Spotify’s single biggest flaw is that it does not utilize offline mode quickly enough when in low-service areas.

Successfully conducting a design critique is an essential skill for anyone who works in the technology industry. Design critiques can highlight areas of misalignment and also solicit ideas from a variety of viewpoints; it’s the earliest form of user testing, and it’s a way for a designer to improve their craft. Lastly, it is the single most important way for a non-designer to impact the design. Designers receive critical feedback in design critique that alters final design decisions, and without the vocabulary, eye and skill required participate in design critiques, one will not be able to voice their opinions on design strategy.

I was once asked to explain what makes a product good in a product manager interview, which embarrassingly was the first time I thought about the question so explicitly. I made something up on the spot and it was good enough to move on to the next round, but I felt bothered that I hadn’t thought about the question more seriously. I do remember that I successfully resisted the urge to reference a supreme court case and say “A good product is difficult to define but I know it when I see it.”

I noticed a rather strange bug after clicking on an iCloud album invite, and one of the reasons I was compelled to document it was that I was quite shocked that Apple had left such a user-UNfriendly bug in their software. It’s very unlike them.

First, the error message looks as if it would be something an engineer would print out to themselves when testing their feature. What on earth does “ENABLE_IN_ICLOUD_BODY_photos” mean?

Spotify, with all of its simple, retro design and straightforward use case, still finds ways to surprise me.