About
How I got into design through a college yearbook, and how it still shapes the way I build software.
I got into design in college, before I wrote software for a living. Around 2010 I joined our yearbook, Kalasag, as staff, and later I was its layout editor for three books. I designed the books and their pages in Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. What stayed with me most was learning design’s history: the core ideas, the movements, where each one came from and what it passed on. I couldn’t pick just one movement for my own site, so it wears a different one each day, 28 of them. You can switch between them with the style button at the top of the page.
My work moved to the web and then to software, but I kept designing. I still design the screens I build and the diagrams I use to explain an architecture.
I think of design as communication, and I write code the same way. I want the next developer, and the client, to see what problem the code solves and why it looks the way it does.
Most of my career came before AI coding tools, so I learned to work a problem through with the people around me, slowly if needed. I use AI coding tools every day now. I hold them to the same rules I’d give a new developer, so the work stays safe. That means an approved design and plan before any code, tests written first, and a review before anything ships. I built a workflow for that called oowl.
My taste keeps changing, but a few things have stayed with me for years. One is Apple’s simplicity and the way its products move. Another is the painted look of the game Firewatch.
Away from work, I’m happiest playing with my daughter, who is two. I like taking the family out for long drives, and I play games with deep stories and inventive mechanics, like Skyrim, Elden Ring and the Souls series.
How I work
I take ownership of problems I don’t know yet, and I learn what it takes to move them forward. I start from the business need and turn it into a design, a milestone plan and tickets a team can pick up and build.
I also look after the people building it, with code reviews, one-on-one mentoring and onboarding workbooks for new developers. When a team needed someone to lead, I stepped in, from clearing blockers between teams to serving as interim president through a company transition.
Toolset
- Architecture: serverless and event-driven systems on AWS, REST APIs and webhooks, private network design, CI/CD, and integrations with Stripe, Salesforce and credit bureaus
- Languages and frameworks: TypeScript and Node.js (NestJS, Fastify, Express), React and Next.js, Python and Swift
- Cloud and infrastructure: AWS (Lambda, Step Functions, EventBridge, SQS, ECS, RDS, DynamoDB), Terraform, Docker and GitHub Actions
- Data: PostgreSQL, DynamoDB, Redis and Elasticsearch
- Design: interface design, architecture diagrams, Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign