Design Principles (Laura’s Version)
In the past three years, my perspective has shifted, my priorities have sharpened, and my principles have simplified. It was time to update this list.
Three years ago, I wrote my guiding principles on paper for the first time. This exercise allowed me to identify the guidelines for approaching design and my role as a designer. These principles have organically evolved throughout the years based on knowledge, experience, and, most importantly, what matters the most at that moment. It’s highly contextual and circumstantial.
In the last year alone I’ve had a lot of learnings, and the principles I have constantly echoing on my mind are now different, so it’s only suitable I make a revision and update my list of principles. Spoiler alert: It’s now shorter, and it’s on purpose.
1. Embrace non-linear career paths
For a long time, it was expected that you would develop a “traditional” career by staying in your lane based on your previous education, developing the skills related to that function, and climbing up the corporate ladder. Moreover, it was frowned upon to call yourself a generalist, the default profile you start with after studying graphic design, as I did.
However, with the factory reset that tech is going through, it is much more common to find “full stack designers” doing more with less and all types of functions leveraging their skills into new fields through non-linear career paths.
This mindset shift in career growth has allowed me to re-evaluate my near-term and long-term options. More specifically, I’m seeing three non-linear archetypes on the rise:
Designers who can ship, either as a design engineer or prototyping with no-code and low-code. We can all agree that Meng To’s story of building DreamCut in 3 months with Claude and Cursor, is nothing short of amazing.
Cross-functional design leaders, blending design thinking with business savvy to lead other verticals, like how David Hoang led marketing and design at Replit, and Wendy Johansson has led UX and Product at MiSalud Health.
Indie experts, like fractional leaders and advisors, bring their expertise to multiple teams simultaneously. They offer flexibility over their schedule at a fraction of the price for their clients. A prime example is Gabriel Valdivia, a fractional partner for early-stage startups.
Depending on your context and preferences, you can choose your own adventure by exploring any (or even all) of these paths, finding new mountains to climb, and enjoying the journey.
2. Learn to speak the language
If I had a penny for every time someone raised the question, “Should designers code?” or asked for design’s seat at the table, I could probably retire already. These have been controversial topics for as long as I can remember, often used as engagement bait but masked as hot takes.
If you ask me, I’ll start by saying, “It depends.” Like my 300-day streak in Duolingo, it was motivated by the desire to understand just enough French to travel around France without language barriers in the future.
Want to become a solopreneur and build your product? Pick up a low-code or no-code tool to create it.
Are you working in a developer tooling startup? If so, you need to understand the nuances of how the engineering collaboration happens, which is how Joel Califa got hired at GitHub.
Are you stepping into design leadership for the first time and need to negotiate headcount? Learn to prototype with numbers to demonstrate the viability of your request.
In the last year, I have taken courses on data analysis, business, and executive communication. The intended outcome is always the same: Gain confidence by speaking the language. By becoming multi-lingual in those topics, I’ve expanded my perspective on how design can create an impact and, in turn, elevate my career.
Are you afraid to learn because it can be overwhelming? Remember, we all start somewhere because no one is born knowing any of these things.
3. Develop taste first, master craft second
I recently wrote an article with Ridd about craft, "Crafting Software with Purpose," which is one of my favorite recent articles. While writing it, I gained a new understanding of craft (spoiler: it is not just UI Design) and how to use it strategically.
However, I also realized something important: You must have great taste to use your craft best.
Let’s take music as an example. Some people focus so much on mastering their techniques and becoming the fastest guitar player on earth, but they can’t improvise to save themselves. On the other hand, the famous producer Rick Rubin is not a musician, but I’m sure he could be if he wanted to because he already has undeniable great taste.
This begs the question: How much effort are we putting into developing our taste? I like Shreyas' approach of being selective about how we inform this taste.
Personally, I’ve decided to actively develop my taste daily by following people and publications whose taste I deeply respect while also expanding on areas beyond software design to extrapolate concepts between disciplines. Those movie references don’t come out of thin air, you know?
4. Relentless curiosity, with a bias for action
By nature, I’ve always been a curious person. Asking A LOT, playing with things just for learning, and exploring new ideas quite often.
This mentality has been part of my approach to design and learning my whole career, but it wasn’t until recently that I embraced it as a core pillar for design and career development. Having the openness to dive into the “what if.”
Creativity is born out of curiosity. It’s having a safe space for folks to say “What if” and tinker, even when many ideas are whimsical & impractical. It is a place where inspiration & perspiration coalesce. Creativity thrives on open-minded, optimistic energy.
— Ben Cline, Creative Director + Design Manager @ Stripe
However, a caveat is that I’m creating a bias to act on things rather than just daydreaming about the possibilities. Here are a couple of examples:
I’m curious about leveling up my prototyping game, so I’ll pick up new tools and learn through trial and error.
I’ve been curious about Product Sense, so I’ll take a few courses and look for practical scenarios to apply what I've learned.
I was curious about sharing my thoughts more publicly through writing, so I started this publication, which has been running for over a year now!
Emily Campbell is a fantastic example of putting curiosity into action. In a recent Growthmates episode, she shared how Women in AI started by asking herself: Why are so few women’s voices heard in AI despite their contributions? Similarly, The Shape of AI started because she wanted to explore how patterns evolve to interact with computers in GAI.
Start with curiosity and make it actionable. Regardless of the outcome, you’ll grow because you’re approaching new challenges to learn, not to find a definitive solution to problems.
5. Tell a great story
In one way or another, I’ve always been a storyteller. Whether I was telling a joke, playing the guitar, or painting something digitally, my goal was always to create an emotional reaction from the audience. Storytelling is fun, memorable, and makes what you’re doing 10 times better because it’s inherently human.
Lately, I’ve come to embrace it in everything else I do. Everything from an internal presentation, a talk, or even this article that you’re now reading requires storytelling to get the desired outcome. To achieve that, here are some of my favorite storytelling techniques I use regularly:
Start right before you get eaten by the bear, by Wes Kao
Emotional signposting, also by Wes Kao
The SCR framework, in the words of Ryan Rumsey
Create a narrative that speaks to the heart and mind, explained by Petra Wille
Joseph Campbell’s The Hero’s Journey
As a bonus, if you want a quick lesson on storytelling from amazing designers in the industry, take a look at this masterclass by Michael Riddering:
It's always more fun to learn with others than doing it alone, so don't hesitate to reach out on Threads @laurieesc if you want to continue the conversation. If this article has been helpful, share it with a friend!
Over and out,
Laura ✌️