It’s a fresh new week, full of hopes and dreams — which reminded me of a brilliant BBC documentary from 1984. A while back eh.

1984: Bandersnatch, Bailiffs and the Battle for a Hit Game is well worth a watch if you’re into retro gaming like I am. Full of ambition, chaos, bailiffs — the lot. The giants of that era had huge dreams. Too big? Maybe. It’s great telly, though.

Father’s Day = Doing Nothing


We celebrated Father’s Day best — by doing nothing after a hectic Saturday. And it was glorious. No jobs, no rushing, no nothing. Just leaning back in the garden, messing about on the Switch 2, and wondering what game to play next.

No one in the house complained of being bored either, so it feels like a very much overdue rest.

🏅 Big Saturday for the Small One


Saturday was a great day all round. My daughter had a synchronised swimming competition and finished 9th out of 116. Incredible. She’s won comps before, but this was a harder one - and she held her own.

She’s in the pool around 14 hours a week (!), and she goes to every single lesson. This is all on her, and it’s inspiring and not something I did when I was 9. She’s brilliant.

Evenings = Switch + Shopify


Evenings were spent switching between two things:

  • Completing Gunslinger on the Switch 2 (solid little game)
  • Chipping away at Bobbin and Bumble tasks and to-dos

Productive and relaxing, which is a rare combo.

Good Read – Design in 2025


I’m a big fan of Tom and his writing. His recent post on product design hiring in 2025 gave me a bit of a case-study-kick-up-the-arse. You know the drill, I am 2-3 years behind and needed it.

It’s also no surprise that the most desirable designers are all-rounders—I’ve seen that when hiring and being hired. The rise of the super IC feels very real.

There are loads of Lead-level designers knocking about at the moment, it makes me wonder if expectations around what a Lead is have shifted. (Tom’s first point made me pause and think this)

Anyway, it’s worth a read, especially if you’re a designer thinking about your next move. Let me know what you think (and Tom, too). It’s an exciting (and slightly scary) time to be in the field.

Work & Crit Wins


This week was filled with many discussions with developers, mostly around whether we could simplify or reduce design work to meet delivery deadlines.

I like those challenges. I genuinely believe in “less is best”, especially when we don’t have strong evidence a thing was even wanted. When you weigh effort vs value, a lot of work just isn’t worth dying on any hill.

I’d rather ship something meaningful than waste time polishing a feature that maybe isnt needed as much as we think. If people do care, they’ll let us know — and we’ll iterate.

But it wasn’t all “What can we cut?” chat. We had a cracking design crit session where minds stretched, devs felt heard, we found a smart way through a tricky problem, and even squeezed in a “let’s do more of this” moment.

What’s Next?


This weekend: BBQ with good friends and (hopefully) no rain.

Also — do I know anyone who runs a shop on Etsy? If so, nudge me! 👋

Thanks for reading. Catch you in the next one. ✌️