Hi designer (or their manager),
First off, thank you for reading my first post, and for subscribing!
What I love most about writing a personal newsletter is that it gives me a chance to slow down, and reflect.
I don't have an agenda beyond sharing my thoughts and giving you space to share yours. I want to hear what excites you and what worries you. Ideally, something I write sparks new ideas or reminds you of something you already knew but forgot along the way.
Everything I know is shaped by 15+ years in the industry. I've been lucky to have opportunities and have met people that challenged me and helped me grow. In this issue, I want to give you some context on who I am and why I see things the way I do, so I can reference it later.
My Not-So-Linear Journey (Abridged)
In 2007, straight out of high school, I started as a design intern at Last.fm in London. A mix of curiosity and good timing landed me a role designing and developing features for a platform that helped millions discover music. That was my design school. I was thrown into the deep end and learning fast, an experience I still draw from today.
The next chapter took me to Berlin's design and tech scene. I worked at Edenspiekermann, DDB, and startups like Amen, then co-founded my own design and development studio with Ricki and Ole. I learned to work at different scales, across different industries, with all kinds of collaborators. Some days I coded prototypes while interviewing users. Other days I helped large organizations navigate complex decisions as a consultant. During that time, some friends and I started up.front, a monthly design and front-end meetup in Kreuzberg. I have great memories of this, many people gave their first-ever talks there, including me.
After a few years in Berlin, in 2015 I immigrated to the US and moved to Colorado to be with my partner. I freelanced for a while before joining HPE to work on cloud platforms, my first experience tackling B2B enterprise problems. Shifting from startup energy to enterprise scale taught me a lot about mentoring, building sustainable processes, and helping teams navigate complexity. It was the largest company I'd ever worked for, a very different animal.
That was also when I hit burnout. I was diagnosed and spent a couple of years in therapy, figuring out my priorities, and learning how to get a handle on my general anxiety disorder.
After leaving HPE and taking a few months off, I joined pganalyze in 2021 to lead product discovery and design efforts. That's where I work now. I'm still solving enterprise-level problems, but in a much smaller team. Everything we do has intent. There's no time for work that doesn't teach us something or add value to the product. I'll share more about what we're doing and how we work in upcoming issues.
My perspective on design has been shaped by seeing both what works and what breaks.
- "I believe in questioning assumptions while staying pragmatic."
- In pushing for progress while keeping a sustainable pace.
- In building inclusive teams where everyone can grow.
- Good design emerges from diverse sources, not solely from designers.
It has also been shaped by the fact that I never attended school. To this day, the imposter in me still questions this from time to time. That said, that is probably why I've come to appreciate untraditional backgrounds.
Even after all these years as a designer, I'm still fascinated and excited by the work. The role, tools, and challenges have changed so much over the past 17 years, and I don't think that will stop anytime soon.
Understanding where I come from hopefully help you see what drives me, and where my takes come from.
What's Ahead
My goal is to send a newsletter twice a month. Sometimes it'll be an unfiltered thought. Other times, a list of good reads, an interview with a fellow designer, or a workflow I just discovered. But everything will tie back to the bigger themes of communication and how I see design evolving.
Some editions will be for designers. Others will be for managers and collaborators.
Even after all these years as a designer, I'm still fascinated and excited by the work. The role, tools, and challenges have changed so much over the past 17 years, and I don't think that will stop anytime soon.
Thanks for reading, Jens