Hà Phan
@hpdailyrant.bsky.social
Musings about Design & Product. Currently at Zillow, Design Tech & AI.
No [your job here] isn’t dead. However, from my purview, only the staff level folks are getting hired. That’s what I’m seeing.
November 11, 2025 at 8:43 AM
No [your job here] isn’t dead. However, from my purview, only the staff level folks are getting hired. That’s what I’m seeing.
Designing the details and variance of components is UI but exploring the nuance and possibilities of divergence in the mental model and behavior is UX.
November 9, 2025 at 5:15 PM
Designing the details and variance of components is UI but exploring the nuance and possibilities of divergence in the mental model and behavior is UX.
A design technologist said he’s excited to work with me to understand lean experimentation, bc it’s different reading about it vs actually doing it. Totally agree. The discussion about the design of the experiment w/team members is more valuable than the experiment itself. And you need cycles of it.
November 9, 2025 at 5:11 PM
A design technologist said he’s excited to work with me to understand lean experimentation, bc it’s different reading about it vs actually doing it. Totally agree. The discussion about the design of the experiment w/team members is more valuable than the experiment itself. And you need cycles of it.
Me to my family: “We’re spreading dad’s ashes into the ocean this weekend. You guys better give me music recommendations or else it’s going to be that Celine Dion’s Titanic song.”
November 8, 2025 at 5:36 AM
Me to my family: “We’re spreading dad’s ashes into the ocean this weekend. You guys better give me music recommendations or else it’s going to be that Celine Dion’s Titanic song.”
I gave someone advice on the storytelling of their case study. I told them that they needed to introduce the problem clearer in layman’s terms and how it manifested in the consumer experience downstream at the start. No one has the context of the company’s operations right off the bat.
November 7, 2025 at 3:48 PM
I gave someone advice on the storytelling of their case study. I told them that they needed to introduce the problem clearer in layman’s terms and how it manifested in the consumer experience downstream at the start. No one has the context of the company’s operations right off the bat.
When I review design concepts, I look for the hypothesis on the behavior. Some designers can’t articulate the hypothesis but their explorations show this. And then there are some people who just move things around. There is always a hypothesis whether it’s optimization or differentiation.
November 7, 2025 at 3:42 PM
When I review design concepts, I look for the hypothesis on the behavior. Some designers can’t articulate the hypothesis but their explorations show this. And then there are some people who just move things around. There is always a hypothesis whether it’s optimization or differentiation.
You can tell the quality of someone’s thinking by the questions they ask. If you can ask clear questions, then you can pursue clear possibilities that generate better questions. It is the art of inquiry. You can fill pages of questions that get you nowhere. This is why people need templates prompts.
November 7, 2025 at 3:38 PM
You can tell the quality of someone’s thinking by the questions they ask. If you can ask clear questions, then you can pursue clear possibilities that generate better questions. It is the art of inquiry. You can fill pages of questions that get you nowhere. This is why people need templates prompts.
I’ve been writing obsessively on a personal project. It’s hard to separate that part of my brain with the creative side of my work. But I find that knowing when the emotional timbre of the story or the experience feels right is something that takes time to develop.
November 7, 2025 at 3:30 PM
I’ve been writing obsessively on a personal project. It’s hard to separate that part of my brain with the creative side of my work. But I find that knowing when the emotional timbre of the story or the experience feels right is something that takes time to develop.
The election results warms my cold, dead heart.
November 6, 2025 at 2:15 AM
The election results warms my cold, dead heart.
I love it when my friends land new jobs as leaders. It just means there’s new possibilities should I need an escape.
November 5, 2025 at 5:56 PM
I love it when my friends land new jobs as leaders. It just means there’s new possibilities should I need an escape.
There’s a way of seeing that you get when you work on Search that is invaluable. That is you see the structure, the metadata and variability of a thing. Rich media also has structure not just in how you describe it, but in its make up. The inherent structure informs what you can do with it.
November 5, 2025 at 4:54 PM
There’s a way of seeing that you get when you work on Search that is invaluable. That is you see the structure, the metadata and variability of a thing. Rich media also has structure not just in how you describe it, but in its make up. The inherent structure informs what you can do with it.
Some inventions are things that were stumbled upon on the way to something else. That’s the nature of R&D. You encounter things you didn’t know you didn’t know. Features are about, “What can we ship?” R&D is about “What can possibly exist?” That process can create new categories.
November 4, 2025 at 5:09 PM
Some inventions are things that were stumbled upon on the way to something else. That’s the nature of R&D. You encounter things you didn’t know you didn’t know. Features are about, “What can we ship?” R&D is about “What can possibly exist?” That process can create new categories.
PM: I’m fully on board with this prototype. It’s awesome.
Me: I’m happy that you’re my biggest fan. But that’s like my mom saying I’m good. I’m skeptical. It has to test well.
Me: I’m happy that you’re my biggest fan. But that’s like my mom saying I’m good. I’m skeptical. It has to test well.
November 3, 2025 at 5:49 PM
PM: I’m fully on board with this prototype. It’s awesome.
Me: I’m happy that you’re my biggest fan. But that’s like my mom saying I’m good. I’m skeptical. It has to test well.
Me: I’m happy that you’re my biggest fan. But that’s like my mom saying I’m good. I’m skeptical. It has to test well.
Companies often want to scale their best people and often in the process kill them off. I’m one of those people who don’t believe you can teach others to innovate, meaning that you can’t replicate people who can materially invent, create with true ingenuity to disrupt the status quo.
November 3, 2025 at 4:12 PM
Companies often want to scale their best people and often in the process kill them off. I’m one of those people who don’t believe you can teach others to innovate, meaning that you can’t replicate people who can materially invent, create with true ingenuity to disrupt the status quo.
I heard this woman on TikTok say that she hot glued her ornaments on the tree, and Saran-wrapped the whole tree every year to put it away and I’m seriously considering that.
November 3, 2025 at 6:38 AM
I heard this woman on TikTok say that she hot glued her ornaments on the tree, and Saran-wrapped the whole tree every year to put it away and I’m seriously considering that.
I’ve always considered my experience leading teams to build a Search platform from scratch, one of the most valuable experiences of my career. It gave me a platform view on how data products powered by algorithms are built and scaled. It also made me much more empathetic to an eng perspective.
November 1, 2025 at 5:05 PM
I’ve always considered my experience leading teams to build a Search platform from scratch, one of the most valuable experiences of my career. It gave me a platform view on how data products powered by algorithms are built and scaled. It also made me much more empathetic to an eng perspective.
Regardless of all the noise about vibe coding, I think there are actually different kinds of designers needed:
1. Solution designers (Deterministic/known constraints)
2. Design Systems Designers
3. Service Designers/Value Chain Architects
4. Frontier Designers (Design as inquiry)
5. Brand Designers
1. Solution designers (Deterministic/known constraints)
2. Design Systems Designers
3. Service Designers/Value Chain Architects
4. Frontier Designers (Design as inquiry)
5. Brand Designers
October 31, 2025 at 4:39 PM
Regardless of all the noise about vibe coding, I think there are actually different kinds of designers needed:
1. Solution designers (Deterministic/known constraints)
2. Design Systems Designers
3. Service Designers/Value Chain Architects
4. Frontier Designers (Design as inquiry)
5. Brand Designers
1. Solution designers (Deterministic/known constraints)
2. Design Systems Designers
3. Service Designers/Value Chain Architects
4. Frontier Designers (Design as inquiry)
5. Brand Designers
If you’re applying to a service design job, make sure you show the service design in your portfolio, not just beautiful pixel pushing. That is all.
October 31, 2025 at 1:48 PM
If you’re applying to a service design job, make sure you show the service design in your portfolio, not just beautiful pixel pushing. That is all.
Best portfolio I saw this week was on Google slides. Masterful storytelling, clear visualization of a highly complex system & workflows, and the final execution of the experience was crisp. We have a similar Human-in-the-loop operation so I understood the complexity.
October 31, 2025 at 2:37 AM
Best portfolio I saw this week was on Google slides. Masterful storytelling, clear visualization of a highly complex system & workflows, and the final execution of the experience was crisp. We have a similar Human-in-the-loop operation so I understood the complexity.
The best account I saw on TikTok was this guy who bought a crab and some prawns at an Asian food store and tried to raise them as pets. Not all this AI bullshit.
October 30, 2025 at 4:23 AM
The best account I saw on TikTok was this guy who bought a crab and some prawns at an Asian food store and tried to raise them as pets. Not all this AI bullshit.
It never ceases to amaze me what prototyping 3D experiences reveals. You can never fully understand spatial experiences without dog-fooding the interaction and movement. There was an insight I had about a behavior and to see the team exclaim delight seeing it come to life is an amazing feeling.
October 29, 2025 at 4:34 PM
It never ceases to amaze me what prototyping 3D experiences reveals. You can never fully understand spatial experiences without dog-fooding the interaction and movement. There was an insight I had about a behavior and to see the team exclaim delight seeing it come to life is an amazing feeling.
There’s a difference between shaping what the emergence tech can do and should do vs receiving the constraints downstream.
October 28, 2025 at 6:44 PM
There’s a difference between shaping what the emergence tech can do and should do vs receiving the constraints downstream.
Designers understand systems thinking in terms of patterns and scaling. But systems thinking in terms of experiences with automation is about understanding the ecosystem, the ranges of inputs and outputs.
October 28, 2025 at 5:19 PM
Designers understand systems thinking in terms of patterns and scaling. But systems thinking in terms of experiences with automation is about understanding the ecosystem, the ranges of inputs and outputs.
UX for AI is cannot be designed or derived by traditional design methods. Because traditional design methods cannot identify the variable ranges of behaviors, nuance and outcome. The principles still apply but the explorations and lean experimentation must be a cross functional effort.
October 26, 2025 at 6:24 PM
UX for AI is cannot be designed or derived by traditional design methods. Because traditional design methods cannot identify the variable ranges of behaviors, nuance and outcome. The principles still apply but the explorations and lean experimentation must be a cross functional effort.
I received this “karma” from a team mate this week. It beautifully encapsulates how I work that I saved it for my portfolio. Her comment about “playing with the medium” here is about me figuring out ways to play with Gaussian Splats, a method to scan environments into 3D models.
October 24, 2025 at 10:38 PM
I received this “karma” from a team mate this week. It beautifully encapsulates how I work that I saved it for my portfolio. Her comment about “playing with the medium” here is about me figuring out ways to play with Gaussian Splats, a method to scan environments into 3D models.