I lead teams at the intersection of strategy and design. Autodidact. Polymath. Barbecue acolyte. I start fires (the good kind).
“You may be hiring us and that may be your name on the check, but we do not work for you. We’re coming in to solve a problem, because we believe it needs to be solved and it’s worth solving. But we work for the people being affected by that problem. Our job is to look out for them because they’re not in the room. And we will under no circumstances design anything that puts those people at risk.”
Mike Monteiro in Ruined by Design
A designer owes the people who hire them not just their labor, but their counsel.
Mike Monteiro in Ruined by Design
A designer uses their expertise in the service of others without being a servant. Saying no is a design skill. Asking why is a design skill. Rolling your eyes and staying quiet is not. Asking ourselves why we are making something is an infinitely better question than asking ourselves whether we can make it.
Mike Monteiro in Ruined by Design
We need to fear the consequences of our work more than we love the cleverness of our ideas.
Mike Monteiro in Ruined by Design