Essays & research
Systems writing for product teams
Essays on object literacy, design systems governance, and how AI reshapes workflows. Collected from Medium and in-flight research notes.
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Your Design System Wasn't Built for AI. Here's What to Do About It. (opens in a new tab)
Practical guide to redesigning systems for AI comprehension through object-oriented thinking and semantic metadata.
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The AI Builder Myth: Austerity Disguised as Innovation (opens in a new tab)
Calls out the 'everyone is a builder' mantra as cost-cutting disguised as empowerment in AI programs.
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OODS Foundry: An Object-Oriented, Agent-Native Design System (opens in a new tab)
Walks through building OODS Foundry as a trait-based, agent-friendly design system for consistent UI.
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Object-Native Architecture: Giving Software a Meaning Layer
Software was built for a human reader who could fill in the blanks. Agents can't. So an object's identity, its governance, and the contracts it answers to have to live on the object itself, in something built to be read. An architecture problem, not a model problem.
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The Atomic fallacy (opens in a new tab)
Explores how AI agents expose gaps in component-based design systems, arguing that meaning must be encoded separately from visual appearance.
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The Craft debate Is asking the wrong question (opens in a new tab)
Reframes the "craft vs. AI" discussion around purposeful intent and coherence rather than pixel-pushing labor.
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Your design system doesn't know what a User is (opens in a new tab)
Argues design systems standardize rendering but lack shared semantic definitions of core objects like User across contexts.
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The convergent problem (opens in a new tab)
Identifies how accessibility and AI automation both require explicit semantic contracts, not just visual interfaces.
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When systems fail, people build (opens in a new tab)
Profiles 2025 examples of individuals and organizations building solutions when institutional systems collapse.
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Ghost Jobs Are Working Exactly As Designed (opens in a new tab)
Analyzes how misaligned incentives across recruiting, management, and HR make fake job postings a rational outcome.
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Object-Oriented Data Visualization for Design Systems (opens in a new tab)
Extends OODS trait composition to data visualization, treating charts as semantic objects with encoded meaning.
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When Everyone's a Manager: New Hybrid Teams (opens in a new tab)
Explores how AI agents and human-AI collaboration create new team dynamics where everyone has management responsibilities.
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Reading the Hidden Differences in Subscription Platforms (opens in a new tab)
Unpacks how identical subscription terms hide different objects, flows, and risks across SaaS platforms.
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Object Literacy for SaaS: Closing the Loop on the Universal Quintet (opens in a new tab)
Shows how naming and understanding core SaaS objects keeps research, design, and data in sync.
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Beyond Components: Designing for Meaning in an Agent-Assisted Era (opens in a new tab)
Argues that systems need intent and semantics, not just polished components, when AI helps build experiences.
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The Universal Quintet: A Design Playbook for Object Thinking (opens in a new tab)
Wraps five foundational objects into a playbook teams can reuse to model products and services.
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Designing the "Where" of Systems: Organizations and Locations (opens in a new tab)
Maps structures and places as first-class objects so permissions and workflows make sense.
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Designing the Audit Trail: How Systems Remember (opens in a new tab)
Defines how to capture events and state changes so audit trails build trust and accountability.
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Taste, Agency, and the Art of Staying Human (opens in a new tab)
Reflects on keeping human judgment and taste in the loop as AI accelerates creative work.
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Objects Over Screens: A Systematic Way to Design (opens in a new tab)
Makes the case for object models as the backbone of UX instead of screen-first thinking.
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A Reusable Framework for AI-Orchestrated Projects (opens in a new tab)
Shares a repeatable cadence for human-agent collaboration with checkpoints, owners, and guardrails.
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Why Every Designer Should Know Their User Object (opens in a new tab)
Explains how understanding the user object and its data realities sharpens product decisions.
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Why the AI Bottleneck Isn't What You Think (opens in a new tab)
Reframes AI blockers as pattern-recognition and decision design issues more than tooling gaps.
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From Scarcity to Abundance: Rethinking Leadership in the Age of AI (opens in a new tab)
Examines how leadership mindsets change when AI shifts teams from scarcity to managed abundance.
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Unified System State Framework (with Systems Thinking Foundations) (opens in a new tab)
Introduces a unified state framework grounded in systems thinking to align teams and telemetry.
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The Hidden Timer: How Software Taught Me That Fairness Lives in Time (opens in a new tab)
Shows how timing rules and latency shape fairness in software and how to design for it.
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The Semantic Protocol: Teaching Software to Understand Itself (opens in a new tab)
Describes a semantic protocol that helps software explain its objects, traits, and state to humans and agents.
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A Data-First UX Approach for Platforms (opens in a new tab)
Advocates starting platform UX with data contracts, quality, and relationships before screens.
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From Systems of Record to Systems of Augmentation: Why AI Breaks Enterprise Software's Basic Contract (opens in a new tab)
Argues that AI shifts enterprise products from passive record-keeping to active, assistive systems.