you come up with this??" they ask, in awe. "Purple Dragon carrots, obviously. Don't you know about them?"

I love a good roadmap. They don't get you to the destination but a good roadmap breaks down the milestones along your way, where you plan to stop for food, rest, gas, and they highlight whatever impediments you'll face along your way. Maybe you won't stick to the roadmap in the end but the act of creating one is like running a thought-experiment. You mentally go through the motions of your journey so there's fewer surprises. If you've ever done a roadtrip without a roadmap and decided things in the moment, playing things by ear it's probably felt very freeing and impulsive. But... you probably relied on a lot more on your wallet or your own willingness to do some extra work if/when things have gone wrong. It's a fun experience when you're doing an actual roadtrip but when you're delivering a product? In those cases, you may want to reduce impulsiveness, how much you rely on your wallet to cover unplanned costs, and how much you ask people to do a bit...

As a follow-up to my post about the post-UX-UX is a related question, this one about AI: Is AI shifting us to a post-UX world? My original post-UX-UX post was about considering the user's experience after using a product. As an example, when I use Google Maps to get directions to a business, what is my post-UX experience? Am I left frustrated because Google Maps navigated me to the business without factoring that I'd need to park somewhere?  Is the business I was looking for where I expected it to be? Does the neighborhood  feel safe? Can I easily orient myself around the neighborhood? Are there other places nearby I should be checking out that align to my interests? If Google Maps focuses on improving their user experience, great. If Google Maps focuses on improving my experience after I'm done with the app, even better. Now, with AI - and, in particular, agentic AI - the idea of needing a UX is really being brought into question. Not all buttons need pressing, and not al...

Playing around with NotebookLM, I wanted to try out its ability to generate podcasts based on topics. But ... I needed to give it some materials first. I figured: What better way to test its ability than to give it my own resume, links to my website and blog, and see what it could tell me. What it produced is... well, let's just call it ' candy for the ego' . In parallel, I've been mulling over what the 'future of resumes' would look like. While sending companies a 7 minutes AI-generated podcast about yourself may be a stretch - I definitely think there's something to be considered here...

When generative AI creates an image (aka 'Synthography') - is that a threat to creativity or is it just Clipart and Stock Photos for the modern era? Clipart, Stock Photos, Synthography - there's no shame in any of them. They're all super helpful when you don't have the budget or time to engage with a proper designer/artist. Sometimes the "good enough" is all you need because the focus isn't on the artwork - it's on the speed of information consumption. 20+ years ago, if you needed to represent a concept you'd turn to a vast clipart library.   Because there was no infinite library of clipart available, it often meant looking for generic ways to express your idea. And like any trend, it was cool when the kids started using it, started to get overused, then jumped the shark when your parents or teachers started dropping them into everything. As the internet grew, and data storage became cheaper, we were treated to a much larger library of stock ph...

Sometimes your code runs way longer than you ever predicted, even well beyond what some call obsolete. This gets me to my favorite website in the world - which would be the first website in the world . Still alive and going strong. A few highlights I particularly appreciate: It refers to the World Wide Web as a "project." There's a section dedicated for "how you can help" the WWW expand and grow with ideas like: launching a website, or simply telling your friends! Many of the browsers are in Alpha or Beta, and some just don't exist anymore. It's delightfully devoid of CSS, JavaScript A list of people behind the WWW, and a catalog of websites. Anyway, if you're interested in helping the WWW continue to grow... maybe launch your own website. Be sure to reach out to the webmaster and ask to be included on their catalog of websites.

Got a Facebook memory today. Sharing here because as hard as it is to believe it's been 5 years, it's also hard to believe it's only been 5 years. A lot of people will tell you that work isn't family. Maybe that's often true - but if you're going to spend 10 years people, it's really special when they become close like family. To all my HPA brothers and sisters who were there for the wild ride, I love and miss you all. -- April 24, 2020: Today is my last day at HPA. 9 years, 10 months and 19 days. 75+ people. 70+ hires after only starting with 5. 2 acquisitions. 5 awards! 8 weddings, welcomed 10 babies. Said goodbye to 1 good friend, and then to my brother.\ Traveled all over the country. Traded the AMEX points for a patio set we still own. 3 laptops, 2 desktops, 5 monitors, 4 office chairs, just 2 keyboards. And who knows how many lines of code... Most importantly: Played "We Built This City" 219 times. Way more gray hairs than when it all starte...

I coded with GitHub Copilot for the first time recently. Since moving over to Product Management, I haven't coded much except in small bursts for personal projects. But, at 9:12am I decided to download VSCode and just see how long it would take to get myself up and running. 9:20am, I was up and running and asking IT to do all the things I'd normally spend time doing through IntelliSense, and other shortcuts. 9:25am, I hit a snag - and before turning to Google, I just asked the built in Copilot. It pointed out what I'd overlooked, and let me resolve with a button press. 17 minutes and I'd written a basic app. I started to build out an imagined user story - user types in a texbox, clicks a button, event triggers, etc. As I built and refined the workflow in my head, I used the inline Copilot to rapidly prototype the code. Sometimes it gave me a less efficient solution, other times it referenced objects that hadn't yet been declared... But the capabilities were all ther...

A question I'm thinking a lot about: "What's your post-UX-UX?" After your user is done interacting with your product, how does your product continue to shape their experience? If your product were an alarm clock, how has their experience with your product continued to shape their day? Was it a jarring experience where they hit the snooze button several times, only to begrudingly get up at the last moment, and then drag on through the rest of their day? Or, did it ease them into their day? Do they hate your product, feel a slave to it, and can't wait for the weekend when they don't have to use your product? Or is it refreshingly user-centric, that's it's helping them get on a path where they can achieve things completely unrelated to your product simply because you've mapped your product to a part of their identity that they're proud of? Are they looking for ways to use it more? Are they recommending it to others? If your product is a blog post ...

There are a lot of stupid questions that never get asked. Personally, I've found it's easier to ask the stupid question when the audience knows I'm new to the topic/area. In those instances, I try to ask all my stupid questions because the longer I wait the more I'll fear asking them when I'm no longer as new. I know I'm not alone in this - I've seen many people over the years struggle with some concept because they never established the basics and now it's too late. And, often, it's more obvious than they realize that they clearly haven't grasped the basics. It's probably just as obvious when I'm struggling on a topic too. So... how do ask the stupid question when it's too late to ask the stupid question? I like holding "No Stupid Questions" meetings where people can ask any question (anonymously, if they so choose). Sometimes I, or other experts, would ask the stupid question - not because we didn't know the answer, ...

  Just a reminder, no matter how hard you try, you can't please everyone. Also, some people have an irrational fear of running out of wine. These facts may seem unrelated - but for a very  specific and small population it can reveal repressed angst.

I needed a new desk area. I love my main desk. It's an exercise in maximalism with a 1940s film-noir private-eye motif.  The challenge, as many others are having these days, is that the dedicated home office space is a shared space. I needed a secondary space that I could comfortably work from when I'm at home. Decided to go in the opposite direction with this style - more of a modern minimalist chic. Pretty proud of this build. Turns out measuring twice and cutting once is advice worth heeding.