Some of my favorite takeaways from day 1 at Figma's Config 2023 Conference, which was jam-packed with some quality presentations from heavy-hitters in the tech and design communities.

The first day of Figma Config 2023 was jam-packed with talks from some heavy hitters in the design and tech communities. This is a recap of some of my favorite sessions of the day, related to the creator community and the characteristics of delightful software.

Day 1 of Figma's hybrid virtual/in-person conference, Config 2023, was practically seamless from a technical standpoint. There have been some real shit-shows over the past couple of years when it comes to virtual event productions. I know it's not an easy undertaking, so kudos to all involved in this year's production. Two talks that stood out were by Andrew Schmidt on delightful design and Amiad Masad on enabling new creators of software.

Andrew Schmidt, gave a delightful talk (pun intended) on the characteristics that embody good software, and how they're pre-requisites for creators to consider before pulling out their bag of overused tricks for novel/kitschy "delight" (think confetti, silly micro-interactions, and overly conversational UX copy). He proposed that delightful software should be tactile, inspiring, considerate, comfy, and empowering. At the end of his talk, he reiterated that when your software does characterize these different qualities, the icing on the cake is letting humanity shine through in your design. Just be careful not to get too "cute" with your product before accounting for those fundamental qualities.

Schmidt was one of the best conference presenters I have listened to in quite some time. Even if you're not that interested in the content, I highly recommend watching the video (skip to the halfway point to get to Schmidt's portion of the talk). His storytelling ability and presentation are top-notch.

Should designers c̶o̶d̶e̶ create software?

In another session, Amjad Masad, CEO of Replit, presented a thought-provoking talk on the evolving role of designers in the software industry. He proposed a shift in the question from "Should designers code?" to "Should designers write software?" This shift in perspective is significant. It suggests that designers should not merely be involved in the aesthetic and usability aspects of software but should also contribute to its creation and development. With the advent of AI-enabled platforms and tools, as well as a whole slew of low-code/no-code solutions available to consumers, I imagine the role of developers in the overall product development lifecycle will continue to diminish. The developer role will never go away entirely, but we will definitely see a stronger shift towards DesignOps over the next couple of years, with more focus on high fidelity prototypes and shorter development cycles.

Looking forward to tuning in for tomorrow's sessions. If you're interested in checking out the schedule, you can find everything on Figma's event page.

Figma Config 2023 Day 1 Recap: Delightful Design and Empowering New Creators

AI Pollution and the Tragedy of the Commons

A lot of people think the rapid uptick in low-quality content generation enabled by generative AI will “kill” the internet or drastically change it. It probably will. What will we see next though? Humans are resilient and innovative, so I’m looking forward to the next version of it. Are humans capable of designing a platform that prevents the tragedy of the commons, which doesn’t rely on an economy of eyeballs and clicks? In 2004, Aaron Swartz wrote a blog post about information freedom. Can information be regulated? Is there a technical solution to this, or do we rely on a collective swing of society to have a conscious positive impact?

In 2014, Warren Berger claimed in his book “A More Beautiful Question” that questions are now more powerful than answers, because questions lead to innovation, and information is now freely and widely accessible. It was inevitable that human information would become stored in a database that we could all access.

There is simply too much information to remember, and our brains are quite poor at it anyway. So for the last two or three decades, we've been heading towards a world in which we gain information from databases. And now more recently, a computer tells us the best information collected from the best resources. While this can sound daunting to some, there there is a tremendous upside to this - reduced decision fatigue.

I love Lazarus Lake’s approach to game design. Lake is known for his eccentric rules. Take these rules from The Barkley Marathon for instance:

The start time occurs between midnight and noon. However, racers are never told when the race will officially start. The only indication they receive for the start time is by Cantrell blowing a conch shell, which could come in the middle of the night, to signify that the race will start exactly one hour from that time.

Once the hour is up, runners line up at the yellow gate at a campground within Frozen Head State Park. When Cantrell lights a cigarette, that starts the race along with the clock.

The bib is very important in this race. It does not track the runner or splits; rather, each loop requires runners to make it to various points in the park. At those checkpoints are books that Cantrell has placed there. Your bib number is the page number you need to rip out of that book. Typically, nine to 11 books are placed in the woods, and if you are missing a page then you didn’t officially complete the loop.

Frank Latz wrote a wonderfully eloquent piece on Lazarus Lake. You should read it. Also, Lazarus spoke on a podcast recently that is equally worth consuming.

South American typography and illustrations, specifically observed on my trip to Argentina

When organizations hire consultants, they often expect them to deliver specific outcomes. One lesser mentioned value-add from hiring consultants lies in their ability to see beyond their defined roles and notice high-value opportunities.

Friends and family often have a hard time understanding exactly what I do. Unlike other professions, consulting offers no shortage of unique challenges, tasks, and responsibilities. In my division of consulting (tech), consultants are typically hired by companies to provide unbiased perspectives or advice, to help establish architectures (product, technical, enterprise, data), or to build systems (products, integrations, automations, etc.) in order to help businesses thrive. We're expected to quickly navigate the intricacies of the digital landscape at a client and ramp up quickly on their specific tools, processes, org structure, and business domain.

During one of my team's projects, we stumbled upon a quick win that proved surprisingly valuable for our client. Our focus at the client was product development - we were simultaneously helping them modernize legacy apps and refactor their product architecture to support a "product through composition" model. When we started the initial design process to migrate Single-Sign-On (SSO) over from a systems standpoint, the client provided helpful context about their existing identity provider - including how much they were paying for it. While their existing identity platform was well-known in the industry, we wouldn't consider it one of our first picks if architecting from the ground up. Knowing this, combined with our newly learned cost considerations, we quickly provided a recommended alternative. Since we've implemented auth and identity solutions across dozens of clients, it was easy for us to identify an opportunity for improvement.

The client was open to exploring an alternative tool/platform, and approved a quick proof-of-concept that allowed us to validate that it would check all of the boxes. Once we validated it, it took less than one sprint (two weeks) to incorporate into the product. With the help of feature flags, we were able to deliberately roll it out to specific customers as we worked with their IT teams to coordinate the change.

This tooling overhaul had a couple of significant benefits:

From a cost standpoint, our client was able to realize cost savings of over $100,000 annually

From a product standpoint, the new platform had vastly superior documentation and integration/setup tooling. We were able to eliminate the need for our clients Solution Engineers to assist their customers with SSO setup, and move it to a 100% self-service model. Setup time shifted from days to minutes, and freed up valuable time for our client's engineers. 

Consultants bring a fresh set of eyes and an outside perspective to the table. We aren't tied down by internal biases or preconceived notions, allowing us to objectively evaluate systems and processes. In this particular case, our ability to question the status quo and identify potential areas for improvement set the stage for significant cost optimization and improved customer experience.

Regardless of your industry, or position at your company, you can have a positive impact on driving business value at your organization by considering the following practices.

Companies both large and small can benefit from establishing relationships with consultants. They can be extremely valuable contacts to have in your Rolodex. If you've never used a consultant before, feel free to reach out to me! I'd be happy to direct you to some of the people in my network that may be well-suited to help you. It's very much a relationship-based industry, so it can be difficult to find a place to start sometimes. Also, most consulting firms are generally happy to provide you some thought leadership and a project proposal at no cost. These can be helpful insights to help you decide who to go with from a partner standpoint. One other thing to note is that depending on the size of your firm, it can be helpful to diversify your partnerships with at least two - this will help ensure competitive pricing. Just be sure to foster a spirit of collaboration, not competition, which can easily kill the success of your most valuable initiatives.

Be open and transparent internally - both with your people and with external partners. Your best interests are generally in the best interest of your partners and your people. Air on the side of sharing information vs. gatekeeping it. Sometimes, even utilizing the appropriate workspace management platform can be a great first step in creating a community of collaboration.

Different industries have different appetites for failure. Define what failure and experimentation mean for your organization, and how you can leverage them to build value. Failing is good. It means you are experimenting. Spend some time with your team to see how you can intentionally create space for experimentation in your day-to-day. They can be the most valuable mechanisms for validating value. One way you can easily do this, is by allocating a percentage of your roadmap to exploration and experimentation.

Hopefully this short case study illustrates the potential value that consultants can bring beyond their defined roles and how, with or without consultants, you can create space within your organization to discover those hidden gems yourself. Thanks for reading!

Figma Config 2023 Day 1 Recap: Delightful Design and Empowering New Creators

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