March 31st, Q1 Update

Happy Easter! Can you believe March is over already? With the month coming to a close we’re officially 3 months into the year and Q1 is over, time to do a check in on goals, progress, and life.

Writing

I’ve managed to keep up with my desired 1 post a week. While some weeks are harder than others, I feel like it’s getting easier to write. One of the main drivers for me behind the 1 post a week goal was to improve my writing, and get more comfortable sharing what I know.

I also published my first longer “essay” style post. It’s no Josh W. Comeau interactive deep-dive, but I am proud of The Box Model for Design. I think it does a pretty good job touching on the highlights of what the box model is, and why it’s relevant to designers in their work.

Some other notable writing highlights include:

Config

While Config is still a few months out yet I’ve got my ticket, flights, and hotel booked. They also just announced their speaker line-up, and I’m pretty stoked that it’s being hosted by Cassidy Williams.

In addition to all the new features Figma is sure to announce I’m excited to get to hang out with some amazing people, I’m hopeful a good chunk of the DTCG will be there and we can chat and enjoy some drinks.

Accessibility Work

I haven’t been able to make much progress on the Accessibility Playbook these last few months, but that’s because I’ve been spending a significant amount of time working with my teams to understand and address accessibility issues within some of our products.

There’s been some confusion on a couple teams around a few specific success criteria and I think there’s something worth writing about here. I look forward to taking the time to deep dive these topics and hopefully provide some valuable information, not just for my team, but for anyone else struggling with the same issues.

General Life Updates

Gideon turned 2 this month! It’s been such an incredible journey being a parent. I love watching his little mind at work, it’s so rewarding to see all the little lightbulbs turn on as he makes new connections about the world around him.

Flip side of that coin is that we also have a toddler now, and we got to experience our first “chain of sick” in the house. Over the last few weeks Becca got it first, then Gideon, and I thought I was in the clear. Turns out I’d just not get it until this last week. It’s been a bit of a challenge to keep the house functioning when half the team is sidelined, but we’re all on the mend now and hopefully we’re in the clear.

Media Consumption

Books

I’ve started quite a few books this year, but I’ve only managed to finish a few so far. Some highlights:

Change: Started and enjoying so far. Recommended by Nathan Curtis when he did a webinar with Knapsack on design systems.
Inspired: In Progress. This seems to be the “go to” starting point for a lot of recommended reading lists around Product Management. I picked it up because I’m interested in a couple of the other Silicon Valley Product Group books, and figured I might as well start with this one. So far it’s pretty much what I expected, no complaints.
Subtract: Started, put on hold for now. I really wanted to like this book, and I think the concept is solid. It’s just been a bit of a slow read so I put it down for a bit. Hoping to pick it back up in the next few weeks and finish it.
Escaping the Build Trap: Completed. We picked this as a book-club read for our work Product Management book club. I ended up reading the entire thing in 1-2 sittings. I really like what Melissa Perri talks about in this book, and think it’s a solid read. My biggest complaint is that a lot of the actionable advice feels like it’s directed at Senior Management or higher. There’s not a lot that an individual can do if they’re stuck in a system that rewards the wrong behaviors.

Podcasts

I’ve really been enjoying the last few months of ShopTalk and Syntax. Syntax having started a video podcast has been cool too, I’ve chosen to watch a few specific episodes when the content is likely more visual in nature. The addition of CJ to the team and the standalone videos has also been a great new reference resource.

I get a lot of non-web related tech news from the LTT WAN-show every week. It’s become more common than not for it to become a 3-4 hour show, so it’s a become a great casual listen when working on side projects or doing the dishes. It’s easy to split up into multiple smaller listens.

Movies and Videos

Managed to get through a few movies, and series over the last couple months. Having a dedicated date to commit to a movie help a lot when the hustle of the week makes it easy to want to sit in bed and doom-scroll TikTok. Here are some highlights:

Barbie: I genuinely don’t understand why people got so upset over this movie. I thought it was great.
Damsel: Overall I thought this movie was enjoyable, if not mildly predictable. I don’t think it was trying to be overly bold or new, but it was a fun modern romp through a more classical trope.
The Zone of Interest: This one took a couple of days to get through, not because the content is exceptionally graphic or hard to handle, but because it really is a movie that demands your attention to get the most out of it. Very interesting portrayal of a horrific time in human history and definitely worth a watch.
Yu Yu Hakusho: After hearing pretty good things about the live action adaptation of one of my favorite “late night toonami” anime I decided to give this a watch. I enjoyed it, i feel like they were able to retain a lot of the camp and edge-lord charm that makes the anime so good without feeling like a joke.
Hazbin Hotel: I crushed every episode of this show the day it came out. The overall narrative is great, but the real charm is the characters and their own personal stories and relationships. The music is also phenomenal. Season 2 isn’t expected until 2025, but it’ll be a happy day in hell when it arrives.

Video Games

Most if my free time this past month was dumped directly here. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth was released on Feb. 29, and I’ve only been able to spend a couple hours a night playing through this gorgeous part 2. It’s been a real joy to get to see all of the characters again and engage in some of the major set pieces from the original in a new way. I’m sure it’ll be a couple more years before we get the conclusion of this story, but I couldn’t be happier with what we got this time around.

Looking Ahead

Overall I think Q1 has been pretty successful; looking at Q2, I’d love to get to spend some more time working on the Accessibility Playbook and writing about accessibility. The DTCG has officially kicked back off in 2024 and I’m excited for the work we’re doing. Hoping to write some more about Design Tokens and the fantastic people working on them.

I’m also hoping to find some more time to dedicate to the rebuild and redesign of this site. I’ve been really enjoying using Astro for some smaller proofs and quick projects, but haven’t been able to carve out dedicated time to focus on this site.

That’s about it for this quarter. Looking forward to seeing where I’m at in the next one.