I added 30 new jobs for designers, copywriters, and PMs who want to work on health, climate, education, and public services to the Hard Problems job board today: www.hardproblems.com/jobs

Each morning, I spend 45 min searching for design and product jobs at orgs that actually make the world a bit better. E.g., today I saw that Genomics England is hiring a senior service designer. I think we already have one of the best job boards for designers: www.hardproblems.com/jobs

I just ordered a cappuccino in NYC and it was... drum roll... $10.89 plus tip. That, my British friends is an £8 coffee... plus another dollar tip.

See you soon, NYC ✌️

eng leaders, how are you handling the gap between “vibe coded demo” and “production ready feature”? i mean from both the software development and the managing the expectations of senior leadership POVs? do you give estimates for time it would take to make the demo production ready during the demo?

This article on Minimum Viable Ethnography by Erica Hall is such a treasure. She explains how simple revelatory ethnographic research can be. I highly recommend you give her approach a try. Read Erika’s Article: https://medium.com/mule-design/minimum-viable-ethnography-a047e9358df0

Over at the newsletter I wrote about the unholy scourge that is "CEO said a thing!" journalism:

Anyone have advice where to stay in Hong Kong for a few days in March?

Great team. Great company. Spread the word for this excellent opportunity.

hallo, I am hiring again! - SF Digital Services is looking for a new Engineering Director careers.sf.gov/role/?id=374... This reports directly to me, & I’m looking for a practical & flexible technical expert with excellent communication & coaching skills, who is excited to do both. More below...

"If we do a great job, whose life do we improve and how?" is the most critical question a UX professional can answer about their work. Far too many UX folks have no idea how to answer this about their current work. They're lost in a world of "improving the product" and not the people they serve.

An excellent content design leadership position at one of the most interesting tech projects in the UK: the not-for-profit genetics project Our Future Health. apply.workable.com/j/A2032FE81B...

if you had "malicious website content compliance" on your 2025 card, please collect your prize (christ, this is infuriating)

Interesting event coming to London on Nov 27 for people interested in design and entrepreneurship. Organized by CIID. www.eventbrite.com/e/discover-y...

Starting without a plan feels risky, so we gather requirements. We aim for certainty when we understand the least. Great products are an art of discovery, not perfect planning. What matters most is building and learning quickly. www.timcheadle.com/plan-for-lea...

Japan House in London has a wonderful exhibit right now featuring pictograms. The 3D renderings of pictograms are especially cool. (ends in a month, so hurry!) www.japanhouselondon.uk/whats-on/pic...

Does the news reflect what we die from?

I just finished Freedom Climbers by Bernadette McDonald, which tells the story of Polish alpinism. It's so good! Politics, relationships, and great observations on leadership and ambition. Strong recommendation.

See you in a few minutes, Brighton.

Design tip: stop using jargon I used to think that using words like “cognitive load” made me sound smart. But a lot of people don’t know what it means. So when explaining your design to your teammates, use simpler and clearer descriptions like:

Come join all of us in Brighton on Sept 17-18. Support a great homegrown conference!

Side effect of leaving my job... no more Outlook or Teams! 😑

After 7.5 years working on open-source technologies for public health, I left Resolve To Save Lives (rtsl.org) a week ago.

I'll tap the sign again.

Inspiring list. Love @ourworldindata.org and scienceheroes.com

Counting lives saved is difficult, but it can show us the great difference some people have made— Scientists can make an enormous difference in the world.

Is anyone following me who knows about buying server hardware and UPS? We have a server for hosting Simple.org in a new country and I need help picking an appropriate UPS to go in the country's data center. Help!?

One measure of a successful career is the number people you admire that also admire you.

Classical statuary in hipster clothes is pretty genius. www.itsnicethat.com/articles/leo...

What share of new cars in your country are electric?

billions of dollars poured into data centers doing unspeakable things to our planet, and all modern recommendation algorithms still basically amount to > YOU ENGAGED WITH PICTURE OF: CAT > HERE IS FOUR MILLION MORE PICTURE OF: CAT

I am delighted to be speaking at Leading Design with Mahima Chandak this November 12-13, at the Barbican in London. Use my code JOIN_DB for a 20% discount. ti.to/clearleft/le... #LeadingDesign #LDConf

When you let people in while the work is still forming, you make space for collaboration and momentum, not just approval. Over time, feedback becomes less of a verdict and more of an essential ingredient that helps shape the end result.

Back to Firefox as my primary desktop browser — giving the Zen Browser variant (which has a UI like Arc) a shot. So far kinda great. zen-browser.app

Dumb question of the day... is anyone shipping keyboards with "Mute/Unmute" buttons on them yet?

Global inequality is the result of two centuries of uneven economic growth

Next time you find yourself in a zoom call,

🎉📚 Exciting news! My new book — Clearing the Air — will be published in the UK in September. 50 of the most common questions I get about how we tackle climate change. 50 short, data-driven answers. www.penguin.co.uk/books/462676...

Figma going public means new industry tooling coming because they will slow down, focus on 1/4 by 1/4 numbers before eventually being swallowed by a PE firm or sold for little to Adobe who will rename it. Be on your toes design folk. Now is the time to try everything and use what works.

UI/UX tip: make form labels make sense everywhere, not just in the form. Let me explain: Too often, designers write labels that only work when filling out the form for the first time (in the blank state). This leads to inconsistency, more work and a maintenance burden...

Improving health and science outcomes is one of the things I’m most excited about inside of Microsoft AI right now. If you’re a Product Designer in the London area interested in shipping high-craft, society-positive work quickly, hit me up.

Anyone looking for a strong Android dev? Remote from India. I can wholeheartedly vouch for them from personal experience.

Thoroughly appreciated this interview with @shl.bsky.social about his work at DOGE. www.npr.org/2025/06/02/n...

We had a great conversation last week about how tech people can support public health projects around the world. Video is available now! youtu.be/_1fBpkwNcAA

We're currently reading @rutgerbregman.com's new book Moral Ambition. It's very good and very aligned with Hard Problems ideas. Definitely worth reading and get a taste with his recent interview on The Daily Show: www.youtube.com/watch?v=djKB...

It's not too late to join our online chat with 2 global public health experts to discuss how tech can support successful public health initiatives. RSVP! - 9:30am NYC - 2:30pm London - 3:30pm Paris - 7:00pm Delhi lu.ma/nqd3pagz

C'mon "Spelling Bee", what are we even doing here? 💩

Love this type of useful data analysis. Design is great too.

Really using Cursor to vibe code for the first time... I'm starting to understand the excitement. It's pretty cool talking to a coding tool to create realistic prototypes in html/css.

We just got approved for Settled Status in the UK! Yay! Also, credit to the digital teams in the UK government who really do make very good systems. 👏