Mae Mirkin

I’ve had the privilege of working with designers and engineers so deeply committed to creating exceptional user experiences that they go beyond their defined roles, stretching the boundaries of design and engineering alike. Designers start coding to bring interactions to life exactly as they envision—something hard to achieve with design tools alone. Engineers move beyond just “making it work” to crafting every detail, caring about the nuances that make an experience delightful. In previous roles, to support and amplify these talents, I’ve set up "design prototyping" or "design technology" teams that bridge engineering, product, and design. These teams help close gaps, allowing designers and engineers to collaborate seamlessly and push their boundaries. At Slack, we’ve established the Design Engineering function—a role critical to our mission of elevating craft, accelerating prototyping, and strengthening design-engineering collaboration. This function came to life through an ongoing journey of learning and adapting how best to align design and engineering to unlock product innovation, led by Chris Delbuck. Big thanks to Ethan Eismann for the support. Transformations like this happen only with passionate leaders and doers like Chris, Gleb Denisov, and Naman Kedia, work together to unlock their skills and people superpowers. Their dedication and example drive change. Chris and Naman have documented this journey in a blog post, where they also lay out the career paths and foundational blueprint for Design Engineers. Their insights can serve as a guide for others setting up design engineering teams for success. 🔗 Check it out here:

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I'm considering breathing life back into wireframes—or monochromatic, super low-fidelity prototypes—as a standard artifact to use in conversations with stakeholders. I keep walking into discussions that easily shift focus to UI inconsistencies with written or visual language—elements that are obviously in play due to a designer feeling the pressure to rush and be as comprehensive as possible in their Figma prototypes. We've already instilled framing that includes task flows to illustrate conditional scenarios within the context of workflow while illustrating data shifts, such as bounces. That has helped reach alignment on conditional scenarios prior to walking through the interface. This is the last step, I guess. I'm secretly hoping we get to the point where highly annotated state diagrams return—I'll be in full flex mode. 💪 💪 💪

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You make a great point about the time and energy companies ask candidates to invest. In my recent job search, some companies not only asked for exercises but also multiple types of presentations, often in person. Here’s some perspective: none of those companies ended up making a good offer. One even took me through eight interviews and three different presentation styles, only to pass in the end. Think about that for a moment. Why does this happen? As Meghan Logan aptly notes, it’s because they don’t know how to identify and interview designers. Consider what it would be like working somewhere like that. If you can afford to, steer clear of companies that operate this way. And when it happens, be ready to just say “no” and move on to the next opportunity.

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This d.MBA episode shares a ton of great nuggets on advocating for design functions and how to have more impact as a designer? #UX #ProductDesign https://buff.ly/47VixoZ

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Do you want consistency between designers and front-end developers? Use of design tokens. When everyone uses the same terms, it simplifies things for both teams. Here's Google's introduction to design tokens and how you can implement them: https://lnkd.in/gpWMwqVz

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It’s easy to get caught up in functional ratios and its often a losing battle stuck in idealisms. With that said there’s a real business risk when design and supporting teams aren’t invested in. This video does a great job explaining how efficacy and efficiency across product and development teams drop when this happens.

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Over the years I've tried many approaches to design critiques with the teams I've managed. Without fail these 4 simple principles impact the effectiveness of design critiques greater than anything else when established as ground rules. For presenters: ✦ Describe the problem you're solving ✦ State the target audience* ✦ Specify the feedback you're seeking All of the above can be done in less than a minute, either verbally or in written format. For participants: ✦ Ask questions before comments "I think you should go with blue instead of red" is less effective than first asking "Why did you choose red for this?" The additional context that comes from asking questions will lead to more effective feedback. Design critiques are the easiest and most important thing design teams can do to improve design quality. Alone they are not a silver bullet. But they are the foundation for all other improvements to design quality. If you're not holding regular design critiques (usually weekly), this is step 1 for improving design quality. If you're already holding regular design critiques but not doing the 4 principles above well, this is step 1 for improving your design critiques. Better critiques. Better quality. * "Everyone" is rarely acceptable as the target audience. Even if the feature being presented is intended for everyone, 99% of the time there's a specific segment or archetype you're aiming for. #design #critiques #quality

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Somtimes the content that can up your UX game comes from unlikly sources. This article puts into context some of the best places to start!

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"There is no AI and ML without data, and there is no data without people" you have to read this interview with Ovetta! so many powerful insights around the importance of data to the work we do today!

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Figma's A.I. controversy just got a bit creepier. Days after releasing the new Make Design Feature, they decided to pull it off. The reason? 🚨 Allegation of plagiarism. After some users did experiences with the feature (like Andy Allen, as seen on X https://lnkd.in/dGGirXPB) many started realizing that what it actually does is copy some of the most common designs we know. 🤔 What does that mean for us, designers? Well, not only that the feared "Twilight of Human UI Design" is further than anticipated, but also that not all that glitters is gold. 😮‍💨 Should we feel relief knowing our jobs won't be stolen by the machines in a Skynet fashion? C'mon, we talked about it. If you want to read more, here's an article on The Verge: https://lnkd.in/dYFRHryd #Figma #FigmaAI #Makedesigns #UXDesign #UIDesign #InterfaceDesign #Skynet

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In the tech world, product design leaders often find ourselves walking a tightrope between influence and authority—steering vision without always having the power to enforce it. It’s a challenge we know all too well. When design strategy hits a roadblock, that’s when we step up—shaping conversations by reframing problems, asking the right questions, and backing up arguments with data and/or user insights. By digging deeper and fostering collaboration in cross-functional spaces, we help teams move past quick fixes to find solutions that'll truly add value—meeting user needs, working within system constraints, and aligning with business goals. As John Maeda put it, “Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.” Our focus can't be just pushing ideas, but guiding ourselves, our teams, and cross-functional partners to recognize the value in the journey we're all undertaking— understanding that while short-term value might come from any direction, lasting impact comes from thoughtful, user-centered design that has an effect on business investments well-beyond the surface level of user experience. Without authority, conscientiously navigating our way to those results, each day, is our only course of action.

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UX/DR should be a job title. I spent a few days last week with dscout and loved the discussions around UX Design and UX Research and their roles. In the current job market, we have seen many talented UX/Researchers laid off or devalued. While they delivered valuable insights, in many cases, they were not actionable or did not structure a team around them to be actionable. This is where we continue to blur the lines on Research and Design and deliver for our customers.    A UX designer is inherently a UX researcher, as effective design hinges on a deep understanding of user needs and behaviors. In this role, the UX designer immerses themselves in research processes, gathering insights through user interviews, usability testing, and data analysis. This research informs design choices, allowing designers to validate ideas and iterate based on real user feedback. A UX researcher can go further as well to inform design, stretch to do some wireframing or other artifacts to support the work - delivering insights is not the end state. #ux #userexperience #userresearch #uxresearch #uxr #colab #amazondesign #designleadership

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For anyone wanting to learn more about how we're working on AI as a design team here at Klaviyo, have a listen to this interview with Alexandra Holness

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This is a great post for designers moving into management/leadership roles. The nature of your job changes dramatically and it's important to figure out the most effective ways to help your team and the company. As noted in the article, it's very easy to have your time consumed by managerial tasks (operational work). Being deliberate about how you want to spend your time, focusing on the change you want to bring about and working consistently towards that end are critical skills to learn. #UX #Design #DesignLeadership https://lnkd.in/e_g4TRJx

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Designers sketch, pixel-pushers jump right into Figma. If you aren't sketching, you aren't designing. I hold this truth deep within my bones. Check out my new article explaining why and how you can grow as a designer. https://lnkd.in/gP5buNHf

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Federated design systems are great. In theory. But reality is a little more complicated. There are challenges associated with quality, consistency and follow through. In our latest episode, Davy Fung and I discuss the highs and lows of federated design systems. What's worked, what hasn't and how to come out the other side in one piece. Listen here: https://lnkd.in/g4W3SYqR #designsystems #podcast

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Very insightful about truth in product design. Jake raises several key points to consider as a team. My reflection is that truth is rarely something we have, but rather something we work towards. Truth is what happens when we align around sources that all claim to communicate the truth. When they misalign we make updates, sometimes to code and sometimes to design, to make them more aligned. Thus taking us closer to “the truth” as a whole.

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Really annoyed at Figma's price gouging here. There is no reason other than greed: https://lnkd.in/gfdrEiWH Oh, and I emailed them about it and this line from their reply was particularly poignant: "Additionally the minimum for enterprise is a $5k invoice minimum. 6 enterprise seats or made up with other products." To put that in context... our monthly Adobe bill (for 8 CC, 7 PS, 6 Acrobat licenses) is ~NZ$2k... Amazing how quickly enshittification sets in... #Figma #Design #SoftwareLicensing

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Doing good research is a monumental task. And yet so many researchers out there just plug away at it every day, with so much of their effort unseen. I love that this task list includes the tough mental work of ensuring a productive experience for everyone. A small personal example: We were looking into potential trust issues with a new AI-powered feature. My interview script included the standard 5 minutes for obtaining informed consent and having a warm up conversation. Then we dived into simulating an encounter with the product. But 10 minutes in I noticed my participant was bouncing their knee up and down and had crossed their arms. Something was wrong. I thought back to the weird, long, stark white hallway we had to walk through to get to the testing room. The basically empty campus they'd arrived and checked in at. They were uncomfortable. And I was supposed to be assessing their level of trust! I changed my own posture to one that was less focused on them - usually I lean slightly in to express interest, but this individual was possibly feeling too much of that engagement for their comfort. I sat back more casually in my chair and turned my shoulders slightly away. And I went back to a topic from the warm up. Something that they had said earlier that had made them smile. This meant cutting out a small portion of the tasks I'd intended to go through. But the entire session would have been in question if I hadn't taken the time to ensure they were comfortable enough to be open with me. Researchers do things like this all the time.

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