Design work is messy work.

There is no clear route. It’s more like a maze with many dead ends. And as a result, it’s easy to get stuck, lost in the weeds, and without a clear way out. But why? Why can’t we move forward? And what can we do about it?

After many years in the trenches shaping and building software myself, I’ve faced this struggle so many times. Although I’ve come to internalize different ways to overcome those roadblocks when they arise, there are many struggling moments where I don’t know where to go and get myself down into wormholes.

In this article, Ryan Singer does a great job establishing a common language and making some of those challenges explicit as a set of patterns.

It’s not a process with a clear sequence but rather a set of tools to use, just in time, upon what the situation demands. Each tool tackles a common struggling circumstance that every creator repeatedly faces in any given project.

If you want to get unstuck, start by recognizing those situations and what to do about them.

Want to learn more? You can have a look at the article here.

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Have a creative time.