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NGL: ask me anything

Issue 102: Rapid fire AMA questions

Jul 24

Drawing of heart envelopes in the background with the letters "N-G-L" to indicate "No Gonna Lie"

Not Gonna Lie (NGL), this week's issue is lighter weight since I just got back from a wonderful vacation in Hawaii. I'm going to answer AMA questions from the popular new app. Honestly, it felt a bit obnoxious using a thread of AMA questions on Twitter, so I compiled the questions here.

How would you pivot roles if you had to?

There is a good chance you're pivoting to a new role without realizing it—slowly veering to the direcetion that's drawing you towards that direction. This shift might be slow and take years like plate tectonics on the earth, but you want to actively monitor it. Once you recognize a trend, start building skills and making connections with people who can help you. It'll feel less like a hard pivot and more of a shift. I'm a big believer of tiny changes over time.

Would you ever publish your Obsidian second brain in the form of a digital garden?

I'm not sure if I would. Though I love Andy Matuschak's concept of working with the garage door open, there is a reason why doors shut. My second brain with Obsidian contains a lot of personal content there and I don't really separate work from life. Even if I am researching a topic, I usually include personal notes in it. For example, if I'm researching visual programming languages, I'll include info about Webflow in it in addition to personal aspirations. If there is a way I can separate it a bit more, I might in the future. I love building in public, but not for everything.

What skillset do you think is most important?

Curiousity is the ceiling to your growth—set it high. When you spark your own curiousity, it'll lead to the motivation and inspiration to develop new skills. Yes, this sounds like asking a genie for unlimited wishes as one of your three, but it's also true. Curiousity and the will to learn allows you to develop infinite skills.

Best ways to accelerate learning curve in product design?

My hot take is there is no way to accelerate the learning curve. The only way to accelerate the learning curve is putting more time in practice and gaining experience. The product designers you admire today are there because they've spent more time as bad designers than you.

What's some advice for an engineer to ensure the role is the best fit?

The first question I would ask is, "What kind of engineer do I want to be?" Do you love working on front-end code and thrive in writing CSS? Build the skills to be a front-end developer. Maybe you enjoy building native apps on Android. Find an opportunity where you can write apps in Java or Kotlin. Become a mobile engineer. Perhaps you like dabbling in a bit of everything. Learn to become a full stack engineer.

If you're not sure, that's okay. It's some factors to consider with the following aspects:

Company alignment: Does the company align with what you're looking for in terms of mission, purpose, and impact? What are the aspects that are non-negotiable and what are you open to? Do you want to specialize in a certain industry or sector or motivated by other aspects.
Product me fit: Does the product at the company give you joy? I define product _me_ fit as how you connect with the product itself. If you are going to dedicate a big portion of your work and life, you need personal PMF. Can you innovate on the product? How long do you think it'd give you joy to build
Role fit: If you find alignment with the first two, let's talk about the role specifically. The reason I place role fit last is because the role can change within a company, but the first two have a different velocity in changing, if ever. Ask a lot of questions during your interview about the scope of the role.

These three aspects are key factors in finding the right role. When you work for a company, there are always contraints to what's possible.

Where do you get inspiration from?

I try to get inspiration from everything I experience. If I could think of two aspects that give me deep inspiration, it's reading books and traveling. These two are things in life that transport you to different worlds to seek inspiration.

Inspiration comes when you shift perspective in the world and view something a different way.

What are the key qualities you look for in a senior product design candidate?

Product design is more than drawing rectangles. It's a challenging role, requiring multidisciplinary skills and the ability to look at things at the 30,000 foot view of things and to the 1 pixel level. Both are important to maintain. I also believe the quality of candidates for product designers differ.

Here are a few general qualities I look for:

Craft: Whether you have individual contributor or management aspirations, craft will always be the foundational skill
Systems thinking: The ability to think about systems of products and people.
Growth mindset: The best candidates are ones who have a desire to continue growing, especially when they are auto-didactic.

Do you trust history books?

The short answer is "no." This also doesn't mean I don't believe anything written in history books. I use them as a reference point of something that happened to come up with my conclusion of it. I believer in anything in life, it's crucial you develop your own credo in the world. This doesn't mean you shouldn't read anything, instead, ask critical questions about what you're reading. I love history books, but remember who wrote the books and what perspective it is coming from.

What do think is your next move post-Webflow?

It's honestly something even hard for me to think about at this moment. I truly mean this when I say it's the last place I ever want to be. That said, you never know what life will open up for you. All I can say is I really want to stay in design and dev tools and get more involved in investing.

If you have other AMA questions, reply to this email—happy to answer other questions.