Welcome to Wimp, a very chill revolution. No pitchforks or storming the castle — just decaf, the underdog of coffee, coming to play with the big kids.

Wimp Decaf Coffee Company

Ted Goas is a reliable product designer and front-end developer working on websites, applications, and HTML emails.

Newsletter | Ted Goas

And a quick word on 🇺🇸 politics…

The Road Less Stupid

https://tedgoas.beehiiv.com/p/road-less-stupid

Plus Parcel Unpacked, Spotify layoffs, and a ton of good news you probably didn’t hear about.

Why it’s important to have downtime at work

https://tedgoas.beehiiv.com/p/important-downtime-work

A free, virtual event of marketing and email development keynotes and best practices.

Email Camp 2023: Mission Control

https://hello.mailjet.com/email-camp/?utm_source=social&utm_medium=emailcamp_missioncontrol&utm_campaign=Ted_Goas

https://twitter.com/TedGoas/status/1725343028154347782

There’s room for both, but “hybrid” is nonsense.

Remote work vs in office

https://tedgoas.beehiiv.com/p/remote-work-vs-office

A few lessons learned from being a product design lead and manager at a late stage startup.

How I manage a packed calendar while keeping my sanity

https://tedgoas.beehiiv.com/p/how-i-manage-a-packed-calendar-while-keeping-my-sanity

Job Application for Senior Product Designer, Design Systems at Dialpad

https://bsky.app/profile/tedgoas.bsky.social

I see more and more communities for design leaders and they’re all the same. Their websites showcase logos from very large, global enterprises or tech companies or popular brands. Sometimes they are all three. They promote their “members” who work at these very big companies and sometimes they are

Design doesn't need yet another fancy leadership community, please.

https://www.brilliantcrank.com/design-doesnt-need-yet-another-leadership-community/

With Dialpad, you can connect to customers, coach customer-facing teams, & deliver amazing experiences—all with one Ai-powered communications platform.

Dialpad - The Ai-powered Customer Communications Platform

https://www.dialpad.com/careers/open-opportunities/apply/?id=7595004002&location=San-Ramon-US&title=Sr.-Product-Manager

A fortnightly newsletter product design and leadership

The Last Two Weeks

Config 2024: Design as therapy: emotional dynamics of aerospace engineering   As a designer at NASA JPL, Joyce wears many hats – researcher, designer, interviewer, UXer, pixel pusher, collaborator, translator, educator, strategist, leader – and her engineer coworkers believe that designers just make things pretty. Joyce works with system engineers to build a software suite that helps JPL model new mission concepts. To do that, she has to build trust to listen to engineers gripe about historical tools, methods, and processes. A lot of times, they talk endlessly about problems and pain points. Joyce is their therapist.  Featuring: Joyce Croft, Senior Human-Centered Designer, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Config 2024: Design as therapy: emotional dynamics of aerospace engineering | Figma

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLjcdZi9rdA&list=PLXDU_eVOJTx698IZ7mm09s95f8kKQH3Hg

Hello and sorry for delay since my last newsletter. As the subject line says, I’ve been dealing with burnout.

The one about burnout

I don’t like my job

https://tedgoas.beehiiv.com/p/dont-like-job

I’ve been part of the interviewing teams before, but this is my first time being the hiring manager. It’s been quite a learning experience.

How I Interview Product Designers

https://tedgoas.medium.com/how-i-interview-product-designers-b096441e5607

It’s ok deviate from our personal brand every so often.

This design newsletter isn’t about design

https://tedgoas.beehiiv.com/p/video-games-not-design

https://tedgoas.beehiiv.com/p/managing-disappointment

It’s your secret weapon for performance reviews and job interviews

Why you should have a brag document

https://medium.com/@tedgoas/why-you-should-have-a-brag-document-eb6cc82ec80a

An old-timey, worn out street sign that reads 'move fast and break things'

What attracted you to email marketing, and how did you get to where you are today? Like many others, I fell into email design and development by chance. I started my career working on the web. One day in 2007 while working at a web agency in Phoenix, an email project came up. No one […]

Email Peeps 30: Ted Goas

https://emaillove.com/email-peeps-30-ted-goas

I drink mostly decaf coffee these days and I'm really excited about Wimp from my friend Matthew and friends: https://www.wimpdecaf.com/

I've been hiring this year and Wednesday's newsletter details how I interview product designers. https://www.tedgoas.com/newsletter/

I sent a newsletter that mentioned politics and only got 1 unsubscribe, I'd consider that a win.

Also most of the newsletter is about a really good book I read: https://tedgoas.beehiiv.com/p/road-less-stupid

Next newsletter goes out Tuesday. I'm talking about how I'm changing my team's product development process to meet some aggressive deadlines this year. Subscribe here: https://www.tedgoas.com/newsletter/

Who is using Sketch for UI design?

(I love❤️ Figma just can't justify the cost for personal projects.)

If part of your job is hiring, what part(s) are hardest for you?

Hiring is hard for me because I believe that, given the right environment and support, almost anyone can succeed in a role. (But I'm learning that it's not that simple.)

I haven't been keeping up with my newsletter because I've been burned out. So I wrote about my burnout. Next issue sends Thursday: https://tedgoas.com/newsletter/

⚠️ Spoiler: I have no magic cure.

A friend at Halo Collar is looking for a founding product designer (lead / principal) to tackle everything from IA to feature engagement.

🇺🇸 Remote (team's in US but is open to other countries)
💰 Total comp ~$300-350k

No job ad yet but I'm happy to answer Qs or make an intro

Last year I started designing a few hours of "downtime" during my workweeks. It’s helped slow down my mind enough to do some blue sky thinking and prevents work from dominating my thoughts when I’m off the clock.

https://tedgoas.beehiiv.com/p/important-downtime-work

I’ve been a design manager for a year and am still figuring out how much I like it. Some days I leave work feeling like I’ve nailed this whole management thing, and others leave me feeling like a fraud.

More detail in today's newsletter: https://www.tedgoas.com/newsletter/

Got promoted to Product Designer Manager after a year of being a player / coach, can I get a hell yea from the chat.

My next newsletter is going out next Tuesday, as usual. Hoping it doesn't get buried in everyone's post-holiday inbox pile.

I wrote about management, sustainable email design, and more. Sign up here: https://tedgoas.com/newsletter/

Alright it's been almost a month since my last newsletter and I swear this weekend I'm gonna finish a post about brag documents!

Sign up here: https://www.tedgoas.com/newsletter/

🌱 💌 Email design and climate change are both near and dear to my heart and I'll be speaking about them both at Email Camp on Oct 4-5.

It's a free, virtual event: https://hello.mailjet.com/email-camp/?utm_source=social&utm_medium=emailcamp_missioncontrol&utm_campaign=Ted_Goas

If you can't be a fan, don't be a critic.

Love moving Ai towards different UIs and away from text boxes.

Cerberus, one of my open source projects, turned 10 years old this month, so I took a moment to reflect on where Cerberus came from, and where it's going.

Unfortunately it's too long to post here, so I posted on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TedGoas/status/1725343028154347782

Does your work calendar look like this every week? Mine too? Monday's newsletter discusses about what I'm doing about it. https://tedgoas.beehiiv.com/subscribe

The ol' remote work vs in office debate...

My take: You get *more stuff done* working from home, you make *more progress* when you meet in person. There's room for both (but “hybrid” is nonsense).

https://tedgoas.beehiiv.com/p/remote-work-vs-office

As a manager, my days are packed with meetings. I’ve written about a few techniques I use to get enough breathing room each week to stay grounded and keep myself sane. https://tedgoas.beehiiv.com/p/how-i-manage-a-packed-calendar-while-keeping-my-sanity

I'm hiring a senior product designer on our design systems team at @dialpad! You'll get to make stuff all day, have a lot of ownership, move quickly, and help us evolve our design system.

Remote (in americas) full time. Happy to answer any questions!

https://grnh.se/4992012a2us

I've pretty much abandoned twitter at this point if anyone wants to hang with me on 🦋 Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/tedgoas.bsky.social  (Obviously I love Posts too!)

I love finding someone's home-made blog (not a Medium or Substack or something) and binging three years worth of articles in one sitting.



Plz keep making your own websites folks, the world appreciates it ❤️

Design doesn't need yet another fancy leadership community, please. Yes, I vibe with this. https://www.brilliantcrank.com/design-doesnt-need-yet-another-leadership-community/

My team is hiring a product manager for our analytics product. Position is remote with the americas (despite city listed in the ad). I'm happy to chat or refer! https://www.dialpad.com/careers/open-opportunities/apply/?id=7595004002&location=San-Ramon-US&title=Sr.-Product-Manager

Just hired a designer 🏆 first for me as a manager.

What's it like being the only designer supporting a bunch of engineers? I wrote about my experience in my latest newsletter, sending this Monday: https://tedgoas.beehiiv.com/subscribe

Leadership (and management) is disappointing people at a rate they can absorb.

Email goes out Tuesday 👉 https://tedgoas.beehiiv.com/subscribe

My favorite Figma #Config2024 talk so far is Joyce Croft's talk on emotional intelligence. Because design is more about working with people than working with tools: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLjcdZi9rdA&list=PLXDU_eVOJTx698IZ7mm09s95f8kKQH3Hg

I've been burned out for all of 2024, but it took me until March to realize it was phantom burnout. https://tedgoas.beehiiv.com/p/burnout

my toxic trait is going into my spam folder and marking legit emails as not spam

"Any newsletters you’d recommend?"

My next newsletter is about newsletters. And some other stuff too. Sending Tuesday evening. Subscribe here: https://tedgoas.beehiiv.com/subscribe

"Delight" is such a hard thing to define in design. It is animation? Visual polish? A new way of doing something?

How do you define "delight" in design?

I’ve been a design manager for a year and I’m still figuring out if I like it. Some days I feel I’ve nailed mgmt and others I feel like a fraud

If you have similar thoughts you’re not alone and you’re likely doing better than you think
https://tedgoas.beehiiv.com/p/dont-like-job

I've been part of the interviewing teams before, but this year was my my first time being the hiring manager. It's been quite a learning experience.

Here's how I interview product designers: https://tedgoas.medium.com/how-i-interview-product-designers-b096441e5607

So far I only have the tabs part of the Figma update and honestly I'm good we can just stop here.

Last month I installed rollerblade wheels on my office chair. It makes moving around really fast and at first I was crashing into things daily. But after a few weeks I'm happy to report that I've mastered the ability to drift back and forth between my work and personal desks 🏆

If you don't value your time, others won't either.

Think about meetings that don't achieve anything. If you keep going to them, you'll keep getting invited.

Great work needs concentration without distraction. Say no to unimportant things and focus on the few that matter.

It's time product designers reclaimed the "product" half of their title. A product designer’s role is both design and product, not just design.


More in my newsletter, going out Wednesday: https://www.tedgoas.com/newsletter/

I just sent out the latest issue of my newsletter. It's not about design. And that's ok: https://tedgoas.beehiiv.com/p/video-games-not-design

Black Friday / Cyber Monday (and the waste it produces) is out of control. It's time we think beyond the instant gratification and short-term profits. Without getting too preachy, I wrote some thoughts in my newsletter, going on Wednesday: https://www.tedgoas.com/newsletter/

"Designers don't need to code, but damn it sure does make things a lot easier" is a thought I've been gravitating towards more and more.

After 20+ years in design, it still feels great to code. Figma is great for so many things, but to be able to type a few characters and have the actual website / product reflect my changes... to this day, it still feels magical.

Management is disappointing people at a rate they can absorb.

Reality will always mess with our perfect world, so it’s our responsibility to coach our teams through it: https://tedgoas.beehiiv.com/p/managing-disappointment

For the past ~10 years I've kept a brag document. I honestly couldn't imagine doing a performance review or job interview without it.

I finally wrote about what a brag document is and how to start one: https://medium.com/@tedgoas/why-you-should-have-a-brag-document-eb6cc82ec80a

“Move fast and break things” gets a bad rap these days, but I think there’s still a place for it in modern times. I wrote about that (plus a short note on the US election) in my newsletter going out later today: https://tedgoas.com/newsletter

About half my time as a manager is identifying two people working on something similar and getting them to talk to each other.

I'm sending my last newsletter of the year today and am trying a new format: A few small thoughts and good links from around the web. Sign up here: https://www.tedgoas.com/newsletter/

Had fun catching up with Andy and e-mail love, talking about email tools, sustainable email design, and how I fell into email development. https://emaillove.com/email-peeps-30-ted-goas