The new year is off to a solid start. I broke my unemployment streak and started a new role right before the holidays. My first day was back in December. I got acquainted with the organization over a couple weeks, took a wonderful holiday break, and it has been full steam ahead since the calendar turned over to 2024.
What most excites me about this next step in my design journey is the opportunity to work on design vision initiatives. In my last role I witnessed ambitious vision efforts happening adjacent my UX pod. This year I've joined a smaller company - a startup hungry to envision its future. I am regularly encouraged by design leadership to have two workstreams: everyday experimentation + optimizations and a design vision track.
I am right at the edge of my comfort zone, invigorated by the open space I have to explore, and diving whole-heartedly into what I hope will be a transformative experience for the product, the design team, and myself. Naturally, I've dug into conversations past and present on how to approach this kind of work.
Thusly, the first couple hot links of 2024 are some inspiring design vision talks. You will also find an enticing DIY touchID project and a wild Fender Guitars Custom shop build.
🌶️ Design is Vision
This talk, moderated by Google Design, showcases three different perspectives on crafting a design vision. It is a great combination of practical, narrative, artistic, and daring approaches to developing and driving vision work.
🌶️ Kevin Dame on Product Visioning
Kevin Dame talks about three different mindsets: versioning, viisoning, and venturing. He delves into the team structure, process, milestones, and reflects on the journeys he has undertaken with his product vision team.
🌶️ DIY TouchID Project
I redesigned my work station for the new year. I am hung up, like many others, with having my Macbook Pro in clamshell mode 99.99% of the time, except of course when I need to unlock it using touchID. This YouTuber lays out everything you need to repurpose the TouchID component of a magic keyboard and turn it into a clamshelled-MacBook-unlocker that you could mount to your desk. If I undertake this project, I'll be sure to post about it.
🌶️ Fender Marauder
A few years ago I bought a Roland sample pad with high hopes of evolving beyond my focus on guitars. Evolve I did not. I've listed the sample pad on Craigslist two or three times to no avail, until last month, when someone offered to trade me a Fender Marauder for the sample pad. While researching this rarer Fender model, I came across the following video about a supreme custom version of the Marauder. The guitar I got in the trade is not nearly as cool as this one, but still worth it to get the un-sellable sample pad out of my basement.
That's a wrap for January. Until next month, take care and be well.