On making things happen
The difference between product builders who grow and those who stagnate isn't talent or context. It's high agency, the rare combination that turns spectators into main characters of their own story.
As with most of my writing, I pick nuanced and tricky topics based on personal experiences, things I want to understand, or things that also bother me for some reason. Sometimes all three at once, like this month’s topic.
Having worked with dozens of designers throughout my career and mentored many of them, I couldn’t comprehend why, in many situations, someone would simply stop trying. Trying to understand a problem, trying to find an elegant solution to said problem, and even trying to challenge themselves to become better designers by navigating these problems.
I assumed it was a lack of proactiveness, until I started to learn more about this word that’s becoming more and more of a buzzword these days. And no, I’m not talking about craft or taste, although you can read my thoughts on crafting software and nurturing taste intentionally. I’m talking about having high agency and how it shows up in the day-to-day.
I have learned to value this skill more now that I’ve been partnering with early-stage startups, wearing many hats while working with fully remote and lean teams. Add to that working in the space of AI tooling. Things are moving fast, and having high agency is not an option if you want to survive.
High agency ≠ Proactiveness
To help me illustrate what having agency looks like, I want to start by sharing my favorite story on making things happen: An indie game developer.
If your favorite video game ever doesn’t have a PC version and the quality of the latest releases isn’t promising, the average person would just hope after a while, mourn what could have been, and then move on. But not Eric.
Working for 70 hours per week for four years to launch his first game, Eric started his journey by creating a humble clone of his favorite game to practice his skills, while also working as a part-time theater usher to pay the bills. He learned to code in C#, composed the music and sound effects, wrote all the dialogs, and created the pixel art, redoing everything multiple times because his skills got better and he wanted the game to have the best possible quality. He poured his heart and soul into creating the perfect homage to the game he wished had existed.
What no one expected was that it would become Steam’s highest-rated game of all time, not even him. As some of you might have already guessed, the game is Stardew Valley. It has now surpassed 41 million copies sold since its launch in 2016 across platforms, has a board game, a cookbook, and even an orchestra traveling around the world. And it all started because Eric Barone, most commonly known as ConcernedApe, single-handedly developed a farming simulator.
I read about his journey during launch, and it instantly became my favorite story on high agency. He treated it as an experiment, iterated consistently, and achieved goals that others thought would be impossible.
I used to think that high agency was a synonym of proactiveness, but I’ve come to the conclusion that this would oversimplify it. Sure, you can have the intention and act on something, but if someone like Eric had kept things vague or quit easily after facing unknown problems, he would have never achieved this immense success.
Out of many definitions of high agency, my favorite comes from George Mack in his 30-minute High Agency essay:
“High agency can be a confusing idea to understand because it’s not just one idea. It’s a combination of three distinct skills rarely found together:
Clear thinking
Bias to action
Disagreeability”
Take one out, and things fall flat, because you need all three to make things happen. It’s easier to call something impossible than to sharpen your thinking and take action in unconventional ways, which is why low agency is the default in almost any context, and why high agency isn’t easy to find.
This is a rare finding
I’d ask during 1:1s and get blank stares. ‘Why aren’t you following amazing designers?’ Empty silence. ‘That skill you’ve been talking about for months?’ Nothing. The pattern was noticeable: overwhelm, overthinking, vagueness. After watching this repeat across teams, I realized that somewhere along the way, we mistakenly learned that being a “team player” means just nodding along and that professionalism means not rocking the boat.
But the designers who grow fastest are the ones comfortable with constructive friction. They ask the questions everyone’s thinking but won’t say out loud. High agency isn’t about being difficult; it’s about being honest when it matters.
Coming back briefly to George Mack’s essay, he did a fantastic job at explaining the low agency traps, and most importantly, what you can do to combat these common traps. My favorite piece of advice in the entire essay is a simple and yet challenging question: “What would I do if I had 10x the agency?”
Make a pause right now, think about a challenge you’re facing, and ask yourself that question. Let it simmer. I’m sure this question will get your mind running and thinking on wilder ideas than usual, even if you consider yourself a high-agency person... especially if you’re one, because you know there’s always more that you could be doing.
Let’s take the questions at the beginning of this section to make his exercise. What would I do if I had 10x the agency to...
Look for amazing designers to follow?
DM someone whose work you admire and ask for their top 3 follows. Check the designers behind the products you love using. Or start with the Design Community Starter Pack I made a few months ago. Pick one approach and spend 10 minutes on it.
Put in the reps to develop that skill you’ve been talking about for months?
Block one hour this week on your calendar. Ask someone excelling at that skill what the first step looks like. Then open the tool and play around. Momentum beats perfection.
Share your work and thinking process with the world?
Post one thing that feels slightly uncomfortable. A work-in-progress moment. A delightful detail from something you’re building. Or write for yourself like I’ve been doing monthly for almost two years now. Start small.
Challenge ideas during the meeting?
Ask one clarifying question: What’s the main problem and why? What does success look like? What’s the worst-case scenario? Then connect those answers back to the ideas being discussed. That’s it.
None of these are complex. None take more than an hour. But most people will read this list and do nothing. Don’t be most people.
No agency, no growth
Although I didn’t know the term earlier in my career journey, I’m completely convinced I wouldn’t have achieved half of the things I have if I didn’t have high agency. I say this not by trying to step into a pedestal, but with satisfaction of the pages I’ve turned to write each chapter, and conscious that there’s still a lot more to write in the story of my career.
Nearly a year ago, I started a draft of an article by writing the shared traits of junior designers with incredible potential, asking others this random question, and making a summary list that looked like this:
Self-motivated learners
Critical thinkers
Curious and unafraid to ask for help
Adaptable and resilient
Looking back, this is all about having high agency. I didn’t include any technical skills because they can be learned, and if the designer really wants to grow, they’ll get there, no question. This is why whenever someone tells me that “they could never be capable of doing what I do,” I tell them that it’s 100% possible.
I shared in the past how my self-taught journey started, knowing that my skills didn’t yet match the vision I had of what great could look like. It happened with design, just like with music, photography, and illustration. So I just pushed through, despite the discomfort, putting in the reps, and found creative ways to keep improving. Underneath everything, high agency is the fuel that keeps the wheels turning.
To me, one of the best analogies of what high agency looks like in practice is Wes Kao’s idea of turning a yellow spot into the sun.
Turning a yellow spot into the sun means:
Turning a little into a lot. Most people do the opposite: they have near-infinite resources at their fingertips, but come back with mediocre work.
Creating work that surprises and delights. The output is better than what folks described or originally imagined. Shows flashes of brilliance.
If high agency is the input, turning the yellow spot into the sun is the undeniable output. It’ll look different in every context and for every person, but it’s unmistakable because it’s way above average, it’s creative, and displays a high degree of intentionality to move from idea to something real, and in turn, there’s growth.
Parting thoughts
Being agentic means going from spectator to thinker to doer, treating every iteration as a learning opportunity. These are the characters who stand out because they grow, because they act when most people are too comfortable or afraid to try. That’s main character energy.
After years of watching the pattern, I realized the biggest blocker isn’t context or skills. It’s ourselves. I accepted I can’t make that change for others because it needs to come from within. This is why high agency is now the number one trait I’ll be hiring for and leading by example on.
So here’s the move: Take whatever challenge you’re facing and ask yourself, “What would I do if I had 10x the agency?” Let it simmer. Then take the smallest first step.
Take action. Use it as an experiment. Do it for the plot.
Shortcuts
Interview: What’s next for Stardew Valley, the post-launch conversation with Eric Barone that made me connect with his story even more
To learn more about how Stardew Valley came to life, you can check this article and this podcast diving into Eric’s indie developer journey
High Agency In 30 Minutes, a must read by George Mack
On agency, by Henrik and Johanna Karlsson, sharing even more examples of inspiring people with high agency
Turning a yellow spot into the sun, a timeless read by Wes Kao
That’s where curiosity led me this month. Your path will look different, because context always matters.
If this sparked something, let’s continue the conversation on Twitter. And if someone you know is navigating their own creative uncertainty, share this their way.
Keep exploring, Laura ✌️