May 2022 Recap: Most loved posts

A summary at the most popular and interesting posts this month

Early in my career, I find it difficult to find articles that were concise and relevant to the challenges I was facing as a product designer. Often, I feel the article is a bit too high-level or generic. That is why I created this newsletter—to share practical ideas.

My mission is to help product practitioners develop impactful products and careers. I’m so thankful for you! I appreciate the time you take to read and share my writing. I started my blog in 2019 with less than 10 people visiting my blog per day. Now, there are thousands of people who read my newsletter. I’ll use this energy to continue writing.

Now, I want to give you a summary of posts in May 2022:

1. How to scope product design work 🔒. I always find it hard to estimate and break down the scope when I was a product designer. Over time, I developed this technique to break down the user conditions and tasks—it eventually helped me to uncover edge cases sooner too.

2. Principles to scope design work 🔒. There are a lot of nuances when you scope the design work, I listed a few principles you can consider when scoping design work.

3. How to get promoted (with template) 🔒. The way to get promoted is, of course, to do the work and perform. But perhaps you can be more intentional in establishing expectations and goals with your manager.

4. Principles for career advancement. What to keep in mind when you want to plan for your career advancement?

5. How to deal with an underperforming employee. The least fun part about being a people manager is dealing with underperforming members or toxic members. As a manager, how would you handle this situation?

6. Problem rundown activity. We tend to conserve energy by avoiding decisions or rushing to a solution. How can we be clear about the problem before we decide on the solution?

7. 5 steps to effectively manage your time (with template) 🔒. What are your goals this month? How can you translate those goals into actionable items for each week? Prioritization is important.

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You probably notice there are lock icons on the list above. The icon indicates premium articles—paid subscribers can read the full article. Sometimes, paid subscribers can get a template too.

Starting in April, I experimented with a paid subscription model. My plan was to see whether people want to pay to support my writing, so I can sustain this newsletter in the long run. Thankfully, some of you have been subscribing—I really appreciate it. With this, I can invest more time in researching and sharing insights in a deeper way.

A lot of readers have proposed a reimbursement to the company as part of their personal growth. If you’re interested, here is the template you can use to propose reimbursement for your company.

Warm handshake,
Budi Tanrim