Back when I worked in enterprise sales at Oracle, we used to joke that it took the whole “Oracle bus” to close a sales deal. Looking back, it was pretty accurate. Working cross-functionally across big, technical teams taught me to check my ego, ask good questions, and figure things out together.

That mindset still sticks with me now as a product designer. Whether I’m working with customer success for some scrappy user recruiting, or digging through data with our analytics team to learn what the numbers really mean, my approach is that good design is a team sport.

Being one of the first IC designers at my current company gives me plenty of room to make mistakes, reflect, and learn a bit more everyday. Usually by stealing from smarter designers. Or reading one more article about how AI is coming for our jobs (half-joking… mostly)..