One conversation at a time
On showing up, comparing notes, and what it actually means to own your career.
We actually met at the Vancouver Design Community Wintertime Social back in February. One of those evenings where you end up in a good conversation and think, we should continue this. So I followed up, and we made it happen. Coffee, Stanley Park, and a couple of hours of just walking and talking. Honestly, one of the better ways to spend a Saturday.
This is exactly what I was hoping for when I started showing up to these events. Not networking in the transactional sense, but the kind of conversation that only happens when you’re not trying to get anything out of it.
Carlos is a Principal Product Designer who started in industrial design, moved through different contexts, and worked his way into product design. That kind of journey tends to shape how someone thinks, and it did. I didn’t know that 3D printing and shipping could coexist the way he described. It was fascinating to hear his story and feel the passion he brought to it.
We covered a lot of ground. AI came up, as it always does. Some people are fully enthusiastic, others are more pessimistic, given how many layoffs it’s contributing to. I keep having versions of this conversation, and I still don’t think anyone has clean answers. That’s fine. The useful part is comparing notes with someone coming from a different context. It helps me see a light at the end of the tunnel. AI is a useful tool, and it will help us move forward. I genuinely believe that.
We also got into privacy, how companies think about user data, what they actually do to protect it, and how much of that thinking happens (or doesn’t) at the design level. It’s one of those topics that sounds dry until you’re actually in it, and then it’s hard to stop thinking about. As designers, we’re closer to these decisions than we sometimes realise.
The other thread that kept coming up was designers and ownership. I’ve been in a few conversations lately that landed in the same place, and this one did too. A lot of designers seem to be waiting for direction, for clarity, for someone to tell them what to focus on. We both recognised something similar in ourselves going the other way: curiosity, self-drive, a genuine desire to help and move things forward. Those qualities tend to be quiet. They don’t announce themselves. But they show up in the work, in the relationships, in the kinds of projects you get trusted with over time.
Ownership isn’t really about confidence or seniority. It’s about having enough of a relationship with your own career that you’re not just reacting to whatever comes next.
Good walk. Good conversation. If you’re a designer in Vancouver, let’s connect on LinkedIn and grab coffee. I’m always up for it.