I Updated a Favorite Meme


When I joined my very first San Francisco Bay Area startup as an early designer, I was immersed in the world of product design. It was 2010. Here I was, new to the world of product design – fresh, eager, drinking the Kool-Aid, and working alongside my fellow designers. We were a solid team, united in our purpose: advocating for our user’s needs. We lived and breathed our mantra: “We’re designers. We fight for our users.”

It’s just like the 1982 TRON film:

“I fight for the users.” This was our guiding principle. And it was an argument I used in countless meetings to defend my designs, “It provides value to the user.” Advocating for the user became a part of my identity. And it became a well-known meme, using the 2010 TRON: Legacy film:

“I fight for the user.” I put this meme in countless presentations. It is a timeless truth — designers are champions for users — and it’s still relevant today.

Over the next few years, I moved on from that startup to another startup and then I worked at 2 out of the 5 in FAANG. I also worked through several designer stereotypes: wearing all black, sporting bold, hipster eye glass frames, carrying on as a coffee connoisseur, being a type snob by hating Comic Sans and believing that Helvetica is perfection, and thinking that the best design work is done in solitude while listening to Daft Punk.

Now, years later, I am a well-seasoned product designer. I realize how silly the design stereotypes are. I find myself shopping for clothing that is not black, because I have enough. I have 12 pairs of reading glasses in various styles, and I wear whichever pair I can find. I still love coffee, but I am okay if it’s not monkey poop. I believe Comic Sans has a reason for existing in this world, and Helvetica is now cliché. And I know that the best design work is the result of cross-disciplinary collaboration.

I still fight for the users, but I also fight for more. I am a product person who loves to solve hard problems. After working in product for 15 years, I now know that the challenge lies in balancing the needs of not only the users, but also the business.

I have grown out of the design stereotypes. I have updated my design values. And I’ve updated the TRON meme to more accurately reflect my product design motto:

This is the meme I’ll be using in presentations from now on.

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