Random Yard Projects

South Side Fence

The original (and horribly painted) fence.

The house came with an old, rickety fence on the south side of the property. Our neighbors suddenly got a lot more light once it came down. Unfortunately for them, we do plan to put a new fence up though not as big. If you can actually make out a little black spot in the concrete above the downspout, good for you! That’s a post support and it marks where the new fence will go. I planned to build the fence myself, but found out with the one post support how incredibly hard it was to drill through 1950’s concrete. They don’t make it like they used to apparently. Getting the other supports in is now a job for pros. And the fence will also likely be hired out next year along with the fence on the north side of the yard. There’s simply too much work for a single person.

One thing I’d like tp point out: the house flipper laid down new concrete over the older asphalt driveway, but didn’t carry it through to this side area (you can tell by the color difference). As a result, the driveway is an inch or two higher. No big deal, right? Well, in one of the photos above, you can see a little line in the concrete next to the lumber laying on the ground. The concrete in this area is sloped toward that line, which is actually a deep cut of several inches. Before the new concrete was laid, I believe that cut continued to the edge of the driveway and provided a way for collected water in this area to drain away. Since the new concrete creates a barrier to the cut, we now end up with pools of water after a rain (or ice in the winter). Not great. I’m not confident I’ll get to this little job, but it is a job that I’ll allow myself to do with a power tool.

South Side Downspouts

How downspouts are NOT supposed to work.

When your downspouts are working this badly, it’s time to get to work. To fix it is to replace it and to replace it is to reroute it. The original downspout’s path took a severe turn in order to be positioned along a structural post. It was clogged to the point where it wasn’t doing its job anymore. I decided to reroute it straight down to avoid turns which are prone to clogs. But that meant it would have to float in space since it was going down a cantilevered wall. Who wants to see an ugly downspout out their window, amiright? The solution was to install a rain chain. We already have one at the front of the house, so this would be an exact match of it (Amazon’s 10 trillion options come in real handy when trying to match something like this). Now, clearly we need to do some planting in this area, not to mention replacing the rotting timber retaining wall. If you’ve read the post about the stone wall I built on the other side of the house, you’ll respect my lack of desire to build another at this point of my life, but I digress. You’ll notice there’s a super short French drain that exists the timber wall. In fact, there are two, one for the other downspout I replaced under the deck and against the house. Both of these will ultimately be extended out into the yard and into a dry well, but again, that work is for another ~~day~~ year.

South Side Patio

We have big plans for the south side patio. It’s extensive, expensive, and extends into the front area of the house. It’s a project for another year or two as we build up the courage to tackle it. Nonetheless, I did take an interim step which was to fill in the paver gaps with polymeric sand. Suddenly, what was a weed and bug infested area became quite tranquil—a nice spot to sit with a drink in your hand and good company. The bang for our buck here was pretty big and I didn’t destroy my back either. Bonus.

Tree Removal

Breaking down a tree for disposal.

Our yard had too many trees and shrubs. They were competing for sun and physical room resulting in asymmetrical growth and partial death. For weeks, I’d walk the yard, eyeball victims, and then go at them with saw in hand. As a result, we have fewer trees, but the ones that remain have a better chance of success. Unfortunately, the front of the house looks barren at this point having removed the majority of trees and shrubs, but there’s a plan yet to be executed to bring it back to life.

This stump was more than I bargained for.

One thing I’ll linger on here are tree stumps. If you haven’t needed to remove one, consider yourself fortunate. They’re a pain in the ass. And, of course, you inevitably damage or cut sprinkler lines which you had no idea were there. This time lapse is one of the smaller (easier) root balls, but it still took hours over the course of a couple days to get out.

The tedious, manual labor of stump removal work.

It’s A Wrap

I might as well pat myself on the back here and mention that I also did some DIY stuff inside the house along with the outdoor work. It’s not as sexy so I won’t go into it. And while there are some little things I’ll continue to tidy up outside, the landscape work for this year is coming to a close, much to the chagrin of my wife who wanted me to prioritize the front door area which I kept pushing back. Could I drip that work out in the remaining summer weeks? Possibly, but it’s looking like another winter will come and go before I tackle it.

From here, I’ll devote my time and effort into a job search and/or strike out on my own. It’s been a wonderful (and welcome) half year break, but an official retirement is still a ways off. I’ve enjoyed being a house husband and sometimes wonder how normal, everyday stuff gets done when everyone has a full time job. Who has time for that? But indeed, it’s time to get back into the design world and surround myself with interesting challenges and content. If you’re nearby, come over and we’ll have a coffee or glass of wine while we catch up and I give you a personal tour of all the places in the yard where I injured myself this summer.

North Side Yard

On the north side of our house sits our kitchen with its many windows and skylights as well as two bedrooms and a bath. Just outside is 13-21 feet of yard between us and our neighbors. These photos show what the area looked like when we bought the house. We inherited a patch of grass, a long concrete patio, multiple trees and boulders, and a retaining area along the fence full of flowers and bushes.

Work here was, according to our landscape architect, supposed to be minimal. It included replacing the rotting wood retaining wall, converting some of the concrete areas back to bare ground, and adding plants. (I never did take a photo of the wood retaining wall, but you can see it through the kitchen windows above). I began the work of replacing the retaining wall because I could reuse any lumber still in good shape for the garden boxes to be built on the east side of the house. As I took apart the wall, I peeked over the fence and into the neighbor’s yard. I figured the retaining wall was indeed retaining the ground given that our house sits on a small hill with our neighbors sitting further up the hill from us. And, indeed, the ground did slope, but not along the entire length of our fence. Some 30 feet of fence outside our kitchen sat at the same elevation as out neighbors. That meant the bulk of the “retaining” wall was not retaining anything. Instead, it was effectively a giant planter box. Where our side of the fence might measure 4 feet from the top of the retained area to the top of the fence, our neighbor’s side simply had a normal 6 foot fence. No bueno. That explained why the fence was leaning—the weight of the dirt was pushing it over. This called for a change in landscape plans.

I started by making room. Low hanging branches were in the walking path along with many dead limbs. Those needed to go. I cut down a few smaller trees and lots of dead material. I also had the utility company lop off tree tops that were all up in the business of our electric lines. Some of the trimming was pretty severe and my wife began to tease me that I really wanted to do was go around cutting things down. Personally, I think the aesthetics have improved. Nonetheless, losing trees wasn’t great, but they were too tightly packed anyway, choking each other out of sunlight (Rush’s tune The Trees pretty much sums up this tale).

The area where the new retaining wall would go.

With more room to work with and better clarity of what was going on, I decided to take out the retained area along the fence altogether in preference for retaining only the area that actually sloped to higher ground. Doing so would provide a focal point for the area and remove the issues with the fence. I’d simply move the dirt in the planter box to fill the newly built retained area. The rotting fence, with no dirt piled against it, could be replaced with a normal, full height version (though a project for another year). It was time to build a new stone retaining wall.

A time lapse of building the stone retaining wall on the north side of the property.

We bought 3 tons of moss rock sourced right here in Colorado (so it wouldn’t look out of place). It’s not easy to work with—it’s more irregular than I bargained for and prone to chip and break where you didn’t want it to. That turned the work into a complicated, heavy, and sometimes frustrating jigsaw puzzle. My back still hurts. And, of course, it ended up taking longer than I anticipated, but that goes without saying.

The time lapse will show a good portion of the build. I didn’t get smart about filming it until I had already started, hence why the wall is already underway at the beginning. You’ll notice my original plan for the wall to take a right angled path fell through after most of it was built. What a waste! In the end, I think this more natural shape ends up working better given the sloped transition from the lower flat ground to the higher ground.

Less noticeable was my serendipitous attempt at steps in that reconfigured portion of the wall. After some time, it became obvious that my dwindling rock supply would not support it and finishing the length of wall needed. I abandoned it along with the hours invested. Live and learn.

There’s still work to do, no doubt. But this damn wall feels like a milestone accomplishment worth writing about. So what else is on the to do list?

Take out the remaining grass and two sections of the concrete patio.
Plant vegetation
Dig a French drain and dry well.
Convert the pop up sprinklers into a drip system.
Add a second tier retaining wall closer to the fence since the ground slopes up higher there.

Look out for at least one more post with odds and ends I’ve tackled between this work and the work I did on the east side of the house.

East Side Yard

I’ve been on an extended, appreciated break from corporate life. In its place, I’ve invested mind, muscle, and the health of my back into our shambolic yard. Big and small improvements have come and gone and more are planned. My enthusiasm pulled me straight into the work before I realized I ought to document the evolution which I’ll do over the course of a couple posts. Today, I’ll start where our house ends, the backyard. Specifically, the eastern portion of the yard since we typically think of the ‘backyard’ as the horseshoe shaped land wrapping around the house and bounded by a fence. Let’s get to it.

The house long before we knew it existed.

We believe the prior owners lived out the end of their lives here. As one might imagine as the years tick by, yard maintenance becomes less important. We found this photo of the house (taken from the southeast corner) as it existed some year(s?) before we bought it. I’d describe the landscape as overgrown, messy, and untended. The deck was original to the house though I think it was expanded at some point (more on that later). On the far right, you can also make out a fence and stairs. Based on what I found (again, more on this later), I’m confident they had a second deck back there with a hot tub. And you know how it goes—hot tubs = swingers. Way to go old owners!

The house at the time of our purchase. That newly planted grass? Mostly dead or weeds now.

A local real estate agent bought the property, and completed some (low quality—grrr) updates, some of which were intended to spruce up its outdoor appeal. But like most flipped homes, the renovations are meant to have a high return on investment rather than disciplined, thoughtful improvements for the benefit of new owners. Maybe that’s not a fair statement, but we’ve found it to be true with this home. Anyway, we bought the place in 2022 as shown above. Note how the overgrowth was cut back (though not eliminated), new turf was laid, and the grounds generally cleaned up to look nice. Take note of the slope (the pocket of homes we are a part of is called Southern Hills). The main level of the house sits at ground level on the north side while the basement level (left side of the photo) sits at ground level on the south. Walking around the house will raise or lower your elevation by 9-10 feet which is around a 10º slope across the back of the house (more on this later—there’s a lot of foreshadowing in this post, sorry).

Work begins with the removal of the deck.

The first significant work I did was the removal of the deck. I began demo in the fall of 2023, weather and time permitting. As weekends came and went, I cut down sections at a time with a hand saw. Now, before you leave comments, I work on a computer all day. I relished the opportunity to be outside working with real materials and feeling the slow exhaustion of manual labor. Hence, I reached for hand tools rather than power tools most of the time. It’s quieter and peaceful even though productivity takes a hit. At this point in life, that’s a bargain I’ll take, but I digress. The deck was maybe 300 square feet. While that doesn’t sound like much, it sure the fuck is when you go at it with only a hand saw and crowbar. We’re talking about the deck boards, joists, posts, ledger boards, railings, and stairs—it’s a lot.

The long days and weeks of deck demolition.

From fall through winter and into early spring, I chipped away at the behemoth, one saw cut at a time. It became apparent that the deck was not in great shape. Joists were rotting and had been doubled up at some point to strengthen them (which is why I think the deck was expanded from its original shape and size). I also found hot tub equipment and a lot of bug filled debris stored under what were the stairs and north end of the deck. I cleared it out, busted out concrete pads, leveled the area, and generally got it ready for its next use—a garden.

I saved deck boards in case I’d need it for other projects, like the garden boxes I had planned to build. But as it (and lumber from a retaining wall on the north side of the house) piled up, I decided it might be old enough to be pressure treated with the old arsenic based chemicals—not what you want for your garden. With hardly two planks getting a second life elsewhere in the yard, not predicting how or where else to use them, and their unsightly junkyard look, I decided it was time to adios it all. Too cheap to rent a haul away trash bin, I cut the lumber to fit into our household trash. Week after week, a load of lumber was hauled away. Even the concrete pads were tossed out chunk by chunk. Luckily, my friend Matt let me dump a carload or two into a dumpster he owns at his and his wife’s business. Thanks Matt!

During the deck demo, we also replaced some windows and doors. What was a door to the deck on the east face of the house became a door sized window. And for months the replaced sliding door on the south side opened to an 8 foot drop to pain and suffering (everyone survived). Side note: the grey blue color around the A/C is what we plan to paint the exterior of the house. I painted this section because it was going to get tricky to properly paint after the work in this area was totally finished.

The ledger board that ran the full east face needed to be patched. I originally thought I’d replicate the vertical siding effect, but upon reflection, I‘ probably would have needed’d need to pull off a good chunk of siding to properly flash and patch the area. Instead, I followed the advice of our California landlord who visited us and who is a general contractor to patch the exposed area with a new ledger board. Admittedly, this option bothers me as it’s not my best work and not completely in step with the vibe of the house. But I convinced myself it was good enough and hey, it’s the back of the house—who’s going to see it? Damn it, I am.

With the deck gone, it was time to get cracking on the garden. Patting myself on the back for cleverness, I’d reuse many of the deck posts as the corners of the two garden boxes I’d build, one on either side of the A/C unit. I had to drop a couple of additional posts and terrace the site (remember the sloped yard?), but eventually the boxes materialized. I filled their bottom halves with tree trimmings and dirt from another project in the yard (a tale to be told in a separate post). The top halves were filled with fresh soil bought and delivered from a landscape supplier. Wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow, I ferried it from the street where it was dumped to the back of the house, some 100 feet in distance. I ended up needing antibiotic eye drops after getting a fleck of soil stuck in my eye—no fun. And my clever idea to reuse the deck posts resulted in giant garden boxes difficult to reach into the center without physically climbing into them. Buy hey, it’s the back of the house—who’s going to really care? Damn it, I am.

With the garden boxes finished (you can also spot the drip irrigation I installed), I could move onto the monstrosity that is the A/C unit. Here, I decided to build the world’s lowest and most impractical pergola to hide it. It’s weird, but does the job. It consists of two parts. There’s a mini deck under the window. We figured in an emergency, anyone in that room would escape out the window. The deck provides a platform for an exit. The pergola portion is intended to hide the A/C from inside the room while giving ample air flow to the unit’s fan. The whole thing is definitely a case of form follows function. And besides, it’s the back of the house. Who’s ever going to see it? Damn it, I am.

We hired out the balcony work. It obviously comes with a safety factor and I didn’t trust myself to do it competently. Since I hadn’t gardened in years, I forgot how big tomato plants get from their humble beginnings. Clearly, I planted too many in the box and it’s now a jungle. Somehow, basil is actually growing deep in the thicket along with some peppers and a couple other things. Whether or not I’ll be able to pick them is another story. Live and learn.

Well, there you have it: a deck swapped out for a garden. There’s still the matter of painting the house, encouraging native grasses and plants to take over the grassy area, building a retaining wall to shore up the steep elevation change at the southeast corner of the house, and doing some grading to go hand-in-hand with the wall. And then there’s the weeding. Oh, the weeding! Nonetheless, this series of projects is done. Stay tuned for the next update—the north portion of the yard!

Design Systems: Rules vs. Norms

Atomic Design “…introduces a methodology for thinking of our UIs as thoughtful hierarchies…” writes Brad Frost.

“The five stages of atomic design” by Brad Frost

His system begins with atoms, the smallest documented units — think buttons, typographical styles, and the like. Combining atoms together creates a molecule. Multiple molecules and/or atoms in combination form an organism, and so on up the hierarchy. Any atom will likely have variations within the system. A button may offer a few sizes and color, for example, in order to satisfy a range of situations. This is fine as the limited set of options is manageable and come with rules of use.

The advantages of this system are clear: It improves usability and productivity by regulating use. There’s a problem though. When multiple atoms and molecules (each having a set of variations) are combined into an organism, the number of permutations can explode causing strain on the system’s ability to regulate use. When rules begin to fail us, what can we do? We can turn to principled norms. Let’s consider an example.

Two variations of a single card organism or two independent card organisms?

Here are two card organisms. They’re organisms because they’re made up of atoms and molecules. Both have a header molecule consisting of an icon, header text, and subhead text. They both have content, the one on the left showing a repeating photo/text molecule while the other showing a grid of icon and label molecules. Let’s now pose this question: should these two cards be cataloged as two separate organisms in the design system, or as one with enough variation to produce the two examples shown? I’d say the latter is the best option. Both are the same organism. They only vary in content — in this case, content made of different molecules and atoms.

Now, let’s consider each card’s spacing, with particular attention to the bottom of the cards. Both show a buffer (highlighted in green) between the card’s content and the edge of the card. Note that the amount of buffer differs (and, indeed, the buffer differs both in real and perceptual terms).

Padding differences caused by the interaction between variations in content versus the same containing element. Top image shows actual measurement difference while the bottom shows my subjective, perceptual difference (which you can disagree with. The point is that actual versus perceptual are different).

If we examine the structure of how these cards are built by drawing boundaries around content elements, we see that both card organisms (shown in red) have equal amounts of margin and padding along the bottom of the card. The content elements however, don’t. On the left, we see the screenshot/text molecule has no padding and only a top margin to separate it from the molecule above. On the right, the icon/text molecule is padded all around with no margin. We conclude that the cards are identical and any difference you may perceive in the spacing of elements is caused by the variation in content.

Boundaries show how these cards are built.

This difference is the slippery slope. The card organisms—which are identical—show different visual spacing, an issue a design system is supposed to manage away by automatically introducing consistency as a prime value. The number of ways that atoms, molecules and organisms interact with one another causes an explosion of variation that cannot be fully managed by a simple set of rules.

The Issue in a Nutshell

The dilemma is this — a design system breaks down because the number of variations becomes so large, rules can’t hope to cover every conceivable situation. And you can’t continue to heap on more rules because the system will collapse under its own weight.

The way out is to keep a design system sane by placing more emphasis and effort on the lower level of Frost’s atomic hierarchy. Rules at the higher levels risk paralyzing product teams and bloating design systems to the point of losing their value.

Norms, Not Rules

Again, I don’t want to suggest that design systems are bad — they’re not. I only raise the spectre of too much specificity at higher levels. Instead of rules, I propose norms. Let the collective experience and leadership in the team set what’s acceptable and what’s not. Is that a slippery slope, too? Most definitely, but it acknowledges the fact, rather than masking it. Good designers don’t value from a prescriptive design system at the higher component levels. They need guidance and influence where rules no longer suffice.

One clear tradeoff that shouldn’t go unspoken is that fewer rules lead to more variance, which leads to greater maintenance cost. It won’t be as easy to make one change and have it cascade across the ecosystem. But I’m reminded of Tesler’s Law:

“Every application must have an inherent amount of irreducible complexity. The only question is who will have to deal with it.”

The ‘who’ in this quote is either the business or the user. I’d argue the correct answer in this case is the business — and more specifically, the design system curators (sorry to add work to your plates!).

With design systems being all the rage these days, I feel a word of caution is in order: let’s not slip into a world where we optimize for the design system and, by extension, the business, rather than app designers and, by extension, the business’ users. The way out is to keep a design system sane by placing more emphasis and effort on the lower level of Frost’s atomic hierarchy. Rules at the higher levels risk paralyzing product teams and limiting a design system’s value and promise.

Masthead image courtesy Kai Stachowiak

Why Snowflakes Are Counterintuitively Integral to Design Systems

The problem

Design systems (e.g. style guides, pattern libraries, etc.) are all the rage. They speed product design through consistency of patterns, components and behaviors which, in turn, drives out random, one-off elements (let’s call them ‘snowflakes’). It’s a noble goal, except that design systems also slow down product teams. The drive for consistency and the efficiencies that stem from it can crowd out the flexibility needed to craft the right element for the right situation at the right time. How do we embrace this conundrum? By not making it a conundrum. We can embrace snowflakes as a positive aspect within design organizations — without conflict of ideals, professional shame or complete dilution of a design system’s benefits.

As a product designer, I design the best solution I can for my customers. To the extent that a design system propels me toward that goal, it serves me and the business well. But when it doesn’t, when I’m too constricted, I don’t stop designing or cut corners. I move ahead by keeping critical elements that aren’t available in the system…I use and spec snowflakes.

Snowflakes will enter design systems if they’re deemed worthy, but at a cost: they don’t instantaneously appear in the design system. Delays are caused by debate, setting standards, coding, testing, etc. Additionally, another delay exists between the time a new component is made available in the system and its uptake by product teams (I’ll only address the first in this article). Both delays, nonetheless, increase iteration cycle times for product designers. Delays are significant, especially if you’re on a regular release cadence like I am in the enterprise space. They may cause you to miss your release date or to hit it with inferior UI.

Inayaili de León Persson wrote about Vanilla’s intake process, shown below. As an open source project, Vanilla solicits issues and proposals from the public. According to the article, contributions are reviewed every couple of weeks. Delays are built into their process. If delays exist, product is inevitably hampered.

The solution

Product designers should use snowflakes until the design system’s intake process delays are sorted out. The process illustrated above should be a parallel track of work, independent of a product team’s schedule. The two tracks of work will eventually sync, but the process need not create delays for product teams during the interim. The considerations below give structure to that process and explain the resulting outcomes.

Considerations and tips

Product designers need to know the design system well
Product designers are responsible for knowing what’s available in the design system. If an existing component meets the needs of the proposed design, then no additional work is necessary and it can be put to use right away. The idea is not to encourage the proliferation of snowflakes. Rather, it’s to keep product teams nimble. Judgement and temperance, as always, are needed. Pull from the design system first and always.

When a snowflake materializes, be clear about its intent
If no system component suffices, then a conversation with system designers is in order. Product design should outline what the new component is, the use case(s) in which it arises, and why similar, existing components won’t work. In simpler terms, product designers should advocate for their customers against the design system’s pressure to be consistent. After this exchange, product design should move forward with the snowflake while the larger debate about its merits takes place with the appropriate parties.

Snowflakes should be included in the design system, regardless of outcome
Debate over whether or not a snowflake is made available for widespread use is appropriate. Debate over whether or not the snowflake should have an entry in the system isn’t. It should always be entered under one of three scenarios:

The snowflake is deemed worthy of widespread use and gets incorporated into the system. The system team then communicates its availability to all interested parties (including its description, reference to the production use case, and anything else mandated by system guidelines).
The snowflake is deemed an anti-pattern and is not allowed to be placed into widespread use. The component, its underlying use case, description, intentions, etc. is added by the system team along with the rationale for its rejection and recommended alternatives. Product designers must then redesign to come back into alignment with the system or start over.
The snowflake is deemed worthy of use, but not widespread use (i.e. it remains a snowflake indefinitely). Again, use case, description, intentions, etc. should be included in the snowflake’s system entry.

Regardless of the option chosen, documenting the decision helps product designers know what is and isn’t in bounds and why.

Benefits

The clear benefits for me as a product designer are two fold.

Speed!
We all know the pace of product design is fast and, seemingly, getting faster. When product teams are able to speed ahead of the design system, they can push the envelope of what’s possible making them more responsive to the marketplace and the people who use their designs.

Learn!
Snowflakes allow product teams to learn what works, what doesn’t and why. The knowledge gained can be fed into the system itself through more informed debates and decisions about future changes. Similarly, product teams are able to improve their product through testing or, if a snowflake happens to make it to production before system designers get to it, through actual usage analytics.

I see delays to rapid design innovation as a major design system workflow problem. Embracing snowflakes — not as a last resort, but as a primary feature — within design systems is one solution. What’s your stance?

The State of Bread in This Country

Here’s a typical bread display at any mass market grocer. And here’s a typical list of ingredients (this one from Dave’s Killer Bread’s 100% whole wheat loaf):

Organic whole wheat (organic whole wheat flour, organic cracked whole wheat)
Water
Organic dried cane syrup (sugar)
Organic expeller pressed canola oil
Organic wheat gluten
Organic molasses
Organic cultured whole wheat
Sea salt
Yeast
Organic vinegar

I’d say this is among the better ingredient lists I’ve come across. They go downhill from here. Bread is a simple food that takes more time and effort than ingredients. So why add sugar, oil, gluten, molasses, vinegar and more? I understand people desire bread that won’t go stale after a day or two, but at what cost to taste (not to mention all the extra crap that goes into your body)?

Yes, this all sounds elitist and unworkable in our busy daily lives. I too buy the same shitty store breads you do out of convenience, but I sure do anticipate and enjoy those days when I find freshly baked, simple bread.

Trump

One of Trump’s latest tweets…

Kellyanne Conway went to @MeetThePress this morning for an interview with @chucktodd. Dishonest media cut out 9 of her 10 minutes. Terrible!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 8, 2017

His conclusion is hypocritical, of course. As a public figure who uses Twitter to communicate with the public, he is a de facto one-man media outlet—one chock full of the dishonesty he abhors in others.

Given that no single individual can easily gauge (nor even keep up with) what’s true and what’s not, it’ll be hard to trust the man. He has a track record so far of blowing whichever way the wind dictates or, probably more accurately, whichever way his self centered nature take him. And that is the crux of the problem with a Trump presidency for me: I think he’s in this for himself. And given that Trump could be diagnosed as a narcissist (he’d never agree to be assessed, of course, nor willing to accept any diagnosis he didn’t like), this isn’t a radical idea. He uses rhetoric to build passion and support only to wind up doing whatever he sees fit to do. Forget about his past statements, commitments and promises.

Will he be a disaster? Time will tell. Until then, I fear for his lack of attachment to anything consistent and to his grasp of reality as a whole. Good grief, I hope I’m wrong.

New Food

As the primary cook in the family, food is always on my mind. Every weekend, the inevitable question ‘what do you want to eat this week?’ is spoken and, not uncommonly, followed by grunts, sighs, or just plain silence when the usual meals grow old and no new ideas exist. Lately, this has been the case for us and I’ve consequently been on a search for The Next Great Meal. If anyone wishes to drop by Casa Rivera and join us for dinner (and wine, of course), here’s what’s for dinner!

Chicken In Oaxacan Yellow Mole With Green Beans And Chayote (Or Potatoes)

The chiles matter in this one! Make a special trip to a grocer with a good selection if needed. A single bag of dried guajillo chiles will be enough for several meals so any special shopping excursion will be worthwhile (like the chayote—although I’ve been using potatoes).

This recipe is from Rick Bayless, a master of Central American cuisine. His website if full of ideas to try so hit the link and browse.

Lomitos de Valladolid

This one is super simple to make though it does need to simmer for more than an hour so plan ahead. I always try to buy avocados the day I use them or the day before since I find they go from edible to black and gross in the span of like 14 minutes.

I found this recipe after seeing Pati Jinich’s PBS cooking show over the holiday break. I’m 100% sure I’ll be making more of her recipes as 2017 unfolds.

Avocado & Hearts of Palm Chop Chop Salad

The toasted pumpkins seeds make this a winner. And now that I live in California, good produce (tomatoes in this case) aren’t as hard to come by in January as they are in Denver. I don’t like vinegar and Laura doesn’t like raw red onions so, as always, modify as needed. Again, go with just-bought avocados.

Popo’s Pot Stickers

These pot stickers are a production so I don’t make them often and they feel new each time we eat them. On the plus side, we end up freezing a bunch of these for future meals. I figure you can get 2-3 meals out of the amount made. Also, we substitute rice based wraps since Laura can’t eat gluten. They’re still tasty. Don’t let the three star rating fool you.

On Deck

I’ll be making these in the coming days, but haven’t quite gotten to them.

Pork Tenderloin Enchiladas

These enchiladas use radishes which I’ve found to be quite tasty in Mexican food (these shrimp tacos will convince you of that statement).

Braised Short Ribs

The short ribs—a recipe from celebrity chef Tom Colicchio—is a production best made on a weekend, but I have high hopes based on another production of a recipe of his, pan roasted sea scallops with scallop jus, which I think is the bomb.

Building Team Rapport

Promote better interpersonal relationships and understanding while at work

You’ve all been there and done that: the company “team bonding” extravaganza. The ones that might be held off site and include facilitated exercises, games and the like. You’ve had a front row seat to the awkwardness that can ensue — “forced fun” as I’ve heard it described in the past. Why is it that people who spend a good deal of their lives together, yet often only know one another superficially, are asked to build or express team spirit next Wednesday between 10am-2pm at Dave & Busters?

A common problem with these events is how contrived they can feel. They lay a veneer of ‘team-ness’ over real and often deep seated cultural issues and company problems. They sometimes only succeed in fueling the cynicism that already exists rather than getting people to work proactively for the benefit of all.

Recently, we experimented with an idea that turned out to be enlightening, empathic, informative and fun. The idea is straightforward: know your coworkers beyond their résumé and work personas. Get personal, but not too personal. If you can tap into people’s life experiences, big or small, you can glimpse how they shape attitudes, incentives, motivations and preferences. You get a better sense of what makes them tick and that’s useful when you’re working together day after day.

For us — a group of creative problem solvers — the proposition was simple:

Present your past creative work

Using design as a storytelling canvas, coworkers highlighted the milestones they felt most shaped who they became in adulthood and which culminated in their employment at this company, with these people at this time.

Each presentation was half an hour in length and open to interpretation. We had two people present back to back on a bi-weekly basis over a lunch hour. The cadence gave people time to prepare, time to digest other presenters’ stories and still have plenty of time to tackle their day jobs.

Obvious questions about the boundaries between work life and personal life came up. How personal is too personal? After all, it’s not a normal to talk about personal subjects at work (maybe not allowed per your HR rules?). Shyness and introversion came into play too. Would people judge me? It can be nerve wracking to talk about yourself in front of others. One colleague told me “… I was a little uncomfortable … because I tend to be pretty hard on myself when it comes to things I’ve produced,” and “Having it based on your past ‘art’ work was pretty intimidating.” Others thought “This is going to be a lot of fun” and “It’s interesting to hear about people’s influencers and how they’ve helped create pivot points in people’s lives. It was a fun way to get to know someone!”

Results & Reactions

You’ll be fascinated, impressed and surprised by the people you sit next to day after day. And they, in turn, will be blown away by your stories. You’ll have insight into your colleagues that can foster empathy, respect and trust — all the things that team bonding is supposed to generate.

Colleagues come into focus as you connect the dots between their past and present. As one of our staff participants wrote, “I think it’s incredible to get a peek inside our co-workers lives. It’s very cool to see where they came from and how they ended up doing what we do. We work with a lot of talented people!”

Another participant told me that the sessions evened the playing field. “It wasn’t about titles or skill sets or years of work experience and instead about knowing the people around you by exposing a side that’s rarely on display in a work setting.”

Coworkers followed up with presenters to talk more in-depth about certain topics, events and past design samples included in their presentations. Connections were made. “I’ve actually been thinking about how to produce more ‘art’ since we’ve begun this whole exercise. I guess you could say it’s been another source of inspiration for me.”

You won’t go from dysfunctional to functional overnight, mind you. Good working relationships and a dynamic, well functioning culture take effort and intention. This is just one tactic we discovered to be effective.

An Example

Below is a presentation I made recently for my colleagues over a GoToMeeting. Others followed the same basic path, but reinterpreted and reformulated it to suite their needs and storylines. Note my hesitancy and vulnerability, but also (hopefully) insights into how my mind works that probably wouldn’t arise in ‘normal,’ everyday work interactions.

Tips for Success

Team building should not take place during off hours. People have a life and it should be respected. If anything written here is important to you, then it’s important to dedicate work time to it.
Don’t make it mandatory. It only works if people desire a deeper connection with the people they interact with so often. Leave what to share and how to each person. The interpretation is in itself a window into the person.
Go back in time as far as necessary or desired. It will take time to think through what is at first glance a simple question. Allow enough time for people to craft their story, find representative things to highlight and to prepare a presentation (the fidelity of which is theirs to decide). As one colleague voiced it, “I approached the presentation as how I got to where I am. Basically a life history picking out the things I thought had an affect on me becoming a creative.”
In the beginning, no one was quite sure what this was going to be or what the expectations would be for them if they chose to participate. I was the first one to go since I pitched the idea and I too wasn’t sure where I’d end up. Mine was likely the least autobiographical and, having seen where others took their presentations, I would have personalized it to a greater degree.
Allow for a short Q&A at the end of each presentation.
30 minutes per person worked well as did scheduling 2 people every other week.

Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing

I’m reminded of a group development model from business school days that describes the stages any group goes through as they develop. Forming groups are new to one another and things are polite as relationships are built. Storming groups have built strong enough ties to express criticism and diverging opinions. Norming groups are able to get past conflict to rally around common goals. Lastly, performing groups are those that are self reliant, proactive and well functioning on all levels.

An exercise like the one described in this article can fit into any of the stages. It can be used as a means to connect people in early stages and as a means to build trust and self sufficiency in people during later stages. What your team gains is contingent on many factors, some of which are beyond this article’s topic. Nonetheless, our team found it beneficial and we hope yours can too.

What NASA Knows About Great UX Management

In the 1970s, NASA undertook an assessment of airline pilot performance. They needed to understand why pilot error had become the leading cause of airline accidents. What they learned helped make commercial air travel one of the safest modes of transport in the U.S. today. Their research shed light on the importance of workload, leadership and communication — integral aspects of running successful UX engagements. What can we learn from this seminal research?

Balancing Workloads

Research found the best performing airline captains kept tabs on their crew’s workload. Interestingly, pilot error wasn’t typically due to lack of skill or knowledge of proper procedures. Instead, the important factor was how their skill and knowledge was applied. The best performing crews had captains who managed how many tasks each crew mate was asked to perform. When workload became an issue for anyone, they delegated, relieved or rebalanced everyone’s duties such that each crewmember could better concentrate and focus for optimal performance.

Captains who didn’t manage their crew’s workloads consequently had worse performance. The study found that when anyone had too many duties, they became overtaxed which lead to performance problems and finally to errors.

While errors in a UX project don’t have immediate life and death implications as they might in commercial aviation, they can have negative consequences. When people are overtasked, they cut corners, consciously or not. They can overlook or be blind to problems, they can experience delays identifying and handling problems, they can fall back on assumptions when objective data is available, and they can develop tunnel vision causing an inability to assess the entire project as a whole.

I’ve been witness to engagements where scope outstripped the ability of a project team to deliver the best work they could in the time allotted. In these cases, morale sank as individuals realized they couldn’t deliver the quality they expected (and which they knew they could provide). They left projects feeling the end result could have been better — sometimes in explicit terms when they knew gaps existed and sometimes with vagueness when they had a general feeling that problem definition, exploration or execution could have been pushed further.

Ensuring each contributor on a team has a manageable workload helps keep people engaged, performance and morale high, and stress at manageable levels. All of these characteristics contribute to fewer errors and, ultimately, less rework since time and effort are being used more effectively.

But how do we balance workloads effectively? As NASA’s research suggests, keeping tabs on workloads is one of the captain’s primary duties. If the captain assigns himself too many tasks, he essentially causes tunnel vision for himself, unable to judge his crew’s workload. The lesson is to have one teammate delegate enough tasks so they can effectively evaluate workloads and make decisions concerning them. Failure to do so jeopardizes overall performance and risks errors big and small.

Leadership

NASA found that during simulations of emergencies it wasn’t clear who was in control — the captain or co-pilot — during times when one or the other looked up information, communicated over the radio or discussed courses of action. This is in stark contrast to how captains typically lead in the 70s — which is to say they were authoritarian. As an Atlantic article put it, researchers found “…a culture dominated by authoritarian captains, many of them crusty old reactionaries who brooked no interference from their subordinates. In those cockpits, co-pilots were lucky if occasionally they were allowed to fly.” Also, “It all depended on the captains. A few were natural team leaders — and their crews acquitted themselves well. Most, however, were Clipper Skippers [authoritarians], whose crews fell into disarray under pressure and made dangerous mistakes.”

We in the user experience world would likely agree that the best outcomes don’t come from a strict hierarchical and authoritative environment, but one where collaboration is encouraged. In an environment like this, colleagues lend critical eyes, stakeholders provide context, and customers pass judgement via their attention and wallets. These feedback loops are meant and encouraged to pinpoint problems and signal possible solutions.

Authoritarianism, by definition, is counter to this culture. It doesn’t encourage teamwork, critical analysis and experimentation nor does it tap the wisdom of crowds. In a business world that increasingly sees UX as the critical difference between success and failure, authoritarianism will likely produce worse results. The era of the lone visionary (if, in fact, it ever existed) always loses ground to an active, diverse group. Our world changes too quickly and the Internet has largely removed the ability for any one person to take advantage of information asymmetry for long.

While an authoritarian approach proves to be problematic, NASA did find a need for clear decision making. While collaboration brings benefits, all projects will require decisive calls (typically from someONE) when multiple and equally good options exist. Teams need leadership, products need leadership and companies need leadership. The trick is to avoid dictatorship in preference for leadership flowing from a collaborative environment where all input is sincerely taken into account.

At Slice of Lime, we ask clients to provide a project owner (PO) — someone on the client side who can answer questions, prioritize workloads and make decisions quickly. The role requires authority and accountability, authoritarian characteristics to be sure, but tempered by the environment in which it exists. Our team gives recommendations, provides a reality check and influences the direction the team and project take. We push our clients, they push us and our client’s customers push everyone. The PO’s job within this dynamic is to weigh the work output and the insights from customer research against their internal culture, priorities, timelines, and budget. As a team, we all have the same goals, but since everyone’s contribution has a particular focus we can run into forks in the road where multiple paths forward appear. These paths may be relatively equal in terms of their chance for success. The PO, in this situation, is empowered to make a decision on behalf of the entire team.

This approach works without it degrading into a ‘do it my way’ mandate because the team worked to provide the options within a collaborative environment. If research proves the chosen direction to be poor, the team can course correct without finger pointing or ‘I told you so’s.’ The idea is not to empower the product owner to be a dictator, but to empower them to choose rationally knowing the tradeoffs and risks as surfaced by the team. The group acknowledges and supports the PO’s ability to make hard choices when needed because they are the source of those choices and will be full participants in any course corrections that may materialize.

On our side, we too have a team lead who acts in a similar vein to the PO although primarily being decision maker for our team. This role also weighs factors at hand in order to plot a course for our team’s efforts that will meet the needs of our client while also ensuring we are doing the best work we can. Again, it’s about making rational choices knowing the tradeoffs and risks at hand. Communicating these judgements and any recommendations from the team falls on the team lead’s shoulders while others move ahead with the next set of priorities. Because trust has been established through good communication, our recommendations will likely heavily influence the PO’s decision. In effect, we help guide the project even though the client retains decision making powers and the overall vision for the project.

Communication

As you probably already know, good communication is the key to the smooth choreography of a project and project team. NASA discovered “…that teamwork matters far more than individual piloting skill. This ran counter to long tradition in aviation but corresponded closely with the findings of another NASA group, which made a careful study of recent accidents and concluded that in almost all cases poor communication in the cockpit was to blame.”

Advising people and teams to ‘communicate better’ is certainly easier said than done, not to mention a bit lazy on my part. It masks a lot of dynamics that pose roadblocks (an article all its own), but the advice nevertheless stands. In our company, we work very hard to prioritize communication. We’ve adopted Agile as our preferred workflow and one of its principles is “individuals and interactions over processes and tools.” We apply this mantra both internally and externally.

For example, once a month, our entire company gathers to talk through issues good, bad and somewhere in between in a safe environment where open and honest conversation can be had. Action items spill out of these conversations and we work to improve as a group. Externally, we do the same. We hold regular meetings with clients to ensure the project is running smoothly and any brewing problems are dealt with before they become impediments or interpersonal baggage. We do other things as well, but you get the point. If you consciously make communication a priority, then it’ll be a priority. It’s that simple.

Putting It All Together

Many of the examples I’ve given from Slice of Lime have taken time to implement. We didn’t arrive at our current process overnight and I wouldn’t expect it from other companies. Tackling these topics will, I believe, result in positive change for you and your organization. Your priorities and culture will influence the end result however. I don’t wish to say that our way is the right way. It’s the right way for us at this time. Tomorrow is another day and we’ll evolve to meet the challenges and opportunities we encounter.

You will find what works and doesn’t through trial and error, as we have. We still find ourselves on rickety rails from time to time, but they don’t completely derail us. Our communication feedback loops help ensure we spot and deal with problems as early as possible.

You will also find that all three aspects discussed — leadership, workload and communication — work in tandem. A change to one affects the others. This is inevitable as all three blur into one another to some extent. Be cognizant of your organization’s particular links between these areas and be mindful of disruptions that may snowball from any one change. Again, an iterative and collaborative approach will help.

We find, for example, that our tight communication with clients builds trust. Trust enables workload issues like scope creep to stay in check. Our tight collaboration ensures that the client (and the PO in particular) is aware of the impact of new features, priority changes and insights from research. Since they ultimately have decision making power within the team dynamic over what to do and in what order, they are acutely aware of how scope change will affect the project. We inform them day to day on our progress and that, in turn, allows them to better manage workload within their cost and time constraints. And it’s all made possible by the importance we place on communication.

Has your organization found good tactics around these topics? If so, please leave your thoughts. I’d love to hear them.

William Langewiesche’s “The Human Factor” inspired this article. Highly recommended, especially if you’re an airplane junkie.

Photo by Steve Jurvetson, via Wikimedia Commons