Author Archives → David Hoang

Tech is going through a factory reset moment

Originally posted on Proof of Concept

Factory reset: A software restore of an electronic device to its original system state by erasing all of the data, settings, and applications that were previously stored on the device.

Whether we like it or not, tech is having a factory reset moment. This isn’t the first time. It happened in the 90s with the dot-com bubble. Companies that were once the darlings of Wall Street, such as Pets.com, Webvan, and eToys, quickly saw their stock prices plummet as investors lost faith in their ability to turn a profit. For the younger folks, Webvan was basically Instacart before Instacart.

There is never a single reason for this occurrence and multiple factors force tension like tectonic plates on the planet. Let’s look at the three reasons I see as forces of nature: continued mass layoffs, the rise of AI, and recovery from the recession.

The first is all the massive layoffs happening at tech companies at various levels. According to layoffs.fyi, 629 tech companies have laid off 185,136 employees in 2023, and we’re not even halfway through the year. Companies are getting absolutely gutted so the market is saturated with talent (for better or worse). Every role I’ve seen posted has thousands of applicants.

The rise of AI is the second force of nature. It seems everyone changed their web3 .yxz domains to .ai overnight. Time will tell how AI plays out in the industry, but right now, it looks like it’s here to stay. Unlike web3, AI has more understandable value props of application: generative content creation, GPTs, and LLMs. Chat GPT looks to be the first threat to search engines. In addition to continued layoffs, companies will continue looking at ways to reduce workforce size through AI.

Finally, we are still recovering from the recession that started in 2020. As I reflect from the gut (I am not an expert), it seems like we are not quite out of it yet.

What have we learned from all this? Though it’s sad about people losing their job through a layoff, I do believe tech has become way too bloated. What started with lean teams, raising just enough money for the runway, we over-indexed on company size, growth, and valuations. The recession has been a humbling experience and that can disappear. 2020 and 2021 are what I like to call the Clubhouse Valuation phase in tech. We over-indexed on companies that showed high value in a pandemic without considering what would happen on the road to recovery—a reminder that long-term thinking is crucial. Clubhouse, Peloton, and other companies that optimized for staying at home then dropped in 2022.

Looking at the new bloom

At our Palm Springs house, we are lucky to have part of the San Janito Mountains be our next-door neighbor. Like many places in California, we saw much rain in February and March. We got a bit of snow light flooding too! I noticed on our walk how many flowers are on the side of the mountains in a landscape that’s usually just rocks.

Going through storms are difficult, but it is also the substance that allows new life to bloom. I truly believe we’ll see good coming from these challenges moving forward. In a world where you can get laid off from what you thought was a stable job, there is no difference in the risk of being a full-time employee or starting your own thing. It’s a great time to be a contractor and startup founder.

AI is often in the discussion of replacing humans completely and their job. Though it’ll require learning new skills, I am optimistic it can empower people to do more of what they want. For example, I strongly believe that brand designers and people in creative will do what product designers do today. As a result, product designers might do what engineers do, and engineers may work on complex tasks. Identify the cause and effect of how these changes affect the ecosystem vs. attempting to find a direct correlation.

The factory reset has already been hit, and it’s booting. It’s not about good or bad, but figuring out how to move forward. The future path is unwritten, and I can’t tell you what the path forward for you is. Perhaps it’s time to get out of tech and work on the retirement farm. It might be leaning in on how things are shifting and finding the role and scope you’re excited about.

Whenever I have to do a factory reset on my device, it’s usually because something is broken or running slow. Despite not wanting to do it, I look forward to starting from scratch and figuring out what the next cycle looks like.

Q2 2023 is deep work, and I’m not taking inbound meetings

From now until the end of June, I’m working some exciting things. First, I left Webflow and joined Replit as an Operating Partner!

My focus for Q2 is to set up the foundation to focus on my life’s work and mission: Investing and building tools that revolutionize the way people build software. This requires Deep Work and me to be extremely disciplined with my time. As a result, I am not taking any new meetings with anyone for Q2 that doesn’t have to do with the mission.

Why am I sharing this with the world? I don’t want anyone to think I am not interesting in connecting with you. If I don’t respond to your email or DMs on Twitter, this is why.

There is a paradigms shift in how software is built with AI, and I need to go deep and spend every minute possible to dedicate to this with Replit and the industry.

If you know what I’m working on and we’re already chatting, please continue to email/text me.

For those looking to connect me about other topics, I have recommendations:

  • Seeking mentorship: I highly recommend ADPList
  • Career advice: I can do my best to answer via email but do not have bandwidth to taking calls
  • Inquiry about angel investing: please email me your pitch deck and notes and I’m happy to review. Because of my bandwidth, I may not be able to respond but if there is interest I’ll reach out
  • General networking: unless the conversation fits my current mission on tools that revolutionize the way people build software, I cannot meet
  • If you’re interested in Replit’s Product Design role, please apply directly. You will get a faster response about the opportunity than reaching out to me about setting up time for a call
  • Job seekers, check out my job board on Pallet along with Femke’s

I also write a lot about topics you might be interested in at Proof of Concept. I really appreciate everyone’s understanding of my focus on this. As much as I’d love to connect and wish I could spend the time, I need to focus on this crucial point in time in where technology is moving.

Those who have my phone number or access to my EA please continue to reach out in those channels. LFG.

Crafting a design leadership portfolio

One of the top questions I get asked is what a portfolio for a manager should look like. Unsurprisingly, the answer is like any design answer: it depends. The ultimate output of a portfolio looks different based on so many factors: whether you’re in brand or product, the type of management role, and what you’re optimizing for. 

In this session, we’ll look at the goals of a manager’s portfolio, what you are optimizing for, and the core elements of a portfolio. There are a few common artifacts you’ll have as a manager: resume/cv, portfolio deck, and website. The last two might be the combo of your portfolio.

Setting clear portfolio goals

The truth is at some point in your management career you will not need a portfolio! You will be reached out by recruiters or apply based on your experience and credibility, which is a much harder thing to maintain than a portfolio!

You might be optimizing your portfolio for different reasons than looking for a new career opportunity. For example, you might want to get into public speaking at meetups and conferences. The content you show there is going to be much different than what you show in a career portfolio.

A leadership portfolio might not be optimized for looking for work. 

  • What type of role am I looking for?
  • What size team do I want to take on?
  • What type of industry/product do I want to work on?
  • Who do I want to report to?

Questions to ask: 

  • Who is the audience for my portfolio? Is this to attract a potential new role, increase speaking engagements, or network?
  • What type of leader are you? Do you want to emphasize certain skills? Do you want to eventually lead larger teams? Do you want to stay close to the product and lead that way?

Differences between a portfolio for managers and individual contributors

Depending on the level or the role, you may or may not show the work you directly contributed to. For example, if you’re interviewing for a product design manager role at an early startup or at an agency, it’s very possible that part of your responsibilities is doing the work. If you’re interviewing for a VP of Design role, you won’t be showing any pixels you pushed (at least I’d hope not!)

Similarities

  • Learning about what you’re like as a person and working with you
  • You’ll still have case studies that show business and customer impact

Differences

  • Your case studies will be more focused on what you put in place to enable teams to do the work
  • You’ll showcase tools you’ve created, such as 1:1s docs, frameworks, and other 
  • Visualize your process of how you got work done
  • Though it’s good to show business outcomes as an IC, as a manager, this will be expected in your portfolio

Capturing the content for your portfolio

Building a portfolio takes a lot of time, but you can start capturing data of what you’ll put in it as you go along. As a manager, the type of impact you make looks different than when you were an individual contributor (IC). Your IC portfolio is more around your work, process, and craft, and the management portfolio focuses on how you manage towards outcomes leading a group of humans. Keep an Infinite Slide Deck to track your work.

Keep a management journal

Journal your experiences as you’re doing the work. It’ll help you keep track of data and moments you want to share later. Trust me, it’s hard to remember later on. As you keep your journal, capture key metrics you’ll need to remember to tell the story.

Constructing the portfolio

My portfolio is a keynote deck. You can use anything that can be exported as a PDF you can share. I also highly recommend building a website that will be your digital portfolio. The website can serve as general content and portfolio deck can be more details. You may not want to disclose every single detail of your portfolio online and that’s where a website might serve better to speak at things for a high level. It’s common for design managers to have absolutely no portfolio published online. 

Platform

I recommend having a website and a presentation deck ready to go. The content does not have to match 1:1 but it’s nice to have a website where you can have a general overview and a deep dive slide portfolio.

Elements of your portfolio

What is important in your portfolio

About

  • About / your leadership story
  • Career history
  • Management philosophy

Management approach and frameworks

A few images and slides on your approach to management. This might include your leadership philosophy, what methodologies you subscribe to, etc.

Work

Company and role overview

  • Summary of your role
  • Ex: Head of Product Design at Company A leading growth, product design, and content design.

Hierarchy of portfolio

  • Company-level
  • Initiative level
  • Project level

Include

  • Visuals of early ideation, decision points, and final outcome (credit who worked on it)
  • Company goal
  • Core metrics

Case studies are different for managers. Though you’ll show project work (presumably what you did leading your team), the story you tell is slightly different. The core elements are:

  • Executive summary: What were the business goal and customer opportunities?
  • What processes and frameworks do you put in place to drive outcomes for your team?
  • How did you manage towards outcomes?
  • Success metrics you put in place for your team
  • What did people on your team do?

Build a web presence

This can be a complement to your slide deck. I recommend managers have a website. Elements to include: 

About

The section that includes details about you:

  • Bio: A manager should have a quick bio to give an overview of a career summary. Keep it about two or three paragraphs
  • Resume or CV: This can be a downloadable PDF
  • Philosophy and leadership principles: A nice section to share a bit about your approach and philosophy to leadership. This isn’t essential though very nice to have

Writing

I recommend that managers have a blog, whether on their personal website, or Medium. Writing articulates what it’d be like to have you as a manager or your philosophy. A few examples of good ones:

Featured

Work: Case studies and portfolio pieces you might want to include online. Be mindful of the company metrics you share publicly in case it’s confidential

By the end of the management cohort, we’ll work on your portfolio, your about page, and one case study of a project you led.

Best practices and tips

There are no one-size-fits-all approach for a leadership portfolio. However, here are some tips to keep in mind as you build your portfolio.

Focus on outcomes and impact

Focus on outcomes and impact; present your work at a level higher than you might be used to. Your portfolio will look more like case studies of your time at the company and with your teams vs. individual projects.

  • Tell the story of the product you impacted during your tenure: what difference did you make in the customer’s journey with that product? Who did it impact? At what scale?
  • Tell the story of how you impacted the business during your tenure: did you launch a new product? A new business line? Impact revenue or go-to-market?
  • Tell the story of how you impacted people during your tenure: did your team grow? Did you branch out to hire new disciplines? Did you set up a career ladder and promote? Who were your successes?
  • Tell the story of how you influenced cross-functional team members — both at your peer level and up/down. Did you help them understand the customer better? How did design impact their roles and outcomes?

Show what your team did and give them credit

It’s okay to show the work of your team. In fact, you should. However, make sure you give them credit.

Display your IC work somewhere to de-risk

Even as a manager, people want to know you used to be a good designer! I recommend including a few pieces of content around your work when you were an IC. No need to go in detail and include this as part of your overview.

Share what you learned

Part of what people will expect from leadership portfolios is the lessons you learned along the way. It will be more authentic if you talk about the lessons and address the “What would you have done differently?” 

Example narratives you can tell

  • Organizational excellence: example of how you identified a gap in how your team worked and solved it
  • Leading through changes: How you led and kept your team resilient during challenging times
  • Creating effective processes
  • Teams you’ve built
  • Initiatives that you led
  • How you evaluate work
  • How you ensure design quality at scale

Resources

Examples of portfolios

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Articles

Movies and wellness

I love film and movies. Though I’m not an expert, I have an affinity for the visual storytelling experience either at the cinema or at home. To put it short, 2022 was a tough year for me, starting with the loss of my beloved cat of 19 years. As we crawl out of the early part of the pandemic, I found myself needing not only mental healing, but physical.

With everyone working from home, I was glued to my desk and picked up bad habits of sitting; working for hours without any movement. As a result, I was introduced to a lot of back and neck pain—something clinicians are seeing so much they call it Tech Neck. A lot was broken physically and mentally. I spend the last two weeks off of work and took the time to do absolutely nothing. There were no side projects, networking events, or mentorship. I sat on the couch, feeling broken in so many ways. The biggest highlights were on the couch playing video games, and watching movies.

The grief of losing Wilson was something I never healed from. I love binge-watching movie trilogies or TV shows. In part of my rotation was Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy.

I’ve always had an affinity for The Dark Knight Rises; the third and final installment of the series. It’s a very underrated movie and went through a lot of challenges. First being it was released on opening night with a tragic mass shooting. In addition, it had to follow up Heath Ledger’s iconic performance as The Joker (RIP).  Finally, closing a trilogy is the hardest as you have to wrap up all lose ends. The Dark Knight Rises is not a perfect movie and overly ambitious. However, the themes spoke to me. Batman Begins was about fear, The Dark Knight is about chaos, and The Dark Knight Rises is about being broken.

You’ve had 10 years to watch the movie so spoilers ahead. The third film starts with a broken Bruce Wayne, both emotionally losing Rachel Dawes and physically. His body is giving away. He is no longer Batman, and stays at home like Howard Hughs in his later years.

A new enemy emerges, Bane, in this series a terrorist played by Tom Hardy, off his brilliant performance as Eames in Inception. The threat of Bane brings Batman out of retirement, and he doesn’t save the day like Bane. In face, he gets his ass beat and Bane breaks Batman’s back like in the iconic comic book.

This is not the synopsis of the entire film, go watch it again and enjoy its under-appreciation. The TDLW is Batman needs to rise to the occasion, heal, and come back as Batman to stop Bane and save the city he loves.

Little to my realization, this was the movie I needed to watch. I needed to pick myself up and move foreword. My cat isn’t coming back and adversity will always be around in the world.

Over the months, I started going to physical therapy to take care of my back and neck, started focusing on my spiritual side, and began dieting again (I love my fried chicken when I’m stressed). What felt like an impossible thing to recover from, when I wanted to give up, I decided to take small moments to take control of my life again.

Stories and their themes are so powerful. Taking a break, watching movies, and serendipitously watching The Dark Knight Rises was what I needed to spark me in the right direction again. Every morning as I wake up and work out, I play the incredible soundtrack orchestrated by the legendary Hans Zimmer, to motivate me to crawl out of the Lazarus Pit and be fully present with what I love. That’s the power of movies. Because I’d this, The Dark Knight Rises is my favorite of the trilogy because of how it touched me.

I’m early in this journey and starting to read about Cinema Therapy. I still have a journey to go in my healing, but 2023 feels like the year the fire rises.

Visiting the Palm Springs Air Museum

I am a person that hopes there are no wars and conflicts, but have such a fascination with military technology and air superiority! It started as a kid when one of my uncles took me to the Museum of Flight in Seattle and was an avid fan of comic books and aviation. I dreamed of becoming a fighter pilot as a kid, and being color blind definitely killed that dream swiftly.

F-14 Tomcat AKA the plane from Top Gun

Fast forward to today and I still find a lot of inspiration through R&D and technology. I take a lot of inspiration from Lockheed Martin’s Skunkworks program and Kelly Johnson, the long time head of the secret division that created aircraft such as the U2 Spy Plane, SR-71 Blackbird (AKA the jet the X-Men fly in), and the F-117 Nighthawk. I went to the Palm Springs Air Museum this week, which had one of the 59 ever constructed on display.

If you’re not familiar with the Nighthawk it probably looks like a Cyber Truck based on it’s diamond shape. There’s a great documentary about the development of the first fully stealth plane on The History Channel As a kid who played countless hours of the F-117 Stealth Fighter 2.0 game on the PC, it was so cool to see one of these in person.

UI controls of the Nighthawk

If you ever find yourself in Palm Springs and like museums or aviation, I recommend visiting the Palm Springs Air Museum.

The best NBA nickname ever was Brian Shaw and Shaquille O\’Neal when they were teammates on the Orlando Magic: The Shaw Shaq Redemption.