thisisfranciswu
@thisisfranciswu.bsky.social
9 parts dad. 7 parts product designer. 5 parts product manager. 3 parts UI developer. Some parts private.
An AI note-taking app, but filtered through Werner Herzog’s unforgivingly bleak lens. “There is no positive outcome in the feature. Only a collective murder of time and spirit.”
January 26, 2026 at 10:34 PM
An AI note-taking app, but filtered through Werner Herzog’s unforgivingly bleak lens. “There is no positive outcome in the feature. Only a collective murder of time and spirit.”
"Instead of paying repeatedly for alignment, quality, and coherence, the organization pays once and amortizes that investment over time." There's a cost to any design system deviation, so it better be worth it.
www.designsystemscollective.com/the-growing-...
www.designsystemscollective.com/the-growing-...
The Growing Split in How Organisations Approach Design Systems
Two speeds of design systems, why context now matters more than best practice
www.designsystemscollective.com
January 26, 2026 at 1:05 PM
"Instead of paying repeatedly for alignment, quality, and coherence, the organization pays once and amortizes that investment over time." There's a cost to any design system deviation, so it better be worth it.
www.designsystemscollective.com/the-growing-...
www.designsystemscollective.com/the-growing-...
Kevin Muldoon's previous post covers how design kinda lost the plot. His follow-up is equally phenomenal, diving into the authority gap between engineering and design, and what designers can start doing to dig themselves out. www.designsystemscollective.com/why-engineer...
Why Engineers Can Say “This Is Wrong” and Designers Can’t
One ships. The other schedules more meetings
www.designsystemscollective.com
January 19, 2026 at 1:16 PM
Kevin Muldoon's previous post covers how design kinda lost the plot. His follow-up is equally phenomenal, diving into the authority gap between engineering and design, and what designers can start doing to dig themselves out. www.designsystemscollective.com/why-engineer...
That feeling when you're fiending for sushi.
January 14, 2026 at 2:00 AM
That feeling when you're fiending for sushi.
The trap of the "complete solution" forces you to deliver features that are worse than the tools your customers already use. Competing against specialists only dilutes your winning strategy. You’re better off integrating with those tools rather than aping them. rogermartin.medium.com/the-hidden-w...
The Hidden Where-to-Play Element in Strategy
Value System Stage
rogermartin.medium.com
January 13, 2026 at 12:59 PM
The trap of the "complete solution" forces you to deliver features that are worse than the tools your customers already use. Competing against specialists only dilutes your winning strategy. You’re better off integrating with those tools rather than aping them. rogermartin.medium.com/the-hidden-w...
"The same exact pressures and constraints that made us do the wrong thing this time will also make us do the wrong thing next time [… ]" Jumping straight to outputs was bad, but now AI allows managers to do it faster and more frequently than ever before. productpicnic.beehiiv.com/p/skipping-a...
Skipping alignment leads to zero-impact UX
Deliverable artifacts are only a small part of the social system that product development entails. Any "productivity" gained by ignoring that system is an illusion.
productpicnic.beehiiv.com
January 10, 2026 at 7:40 PM
"The same exact pressures and constraints that made us do the wrong thing this time will also make us do the wrong thing next time [… ]" Jumping straight to outputs was bad, but now AI allows managers to do it faster and more frequently than ever before. productpicnic.beehiiv.com/p/skipping-a...
Startups succeed on "illegible" speed. Rapid pivots, unspoken context, and gut-feeling decisions that don't need giant prescriptive Jira tickets. www.seangoedecke.com/seeing-like-...
Seeing like a software company
The big idea of James C. Scott’s Seeing Like A State can be expressed in three points: Modern organizations exert control by maximising “legibility”: by…
www.seangoedecke.com
January 8, 2026 at 1:26 PM
Startups succeed on "illegible" speed. Rapid pivots, unspoken context, and gut-feeling decisions that don't need giant prescriptive Jira tickets. www.seangoedecke.com/seeing-like-...
"The market rewards the product that exists." This is equally applicable to features and should always be kept in mind when scoping. Just get something good enough to test assumptions. medium.com/@joncphillip...
Ship It Scared
Your scared self will always move the goalposts.
medium.com
December 15, 2025 at 11:52 PM
"The market rewards the product that exists." This is equally applicable to features and should always be kept in mind when scoping. Just get something good enough to test assumptions. medium.com/@joncphillip...
Great blistering post about the alleged failure of Agile and UX. The real culprit is the organization's intellectual incuriosity and "the absense of insight infrastructure". www.linkedin.com/pulse/ux-isn...
LinkedIn Pulse
www.linkedin.com
December 11, 2025 at 1:15 PM
Great blistering post about the alleged failure of Agile and UX. The real culprit is the organization's intellectual incuriosity and "the absense of insight infrastructure". www.linkedin.com/pulse/ux-isn...
“What is their power fantasy?” This in many ways mirrors my B2B design ethos: Designing for users’ performance reviews lays the groundwork for success. arstechnica.com/gaming/2025/...
“Players are selfish”: Fallout 2’s Chris Avellone describes his game design philosophy
Avellone recaps his journey from learning on a TRS-80 to today.
arstechnica.com
December 10, 2025 at 1:08 PM
“What is their power fantasy?” This in many ways mirrors my B2B design ethos: Designing for users’ performance reviews lays the groundwork for success. arstechnica.com/gaming/2025/...
New features is like getting into running: You don't just start full-steam. There's research, preparation, planning, maintenance, and risk mitigation, all the while communicating the lifestyle shift to your family. Product thinking requires the same thoughtful approach. #productmanagement
December 9, 2025 at 7:21 PM
New features is like getting into running: You don't just start full-steam. There's research, preparation, planning, maintenance, and risk mitigation, all the while communicating the lifestyle shift to your family. Product thinking requires the same thoughtful approach. #productmanagement
It bears repeating. Designing to reduce clicks is like an architect designing to reduce walking. What you’d get is a home where the entryway is cluttered with the furnishings of the kitchen, bedroom, living room, and washroom. #ux
December 4, 2025 at 12:03 PM
It bears repeating. Designing to reduce clicks is like an architect designing to reduce walking. What you’d get is a home where the entryway is cluttered with the furnishings of the kitchen, bedroom, living room, and washroom. #ux
I love the bespoke feel of Fizzy and 37signals products. As someone who champions design systems, here’s a sobering thought: Maybe design systems are just a solution to the problem of not giving product teams the time to truly cook. fizzy.do
Fizzy
A refreshing take on cards, columns, and kanban.
fizzy.do
December 3, 2025 at 2:23 AM
I love the bespoke feel of Fizzy and 37signals products. As someone who champions design systems, here’s a sobering thought: Maybe design systems are just a solution to the problem of not giving product teams the time to truly cook. fizzy.do
Github threw its might into making toasts accessible and threw in the towel. “Even technically compliant toasts are fundamentally harder to use than persistent alternatives.” Nature is healing. #a11y #usability javascript.plainenglish.io/github-just-...
GitHub Just Killed Toast Messages (Here’s the Accessibility Data That Forced Their Hand)
A deep look at the research, user testing, and compliance data that forced GitHub to remove toasts from their design system.
javascript.plainenglish.io
November 30, 2025 at 8:03 PM
Github threw its might into making toasts accessible and threw in the towel. “Even technically compliant toasts are fundamentally harder to use than persistent alternatives.” Nature is healing. #a11y #usability javascript.plainenglish.io/github-just-...
I spent the last 5 years advocating for stateful URLs in modern applications. It’s a lonely and often frustrating fight to preserve this fundamental web principle, but it's crucial for usability and accessibility. This article is a great reminder. #a11y alfy.blog/2025/10/31/y...
Your URL Is Your State
A deep dive into how thoughtful URL design can enhance usability, shareability, and performance. Learn what state belongs in URLs, common pitfalls to avoid, and practical patterns for modern web apps.
alfy.blog
November 28, 2025 at 10:24 PM
I spent the last 5 years advocating for stateful URLs in modern applications. It’s a lonely and often frustrating fight to preserve this fundamental web principle, but it's crucial for usability and accessibility. This article is a great reminder. #a11y alfy.blog/2025/10/31/y...
November 27, 2025 at 8:15 PM
AI might get your stuff out there faster than ever, but it's still no substitute for customer understanding and distribution. Worse, founders may be tempted fill that gap with more AI output, which is the opposite of helping. www.focusedchaos.co/p/did-ai-kil... #productmanagement
Did AI Kill the Lean Startup?
Of course not. AI should supercharge core Lean Startup principles, which remain fundamental to building successful startups.
www.focusedchaos.co
November 21, 2025 at 12:46 PM
AI might get your stuff out there faster than ever, but it's still no substitute for customer understanding and distribution. Worse, founders may be tempted fill that gap with more AI output, which is the opposite of helping. www.focusedchaos.co/p/did-ai-kil... #productmanagement
My reaction when Figma introduced connectors and all I really wanted was lines and arrows that can reliably and predictably connect any two layers on the canvas.
a man in a white shirt is sitting on the floor and says not like this .
ALT: a man in a white shirt is sitting on the floor and says not like this .
media.tenor.com
November 19, 2025 at 7:06 PM
My reaction when Figma introduced connectors and all I really wanted was lines and arrows that can reliably and predictably connect any two layers on the canvas.
That request for a design mockup could have been a properly-written acceptance criteria. #designops #bdd
November 11, 2025 at 2:03 PM
That request for a design mockup could have been a properly-written acceptance criteria. #designops #bdd
Modern cars serve as great examples of novelty being mistaken for innovation. www.youtube.com/watch?v=HauQ...
The Dumb Design of Modern Cars
Start learning on Brilliant for free today: https://brilliant.org/fern. Our viewers get 20% off an annual premium subscription. It’s a great way to support our channel while building new skills…
www.youtube.com
November 7, 2025 at 2:08 PM
Modern cars serve as great examples of novelty being mistaken for innovation. www.youtube.com/watch?v=HauQ...
Hot take: Sometimes accessibility is hard less because of a lack of empathy, and more because no developer or designer likes to be told to "git gud" at web standards, especially at W3C specifications. It's frustrating to discover a vast, critical area of fundamental knowledge was missed entirely.
November 4, 2025 at 2:19 PM
Hot take: Sometimes accessibility is hard less because of a lack of empathy, and more because no developer or designer likes to be told to "git gud" at web standards, especially at W3C specifications. It's frustrating to discover a vast, critical area of fundamental knowledge was missed entirely.
Ask not how long it will take. Ask how much we're willing to invest in making a tangible improvement.
November 4, 2025 at 1:51 AM
Ask not how long it will take. Ask how much we're willing to invest in making a tangible improvement.
For the first time since June, I woke up without a KPop Demon Hunters song playing in my head. I think the healing has begun. 🥲
November 3, 2025 at 10:27 PM
For the first time since June, I woke up without a KPop Demon Hunters song playing in my head. I think the healing has begun. 🥲