If you missed it, catch up on: Part 1: Plan your burn; Burn your plan Part 2: Disaster and pure awe In my first career as a designer, in addition to designing the digital products and interfaces, we spent time thinking about the customer journey from the first time a…

If you missed it, catch up on Part 1’s first three lessons. The weather, with both rain, mud, and sand-storms, made 2023 a year to remember, allowing for a myriad of emotional highs and lows. Burners refer to our regular lives as the “default world,” implying that the ephemeral experience…

As each of us got into cell service, we get inundated with texts: “Are you safe?” “Doing ok? Heard about burning man flood and murder” “Was that your limo on fire?” “Did you make it out?” The news reports were dire with coverage in the New York Times, the BBC…

I am Asian American. I’m the mom of a rising 10th grader who is anxious about her college prospects and taking summer geometry to get a leg up on her classes next year. The Supreme Court’s racist ruling on affirmative action will directly benefit my family by increasing spots for…

I had a freakout moment of major imposter syndrome yesterday. I was speaking at a panel at Google-sponsored Women in Tech event as part of San Francisco #TechWeek. The panel was on The Future of Tech Careers with an AI focus and led by the inimitable Elena Lenena. Throughout the…

When you’re part of the minority at work, it can feel that you have to continually code-switch to get ahead. Code-switching may be a necessity to adapt to the majority way of working in order to be recognized and rewarded. The term originally comes from a linguistics perspective of having…

It was Boxing Day, a day for family, but the swell and tide made it perfect conditions to surf a secret spot along the Pacific coast south of San Francisco. I hadn’t been able to make the last outing and had been envious of my friends’ stories of the long…

Aka… how I threw out habits from a decade of keynote speaking in preparation for my second TEDx talk “The woman on the stage is weaving wonder, not witchcraft. But her skills are as potent as any sorcery.” …

This piece is excerpted from my book, Make Space to Lead. The first time that I was fired, my “amazing leader who could hold it all together” façade was shattered. From 2006–2013, I worked for consulting firms that supported other companies. My last consulting job was for a Seattle-based development…