Weeknotes: September 18, 2026.

Six colorful emoji faces depicting different emotions. Illustration by Annie Spratt on Unsplash.

What was good

  • I co-host an internal podcast and this is a total side-project so our release schedule is a little all over the place. That said, I finally pushed the seventh episode of our podcast this week after nearly two months of radio silence. We have another 2.5 episodes left for the current season.
  • This is also a ‘hard’ but I’ve been digging into Figma variable modes. As part of our email pattern design work, SO and I have been trying to figure out the best approach to do variables. Using modes for string variables is both working and not working, which is exciting and frustrating. Just when you figure out one thing, you discover a constraint with the feature.

What was hard

  • There was a slight miscommunication on a project that was resulting in duplicative work (not just an overlap). Sometimes this happens, and it’s totally ok. We course-corrected and clarified the specific tasks after reviewing the tickets and talking through what it was we’re supposed to do. I kind of feel bad though because this person did quite a bit work. But because it’s similar to what I’m doing, I asked her to keep it so I can reference what she’s done for my portion.
  • Critique and constructive criticism is hard, especially when doing it to a more junior designer who is really gung-ho about the thing they’re working on. My content design team had a demo/test session for a Claude skill that would help with a specific task on a specific product area. I’ve been providing guidance over the last two-ish weeks but the demo session revealed a tension of objectives. Over the course of the discussion, we identified the tension and–I think–got some clarity on what the actual objective was. So, not a total downer and it was a great learning session overall but I felt like I crushed this designers’ morale a little. (T_T )

What I’m looking forward to next week

  • Diving into more mud of Figma variable modes for the email design project.
  • Facilitating some workshops for our design library guidelines.

Tidbits

  • Currently reading Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer and October by China Mieville
  • Recently watched Linda, Linda, Linda (2005), Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970), and Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains (1982)