Advice summary: top 5 lessons from the book

With almost 2000 subscribers it's a good time to recap

Hi folks. Here is a bonus post for you on this Monday (the usual Tuesday post will arrive… tomorrow, when nothing interesting is happening in the U.S. at all, really).

The book Why Design Is Hard has been out for 40 days. Thanks to all of you who have bought the book and helped spread the word so far. The positive response has been lovely. Sales have been good for a niche book like this, but they’re slowing now which is expected a few weeks after launch. Reviews have slowed too with 24 on Amazon (4.5 avg) and 11 on Goodreads (4.36 avg). I’m grateful to each of you who took the time to write them as they are critical to a book finding its way in the marketplace. It’s never too late so if you want to help, that’s an easy thing to do if you’re game.

Finding a large audience for this book was always going to be an uphill battle. It’s a short, provocative, independently published book for a niche audience compared to most of my books. And if you’re on this substack, guess what? You’ve been experiencing the core of the marketing plan! There’s no big advertising budget or outreach program. There were no blurbs or strategic partners. The bet was readers like you will read and share these ideas if you find them worthy. So thanks for being here at all.

Top 5 lessons from Why Design Is Hard (So far)

This substack is now at almost at 2k subscribers and continuing to grow at a steady pace. Shout out to Jason Merut, B. Scott Hoadley, Steve Boulton and Anne Hjortshøj, who were the first four people to subscribe when I started it in June of 2023!

This means many of you are new: welcome! it’s a great time recap the highlights so far.

Here’s the top 5 advice posts, ranked by most views (+2 bonuses):

1. Why design talent is a distraction

2. Bad design makes money (and what to do about it)

3. The skills designers *really* need to know

4. My personal story on designers vs. deciders

5. The design purity trap and how to escape it

6. How to reframe your biggest frustrations

7. Plus there’s the free opening chapter of the book (PDF) that explains who it’s for and what problems it can solve for you.

If you find any of these worthy: please share (#designishard). This helps keep the list growing. And of course consider buying the book for yourself or your team. All of this supports the project and helps motivate me to keep contributing to it. Thanks.

P.S. I’m the opening keynote speaker at the virtual Chicago UX Camp this Saturday and I’ll be talking about key ideas from the book. Tickets are just $15 so it’s open to everyone. A rare event bargin! Hope to see you there.