By the time a product team is stuck, the problem has usually moved underneath the design. Nobody has agreed on what they're building. The system has drifted into twenty variations of the same component. A hard conversation has been deferred so long that it has become the roadmap blocker.

That's what I work on. Seventeen years as a designer, eleven of them at Reaktor, embedded inside client teams at JFK Airport, at a large gaming company, at Paramount, at an AI-tooling startup, and at a multinational sports equipment brand. Usually I am working on products where a lot of people have to stay coordinated over a long stretch.

Sometimes the work is design: a system, an interface, a prototype built on top of an existing codebase. Sometimes it's short, a kickoff or a recalibration or a retro that gets the unspoken thing said. Sometimes it's coaching a designer or a team lead who has ended up holding more scope than they have before.

I'm most useful in the messy middle, where the system design, the stakeholder disagreement, and the team's confidence turn out to be the same problem.

Lately I've been thinking about how my definition of a design tool has changed, how many carbs a ten-hour trail run actually takes, and how to get sourdough to the right hydration in August.

From Finland, based in Brooklyn. You can find me on Linkedin or email me at hello@lauriboren.com