Design Pressure Points!

Announcements
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Happy Friday Glare Peeps - We changed up our newsletter (check it out ) but wanted to drop some nuggets from the week here too. The big idea? Design breaks when your story no longer matches what people do.

Below are this week’s pressure points. :gem_stone: Curious which one hits home for you?

1. Experiments that show what people actually understand

  • Deep Cut: Teams rarely lack ideas. They lack proof. Lightweight experiments shift the room from “What do we think?” to “What do people show us?”

2. Using OKRs and KPIs without getting tangled

  • Deep Cut: Mixing OKRs and KPIs leads to tracking everything while learning nothing.

3. When filters feel helpful instead of heavy

  • Deep Cut: Heavy-feeling tools aren’t polish problems, they’re decision-quality problems.

4. Seeing products the way people actually use them

  • Deep Cut: Misalignment isn’t usually a strategy issue. It’s a mode issue.

5. Constraints shape the product more than ideas do

  • Deep Cut: Most teams fight constraints instead of using them as inputs.
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Massive S/O to @Helge, @Kike_Pena, @james_wondrack and @Doug_Curtis for the :fire: feedback. You’re helping us push this newsletter to a whole new level, can’t thank you enough.

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Love it. Based on the feedback, we wanted to make it easier to scan and get a take away.

Here’s how we are thinking about it:

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Large Image

@Kike_Pena suggested we use the image to make the problem real before we explain anything. It shows the context, the signals, and the friction in a way words can’t. It pulls readers into the moment and sets the stage for the insight.

Link Title

We use the title to anchor the lesson in one clear idea. It tells our readers exactly what they will learn and makes the section easy to scan. It’s our promise in a single line.

Short summary

We use the summary to give readers immediate value. It explains why this topic matters, what the tool or pattern helps them see, and how it applies to their work. It turns the insight into something practical.

Deep Cut

We use the deep cut to surface a truth beneath the surface. We want to explain the real tension teams face, connects the insight to a broader pattern, and leaves readers with a sharper way of seeing their work. It’s the part that sticks. (we’ve collected feedback from over a hundred people with their challenges, so we’re trying to make this section partical to those needs)

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The iteration is fun to see here, excited to keep it going!

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I was wondering where these newsletter updates came from, love seeing that they’re directly based on feedback from our community! Great work @nathaliesmith @Bryan!

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Love it! Great work ya’ll!