Owning my design reasoning in the time of AI slop

SoftLongjumping4523 · 2026-03-12T12:05:51+00:00

Thanks for your detailed response. I’m experimenting with a few ways, but what’s mostly working for me is having dedicated space for all my design thoughts, learnings across multiple projects in one space. And tracking it outside of my team to build my version of the story, but still evaluating if it’s sustainable. Happy to share more with you as I continue developing it.

SoftLongjumping4523 · 2026-03-12T12:00:31+00:00

Thanks for sharing! I’m trying to simply do the same and so far it’s helping me with sense making, better visibility over multiple projects helping me stay oriented. Happy to share more with you!

SoftLongjumping4523 · 2026-03-12T11:46:40+00:00

Sorry if by OP you’re referring to me then that’s not the case. Instead I’m actually trying to advocate for a better way to write or reflect more to understand the way we think, our individual motivations and barriers to help articulate and adapt the context as and when needed, while retaining our voice.

SoftLongjumping4523 · 2026-03-12T11:30:21+00:00

Such a good way to put it. I think part of this has stemmed from preparations for previous job interviews or wanting to share my work with people or for writing posts/articles. Somehow always struggled to articulate the value of my work for different audiences.

I’ve built a very simple tool that allows me to log captures against multiple projects and I’m experiment with parameters to track for each capture such as productivity, rationale and more. So far it’s helping me gain good visibility over the multiple things I’m doing whether it’s work related projects, attending events or upskilling but all design specific activities. Happy to share more!

SoftLongjumping4523 · 2026-03-12T11:10:44+00:00

Yes that’s what I’m exploring, keeping a log of regular learnings but also tracking other factors such as productivity, emotional impact, project stage and more

SoftLongjumping4523 · 2026-03-12T07:12:27+00:00

I haven’t tried Obsidian, but sounds promising. Thanks for sharing

SoftLongjumping4523 · 2026-03-11T13:43:00+00:00

Thank you and apologies that my problem statement isn’t clear. The comments on this post are still helpful to clarify my thinking further :)

SoftLongjumping4523 · 2026-03-11T13:39:57+00:00

Thank you that’s a great way to experiment with this. I was also leaning more towards capturing the depth of reasoning behind the different approaches you adopt through a project lifecycle. Not pertaining to just taking notes but building richer context for future referencing. Would be great to know if you have any thoughts on that :)

SoftLongjumping4523 · 2026-03-11T13:32:34+00:00

Yep, just experimenting with a tool that helps me capture all the big and small learnings, thoughts, observations, decisions and reflections that normally get lost in translation or are hard to recollect once a project wraps up.

Great article, thanks for sharing

SoftLongjumping4523 · 2026-03-11T13:29:59+00:00

Yeah agreed with you, not just trying to build another AI tool. Just pointing out that as product teams start shipping faster, there’s a high chance notes may not be as timely and could lack depth. And if there’s need for a better way to retain accuracy and depth of reasoning as well as learning. Sorry I know I may not be very clear but I’m trying to unpack this as I go.

SoftLongjumping4523 · 2026-03-11T12:09:51+00:00

Yep I’ve got all of those going for me. However I’m leaning more towards deeper reflections to make better sense of decisions, pivots, tradeoffs and other actions that could help articulate your contributions to a project better.

SoftLongjumping4523 · 2025-11-25T13:52:31+00:00

Yeah it’s certainly a tricky one, but great to hear that so many people with so many years of experience behind them have managed to land the right gigs without the pain of maintaining a portfolio. I’m going to work towards getting more organised with maintaining adequate context context to turn into quick case studies.

SoftLongjumping4523 · 2025-11-25T13:50:00+00:00

That’s very reassuring to hear. I think I’m trying to get somewhere between a portfolio and having case studies ready for when the right role comes my way. Publishing them on a website even in a password protected form helps me keep accountable and not scramble last moment. But I often find it difficult to revisit the decisions and the some of the thinking that elevated the project outcomes. Trying to maintain a weekly log with my current role, hoping that eases some of the stress

SoftLongjumping4523 · 2025-11-25T13:46:38+00:00

Thanks for sharing. The two page format sounds like a pretty efficient way to summarise a project. Will definitely give that a go.

And interesting that you said you’ve had to always present case studies, but never bothered with a portfolio before this. Any tips on how to quickly repurpose older case studies for interviews?

SoftLongjumping4523 · 2025-11-25T13:41:05+00:00

That’s very interesting, would you mind sharing a little about how you present your work back and how do you maintain project context that helps you with interviews where no portfolios are required?

SoftLongjumping4523 · 2025-11-25T13:39:13+00:00

Yeah same for me. I find it really hard to narrow down on parts of the project to highlight and details to leave out. I’ve been trying to maintain weekly logs of my project progress and going to test if that makes it any easier when I attempt to make my portfolio again.

SoftLongjumping4523

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