Feedback

Featured below is a portion of the feedback I’ve received over the last few years from colleagues across every discipline. In many ways, positive commentary is one of the most rewarding attributes of a professional working environment—a great reflection of maintaining one’s course of building and maintaining great relationships with talented individuals. However, it’s the constructive criticism that uncovers the blind spots and allows for growth and refinement. Thank you.

MD|2022.0123

DoorDash 1/4

Group Product Manager

Identify this person’s DoorDash superpower based on your experience working with them. Select a value or behavior from the operating playbook.

Be an owner
Dream big, start small
Choose optimism, have a plan
Bias for action
Operate at the lowest level of detail
And, not either/or
Truth seek
1% better every day
Customer-obsessed, not competitor focused ✓
Make room at the table
Think outside the room
One team, one fight

What could this person consider doing differently to increase effectiveness in their role?

Brian can continue to bring his deep Cx instincts to improve Cx journeys on an even larger scope to improve his effectiveness.

Is there anything else you’d like to share with this person? You can add additional detail on superpowers or strengths here.

Despite being new to DoorDash, Brian took the initiative to explore a multitude of more consumer-friendly options to disclose menu price inflation as well as pricing policies. In the end, his designs allowed us to reach an informal agreement with the DC Attorney General to implement modest changes to our disclosures that do not have material impact on Cx conversion. This launch eliminated substantial and costly public litigation as well as public scrutiny of our disclosure by press, policy-makers and other regulatory agencies.

Brian continued to bring this deep consumer sense to Distance Based Pricing—taking on solving the dichotomous problems of improving Cx cognition for the reason behind higher delivery fees, something they might perceive as a negative, while getting Cx excited for the increased selection on DD. After conversations and explorations, he arrived at an elegant solution balancing subtlety with prominence. As we continue to expand selection and raise delivery fees (radius expansion drove $██M+ GMV in Q4), Cx will see even higher delivery fees on DoorDash and Brian’s designs improve their understanding and reduce their consternation. This is on track for the experiment to start on 1/24.

VJ|2022.0121

DoorDash 2/4

Software Engineer

Identify this person’s DoorDash superpower based on your experience working with them. Select a value or behavior from the operating playbook.

Be an owner
Dream big, start small
Choose optimism, have a plan
Bias for action
Operate at the lowest level of detail ✓
And, not either/or
Truth seek
1% better every day
Customer-obsessed, not competitor focused
Make room at the table
Think outside the room
One team, one fight

What could this person consider doing differently to increase effectiveness in their role?

I guess the only thing I would like to see how effectively we can use Figma or any other means to communicate the changes and streamline the change management process in general. We have had scenarios in the past where the designs were changed but engineers were not aligned. We definitely improved with student plan project but still long way to go.

Is there anything else you’d like to share with this person? You can add additional detail on superpowers or strengths here.

Brian is great at operating at lowest level of detail, I remember he joined DD very recently and amazed by the impact he had especially with DashPass Student Plan. He has many great ideas on how to make the UX design scalable, his thought process on making things really simple and intuitive is also one of his superpowers and I admire his vision for creating long-term solutions over short term needs.

I was also amazed how quickly he created student plan designs from initial requirement discussions and SheerID walkthrough even being new to DashPass team. Kudos to your work and keep going!

DL|2022.0120

DoorDash 3/4

Director of Product Management

Identify this person’s DoorDash superpower based on your experience working with them. Select a value or behavior from the operating playbook.

Be an owner
Dream big, start small
Choose optimism, have a plan ✓
Bias for action
Operate at the lowest level of detail
And, not either/or
Truth seek
1% better every day
Customer-obsessed, not competitor focused
Make room at the table
Think outside the room
One team, one fight

What could this person consider doing differently to increase effectiveness in their role?

It will be great if Brian can also move faster or move in the circumstances of ambiguity. This may come with familiarity of product. I would love to see him to have more thought leadership in the product area he owns! He definitely has the capability based on his past experience.

Is there anything else you’d like to share with this person? You can add additional detail on superpowers or strengths here.

Brian is always optimistic and embracing the chaos. For example, during student plan, he incorporated all different requests without complains.

RH|2022.0121

DoorDash 4/4

Product Designer

Identify this person’s DoorDash superpower based on your experience working with them. Select a value or behavior from the operating playbook.

Be an owner ✓
Dream big, start small
Choose optimism, have a plan
Bias for action
Operate at the lowest level of detail
And, not either/or
Truth seek
1% better every day
Customer-obsessed, not competitor focused
Make room at the table
Think outside the room
One team, one fight

What could this person consider doing differently to increase effectiveness in their role?

I’d personally like to see Brian share more of his own designs in the weekly Cx work session. From our one-on-ones it seems like he has a lot of ideas and explorations at any given point, but hasn’t brought them to the rest of the team much yet. In our individual meetings as well it might be nice for us to have a default agenda item to dedicate time to showing what we’re both working on design-wise and touch base across DashPass. Sometimes it can feel like even though we’re both working on the same team, I only know a bit more about what’s specifically happening on the growth side of DashPass than I do about any other teams’ designs. By sharing out the designs we’re working on I think we could potentially share patterns or design principals, and help make DashPass a more cohesive product.

I’d also like to potentially collaborate more with Brian on brainstorming activities or development of broader DashPass direction! I think for this past 2022 session it would have been nice to collectively evaluate the projects that were on the docket and potentially work on developing some user stories (an aspect I thought DashPass 2022 planning lacked).

Is there anything else you’d like to share with this person? You can add additional detail on superpowers or strengths here.

Brian is a lovely coworker and person in general to be around. I really appreciated the initiative he took to set up one-on-ones with me over the past quarter for us to sync and figure out what was happening in our respective corners of DashPass. Brian always brings to the table topics he’s had in mind or work he’s like to get another eye on. Even from the start Brian has displayed a desire to really own and understand the products he works on, and has pushed to make existing systems and designs better. In that way he’s shown that he’s unafraid to think past the constraints of what already exists and willing to put in the work to make those changes. Specifically, Brian basically adopted the DashPass landing page revamp when he joined the team, and has had to work within the framework of that existing design. However, he’s pushed in conversations with me and with others on his team to reevaluate the drawbacks of the current design and continue to explore ways that we could make the page more robust for the number of future cases it needs to support. Throughout my time knowing Brian, I’ve seen how he’s expressed a willingness to organize brainstorming for this potential project and put in the extra effort to make sure the products he works on are as good as they can be.

Another one of Brian’s strengths is that he’s a genuinely enthusiastic and eager member of the consumer design team. In Cx team meetings, he’s always willing to speak up and praise others’ work or ask questions to get the conversation moving. In one of our one on ones he told me he really enjoys starting the week by signing everyone’s birthday and Dashiversary cards. Brian is always welcoming of all perspectives and has a knack for making people feel comfortable, which I think will continue to be an important asset as our team continues to grow and bring in new folks.

HR|2018.1109

Microsoft 1/8

Senior Program Manager

Here’s something I think you do really well and hope you keep doing:

It’s been a pleasure to work with you very closely as a team in some of the projects this year like Fonts, Speller, SideKick, Quick Actions, etc. You are an awesome team player first. With designs, I have really loved your higher-level thinking of the feature - where you look at feature goals, user problems, and other details before diving into providing visuals. In addition, you also think a bit deeper on interaction design, which is missing in most of the designs I get. So this has been a big plus especially in projects like Sidekick and Quick Actions. Very innovative designs and thinking through deeply on areas you focus are some strengths of yours I really value a lot. Let’s continue to partner the rest of FY19 to ship some great experiences.

Here’s a suggestion for how you could leverage this strength further:

We overload you with lot of design asks, push us to give a priority to focus, and being flexible with changes and resources availability would help us move faster and also reduce randomization for you.

RJ|2018.1111

Microsoft 2/8

UX Designer

Here’s something I think you do really well and hope you keep doing:

Your ability to step back and look at the broader design and user experience issues around incremental feature requests from dev and PM is a helpful reminder for me to step up out the trenches in my own daily work.

You are persistent in questioning basic assumptions, and you continue to advocate for the user and for product quality throughout the design process. You also make your design viewpoint and recommendations known in a non-confrontational and inclusive way.

Your passion around the typographic explorations has been great to see, and I hope you continue communicating your thoughts and learnings as we all continue to learn and develop a viewpoint for Bing going forward.

Here’s something you may want to re-think:

It would be helpful if you could continue to be as broad as possible with communication to facilitate ‘awareness’ as features are developed, decisions are made around flighting, and agreements are made in meetings. It’s tough to track the feature train, and it would help me if you could err on the side of over-communication, and I will try to do the same. We have a weekly sync which helps, but maybe more non-actionable emails would also help between our teams? I struggle with the most effective way to do the same…

The thing I most value about working with you is:

Your openness and respect and humanity are something I really appreciate, and it makes my work days much more enjoyable!

AG|2018.1128

Microsoft 3/8

Principal Software Engineer Manager

Here’s something I think you do really well and hope you keep doing:

It has been great working with you on Algo Block design. You really stepped in as the acting lead in your manager’s absence and drove design for Algo block with PM, dev and junior designers. You are very proactive about coming up with new ideas and solutions to new challenges faced by the team. You are creative and come up with impactful and good designs for new features. He also has many new ideas and I have always enjoyed brainstorming with you. There are many instances where you stepped in to provide timely designs to the team when working on crunch features.

Here’s something you may want to re-think:

This is probably general feedback to everyone in the design team to have more design-initiated ideas. Today our approach is mainly where PM/Dev come up with ideas for new rich captions and bring them to design. I think design team could also play a similar role where they bring new feature ideas that we could discuss together.

The thing I most value about working with you is:

You are a great collaborator, very open to discussions, hearing others’ ideas, and making sure the design and feature teams are working towards a unified goal.

TW|2018.1114

Microsoft 4/8

Program Manager

Here’s something I think you do really well and hope you keep doing:

Your instinct of deciding when to step in vs. when you can trust your team and take a step back really stands out. From what I’ve seen with all managers across all disciplines, this is a really hard-to-master skill that you appear to demonstrate instinctively. And I know our team truly appreciates this, as it makes a world of difference translating to especially creative & productive design discussions. I saw how your and ████’s fluid working relationship enabled her to grow, exercise autonomy, and explore freely creative design directions. At the same time, you knew when to be more involved in adding guidance, such as on cross-team designs (i.e. visual systems collaborations) or bringing in another designer to help with the backlog.

In addition, your design ideas consistently impressed me. Your ideas helped push our team to consider new perspectives/ideas during design discussions. Oftentimes, you were the one to take a step back and tackle overarching design themes (i.e. gestures) that propelled our discussions towards more innovative and cohesive themes. For example, in team meetings, you proposed the unique user research approach to tackling whole page cleanliness, an important org-wide problem to solve.

You also are quick to identify opportunities for collaboration or overlap between the problem that multiple teams are looking at. With Intent-J.O., I remember you were the first to quickly identify the potential overlap with M.E.T.I.S. and helped make sure the team didn’t duplicate existing efforts.

The thing I most value about working with you is:

Stepping in, you ensured design work continued smoothly even during your transition.

I know our team really valued both your balanced hands-off/involved approach to managing, as well as your unique design ideas and ability to tie back to other teams and design themes.

I’m sure I can speak for the team in saying we really hope you have the bandwidth/can still give your design input going forward!

KD|2018.1129

Microsoft 5/8

UX Designer

Here’s something I think you do really well and hope you keep doing:

Practical stuff:

You provide the perfect amount of support in the day to day Algo work–checking in before meetings, always making time to answer my questions, and happily collaborating on my design asks. At the same time, you give me space to think and to develop my own design voice. I really appreciate that.
You help me maintain an open mind going into projects. After receiving a design ask, my knee jerk reaction is to start listing anticipated roadblocks before I even take a crack at a project, but your pragmatic optimism is something I do my best to mirror in my work.
I really admire your working relationship you foster with your peers and partner team members. Our meetings with ████, ████, and the dev team are not only constructive but are lighthearted. We smile and laugh while building kick-ass, well-performing features – I love working in that type of environment. It’s something I’m thrilled to try to mirror in my own working relationships.
I think I will forevermore use your file structure for my source docs. :D Seriously, the tips and tricks you’ve given me in regards to crafting comps and staying organized have been super helpful and were exactly what I needed when I came onto the team.

Here’s a suggestion for how you could leverage this strength further:

It’s hard for me to say from such a newbie perspective, but it seems that after this reorg you still have a great opportunity to maintain and to continue to develop a leadership role on your new team. It might be more challenging working alongside more senior designers than myself, but I cannot imagine any teammate who would turn up their nose to a collaborator who has a genuine desire to put wins on the board for the team like you.

My suggestion would be to maintain that positive, there-when-you-need-me type of support you provided for me. It’s very stabilizing and reassuring.

Here’s something you may want to re-think:

You are a great collaborator. You also give room for others to speak and voice their ideas/concerns. If I’m honest, I think it’s one of the main reasons we fell into sync so quickly. Senior designers could easily talk over a brand new FTE, but you actively seek out my thoughts–I really value that.

However, very rarely (literally, just one or two instances), even though I had space to talk, I didn’t feel like you were really hearing me. This happened when you’re really enthusiastic about a new idea/a potential solution to a problem and I was attempting to rain on the parade (true to form, haha). I could have easily gathered that you found my concerns invalid–which I don’t think was (and didn’t take as) your intention.

Here’s an example to consider for doing it another way:

Consider slowing down just a little. Instead of combating design concerns with a dismissal or attempts at a quick fix, maybe turn it around: “I see your point–how would you solve that problem?” sort of (canned corporate) response. :)

The thing I most value about working with you is:

Mushy Stuff:

I really can’t express how much I appreciate the way you stepped up to mentor me as I came onto this FTE position. You were open and honest – both when giving me feedback on my work, but also in helping me navigate relationship building with my design peers and my partner teams. Entering into my first corporate full-time role without a direct manager could have been a very rocky experience, but with you, as my partner, it was energizing, challenging (in the best way), and very rewarding. I anticipate looking back on my entry to Microsoft very fondly – and I have you to thank for that.

SS|2018.1204

Microsoft 6/8

Senior Software Engineer Manager

Here’s something I think you do really well and hope you keep doing:

It’s really great to work with you and here are some highlights:

You have a great perspective on overall product quality, experience, consistency and that helps us as a feature team to always think holistically and avoid isolated changes
You have great creativity and passion for the product and things you work on
Open to new ideas and debating with others. This is a great skill, don’t lose that

Here’s something you may want to re-think:

You could work on trying to influence larger groups. I think you have a lot of great work done that’s not seen by a larger audience. You could benefit and our product could improve if you do that.

The thing I most value about working with you is:

Dedication/commitment, drive for results
Great relationship with the team

IL|2018.1129

Microsoft 7/8

Senior Program Manager

Here’s something I think you do really well and hope you keep doing:

Two things to mention here: (1) Your open-mindedness when ideating. You never shut down an idea without thinking it through critically and from multiple perspectives. IMHO the ability to think about ideas from a user perspective and business perspective (often tricky) is a skill you’ve newly started demonstrating over the past couple of years. As a PM partner, I really appreciate this plus the space it creates for us to openly discuss the pros and cons of growth ideas and land on balanced solutions. And, (2) your partnership skills with an external partner. In the past year, you’ve helped me partner with Amazon and bring our design perspective to the table in those discussions. You are really fantastic and putting yourself in the shoes of this non-Microsoft team and engaging at the right level without presupposing that they understand our design and business. It’s been really valuable.

Here’s a suggestion for how you could leverage this strength further:

Both the skills I mentioned above are ones I believe you’ve cultivated over the past few years. I would love to see you apply these to more projects and mentor more junior designers on these skills. In short, I think you could leverage your skills more by applying to more projects across the board.

Here’s something you may want to re-think:

This is not a straightforward question to answer because I can’t think of an obvious improvement area here. Rather I found myself thinking about how your skills mentioned in the above section could be brought to more projects to widen your impact. I would encourage you to look for even more horizontal projects that span different teams.

The thing I most value about working with you is:

This is a rephrasing of what I stated above. What I value most about working with you is your open-mindedness. A close second is your team spirit and demeanor - it’s just fun to riff ideas around and talk shop with you. Thank you for making work more fun!

NP|2018.1204

Microsoft 8/8

Senior Software Engineer

Here’s something I think you do really well and hope you keep doing:

Overall, it’s been a real pleasure working with Brian over the past year. I believe there is normally inherent friction between design and dev, as both have different visions and constraints. However, I feel like Brian does a really great job managing this, better than any other designer I’ve worked with. He makes sure to take input/feedback from dev/PM and is able to integrate it without compromising his design vision for the product. I also feel he’s done a really good job juggling tasks. He’s been asked to do a lot of work in a number of areas, and I feel he’s still quick to respond, and always takes time to talk through designs.

Here’s something you may want to re-think:

I don’t really have much constructive criticism. The only note I would make is that sometimes, I feel Brian goes deeper than needed in certain areas. His designs always have a lot of alternatives. This is good. It shows he’s really thinking hard about the problem, and it gives us a lot of options to choose from. However, I’m not sure it’s always a good return on investment. Each alternative takes him time to redline, and then time for us to discuss, prototype, and implement. Since Brian is definitely the design expert on the feature team, I think it would be great if he took the lead more and pushed a small number (maybe even one) of treatments. I realize this isn’t easy, as he’s probably getting input from management that I don’t always see, so I’m not sure it’s possible, but something to keep in mind.

The thing I most value about working with you is:

Nothing really to add to what I said above. It’s always a pleasure working with Brian. I really feel he takes our feedback into mind, and I’m really happy with the design vision he’s laid out for our team.

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