Hà Phan
@hpdailyrant.bsky.social
4.7K followers 1.6K following 2.6K posts
Musings about Design & Product. Currently at Zillow, Design Tech & AI.
Posts Media Videos Starter Packs
hpdailyrant.bsky.social
I hadn’t run a design sprint in person for awhile. It’s easier on Zoom. In person it’s like cat herding, especially when there are multiple groups working on separate problems.
hpdailyrant.bsky.social
I know the Rapture is over but for those who are wondering why they didn’t get picked up, you can call this hotline. #rapture
hpdailyrant.bsky.social
A lot of people ask me what my process is working on next gen experiences. It’s simple.
- Co-create w/engs on as many divergent working ideas as possible w/the focus on designing proofs & testing concepts against each other.
- Create menu to load different sets of data & config settings
- Iterate
hpdailyrant.bsky.social
My brother used Nano-Banana to optimize an old photo of my dad, and the optimization is a whole different person.
hpdailyrant.bsky.social
Contributed to a presentation for our upcoming team retreat and there’s a slide for what’s coming. The last bullet said, “Let Ha cook!” That’s a lot of pressure.
hpdailyrant.bsky.social
I looked up the dwell time on certain features and it gave me a perspective on engagement and efficiency at different parts of the funnel.
hpdailyrant.bsky.social
I know some people who don’t interview well but would do great in a job.
hpdailyrant.bsky.social
On the design side, working on experiences that didn’t previously exist is hard even on the visual design side, bc you have to decide what do you want it to evoke. What do you want it to remind you of? Design patterns are built for 2D page experiences.
hpdailyrant.bsky.social
I find that leading initiatives broadly across the org often gives you the visibility & creds. But leading innovation deeply is often perceived as a black box. No one truly understands it except the team members who are intimately involved with the problem, and it looks easy when you present it.
hpdailyrant.bsky.social
There’s a difference between being given a set of constraints downstream to design vs creating a new vision by poking at the tech and defining the constraints based on the strength & weakness of the emergent tech. That is Design-led or Experience-led — which can be led by any cross functional role.
hpdailyrant.bsky.social
Building automation from scratch is a platform effort. On the backend, it’s not just about adding endpoints or adjusting logic—it’s about orchestration, data pipelines, workflow engines & resilience. That’s a different class of work than shipping a feature with a UI and a few backend tweaks.
hpdailyrant.bsky.social
Look for the badge “Human Approved.”
hpdailyrant.bsky.social
Everything to me is just a puzzle. After you solve a lot of puzzles, they all start to look the same. You start to see patterns, and there’s always a moment where you say, “Oh I’ve been here before” or “Oh this looks like that other thing but bigger.”
hpdailyrant.bsky.social
“What percentage AI are you?” This was a question posed by a monk yesterday at a zen monastery. It felt like a koan. What she meant was how much of us is conditioned by algorithm vs mindful living, fresh awareness.
hpdailyrant.bsky.social
Once you use conversation as the paradigm, then wayfinding & navigation is mute. The data models of customer & domain context is the IP — and how you use the persistent memory to extend that context is the puzzle. The UX has always been in the data & user behaviors to extract the value.
hpdailyrant.bsky.social
Something I never understood is how can people still be critical thinkers and still believe in god. I sincerely never understood that. Critical thinking requires deconstructing every position. My husband is a scientist and he believes in God. I’ve never asked him what his definition of God is.
hpdailyrant.bsky.social
Was working w/an engineer on a prototype for a next gen experience, and he said there’s parts of the experience that is not currently feasible. I said that our goal is provocation. We need to let people experience what can be then debate on possibilities & feasibility.
hpdailyrant.bsky.social
Relating to people doesn’t come naturally for me. I have to continually work on it. At times it feels like a handicap. It takes time for me to build relationships. When I’m mentally spent, I just can’t do all the team activities.
hpdailyrant.bsky.social
It’s weird now that everybody openly talks about their therapists now. There’s almost a reverse stigma if you don’t have a therapist, like what the hell is wrong with you? Aren’t you working on yourself?
hpdailyrant.bsky.social
There is survival and then there is hunger. Sometimes they feel the same. When you’re hungry you kinda put yourself in impossible situations where you have to tread water.
hpdailyrant.bsky.social
I actually think it’s much harder now to work in tech. It used to be that you learn a set of skills and you can rely on it for awhile. But now the adaptation cycles are much faster & shorter, not just hard skills but figuring out how to shift operationally. Leaders have to manage change continually.
hpdailyrant.bsky.social
There’s a difference in the ambiguity of the value, the how, and the what. They each impact each other but operate on different principles.
hpdailyrant.bsky.social
Seriously wondering how the people who were all in on the Rapture thing are doing? Do they just move the goal post? What happens when the thing that you’ve based your life’s purpose and identify doesn’t deliver? I have so many questions.