I used to add settings. Now I add defaults. I used to add pages. Now I add a queue. Operations work is a tour of friction. Once you have seen it, consumer fluff looks expensive.
You also learn that users will route around you. Design for the bypass or they will build a worse one.
Empathy with a stopwatch
Caring is not enough. Timing the ritual is enough. Product sense that cannot survive a warehouse afternoon is incomplete.
Bring it back to client work
Clients who want a pretty rebuild still have an operations reality. I ask about the ugly hours first. It has made me harder to surprise.
