Lindsay Lohan, Amanda Seyfried & Lacey Chabert take on their ‘MEAN GIRLS’ roles again for new Walmart ad. xitter.cf/Walmart/status/1719716…

Don't hire a product designer as your first designer. They can only design 1 thing really well. Early-stage startups have WAY more design needs than just the tech. Hire a generalist designer instead. They'll make your tech and company look good. 2 designers for the price of 1 and you'll go 2X faster.

I don’t know who needs to hear this, but when you’re building a website the content should come first. As designers, we should be telling YOUR story not fitting some words into our layouts. This will benefit all businesses and make more interesting online experiences. I am ready to die on this hill.

Steve Jobs famously said innovation is, "saying no to 1,000 things." Inside Apple's GENIUS design process. 10 design lessons from Steve Jobs that every designer must know (genius strategy):

The kids aren't backing down. (Photo by Mark Zaleski / The Tennessean)

People don’t buy the best products, they buy the products they can understand the fastest.

How to double your rates: 🧵

Dear freelancer, Some things you'll just have to learn the hard way. But these are 23 things I wish I knew when I started freelancing nine years ago. They’re in no particular order—I’m sorry or you’re welcome. ​ 1. Treat networking as part of the gig. Personal branding is optional; 1:1 connections are not. Do what works for you, but spend at least a few hours each week on something other than client work and admin. ​ 2. Underpromise, overdeliver. Good writing will only get you so far. Good communication, project management, and questions will get you the rest of the way. ​ 3. Don’t charge per word or per hour (in most cases). Charge per project. Unless that doesn’t make sense for you. In that case, charge however the heck you want, just make sure you’re not undervaluing yourself. ​ 4. Resist the urge to say ‘yes’ to everything. I know it’s tempting, but you’ll thank yourself later when you’re focused on work you enjoy and have a good balance of work instead of running yourself ragged. ​ 5. Qualify clients first and cut PITA (Pain In The A**) clients ASAFP. It’s scary to turn down work, but it’s worth it 100% of the time. ​ 6. Don’t do free work. Ever. It’s never worth it, and the clients you want to work for won’t ask for it, anyway. ​ 7. This is a business. Treat it like one. Not every single hour is billable, so work that into your pricing. ​ 8. You’re a salesperson, too. Take the time to learn sales 101: positioning, active listening, personalized follow-ups… all of it will make a difference and help you stand out. ​ 9. Sometimes working smarter means working harder. Look at each season and ask yourself what you want to accomplish, then get after it. Just don’t move the goalposts. ​ 10. Clients don’t pay writers $200/hr; but they’ll pay $1,000 for an article that takes you 5 hours. They’ll probably pay even more for a case study, so don’t sleep on value-based pricing. ​ 11. Add value wherever you can; make suggestions that are beyond the scope of the project, go above and beyond with your research, and make introductions. ​ 12. Collect proof and testimonials like they’re gold; they are. Ask for referrals when it makes sense; they’ll be your biggest source of new projects if you make it consistent. ​ 13. Don’t dream big yet; just get down and dirty in the work, first. It’s easy to make big plans and a lot harder to land your first big client project. ​ 14. You can make good money on execution, but it’s a lot easier when you add strategy to the mix. Get to the point where your clients can’t imagine replacing you. ​ 15. Sometimes growth means saying you can do something before you’ve ever done it. Everyone learns on the job, and freelancers shouldn’t be exempt from getting paid for it. ​ 16. Get picky—with what you work on and who you work with. The more specific you are, the more valuable your offer. 17. Figure out what you like to do and double down there. There’s a good chance you’ll increase your income as a result. ​ 18. Open that Google Doc as soon as you get it, just to make sure you have the right permissions and all your questions answered. That way you avoid an awkward turtle moment two weeks later when you’re actually ready to dive in. ​ 19. Don’t forget about taxes—and get professional help with them, probably. ​ 20. Other freelancers are your community, not your competition. Don’t ‘pass’ on work; ‘pass on’ work. 21. If you hear "we can't pay that much for this project but we've got a ton lined up" ...run far away. ​ 22. “Weird vibes” is more than a good enough reason to pass on a project. Trust your gut and all that. 23. Finally, the freelancer’s golden rule: the more a client is willing to pay you, the easier they are to work with.

You don't need to code in 2023. Here are 50 no-code tools to build a business:

This is one of my favourite examples of a workflow. "How Slack decides to send a notification." Keep this in mind the next time someone asks you to design a "simple" feature.

Our CTO @Tammangos and Head of UX @EricaErwin here at #TechDay talking with others in the #startup world today.