Matt Davey

The deep work versus all the work

2026-07-16T00:00:00Z

With AI tools there's more software shipping more than ever. The thread across my talks with other leaders are consistently being told to scale beyond adding headcount. The model of the trifecta and design being embedded in every piece of work on a single roadmap just isn't scaling for this new world. If we don't adapt we end up being either overwhelmed with work or only overseeing part of the product.

Watch enough work go out without design and you notice what's slipping: quality. Not some abstract version of it, the standard you've held for years, now leaving the building in your name without your hands ever having touched it. Hope and a design system alone cannot hold your design strategy together.

What quality actually is

The easy mistake is to think quality is how something looks or interacts. But looking good, and even working well, are mostly table stakes once you have a mature design system. The system carries a lot of this for you.

Real quality is fluffier than that. Whether the thing solves the actual problem. Whether it still holds together a year from now. Whether it stays accessible, fast, and steady under real use. Whether the experience feels like one thing, rather than a dozen good intentions bolted awkwardly together. And whether there's care in it, the sense that a person who made it gave a damn.

That kind of quality is hard to operationalise, because it's many things at once. Some of them a machine can now do. Some of them still need deep understanding and care.

The human in the loop

A surprising amount of quality now sits within reach of an LLM and a solid design system. Consistency, accessibility, performance, the patterns we already know to be good, this is best practice, and best practice is exactly what a machine is built to repeat. It gets us most of the way there in minutes, where it used to take weeks.

That doesn't remove us. It moves us up the chain. We become the human in the loop, making sure what comes out the other side clears the bar. Using an AI system like this is a skill in itself, there's a marked difference in one-shotting versus a honed outcome.

The AI in the loop

The flip side is more interesting. Once the machine is handling the repeatable making, our scarce attention is freed to move upstream, to the part an LLM can't do well. The empathy. The lived experience. The instinct for what a person feels when they land on a screen.

Part of this is the deep discovery: the messy, human work that happens before anything gets built. Finding the real problem and understanding who it affects. Bringing taste, a point of view, and the discipline to know what not to build. Sensing what people will tolerate and where the real pain points are. It's where the moments of magic come from, the reason someone remembers your product over anyone else's. Hard to measure, harder to describe, and usually the first thing to disappear when everyone's at capacity.

And the care isn't meant to be spread evenly. Every product has a handful of moments that carry it, the point where someone decides to trust you, the point where the thing finally pays off. Pour iteration into those and the return is wildly out of proportion to their size. Try to apply the same effort to every screen and it spreads thin. A small, eloquent interaction in the right place outweighs reasonable polish everywhere else.

It needs more of our focused attention now to make software feel human-made.

Not everything needs this

If we try to bring that level of attention and care to everything, and it spreads us too thin to achieve it.

The teams that get this right are deliberate about it. They separate the moments worth real intention from the parts they're happy to let best-practice generation handle, and they can control which is which, and why.

A settings screen. Another wizard flow. That work needs to be done well and done quickly, and an LLM thrives there. It rarely needs the deep dive. Spending your scarcest attention on it is how the work that actually deserves that attention ends up going out with nobody's hands on it.

The judgement is the job

So the skill now is knowing when to be the human in the loop, and when to be the loop yourself. Being the human in the loop on the routine work is exactly what buys back the time to bring empathy, taste, and judgement to the work that needs all three.

This isn't the lesser job or a loss. It's having greater control over greater scale.

Unrequired Reading, 003

2026-06-27T00:00:00Z

Tools over problems

I've been thinking this week about how addictive it is with these new tools to be able to build things without so much of the friction. The danger of that is falling in love with the effort and interactions over solving the problem.

This is partly because of Karl Koch's piece on falling in love with the build, which is about the dangerous little pleasure of making something nice and then trying to find a reason for it afterwards. It is aimed at design engineers, but it applies neatly to almost anything creative. Just look at this website, it's exactly that level of over-engineered.

Reading

I read the comedic Sir Ernest Shackleton's Journal Entriesfrom the Week He Stayed Home with His Sick Kids, which is exactly as stupid and well-aimed as the title suggests. It takes the language of heroic polar endurance and points it at the much greater trial of being trapped indoors with ill children.

Hands bandaged, arse bedeviled, writing difficult... I write this from the safety of the garden shed. The children are crazed, rebounding with the pent-up energy of a week indoors. The six cups of tea might not have helped. Their capacity for destruction is amazing... Persevere, Shacky, persevere. Tomorrow is a school day, and all shall be saved.

I am also reading If We Cannot Go at the Speed of Light, which is in a very pleasing lane for me, thoughtful and not trying to punish you for turning the page. Each story is as different as it could be.

And I have started My Man Jeeves, because sometimes the correct answer is simply P. G. Wodehouse. He has a wonderful way with words a kind of sentence-level buoyancy. The plots are ridiculous and I instantly read Bertie Wooster in Hugh Lawrie's voice.

Listening

I have been listening to the soundtrack from Masters of the Universe, take a watch of this track on YouTube. It is a wonderful campy, glam rock with Brian May nailing the wailing guitar.

I am not sure what the film itself is going to be like (I missed it in the cinema), but I am hoping for a Flash Gordon-esque campy adventure: big colours, questionable decisions, guitar heroics, someone in a cape taking the whole thing extremely seriously.

Watching

I finished The Boys latest and last series. Absolute gore and filth. But it landed in a way I found surprisingly satisfying. A neat, tied-up, suitable ending. Everyone gets their horrible little consequences.

The Smithsonian Letter

A letter from the Smithsonian to a man donating 'artefacts' from his garden, if you'd rather have this read by Keegan-Michael Key it was on LettersLive. This was later found to be that of urban legend and untrue but it's still incredible.

Smithsonian Institute, 207 Pennsylvania Avenue Washington, DC 20078

Dear Mr. Williams,

Thank you for your latest submission to the Institute, labelled '93211-D, layer seven, next to the clothesline post... Hominid skull.' Funny true story - Smithsonian Exhibit

We have given this specimen a careful and detailed examination, and regret to inform you that we disagree with your theory that it represents conclusive proof of the presence of Early Man in Charleston County two million years ago. Rather, it appears that what you have found is the head of a Barbie doll, of the variety that one of our staff, who has small children, believes to be 'Malibu Barbie.'

It is evident that you have given a great deal of thought to the analysis of this specimen, and you may be quite certain that those of us who are familiar with your prior work in the field were loathe to come to contradict your findings. However, we do feel that there are a number of physical attributes of the specimen which might have tipped you off to its modern origin:

1. The material is moulded plastic. Ancient hominid remains are typically fossilised bone.

2. The cranial capacity of the specimen is approximately 9 cubic centimetres, well below the threshold of even the earliest identified proto-hominids.

3. The dentition pattern evident on the skull is more consistent with the common domesticated dog than it is with the ravenous man-eating Pliocene clams you speculate roamed the wetlands during that time.

This latter finding is certainly one of the most intriguing hypotheses you have submitted in your history with this institution, but the evidence seems to weigh rather heavily against it. Without going into too much detail, let us say that:

1. The specimen looks like the head of a Barbie doll that a dog has chewed on.

2. Clams don't have teeth.

It is with feelings tinged with melancholy that we must deny your request to have the specimen carbon-dated. This is partially due to the heavy load our lab must bear in its normal operation, and partly due to carbon-datings notorious inaccuracy in fossils of recent geologic record.

To the best of our knowledge, no Barbie dolls were produced prior to 1956 AD, and carbon-dating is likely to produce wildly inaccurate results.

Sadly, we must also deny your request that we approach the National Science Foundation Phylogeny Department with the concept of assigning your specimen the scientific name Australopithecus spiff-arino. Speaking personally, I, for one, fought tenaciously for the acceptance of your proposed taxonomy, but was ultimately voted down because the species name you selected was hyphenated, and didn't really sound like it might be Latin.

However, we gladly accept your generous donation of this fascinating specimen to the museum. While it is undoubtedly not a Hominid fossil, it is, nonetheless, yet another riveting example of the great body of work you seem to accumulate here so effortlessly. You should know that our Director has reserved a special shelf in his own office for the display of the specimens you have previously submitted to the Institution, and the entire staff speculates daily on what you will happen upon next in your digs at the site you have discovered in your Newport back yard.

We eagerly anticipate your trip to our nation's capital that you proposed in your last letter, and several of us are pressing the Director to pay for it. We are particularly interested in hearing you expand on your theories surrounding the trans-positating fillifitation of ferrous ions in a structural matrix that makes the excellent juvenile Tyrannosaurus Rex femur you recently discovered take on the deceptive appearance of a rusty 9-mm Sears Craftsman automotive crescent wrench.

Yours in Science,
Harvey Rowe Chief Curator-Antiquities

Yours artefactually,

Matt

Unrequired Reading, 002

2026-05-10T00:00:00Z

I tried a new hobby this week, making chocolate bonbons. Painted the moulds with cocoa butter I bought a few colours, shelled them with tempered chocolate, filled them with curd and sealed the whole thing with another layer. It was fiddly and messy, I did Apple and blackcurrant for the first batch, then a lemon that came out wincingly sharp against sweet Belgian chocolate. I made quite a few mistakes but it was nice to do something with my hands. Some of them even turned out nicely.

Watching

Invincible Series Four was really good, if you can get past the gore it’s moral quandaries that superhero fiction rarely touches. Questions about violence, legacy and whether you can break a cycle you were born into are not things you expect from an animated show.

Reading

Detour Currently about 20% into this and enjoying it. A police officer saves a billionaire from an assassination attempt and ends up on the first manned mission to Saturn’s moon Titan.

Lenny Rachitsky’s demandingly chill life
Lovely and insightful interview, the contradiction at its centre is someone obsessively committed to quality while genuinely wanting a calm life, and the piece makes a convincing case that one enables the other. It feels good to have people like this in the industry who are about balance over hustle and are still successful.

Writing

Capture for Obsidian
Really enjoying this as a quick way to add tasks and updates to Obsidian. Hit a keyboard shortcut, type, and it lands in your vault without ever having to open the app or navigate to a file.

A letter from a father to his wayward son

This letter from the book Dear Lupin makes me laugh every time. Dear Lupin is a collection of letters from Sunday Times racing journalist Roger Mortimer to his son Charlie, spanning about 25 years from the late sixties. Charlie was, by his own admission, feckless. He bounced between careers, continents and scrapes, and his father responded to every disaster with dry wit, exasperation and deep affection in equal measure. While the whole book is a bit too much of the same note across its length, individual letters like this one are such a wonderful insight into parental conversations.

Chateau Gloomberg
Sunday
Dear Lupin,

I trust your stomach is more or less under control and that you’re deriving a modicum of benefit from those expensive pills.

It is cold and damp here and both boilers have been behaving in a typically erratic manner. I did some baby-watching for the Bers last night — the baby is 11 years old — and your mother departed for a vino at Inkpen. I think gin was in fairly abundant supply there, and it had the customary effect of making your mother behave like Queen Boudicca on her return home.

There are now three deaf people in the house: Moppet, Pongo and myself. It is sometimes fortunate that I’m unable to catch everything said to me. Your mother is still convinced that a poltergeist whipped away a sausage she was cooking, and I expect she will call in the Reverend Jardine for consultation.

A lot of policemen descended on Mr Luck’s house yesterday, but I’ve been unable to ascertain why. I thought I had the cottage sold yesterday, but your mother interfered at the last moment and now I’m somewhat doubtful.
Your Aunt Barbara is going to Jerusalem for Christmas. That ought to precipitate a new war in the Middle East. Aunt Joan is going into hospital tomorrow. I imagine David Willet is having an exciting time in Persia. My godson Richard Rome, married to a Persian, is there too.

Newbury is full of people from the council estates in Thatcham doing their Christmas shopping. It would hardly be true to say that they add charm to the town. The tall woman with bandaged legs in the chemist’s in the Mall is going into semi-retirement — a sad loss, as she is easily the most reliable medical advisor in this area, particularly sound on skin blemishes and diarrhoea.
A man was killed on the road at Beacon Hill on Friday. Road conditions were disagreeable at the time.

Mrs Cameron stayed on Thursday night. She and your mother talked incessantly. Neither listened to a word the other said, which was sensible, as neither was saying anything worth listening to.
I had a long letter from your Great-Aunt Phyllis but could not read a word of it beyond my own name and her signature.

Your affectionate father,
R.M.

P.S. A long article on Dr Phillips in the Newbury News. A man from Ginge has bought Brigadier L’s house. The bearded man in the Newbury bookshop claims to have flogged 150 copies of my book, which would be good news if I happened to believe it — which I don’t. The rather lanky young woman who worked in Jackson’s in the afternoon has disappeared. I’ve kept a first copy of The Times for you; it might one day be valuable. Colonel Mad has been banished from Lambourn — some say to jail, others to the looney bin. Nick Ghastley won a nice race last week; there was a large photograph of him in the Sporting Life. Mr and Mrs Seel are off to India for two months. Mrs Randall is giving her relatives potatoes for Christmas.

I have given up smoking.

Yours refreshedly,
Matt

Lavenham, Suffolk

2026-05-02T00:00:00Z

Unrequired Reading

2026-04-23T00:00:00Z

I am notoriously bad at building habits. Cycling lasted six months despite two bikes. So the two zeros in this numbering system are entirely optimistic. Welcome to the first Unrequired Reading where I share my enthusiasms and how I become engrossed.

Reading more

Two changes since my phone started running my life. First: no phones at the bedside. Waking at 3am was leading to surprise purchases and Instagram binges. But to kill the habit I needed to replace it, so I bought a tiny epaper phone with RSS, Bluesky, Google Books, nothing else.

I purchased the BOOX Palma 2, its nickname is Pamela. So far it's been really successful, a few books I've enjoyed:

Saturn Run A hard sci-fi sprint to Saturn where the geopolitical tension and engineering problem-solving keep you gripped even if the characters themselves stay a bit thin.
After The Fall Surprisingly fun and breezy romp through a post-apocalyptic world where humans are kept as pets, and despite being a bit bloody, the whole thing barrels along with enough wit and charm. It's only 250 pages too.

Eagerly awaiting two new albums

I don't know much about Noah Kahan but The Great Divide if it's anything like the title song is going to be incredible. Expected 24th April.
Out on May 1st is Kacey Musgraves and Middle of Nowhere, a little bit country mixed with pop but I'm here for the sass.

Note taking to a professional level

I love Obsidian but there is not yet an integrated way to interact through AI with your notes. There's a new release called Tolaria that is exciting. It uses git to manage versions and let's you choose your own sync. Not quite for me but some really nice features.

A letter of note

I'm just returning from Letters Live an event yearly in London where celebrities read letters from history, I'll share one that felt meaningful. In 1888 the painter Vincent Van Gogh wrote to his brother about death and trains.

Arles, June 1888

My dear Theo,

It certainly is a strange phenomenon that all artists, poets, musicians, painters are unfortunate in material things - the happy ones as well. That brings up again the eternal question: Is the whole of life visible to us, or isn't it rather that this side of death we see only one hemisphere?

Painters - to take them alone - dead and buried speak to the next generation or to several succeeding generations through their work.

Is that all, or is there more to come? Perhaps death is not the hardest thing in a painter's life.

For my own part, I declare I know nothing whatever about it, but looking at the stars always makes me dream, as simply as I dream over the black dots representing towns and villages on a map. Why, I ask myself, shouldn't the shining dots of the sky be as accessible as the black dots on the map of France? Just as we take the train to get to Tarascon or Rouen, we take death to reach a star. One thing undoubtedly true in this reasoning is that we cannot get to a star while we are alive, any more than we can take the train when we are dead.

So to me it seems impossible that cholera, gravel, tuberculosis and cancer are the celestial means of locomotion, just as steamboats, buses, and railways are the terrestrial means. To die quietly of old age would be to go there on foot.

Now I am going to bed because it is late, and I wish you good night and good luck.

With a handshake,  
Ever yours, Vincent

Yours fledglingly,
Matt

Stamford

2026-04-19T00:00:00Z

Introducing Git Blog

2026-03-25T00:00:00Z

Git Blog is on the App Store now.

If you run a static site from a GitHub repo, you know how it goes. Write markdown, commit, run local branch, push, let the generator build. It works well, but it's tied to a laptop.
I wanted a way to publish from my phone that committed directly to my repo. The existing markdown, folder structure, and Git workflow untethered from the desk.

So I built ...Git Blog.

An iOS app that commits markdown posts, images, and frontmatter directly to your GitHub repo, structured exactly how your static-site generator expects. From there, set your repo, default branch, and post and image directories, and start writing.

Posts start from a frontmatter template with fields you define to match your site's YAML. Model them from an existing post and new drafts inherit the same structure: title, date, tags, whatever your generator needs. Fields can be dropdowns. Mark one for an image and it ties into your photo picker.

The body is all markdown. Photos from your library get downsampled and compressed for the web, then inserted with paths that match your layout. Queue several posts and publish when you're ready.

Built for blogging, not just Git

There are plenty of git apps with complete control and versioning. With enough patience you could wire something together for any repo. Git Blog simply does one thing: blogging. Long-form text, static-site frontmatter, and a publish step that matches how you actually deploy. You can push to main, open a branch, push to an existing branch or open a pull request when you want a preview.

Why I built it

I like to take photos and upload them here to look at in the future and share with others. I kept not publishing because I wasn't at my desk with a local server running. Git Blog fixed that, and I've posted more since building it than I had in years. If your site runs on markdown and GitHub, you're probably losing posts to the same problem. Give it a go and let me know what works and what doesn't.

Git Blog is on the App Store now.

You'll need a personal access token on GitHub, which is a bit tricky.

Head to Github and create one github.com/settings/personal-access-tokens

Kew Gardens

2026-03-17T00:00:00Z

San Francisco

2026-02-26T00:00:00Z

Measuring maturity in AI

2026-01-25T00:00:00Z

This was an open letter to my team about improving our AI maturity in a structured way. Thanks to Ben, Ryan, Danielle, Sierre, Laurel and Dave for your input and council on this.

Team,

I’m writing this as a note to our future selves, and as an invitation to be deliberate about how we get there.

For a long time, I’ve described design as a spectrum: art on one end (craft, emotion, interaction nuance) and science on the other (systems, flows, behavioural mechanics, frameworks). That spectrum still holds, but the centre is collapsing. Not because design is narrowing, but because it’s expanding downwards in the two extremes at once.

On the craft end, in the industry designers are gaining real technical ownership of the front-end experience: prototyping with live components and real data, contributing interactions and polish closer to production, and using AI tools to reduce UX debt instead of creating more output. The final 5% where quality lives stops being a backlog item and becomes something we can shape directly.

On the systems end, the work stretches further into strategy: mapping coherent narratives across features, making sense of complex journeys and hierarchies, aligning UX outcomes to business goals, and applying behavioural thinking to build systems that guide users consistently. If one part of the team goes deeper into execution, another must zoom out to ensure the whole experience hangs together.

AI, and especially agentic development, has accelerated this shift. We’re no longer limited to describing an experience and hoping it survives translation. We can prototype behaviour that’s close to reality, test it credibly, and make the work concrete early. But the future isn’t evenly distributed. Some teams are using AI to compound capability through real workflows, real components, better decisions, and better outcomes. Others are using it as a way to produce more without improving the system of work underneath. The gap is widening fast, and “we’re using AI” is becoming as meaningful as saying “we use the internet.”

That’s why we need a maturity model. Not as a new career ladder, not as new expectations, but as a shared language for us all. A way to look at reality and navigate the change together.

Because the opportunity in front of us isn’t strategy versus execution. It’s strategy and execution, held together as a team.
Strategy without execution becomes commentary. Execution without strategy becomes noise. We need the connective tissue, principles, narratives, systems and we need the ability to make things real enough that quality is palpable, felt, measured, and shippable. Not by turning every designer into an engineer, but by investing in tooling, enablement, and expectations so high-fidelity, system-aligned work becomes normal rather than exceptional.

This maturity model is how we start that shift on purpose.

Grab the model on Figma Community

The model moves from Limited, where AI is mostly personal and low-risk, to Reactive, where teams dabble with vibe-coded prototypes that look promising but don’t hold up. In Developing, usage becomes intentional and repeatable, with shared patterns and prototypes that improve alignment and decisions. Embedded brings system-aware, production-shaped work, tighter cross-functional collaboration, and more attention to trust, uncertainty, and boundaries. Leading is where capability compounds: clear tool choices, strong technical fluency, shared rules and feedback loops, and AI experience quality treated as part of everyday product craft.

That’s the future I want us building toward, and the path I want us to walk together.
This is the first of a few open letters where we’ll talk about evolving our process and the education and enablement tracks we’ll run to get there.

Generatively,
Matt

Cursed Child

2026-01-23T00:00:00Z

Incredible staging and a better than I remember watching it over ten years ago.

2025, a year reviewed

2025-12-31T00:00:00Z

2025 was a difficult year for me. There was loss, change, and a sense of things not quite settling. There were good moments too. A meaningful trip to Norway with my parents. Creative work that kept me engaged. New tools at work that shifted how I think about making. But overall it was a year that asked more than it gave.

Looking back, a lot of it comes down to doing things with my hands and showing up when I could. Making art. Travelling. Saying yes to radio, gigs, and trips even when it would have been easier not to.

January

At the end of 2024 we welcomed a new cat, Captain, also known by many other names. He arrived as a tiny, chaotic kitten and by mid-January had already grown into something recognisably cat-sized. Still full of energy, just larger and more capable of disruption.

January was dominated by my Axidraw pen plotter. I spent a lot of time making typographic and generative work. Some pieces sold, others became cards and gifts. There was comfort in producing physical objects and sending them out into the world.

A surprise visit from a friend travelling from abroad was the highlight of the month. I took them to my favourite shoemakers and then to a locally legendary restaurant. It was a reminder of how much I enjoy sharing familiar places.

February

February took me to Toronto in genuinely horrible weather, including the first time I had ever heard of snow lightning. After a week of meetings I nearly did not make it home, with the plane going through the de-icing process three times before finally leaving.

Cold weather pushed me briefly into a skincare phase. Cleanser, eye gel, serum, moisturiser, SPF. I am not convinced any of it made a difference and once it ran out I quietly abandoned the obsession.

Toronto still delivered comfort. I went back to Saffron for Sri Lankan kothu roti, the spiciest food I will eat and absolutely worth it. I also managed to get a last minute ticket to see Kumail Nanjiani before flying home later that evening, which felt like a small, welcome ending to a long week.

March

March began with Andy Zaltzman, sharp and relentlessly funny, the kind of show that leaves you feeling slightly smarter. It was a good way to start the month.

We took a trip to the seaside with friends just as the weather shifted into something more forgiving. It was one of those trips where we mostly walked, talked and watched the boats.

My pen plotter work changed again, this time drawing over antique encyclopedia prints. I liked the contrast and the feeling of adding something new without erasing what was already there.

I also started making semi regular appearances on Saturday Brunch on Future Radio with Tom Lorenzo. Writing segments and jingles reminded me how much I enjoy audio and the particular intimacy of radio.

Later in the month we saw Peter Kay at the O2. It remains my least favourite venue, but the show was good. The real bonus was the hotel next door, which meant a short walk back and a surprisingly good view.

April

April was calmer. A lot of Helldivers 2. A lot of pastries from Dozen bakery, now closed and missed. Another seaside trip followed, this time for mini golf and fish and chips. I was aiming to get a Martin Parr-esk photo of Terrys and Nickys.

My generative work continued and I made a piece using metallic gel inks that really stuck with me. It was satisfying in a quiet, personal way.

May

May brought more movement. A visit to my old college town of Framlingham, followed by London for Figma’s Config conference. I met up with an old friend and wore a loud Hawaiian shirt, which felt appropriate.

We also visited a beautiful old house and gardens on an open day. I keep noticing how much I enjoy places that invite you to slow down and pay attention.

June

June meant another Toronto trip, this time over my birthday. Later in the month we visited more open gardens, which turned out to be a nice counterbalance to travel and work.

The standout moment was seeing Derren Brown perform another astonishingly precise show, layered and controlled in ways that feel almost unfair.

July

July was defined by a cruise along the Norway fjords with my parents. It was calm and genuinely special. The fjords were breathtaking, and moving through them slowly by ship added a sense of scale and stillness that stayed with me.

Around this time I started journalling with an AI illustration generator. I could take the worst photo and turn it into something nice. It might look like slop to others, but it helped me keep a record when writing felt harder.

August

August felt full but slightly unsettled. A London work trip put me in the worst room inside a beautiful hotel.

Back home, food became a small bright spot. I discovered two genuinely great things in Norwich: the Dishoom-esque naanwich and the roast dinner at Green Pastures, both memorable for how unexpectedly good they were.

Music and radio threaded through the month too. I saw Chris Moyles live in Norfolk, something I had wanted to do for years, and watched Blossoms support Stereophonics, which felt like a proper summer night out.

By the end of the month, a few things quietly ended. My Tuesday morning Future Radio appearances with Tom Lorenzo wrapped up, and Dozen bakery closed. Neither were dramatic moments, but both left a noticeable gap.

September

In September I visited a local nature reserve with a new lens and captured this photo of a blue tit. Not rare, but deeply satisfying. Alongside a deer photo from a few years ago, it remains one of my favourites.

The larger trip was to Vancouver for a full team meetup. Spending time together in person mattered more than I expected.

Towards the end of the month we saw Hamilton when the touring company came to town. We had excellent seats and the energy was infectious.

October

October meant another Toronto trip. At this point I could probably justify moving back. This visit managed to deliver three seasons in one week, from warm days to snow.

The highlight was getting almost front row seats to James Acaster for a preview work in progress show back home. I will not give spoilers, but it is exceptional.

October also brought the loss of a young family member. It was devastating and not something you ever really process. The weeks that followed were filled with funerals and family, and it quietly reframed everything that came before it.

November

November pushed me slightly outside my comfort zone with two standing gigs in cramped student union venues. Wet Leg and The Last Dinner Party were both excellent and entirely worth the aching legs.

December

December brought a new hobby with the purchase of a 3D printer. Since then I have been printing brackets, hinges, and cases for anything that looks like it might benefit from one.

We put the Christmas tree up and it immediately became the cat’s favourite toy. He knocked it over twice and climbed it at least once.

In ratings

Helldivers 2 5/5
From The Pyre by The Last Dinner Party 5/5
The Ballad of Wallis Island 5/5
Dozen’s cinnamon roll 5/5
Cafe 33's Naanwich 5/5
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros 4/5
Claude Code and Cursor 4/5

Norway Fjords

2025-07-30T00:00:00Z

Beyond the prompt

2025-05-25T00:00:00Z

For tools built on systems with vast capabilities, the interaction model of AI is remarkably narrow. It expects users to already know what’s possible, how to ask for it, and how to guide a model through ambiguity. This is a high cognitive load for beginners and an inefficient loop for experienced users. Worse, it discourages exploration.

If AI is magic, it's assumed you're a magician.

Start with structure

To learn the language and how to frame prompts, you need good examples. Offer a selection of relevant starting points or visual templates based on context. Visual tiles, autocomplete patterns, and task-based categories all help users understand the boundaries and capabilities of the tool. Structure accelerates creative input and improves outcomes.

Reduce the friction required to get started without limiting flexibility.

Keep the context

It's starting to become more integrated but AI tools are often siloed from where the real work happens. Text generation lives in a detached chat. Code suggestions live in sidebars. Image tools are often standalone applications requiring upload and download steps.

AI is more helpful embedded directly into the user’s workflow. A writing assistant inside the document. A design assistant operating within the layout tool, informed by the active selection. A code refiner working in-line or adjacent to the snippet being modified.

Embedding also enables contextual awareness. When the system can “see” the user’s current task, recent changes, or relevant data, its suggestions can be more specific, targeted, and useful.

Give feedback

Many AI tools offer little to no visibility into what the system is doing. A spinner might indicate that the model is “thinking,” but it provides no insight into what information it’s processing, what context it’s drawing from, or how confident it is in its output.

Designing with transparency in mind improves trust and usability. Visual cues such as highlighting the text being referenced, showing model memory, or labelling outputs with confidence levels—give users clearer feedback and reduce reliance on guesswork.

These small affordances help users build a mental model of the system’s behaviour, making it easier to predict and guide its output.

Our interfaces are losing their rich interactions and playfulness that inspired exploration. AI doesn't mean we shouldn't have the user receive feedback around the actions they take, we don't have to do this all through text, colour, motion, sound, cues, transitions, inline hints.

Adapt to users

Progressive disclosure has always been a dream of complex tools, gradually adapting over time not just in capability, but in how they interact with individual users. Most tools today treat every session as a fresh start, even though user preferences, tone, and working patterns often remain consistent.

Interfaces should retain and reflect individual user behaviours. If a user consistently prefers short summaries, formal tone, or visual outputs, those preferences should inform defaults and surface relevant options earlier. Feedback loops such as quick rephrasing tools or “suggested next steps” based on prior edits can also help the tool become a more responsive collaborator.

This shifts the dynamic from one-size-fits-all to one that’s informed by your habits and evolves with you.

Today’s AI tools are capable, but their interfaces are lagging. They assume expertise, hide their reasoning, and isolate their functionality from the work. A better experience means designing tools that lower the barrier to entry, guide interaction, provide feedback, and learn from use.
The model is only half the product. The interface is the other half and right now, it needs just as much attention.
Further reading
Blinking cursor problem by Colin Eberhardt
Stop building AI tools backwards by Hazel Weakly
Our interfaces have lost their senses by Amelia Wattenberger

Spring in Norfolk

2025-04-01T00:00:00Z

Check yourself before you wreck yourself

2025-03-23T00:00:00Z

It's easy to get caught up in the daily pace of people management, one on ones, project meetings and check ins. But your effectiveness as a leader has less to do with what happens daily and more to do with your self-awareness of how and what you're focusing on.

Shifting sands

Everything changes around you. The company scales, your role evolves, and suddenly you're navigating relationships with peers, executives, and teams that didn't exist when you started. What worked for you in one moment won't work in the next. The strategies that helped your team of five thrive will likely hinder your team of twenty-five.

I became a bottleneck rather than an enabler when I tried to be hands-on with design reviews. Planning a career ladder too far ahead of our current maturity level made it unhelpful, requiring us to rework it. Both of these made the importance of self awareness very apparent.

The reality check

Every six months, I block off a full afternoon on my calendar with the title "Check yourself before you wreck yourself". During this time, I take an honest look at what's working, what isn't, and what needs to change.

First, I look at what I actually accomplished since my last check-in. Next, I evaluate the value of my current activities. Then I look outwards at what's changed in the company, the market, or the team.

The self reflection

The toughest part is looking at my own performance with clear eyes. Where am I still strong? Where am I falling short? I've found that being brutally honest here sets the tone and this is kept private to me.

Actively seek input from peers across the organisation. A critical component also focuses on relationships around the company. Which relationships will be crucial given the current priorities?

Making your plan

The final step is creating a concrete plan based on these insights. I review my previous plan, noting what worked and what didn't, then draft specific actions for the next six months. I capture all of this in a note that I revisit regularly.

The payoff

This practice has saved me countless times from becoming the leader I never want to be—the one who's stuck in old patterns while everything changes. It's helped me recognise when I needed to step back from details and focus on strategy.

Your self-awareness and growth mindset to adapt might be the most important leadership tool you have.

Block that time on your calendar and check yourself before you wreck yourself, it just might be the most important meeting you attend all year.

My Ethos

2025-03-18T00:00:00Z

It's important to have an ethos, some core principles that drive who you are. It's also important to make them short and pithy for those that have short attention spans.

Dreaming for the future and building for today.
Vision for a cake and strategy for a slice, preparing for it to sit nicely next to the other slices but iterating faster where things need to change shape. Don't wait for the future but understand how to get there.
Assuming positive intent and thinking people first.
I try to assume positive intent and optimism even if it's often contrasted with dry Britishness about a situation. You'll never go wrong optimising for happy, knowledgeable and productive people, they build the best products. Asking questions and listening is an art form.
Success is the impact not the preparation for it.
Endless meetings or workshops to create understanding and debate direction are often valuable but we also need to start acting, getting things in front of customers, learning and making progress. A strategy without the first strategic gain isn't success.
Art sits on a foundation of science.
That magical feeling user experience that is full of personality and creative solutions was built on a foundation of method, research, understanding and iteration. The tiniest details sometimes weigh the most.
Make good trouble.
Change comes about from championing, advocating and leading the charge. See something, say something.
Develop your curiosity into everything.
Creativity is a muscle built by exercising curiosity. Be interested in everything, understand how things work, why things happen and pull on every string.
Check yourself before you wreck yourself.
Self-awareness is the most valuable trait and having a lack of it is extremely dangerous. Understanding how you're perceived by others helps you evolve that to how you want to be seen. Others' perception of you shouldn't be linked to your happiness but it is something that can help you be successful.

Canada and Captain

2025-02-14T00:00:00Z

I'm just back from spending two weeks in Toronto for work, it was cold and I mostly spent time in the hotel, coffee shop and office or briskly walking between them. I did manage to get out super early before work to take some photos.

At the start of the year we picked up Captain, a cute striped and spotted silver British Shorthair. After Bear passed away in November the house felt empty so it wasn't long until Captain came along. My instagram has been pretty much just cat photos the last few weeks.

It's wild how fast he is growing.

My Perfect Sunday Device

2025-02-08T00:00:00Z

Fifteen years into the iPad era, I’ve been mulling over my perfect device that feels almost like an iPad but isn’t. It’s not everyone‘s cup of tea, and probably will never be for the mass market, but for those quiet Sunday afternoons, it’s my dream device.

Right now, my devices fight for my attention. My iPhone distracts me at every turn (Slack notifications, advert pushes etc), my iPad is often out of battery after a session of photo editing or Netflix, and my watch is designed to constantly nag me to breathe, stand, move, wash hands. What I need is a device designed for focus, not friction.

A Physical Keyboard

I’m currently hammering out these thoughts on a flimsy fabric keyboard attached to my iPad. What I want is a tactile, detachable keyboard, one that sits comfortably on my lap in any lounging position. Ideally, it’s a full keyboard not limited by screen width and sturdy enough to double as a support. Logitech seems to come closer to this ideal Apple.

Black and White, Please

I’m drawn to the idea of an e-ink screen. Not because I’m a purist, but because a black-and-white display creates just enough friction. It forces me to slow down, to resist the lure of instant YouTube escapes or the chaos of multiple open tabs. Sometimes I need video, but often I just want to absorb captions and ideas. Black and white might be the right balance between simplicity and intention.

Pocketable

I lean toward something like the iPad mini or Kindle in size, compact enough to fit into a bag and subtle enough to blend in at a coffee shop. It shouldn’t feel like hauling around a bulky device, but rather a tool that is comfortably with me everywhere.

Made for Notes and Concepts

I want to be able to capture ideas with the precision of pen on paper with a matte, paper-like screen with a stylus. I’ve tried using a Paperlike screen protector on my iPad, and while it’s a start, I‘d prefer a display with a bit more texture and friction like a piece of uncoated GF Smith paper. And, of course, the battery should last all day so I can jump into note-taking at a moments notice. Right now, note-taking on an iPad feels like a gimmick compared to what a dedicated device might offer.

I’ve poked around at products like the Remarkable Pro (and yes, I’ve seen their endless ads) and the Daylight computer. At $700, Daylight is intriguing, but I’m not entirely convinced I want to bet on a company that might vanish as quickly taking any software updates with them.

For now, I’m making do with some hacks: using my iPad in greyscale, turning on Do Not Disturb, and relying on a matte, textured screen protector. These tweaks help me be more intentional with my usage a small step toward that elusive perfect Sunday device.

2024 a year reviewed

2025-01-01T00:00:00Z

Overall this year is floating around the 3 star mark. There were some great highlights I'll go into but massively overshadowed by family illness and upheaval and the loss of Bear my much loved cat.

Photography was a big part of my year, I got a new camera and went on several workshops and trips enjoying both the moment and capturing it. I took photos of deer, hot air balloons, the grand canyon, leopards, forests, mountains and Norwich. I took a lot of photos of Norwich. I was also one of the official photographers of Pride. It was a fantastic opportunity and fulfilled a personal goal for the year.

Art also played a big part in my year, culminating in meeting an art hero Mr Bingo. Another goal of mine was to sell some of my work created with the AxiDraw (a robotic arm you can attach pens and program). Very proud to say I sold just about everything I had put up for sale. 2025 is going to be a year of more experimenting and trialling different styles and methods to see the results.

I travelled a lot this year with a holiday in Maderia, Portugal then work trips to Arizona, Colorado, Vancouver, Chicago, Toronto and Minneapolis. These were great fun and an opportunity to spend some face time with incredible colleagues.

I went to a couple of stand out events this year too, firstly I saw the Lionesses (the Women's England team) then I saw Letters Live twice, my favourite event of the year for the forth year running.

The last few weeks of 2024 were also memorable with the addition of Captain our new kitten to the house. He is ridiculously cute.

Though this year brought its share of challenges, it also offered growth, creativity, and memorable experiences. Here's to building in 2025 with more reading books, improving my writing and photography skills and making more time for art.

A few more specific reviews of the year:

Kofra's Las Flores and Nestor Lasso Coffee 4/5
Vocation Brewery Life and Death IPA 4/5
Letters Live March and December 2024 5/5
Unyoked Off Grid Cabin at Houghton Hall 4/5
Fortnite Chapter 6 Season 1 4/5
Rituals Tulip and Yuzu Hand Cream 4/5
Axidraw A3S3 Pen Plotter5/5
Helldivers 2 5/5

Making Good Trouble

2024-12-17T00:00:00Z

As designers in the trifecta model (your balance of engineering, product management and design might be called something else), it can often feel like we’re in a constant state of reaction, adjusting to new feasibility discussions from engineering or responding to product management around viability or change in scope. More often than not, we champion or create positive change, but we can’t address every issue along the way. We iterate, improve, and adapt, but sometimes that means the problem you’re passionate about doesn’t get tackled in the first sprint.

Designing software is never a perfect process. There are times when compromises happen, and something that affects the user experience slips through. It’s in these moments that we need to rely on the healthy tension within our teams to guide us—the kind of tension that leads to better outcomes and stronger products.

What Is Good Trouble?

Good trouble can happen when you see a predetermined solution that leaves little room for exploration or alternative approaches and you choose to voice your perspective anyway. Even if the team seems to be moving forward without pause, this is when good trouble matters most.

Good trouble isn’t about slowing things down; it’s about applying your expertise to make things better. It’s about challenging assumptions, raising flags, and advocating for the best possible user experience. When handled well, this tension is not an obstacle, it’s a catalyst for exceptional work.

Good trouble doesn’t mean creating roadblocks or conflict for the sake of it. It means holding ourselves accountable and fostering a collaborative, productive tension.

Good trouble is the healthy amount of tension in your team, that tension is what ships the best work. Raising, flagging, advocating that pushes us to deliver the best possible work

Acknowledging the Reality

It’s important to stress that healthy tension stays just that, healthy. It’s not an excuse for toxic behavior, nor does it condone creating an unsafe or uncomfortable working environment.

I recognize that speaking up is easier said than done. Not everyone feels equally comfortable or empowered to apply pressure or challenge decisions. There are privileges, dynamics, and individual circumstances that influence whether someone feels safe to make good trouble.

Phoenix, Arizona

2024-12-01T00:00:00Z

Holkham, Norfolk

2024-10-22T00:00:00Z

At the weekend I rented a ridiculously sized Fuji 100-600mm lens and went on a workshop in Holkham Deer Park. Dressed in a camoflaging cagoule and waterproof boots I ventured into the park along with a few other photographers to find my adventure was more tame than expected, the deer were in the car park. Eventually we found some other groups further into the park and I finally got the shot I wanted of two stags battling for the rutting season. Really happy with these, now to save up to purchase that bazooka of a lens.

Denver to Dereham

2024-09-01T00:00:00Z

First trip in September was to Denver, I didn't take many photos because it was a work trip but the Union Station was really nice. For September the weather was great, I did however only see a tiny glimpse of mountains.

Okay it wasn't Dereham but it was close, I just like the alliteration. The rest of my travel was to a tiny little cabin in the woods. It was in the grounds of Houghton Hall, the gardens are covered in deer and Antony Gormley statues.

Norfolk in the Summer

2024-08-11T00:00:00Z

4:30am is a time I generally only see if I have to go to Heathrow. This time I wasn't boarding a flight I was trying to photograph ten. Old Buckingham has a yearly balloon festival and after seeing a photo on instagram I booked tickets right away for early the next morning. Hot air balloons can be very fickle and with a modicum of wind they cannot take off. As a bit of luck the one morning I attended 9 out of the 10 balloons took to the skies. It was a beautiful sight.

Another Old Buckingham event, there's something both wonderful and terrifying with the announcer declaring it a miracle when these 80 year old planes are still flying. The Old Buckingham Air Show features spitfires, a flying fortress and a bunch of others. I thought the 56mm was going to get me no where close to capturing these but I'm really happy how they came out.

This year I was a volunteer for the Norwich Pride photography team, my first time photographing an event I learnt so much. Next year if I make it to the team I will do a lot more advance planning of shots, even though I was very familiar with the area I didn't quite achieve what I wanted to. I'm so thankful for the opportunity, I ended up on the roof of a department store harnessed in place.

Wildlife Gardens, Thrigby

2024-06-29T00:00:00Z

Madeira, Portugal

2024-06-20T00:00:00Z

Pico do Areeiro is one of the highest peaks of Madeira (1800m), it's touristy and crowded but an incredible experience feeling the clouds roll at your feet.

Levada do Caldeirão Verde is a walk through the islands interior jungle-esk Queimadas Forest Park. We barely did the beginning of this trail and still it was beautiful.

Norwich in the Spring

2024-03-24T00:00:00Z

Vancouver, Canada

2024-02-01T00:00:00Z

A quick three days for work in Vancouver and some exploring downtown. Vancouver strikes me as one of those cities where you need a day and a car to really appreciate it, for that reason I wasn't too enamoured. I actually only saw daylight through a hotel conference room window so it's still on my list to really explore.

Norwich, with a new Fuji

2024-01-24T00:00:00Z

I love my X100V it's the perfect travel camera but it made me curious for much larger focal ranges. So a trip to the local camera shop and I bought a preowned XT-4 along with a 56mm (for the camera nerds this is equivilent to 85mm full frame). I then had a walk around the city and found how wildly different shooting with an almost zoom lens is.

The XT-4 has so many more possibilities but it's also infinitely harder to wield, I feel like I'm back to square one beginner and I'm ready for it.

Norwich was dreary, wet and fairly grey but I was enjoying the great music from my winter playlist so I've included that too.

Home, with an old cat

2024-01-24T00:00:00Z

It was a stressful Christmas with my cat getting an infection, stopping eating which led to hospitalisation. We found he has cronic kidney disease and his kidney function is down to a quarter of what it's supposed to be. We went from thinking we might have days left to months. Still hard not to see him as a kitten.

New Orleans, Louisiana

2023-12-18T00:00:00Z

Alternative email sign offs

2023-12-15T00:00:00Z

Boring best wishes or unimaginative thanks, why not try one of these to add a bit of personality. I am not responsible for you coming across weird when using one of these.

Bish, bash, bosh,
In this economy!?
Viscerally yours,
All the smiles,
And that for now is everything,
Be well,
Revolving round the sun,
Godspeed,
Fair Winds and following seas,
Trying,
Obsessively,
Good hunting,
Stay hydrated,
Strategically aligned,
Waving enthusiastically,
Through gritted teeth,
Chasing waterfalls,
With copy and pasted love,
With reckless abandon,
Later than soon,
With an abundance of clarity,
With a show of hands,
With reasonable affection,
Everything eats and is eaten,
In blind confidence,
Impatience and optimism,

Montreal, Canada

2023-10-01T00:00:00Z

Edinburgh Fringe

2023-08-14T00:00:00Z

Tate Modern and The V&A

2023-07-14T00:00:00Z

Lord Mayor's Weekend

2023-07-08T00:00:00Z

Seattle, Washington

2023-05-29T00:00:00Z

London, Westminster

2023-03-11T00:00:00Z

2022 a year reviewed

2022-12-31T00:00:00Z

This was a rapidly disapearing year of getting back into the swing of travelling, crowds and things outside the house. I'm excited for next year to bring more conferences, cycling, radio broadcasting and adventure but also not too much.

Starting a radio show on Future Radio 10/10
Visiting a glacier in Iceland 10/10
Exploring Reykjavik, Chicago, Toronto (twice),
Palm Springs, London, Amsterdam, and Munich 8/10
Razzing around Palm Desert in a Jeep 8/10
The passing of the Queen 1/10
Finally a good Star War with the Andor series 7/10
Traitors TV Show being solid reality TV 6/10
My X100V, best purchase of the year 8/10
Wet Legs debut album. 8/10
I got too into Fortnite. 5/10
Bike rides exploring Norfolk 8/10
Remnants of the pandemic 1/10

Resolutions for 2023

I wanted something too look back on and see if I managed to prioritise the things I think important in 2023. Let's see how much life gets in the way.

🧘🏻 More calm: Music, podcasts, sitting, cycling, yoga, relaxing. Intentionally relaxing over doom scrolling and endless voids of Twittering.
🎒 More learning: Finding out more about the worlds of radio broadcasting, design leadership at scale and more dipping my toes in new things.
✨ More appreciation: I'm not good at appreciating the moment over planning the next. I want to take more time to appreciate the people and time I have now.

Iceland

2022-11-19T00:00:00Z

North Norfolk

2022-11-07T00:00:00Z

London, Finsbury

2022-11-03T00:00:00Z

A balance of predicability and surprise

2022-08-13T00:00:00Z

I wake up in the morning later than I want to, head to the kitchen and make coffee – it's a simple task I undertake every morning. The technicalities of this process are complex and reliant on multiple parties like power, transformers, water, having purchased coffee or filters. You'd assume all I want in this experience of making coffee is predicability.

Predictability is foundational to good user experiences

To make a product feel simple and reliable every time a user undertakes a task they should see the same result. Predictability allows a user to understand where they are in the product with a feeling of control over it.

When a product is unpredictable it's equivalent to the worst morning. Spluttering water, a tripped power breaker or running out of coffee, if this happened regularly I would be constantly on edge every morning wondering what was going to go wrong.

If your product behaves like this with features or buttons unexpectedly moving around. You're leaving users without a sense of ownership and a feeling that maybe they just didn't understand your product in the first place.

Building on the foundation of predicability

Predicability however is just a foundation to a user experience. If my morning of making coffee is perfectly predictable then at best it's okay, I make my coffee and it's exactly as I expected. The bad frustrates and the good doesn't impress. For a great morning I need the balance of surprise. This morning I found my wife had bought me a new coffee to try, it was the perfect balance of surprise, exceeding my expectations.

“Design doesn’t need to be delightful for it to work, but that’s like saying food doesn’t need to be tasty to keep us alive” — Frank Chimero

So how do we build on this foundation we've built?

Anticipate and over deliver

Anticipating your users needs should be a prerequisite but over delivering on them is a great surprise. For example 1Password when you try and fill a login without a url on a page we will ask you if you want to add that url to the login item saving you editing it. In iOS Apple offers to copy and delete a screenshot and if you have a url on the clipboard it offers to paste and go. This is anticipating the users next step and offering to jump to exactly what they need.

Reward progress, discovery and effort

When onboarding onto new features or at the end of a complex configuration you can reward with delight. For example when you setup a new email campaign once you send you get the iconic mailchimp highfive. This is the perfect time to reward the end of a journey. It might also be appropriate to use this similar approach to entice users into discovery.

Customise the experience

You can customise an experience to have it enhance an experience and not distract. Saying Good morning, Hello Mandy or simply by a more conversational tone at the beginning or end of a journey. Avoid doing this in places that the user is trying to accomplish something or generally in being overly cute.

Overall a little goes a long way. How are you using predictability and surprise, I'd love to know. You can tweet me @mattdavey.

Further reading
Understanding the Kano Model

Creating a UX strategy

2022-08-05T00:00:00Z

As a leader steering your team in the right direction while dealing with daily challenges is incredibly hard to scale without a deliberate plan. You might have a company mission or a product vision, this is a focused view to delivering a great user experience with a high functioning design team.

A vision is the view when you get there, strategy is the deliberate planned journey. In order to align your team towards a consistent target need to understand both. This strategy is usually set alongside a product or company visionand is a framework for how you make decisions.

A good design and user experience strategy needs to be broken down into something understandable. This is a light first approach into strategy, once you're rolling there's a bunch more. Here's where I like to start:

Four Areas

Your strategy as a basic requirement should cover these four areas.

Operate

This is the environment you create for designers. Where you define the organisation structure, process and tools for the delivery of daily design work. Enable designers to do their best work by a culture of exploration space, collaboration and quality.

Lead

This is the creative influence you have over design and the company. Where you advocate towards the user, define how you talk and appear, drive innovation and promote a perspective of the whole experience.

Align

This is how you appear and collaborate with other functions. Where you build your reputation, capabilities and culture. Building the right relationships to help design show up consistently and support the companies challenges over living inside them.

Develop

This is how you build the best team. Where you plan growth, create a culture of good feedback and foster career growth. Smart hiring decisions with a smooth onboarding and clear career paths.

Four Parts

Follwing these four parts will start to paint an oversimplified direction.

1. Assess

A mysterious design process, lack of research, lack of visual consistency, poor quality of outcomes or quality issues of team health. Understand where you currently see room for improvement, this isn't improvement in your product but in how you get to a well put together outcome.

Outcomes - A statement of the current situation and a list of problems to address.

2. Shape

A vision in it's purest form can be working out with a timeframe what great looks like in the different areas. Maybe it's a bigger investment in user research and training designers to play a larger part in it. Maybe it's a design process that allows more time for exploration and a structure for the right questions. Try starting with a Figjam and dividing it up into each of these areas, involve your leadership team and run some workshops.

Outcomes - Vision statement, principles and goals.

3. Create

Once you understand your utopia you need to create the path up to it and the measurements to know where you are. This and the decisions you make against it is the beginning of your strategy.

It's best to think in terms of timeframe, continuous improvements and programs that run short, medium and long term. Short term meaning things you can start this week or month. Medium is where you are likely using your existing budget and long term is where you probably need to ask for additional budget.

This is a great opportunity to involve your leadership team to run a strategy planning session. Throw the net as wide as possible keeping the vision in view, then ruthlessly prioritise. Make sure you leave that session with owners, timeframes, measurements and some serious excitement about possibilities.

Outcomes - Projects, initiatives and people responsible.

4. Reassess

Every few months, reassess with your leadership team the impact of your initatives and how it's affected your goals.

Now comes the marathon. This needs to be the direction that your decisions clearly point toward. It needs to be the subject of your 1:1s, the frame in which you create goals, the measurements you constantly celebrate. When communicating outwards and upwards use this as the frame in which to show success or that you need support.

I wish you less feature firefights and more user centred north stars.

Further reading
Peter Merholz - The Emerging Shape of Design Orgs
Katharina Koberdamm - Design Leadership Framework
Anton Sten - User Experience Strategy

Chicago

2022-07-31T00:00:00Z

Amsterdam

2022-07-31T00:00:00Z

12 elements of design leadership

2022-06-19T00:00:00Z

In an interview the common question that comes up is about my leadership style, my answer is about how interchangeable the communication methods are but how there are consistent elements. Not all of these are about how you people manage but they are some great approaches to become a better leader. In no particular order...

Understand that your job now has several parts that are self defined and constantly evolving. Set a monthly time to quickly evaluate if you're devoting time to the most valuable things.
Write clear instructions on how best to communicate with you and what you appreciate. I find a user manual works best for this. I ask all of my team to create these, then we have dinner and discuss them.
Respect 1:1s and allow your team to set the agenda. Be approachable, transparent, make time and make sure your expectations are clear.
Ask more questions than you answer. This creates focus and direction but it's also bloody difficult. You're not there to solve problems anymore, you're there for direction and guidance.
Create goals and hold your team accountable. Your team won't reward you for being too loose here. Set goals collaboratively, it's imperative for a high performing team. Be honest about the things that aren't going well.
Celebrate your team and create space for them to present and shine. Share their work outwards and upwards with leadership.
Tailor your management style to your team. Ask your leadership team about their preferences and what they care about.
Communicate the value of design. Don't let your process be a mystery, the more people that understand your hard work and impact the more people that will make time and champion design.
The brand of your team exists and it's your job to curate it for hiring. Always be in this mode of promoting. Always expect growth and understand your team's needs. You're responsible for making it enticing to work for your company.
The respect and communication you build across orgs is not just about relationships, it also translates to credibility for your team.
Translate the corporate strategy into opportunities for design that will help provide a competitive advantage. Create a clear story that connects the corporate strategy to the user experience and the objectives you create for design.
Get good at flying at two altitudes, delivery for next week and investing in next year. Invest in exploration and use it to communicate the value of experience improvements.

Palm Springs, USA

2022-03-30T00:00:00Z

Natural History Museum

2022-03-07T00:00:00Z

Introducing Designer Discs

2022-01-30T00:00:00Z

I have a love for radio, the conversational tone with interviews, general chat and music. The mix for me is almost better than straight up podcasts. When I found a way to embed full tracks into a podcast I knew I wanted to give it ago, I used this as an excuse to chat with some designers I had always wanted to and Designer Discs was born.

The format is essentially an interview broken up by five pieces of music from the designer's life, something meaningful to them. I ask the questions I've always wanted to around their experience and inspirations.

I hope you enjoy listening it as much as I enjoyed making it, you can find all the episodes exclusively on Spotify (unfortunately due to music licensing the podcast is only available on Spotify).

More episodes coming sporadically in the future, subscribe on Spotify or follow me on twitter to catch the next episode.

Episode 1 with Simon Collison

Ceremony, New Order
Bachelorette, Björk
Reckoner, Radiohead
Seigfried, Frank Ocean
Midnight in a Perfect World, DJ Shadow

Episode 2 with Noah Stokes

Living on a Prayer, Bon Jovi
Signs, Tesla/Five Man Acoustical Jam
Power of Love, Huey Lewis and the News
Zooropa, U2
Footsteps, Pearl Jam

What made my 2022

2022-01-01T00:00:00Z

A selection of things (not 21) that made my 2021. It was a crappy year for a lot of people, most of it was lockdown and working from the same chair I am sitting in now. These were the highlights of the mundane and often anxiety ridden 2021. 2022 so far for me has meant knocking one off the bucket list already, I hope that trend of being less mundane continues but let's have the good excitement please.

Getting three vaccine shots
Time with my family after lockdown
Tabletop games with friends
Discovering cycling
Becoming a better manager of people
Getting a nice pair of glasses
A single anxious cinema trip
A London museum long weekend
A Cotswolds family jaunt
Settling in after a stressful house move
Built my dream office, just missing a dream armchair
Baking for others
A new sofa
The Project Hail Mary Audiobook
Nostalgic morning radio shows

What I hope 2022 brings:

Opportunities to take better photos
More cycling in interesting places
Less but better food
More than zero travel

The Cotswolds

2021-09-12T00:00:00Z

Coffee

2020-07-24T00:00:00Z

Some of the best coffees I've had and some I'm yet to try.

Foundation Roasters

Poblado Coffi
All around the world coffee is produced in diverse and different ways and we want to showcase the best of what these can be. Our classic range is what we have enjoyed most on the cupping table. Classic washed coffees to funky naturals Dark roasts all the way to light roasts

Anonymous
Order our freshly roasted coffee beans and ground coffee online. Hand roasted in small batches for amazing flavour in Reading, Berkshire. Delivered UK wide.

Stay High Coffee
Choose your vibe and flavours. Shop locally roasted and ethically sourced single origin coffee.

The Baytown Coffee Company
Browse our artisan coffee blends today & find your perfect match! The Baytown Coffee Company proudly ‘roast by the coast’ here in Whitby, North Yorkshire.

Django Coffee
You can order our single-origin coffee beans online in our store. We roast to order to ensure that the beans are delivered at their optimum freshness. Free delivery to UK.

Carve Coffee Roasters
Speciality coffee roasted in Dorset. Fresh artisan coffee roasted by hand in Swanage on the Jurassic coast.

Echelon Coffee Roasters
Small batch, speciality coffee roasted in Leeds, UK.

Bean Brothers Coffee Company
Welcome to the Bean Brothers Coffee Shop - we source and supply the finest coffee.

Dusty Ape
At Dusty Ape, We roast by hand in small batches, carefully profiling all of our roasts to get the most from the beans and to ensure each batch is reproducible.

Cold Blow Coffee
Sustainably focused speciality coffee. Traceable & responsibly sourced. Hand roasted with pride in our Kent workshop.

Curious Roo
One off specialty coffee purchases, subscriptions or gifts - we have you covered.

Casa Coffee Roasters

Carringtons Coffee Co
Carringtons Coffee Co is a specialty coffee roastery based in Morecambe Bay, focused on careful sourcing and consistent roasting.

Cartwheel Coffee
Shop specialty coffee beans from Cartwheel Coffee—thoughtfully sourced and roasted in the UK. Through trusted sourcing partners, we support small-scale farmers and cooperatives in Rwanda, Ethiopia, Colombia, Guatemala, and across the rest of the world, bringing you high-quality, traceable single-origin coffee beans that showcase each origin’s unique flavours. With a focus on transparency, ethical sourcing, and sustainability, every bag honours the people behind each harvest.

Big Dog Coffee
Our latest selection of freshly roasted, ground and wholebean coffee. - Big Dog Coffee Company

Amoret Coffee
Our current selection of curated single-origin Arabica lots from around the world that deliver full flavour and satisfaction.

Argyll Coffee
From seasonal single origins to award-winning blends, take your pick from our range of speciality coffees to enjoy at home or give as a gift.

Sweven Coffee
Explore a boutique collection of rare and exclusive coffees grown by innovative and quality-focused producers from around the world. Shipping worldwide.

Bad Coffee
A female-led specialty coffee roastery in the heart of Hackney Wick, East London, serving up great-tasting, non-pretentious coffee for everyone. Our beans are sourced from smallholder farms worldwide, promoting sustainable agriculture.We're a micro roastery, trusting our instincts to deliver delicious beans.

Chipp Coffee
The best speciality coffee available as whole beans or ground coffee — from coffee blends for espresso & filter, to carefully sourced single origin coffees.

ALL CAPS Coffee
Sustainable packaging options & free delivery on orders over £25

Coffee Factory
Discover unique coffee varieties at Coffee Factory. Savor every sip with rich, barista-quality coffee and fast UK delivery for a truly special experience.

Coborn Coffee
Shop our current line up of coffee, grab yourself some merch or treat someone to a subscription, always sourced ethically and roasted exceptionally.

Brew Crew Coffee
Award winning, social enterprise speciality coffee roaster. Sip with purpose and shop now; save 10% on your first purchase.

Coffee Bean Shop
Dubious name but just ordered some on a recommendation from a friend.

Jolly Bean Roastery
★★★ – Great selection and really interesting flavours but it was temperamental to dial in. Make sure you have the good equipment and a second bag.

Hundred House Coffee

Kofra Coffee
★★★★★ – The typica is a wonderful fruity coffee, one of the best I've ever had.

Cuppers Choice Specialty Coffee

Etude Coffee
Specialty Coffee

Bay Coffee Roasters

Black Rain Coffee
★★★★ - It was great, nutty with a chocolate taste however single origin house special is an unusual way to label. Essentially it changes each time they run out.

Smith's Coffee Co

Machina Coffee

Redemption Roasters

Rounton Coffee

Sanctuary Coffee

Noni's Coffee Roasters

Volcano Coffee Works

North Star Roast

Bridge Coffee Roasters
★★★★ - Lovely packaging solid espresso beans with a nice crisp taste.

Quantum Coffee Roasters

Chimney Fire Coffee
★★★★ - Peruvian Coffee is great, Brazilian espresso was a little dark.

Curve Coffee Roasters

Kickback Coffee

Abe & Co Coffee

Spaceboy Coffee

Harmony Coffee Roaster

Fortitude Coffee

Rumour Coffee Co

Sumo Coffee Roasters

Hundred House Coffee

Cairngorm Coffee Roasters

Etude Coffee

Back Yard Coffee
★★★ - Lots of varieties, my favourites include No. 83 Peru and No. 55 Brazil.

Yellow Bourbon Coffee Roasters
★★★ - Nice range in beautiful boxes that I seem to want to collect. Peru El Oso and the house blend are both really nice.

Rave Coffee

Ovenbird Coffee

White Star Coffee

Glen Lyon Coffee

Steamie Coffee

Figment Coffee

Round Hill Roastery

Climpson & Sons

Calendar Coffee

Butterworth & Son
★★★ - Local and has a bunch of my favourite varieties. All the peruvian coffees are great.

Bailies Coffee Roasters

Triple Co Roast

Cast Iron Coffee Roasters

Lost Barn Coffee Roasters

Good Life Coffee

Clifton Coffee Roasters
★★★★ - Just a brilliant all round coffee. Mellow, well rounded and zero aftertaste.

WatchHouse Modern Coffee

Black Mountain Roast

Mission Coffee Works

The Lost Barn Coffee Roasters

47 Degrees

Dark Woods Coffee

Rounton Coffee

Blossom Coffee Roasters

Elsewhere Coffee Roasters

Papercup Coffee Company

PLOT Roasting

Pelicano Coffee roasters

Red Bank Coffee Roasters

Method Coffee Roasters
★★★ - Narino Columbia, an interesting coffee on the border of fruity. Not too sour, not too dark.

Neighbourhood Coffee Roasters
★★★ - Tanzania and El Salvador, first of all points for puns all of their coffees have pun based names which is delightful. The coffee was great too. Very light, almost fruity both of them.

Grindsmith Coffee Roasters

Yallah Coffee

Thomsons Coffee Glasgow

Obadiah Coffee Roasters
★★★ - Garzon, Colombia was expensive when compared against others but it's a stylish brand with some great packaging.

Williams & Johnson Coffee Co.
★★ - La Naranja, Peru - Expensive and middle of the road in taste for me. Basic plastic based packaging.

Upside Coffee Roasters

Lufkin Coffee Roasters

Roastworks Coffee Co.

Manumit Coffee Roasters

Coaltown Coffee Roasters
★★★★ - Great brand and ethos. Tried the Finca Andalucia and it delivered on everything, fruity but not sour or fermented.

Foundry Coffee Roasters

Crankhouse Coffee

Iron & Fire
★★★ - Great selection including some Geisha varities, some a little too blended and experimental for me. The Guatemalan was pretty good.

Pharmacie Coffee Roasters

Wogan Coffee Roasters

Artisan Roast Coffee

Extract Coffee

TwoDay Coffee Roasters

Lost Sheep Coffee

Quarter Horse Coffee

Northside Coffee Roaster

Crosby Coffee

Black Cat Coffee
★★ - Signature and Chocolate point, both a little underwhelming. Middle of the road coffee.

Square Mile Coffee Roasters

Ngopi Coffee

Missing Bean

The Roasting Shed

And Bloss Coffee

Kiss the Hippo Coffee

Strangers Coffee Company
★★★★ - Brazil Fazenda Bom Jesus Natural is a personal favourite, an everyone pleaser.

200 Degrees

Roast and Post
★★★★ - Odd pricing and a more wholesale looking brand but don’t let that put you off some really great coffees. In particular the medium or lighter roasts.

Hasbean Coffee
★★★★ - Costa Rica Finca Licho and Bolivia Vincent Paye both great mid roast coffees with very little after taste.

Atkinsons Coffee Roasters
★★★★ - The Rahmat Inara was really nice, full bodied dark smokey chocolate flavours. Their packaging is always stunning too. Sao Francisco, was a brilliant mid-bodied milk chocolate coffee. A favourite.

Monsoon Estates

Assembly Coffee
★★★ - A little pretentious but ultimately a great range of earthy, chocolatey coffees.

Colonna Coffee
★★★ - Dislike the way they abstract the types of coffee away but some of their rare beans were really great.

The Azores

2019-06-28T00:00:00Z

Thirty

2019-06-04T00:00:00Z

Start something you can finish
Exercise makes you fit, diet makes you healthy
Context, other people don’t have it and sometimes I’m not good at giving it to them
Everyone has imposter syndrome, some just more than others.
Most of my stress is self imposed
High level feedback combined with changing context is incredibly hard to do well. I’ve seen it done well and how explosive it can be when done badly
A year ago I was certain all I could do was design. Things change
Nothing is worth agreeing to all the cookies
Breaks are healthy, you can burn out of everything
Hydrate
I need to say "no" more
That design will be changed within a year, cling to the process
I need to find a mentor
My bucket list has become a little controlling
Take all the notes
I need to listen more and comment less
Not everyone is your friend
More quiet time
More Yoga
Those who shout the loudest usually want to pay the least
I sometimes need a little point in the right direction
I like the idea of The Amazing Race but I would hate actually running it
Only let things get to you that matter
Forgive yourself
I’d like about 2 more really good friends
I’m still waiting to see how Brexit is actually a good idea
I might actually have a grasp on my fitness
Post as an archive not for an audience
Habits become an identity when done enough
Optimism fuels everything

Bucket List

2019-04-05T00:00:00Z

Have children
Teach someone how to read
Visit Dubrovnik
Fly in a helicopter
Visit the Scottish Highlands
Visit the Glenfinnan Viaduct
Visit Dublin
Visit New York
Ride in an NYC Cab
Visit Peru
Host a national radio show
Be an extra in a TV show
Visit Venice
Make mozzarella from scratch
Have dinner with someone famous
Fly in a two person plane
Publish a book
Have work displayed in a gallery
~~Own a small design studio April 2012~~
~~Own a house October 2012~~
~~Start a family June 2013~~
~~Have a pet companion Nov 2011~~
~~Make my first 100k Nov 2012~~
~~Have my first 3k project July 2012~~
~~Have my first 10k project Dec 2012~~
~~Move to a foreign country Oct 2009~~
~~Compete in a race Jan 2022~~
~~Get paid to make my own products Jan 2014~~
~~Go to a football match May 2012~~
~~Visit Tokyo Oct 2010~~
~~Visit Canada July 2013~~
~~Go to Niagara Falls Jan 2015~~
~~Visit Azores, Portugal June 2019~~
~~Get a degree Oct 2009~~
~~Visit Germany Oct 2009~~
~~Visit the Italian Coast Sept 2015~~
~~Watch an Apple Keynote at WWDC June 2018~~
~~Climb an active volcano Sept 2015~~
~~Learn to make Indian food Dec 2018~~
~~Learn to pull espresso Nov 2017~~
~~Learn to bake bread Feb 2018~~
~~Host a radio show Dec 2022~~

Twenty Nine

2018-06-04T00:00:00Z

Here are twenty nine things I've been thinking about this year. This gets more difficult every year I write it but moving from Canada to a weird and different England has made this year an interesting list.

One year until I’m 30.
Being good at something is constantly asking how to get better.
Getting better at product design means I need to be a better writer.
Having solid goals keeps you moving even if you don’t even get close.
Be there and be early.
Price doesn’t equate to enjoyment.
Naive optimism beats informed negativity.
A one-on-one tutor is money well spent.
I’m amazed at how some people think their opinion is a headline. Other times I am amazed at people's opinions that are headlines.
It’s hard to balance going with the flow and being proactive.
Fortnite and Overwatch are far too much fun.
Double down on what you love.
Show up and do what you say you will, it’ll get you surprisingly far.
You can never go wrong with Fleetwood Mac.
I can cope with things when I break them down into smaller parts.
It’s okay to have a lazy morning.
My journal only contains highs and lows, I should document the boring days too.
Saturday morning 90s bad action movies are my current jam.
Doing something and being wrong is better than doing nothing.
Brevity is underrated.
I don’t need coffee to be the perfect Panamanian Geisha but if its within grasp why not.
I’m not sure when free speech started becoming the right to insult people, I do not like it.
Good feedback is an art form both in design and general interaction with people.
You can do anything with a good story.
I do love a good view.
Looking at your phone less won’t make you really miss anything.
Don’t hesitate.
Caring about other people’s problems put yours in perspective.
I still cannot exercise regularly.

So long and thanks for the Poutine

2017-11-20T00:00:00Z

This month is my last in Toronto, It’s also American Thanksgiving weekend so in my continued tradition of mixing up the two entirely different parts of The Americas here are the things I’m thankful to Toronto for.

Delicious Ramen
A completely unique toned sky every night
Working closely with smart people
Late night Dairy Queen
Street Cars, trams to the rest of the world and much better than a bus
Spending most of my time 10 to 20 stories above ground
Socially lunching
Bahn Mi Sandwiches
Asian Gelato
The Toronto Symphony Orchestra
Making me feel welcome
Confirming that I don’t care for baseball
The sweltering Summer lake watching
The soberly unfathomable Winter and a warm coat (and scarf, hat, knee warmers)
City wide inside jokes
Hot yoga that’s not just for hipsters
Institutionalised Brunch
Tolerance and Kindness
Cheap transit
Indie coffee shops and paper stores
Bürro Burrito
TIFF
Living next door to an Aquarium
Wanda's Pies
Filipino Food

You'll notice poutine isn't on this list. I enjoyed the pun more than I enjoy the national dish of indigestion and stodge.

Things that make me happy

2017-11-17T00:00:00Z

This post started June 8th 2016 and is going to be constantly updated, mainly for me but also for others. Everyone needs things to be happy about here are mine, some of them might be yours too.

Flicking through this list makes me smile. You may have tried some of these or it might convince you to try something new. Updated November 17th 2017.

Random thought provoking lists
The smell of early mornings
The Gilmore Girls (tv)
Getting rid of things I don't need
Friends saying nice things
Watching my wife crunch a leaf
A takeaway and a good film
Ready Player One (book)
Butter on toast
A finished page of SCSS
Boardgames with friends
Bacon in any form
A really good Pad Thai
A cup of Chai Tea
Cats
Ridiculous films on a weekend
Breakfast with a friend
Lemonade
Funny birthday cards
Keeping a journal
New England Patriots winning
A good roast dinner
Listening to MT Wolf (band)
Helping a friend
Watching an Apple Keynote
Banana Milkshakes not too thin, not too thick
Espresso Martinis
BBQ'ed Pineapple with Sugar and Cinnamon
A fresh clean Sketch artboard
Apple Pastries
A thick rough paper piece of ephemera
Old aircraft
Breakfast foods
Going to the Zoo
Fruit Pies
A new version of iOS
A feel good film in the cinema
A good clear out
Solid internet connection
A new project
The song of the moment
A company with awesome customer service
My supportive parents
Going to the orchestra
A featherweight mesh stretchy shirt
A new Fickle Friends song hits
Code that works the first time
Finishing a project
That Stephen Fry follows me on Twitter
Chocolate Chicken Burrito
A solid Bolton accent
An Edgar Wright film
Breakfast outside
Melted butter
Lunch with friends
A new Andy Weir book
A beautiful titanium bike
Double pleated trousers
A Fogiletto (RIP) index card
A Helldivers 2 group game

Twenty Eight

2017-06-04T00:00:00Z

Here are twenty eight things. I used to write this with lessons I’d learned but it slowly morphed into just a list of realisations and aspirations over the year.

Ramen might be the discovery of the year.
Japanese Fried Chicken comes close.
Swimming is my meditation.
I spend way too much attention on researching and buying things I probably don’t need.
I should declutter more often.
Meeting new people is difficult outside of work.
I think I’m a morning person now.
I’m thankful I don’t have many problems a tea and biscuit can’t solve.
Excitement and intention outweigh skill when hiring.
I should throw more dinner parties.
Don’t just ask for feedback, push for it.
A well articulated, concise sentence wins arguments.
A well articulated, concise sandwich wins anything.
I cannot have enough mentor relationships.
I need to diversify my view more.
Pulling a man boob muscle is worse than dislocating your shoulder.
I want to make more of an effort to join small communities.
I’m still not exercising enough.
You can’t win them all, choose where to spend your energy.
I should make physical things more.
I always need to read more and exercise more.
Twenty Eight is the year my wardrobe added colour.
It’s very easy to step up in one area of your life and let down others.
I’m happy I got to the stage of liking some music in nearly every genre.
Peru, Iceland and New York are my travel goals before 30.
Working hard makes relaxing better.
I play way too much Overwatch.
30 is coming.

The Big Canadian Adventure

2016-07-10T00:00:00Z

As I write this I am laying on the floor in the middle of the empty living room, all our large items like the sofa having been put into long term storage.

This is because I'm moving to Toronto, Canada. It's been a tonne of work getting to this point where we have less than 3 days before leaving.

The first mammoth task has been shrinking a 4 bedroom house into 8 suitcases and a storage box in middle Norfolk. The last week has been a total blur of packing and a rediscovery of tucked away memories.

The thing I am most looking forward to about Toronto apart from living closer to the office is the opportunities. There are so many meetups, courses and different types of food in a larger city compared to Norwich. Don't get me wrong I love Norwich, it'll always be my home and getting back will feel great whenever that day comes.

I've travelled a fair amount in my life and been to Toronto several times but I still expect a fair amount of culture shock. Here are my main concerns (again this might not be interesting unless you are moving countries but this is cathartic);

No squash this is stupid to be number one but honestly all day every day I drink blackberry cordial you mix it with water.
[Turns out they have "Water Enhancer" same thing.]
Being an immigrant, with shit having hit the fan in England being an immigrant in someone else's country scares me a little.
Social life In England we have friends and family, I have some friends from work in Canada but our social circle is getting a lot smaller and as a fairly social person this worries me.
Banking In Canada you have to pay to bank. Seriously they keep your money, mess with it and you give them your money the pleasure. In England they fight for you to store cash with them.
Phones, they are expensive. I'm used to all the data all the time in Toronto that would cost me 4x what I pay at the moment.

Now I've arrived I can write about the awesomeness

Food is amazing here. In my various trips I have experienced an explosion of different culture influences in really good food.
Weather is a positive right now. It's a beautiful 27c most of the time. Nice to have a proper summer, I've worn shorts everyday I've been here.
Gym and Yoga Just finished a session of hot yoga today and yesterday morning I went to the gym, getting fitter in this city is hopefully going to be easier.
Shows and Movies An awesome cinema is right round the corner and I already have a tonne of orchestra nights planned.

There is a whole world of awesome in Toronto and I'm really enjoying exploring the city.

Twenty Seven

2016-06-05T00:00:00Z

First of all, I cannot believe I am 27. I am at the edge of a big life decision. It’s going to be nice to look back on this in the years to come and see what I was thinking. I do these posts yearly so for this year, here are 27 things I have learnt in 27 years (most are things I need to improve on).

The more I fly the worse I get at recovering. Hat tip to Mitchell.
If you can be that guy to depend on for friends you feel better yourself.
You'll never regret being too kind.
You can never have too many backups.
Positivity is one of the hardest things to maintain but the alternative sucks.
A good barista is an angel sent from the heavens to serve excellent Jesus nectar.
I need to take better care of myself.
Things are like features, you can add them all day but getting rid of them is hard.
I need to learn more. I need to add some JavaScript to my tool belt.
I love all the smart people around me that teach me things, I need to be more vocal about my thanks.
I show show fear as excitement sometimes.
The right time is right now.
I hate having free time, I like being busy.
I am a very lucky person but it's not all luck, some of its hard work.
I don't take many things seriously apart from if you hurt me.
My mother always said only boring people get bored, I finally think I understand her.
Overthinking kills everything.
Get up and get on.
I need to throw away more old gadgets.
When I'm focused and kind, that day is a good day.
It's a small world, every connection and acquaintance can matter later.
I would love to speak publicly more about design.
Yoga actually helps my joints no end but only if I keep up with it.
I need to invest time into turning off.
I want to teach more.
I want to go to more niche hobby meet ups.
27 is still young.

Twenty Six

2015-05-06T00:00:00Z

Usually the night before a birthday I find myself writing one of these lists of things that recap my year. Last year I made it public for the first time, its interesting to see my priorities and problems year to year. This is mostly for me but a bit for you too.

If you don't like the room, leave the room.
Stress isn't worth money.
Happiness and calm is worth paying for.
I do not like Gin, not even with fruit.
I'm also not that fond on alcohol.
I need to invest more time in awesome people.
Sometimes I need a little more Matthew Broderick and a little less Ben Stein.
Everything you do can be awesome just go back to the drawing board one more time.
The right tool can sometimes just be a text file in a folder.
I need to talk more to people smarter than me.
The Apple Watch actually makes me go to the gym more.
I really don't want to move all my photos to another backup service.
Calling me on the phone unarranged is super annoying, I was busy.
It was actually awesome to get a hand written letter this year.
I will never charge my laptop before I have to.
Even a quick reply to a personal email is better than nothing.
I take everything personally.
It's good to have a routine, even on the days you break it.

Twenty Five

2014-06-04T00:00:00Z

Today, I’m twenty-five a quarter of a century old. The death calculator says I’ll live until 85.13 that means I have roughly 71.13% of my life left. Thats a fair bit.

I am very happily married with a cat and a house and professionally I am building my own products and only working on things I love. Its a great stance to be in.

I am very soon going to be launching two of the biggest products I’ve ever worked on and despite a couple of setbacks these are also two of the best products I’ve ever had a hand in creating.

I don’t pretend to have all the wisdom these lists are for me to look back on one day. Perhaps you might enjoy them too.

Take more photos
Think twice, act once
Learn more code, its action not intention
I have enough
Success is fleeting, find happiness in the mundane
TV shows are the new movies
Compliment your way out of hating
I need to get better at empathy
You can’t exercise your way out of bad food choices
Ideas are not even step one
Reply to every comment, email and tweet
I need to socialise more
Not everyone thinks like I do, explain better
It’s harder to be kind, than clever
Time is better than money

Matt Davey

The deep work versus all the work

What quality actually is

The human in the loop

The AI in the loop

Not everything needs this

The judgement is the job

Unrequired Reading, 003

Tools over problems

Reading

Listening

Watching

The Smithsonian Letter

Unrequired Reading

Unrequired Reading, 002

Watching

Reading

Writing

A letter from a father to his wayward son

Unrequired Reading

Lavenham, Suffolk

Unrequired Reading

Reading more

Eagerly awaiting two new albums

Note taking to a professional level

A letter of note

Unrequired Reading

Stamford

Introducing Git Blog

So I built ...Git Blog.

Built for blogging, not just Git

Why I built it

You'll need a personal access token on GitHub, which is a bit tricky.

Kew Gardens

San Francisco

Measuring maturity in AI

Cursed Child

2025, a year reviewed

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

In ratings

Norway Fjords

Beyond the prompt

Start with structure

Keep the context

Give feedback

Adapt to users

Further reading

Spring in Norfolk

Check yourself before you wreck yourself

Shifting sands

The reality check

The self reflection

Making your plan

The payoff

My Ethos

Dreaming for the future and building for today.

Assuming positive intent and thinking people first.

Success is the impact not the preparation for it.

Art sits on a foundation of science.

Make good trouble.

Develop your curiosity into everything.

Check yourself before you wreck yourself.

Canada and Captain

My Perfect Sunday Device

A Physical Keyboard

Black and White, Please

Pocketable

Made for Notes and Concepts

2024 a year reviewed