Senior Operations Leader | Embracing Unwavering Execution & Extreme Ownership Principles

I help organizations cut through complexity and turn operations into systems they can count on. With 20 years of experience, I have led cross-functional teams, managed a $200M contract portfolio, and delivered measurable results:

- $22M in savings through vendor management and strategic sourcing
- 25% profit margin gains through process improvement and operational efficiency
- 200+ corporate and endurance events produced over 15 years
- Large-scale budgets and project management across multiple functions

Core strengths: operations leadership, vendor management, contract management, strategic sourcing, process improvement, project management, budgeting, and event direction. I combine data-driven execution with a servant-leadership style shaped by Extreme Ownership and Echelon Front principles.

Outside of work, I am a runner, ultrarunner, GoRucker, and adventurer. The resilience and grit built on the trail inform every decision I make.

If you are looking for an operations partner who can optimize processes, manage vendors, and deliver events with measurable results, let’s connect.

“Jimmy’s integrity, bias toward action, and laser focus allowed our organization to scale…from the red into the black < 1 year, scaling >10X.” – Anoop Grover, COO

Jimmy Gabany

Most communication problems are not content problems.

They are leadership problems.

You can be right and still lose the room.

I have watched solid ideas get rejected because the tone was off. I have seen good feedback land wrong because it was delivered at the worst possible moment. I have done it myself. The message was fine. The timing was not.

Tact matters because respect matters. Tone matters because people read emotion before logic. Delivery matters because confidence and humility have to show up together. Timing matters because even the best point will fail if the person hearing it is not ready.

If you want alignment, slow down before you speak.

Ask yourself:

Is this the right moment?
Is my tone matching my intent?
Am I trying to win, or am I trying to solve?

Strong leaders do not just manage what they say. They manage how and when they say it.

That is where trust is built or lost.

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Extreme Ownership Muster 023

The OODA Loop

The Indirect Approach

Extreme Ownership Framework

Barriers to Extreme Ownership

 Creating a Culture of Extreme Ownership

How to Navigate Micromanagement

CSCMP Supply Chain Foundations: The Essentials Professional Certificate

Certified Ultrarunning Coach

Change Management Professional Certificate by LinkedIn Learning

ServiceNow IT Leadership Professional Certificate

Negotiation Professional Certificate by American Negotiation Institute

The Debrief

Global Procurement and Sourcing Specialization

Google Project Management Certificate

The Readback

EOS® Integrator™️ Masterclass Graduate

Extreme Ownership Muster 016

Safety and Risk Mitigation

Dichotomy of Leadership Foundation Course

Extreme Ownership Foundation Course

Technical Support Fundamentals

USSF D License

RRCA Certified Coach

USATF Level 1 Coach

NASM PES

NASM CPT

Metabolic Efficiency Training Specialist

Schwinn Cycling Instructor

Extreme Networks, Inc. (EXTR) is a leader in AI-powered cloud networking, delivering a unified platform that simplifies and secures IT operations. Our solutions help businesses address challenges and enable connections among devices, applications, and users. We push the boundaries of technology, leveraging the powers of artificial intelligence, analytics, and automation. Trusted by thousands of customers globally, our AI-powered cloud networking solutions and industry-leading support enable businesses to drive value, foster innovation, and overcome extreme challenges.

For more information, visit Extreme's website at www.extremenetworks.com or follow us on LinkedIn, YouTube, X/Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

The function didn't exist before I got there. Engineers were running their own contracts. Procurement wasn't in the room. Nobody owned the vendor relationships, the risk, or the outcomes.

I changed that. Built the operating system, the governance framework, and the accountability structure from nothing. I drive alignment across Finance, Legal, Procurement, InfoSec, and Insurance with no direct authority and no missed outcomes. Five stakeholder groups. Zero excuses.

The results: $200M+ portfolio under management, $22M+ in delivered savings, and contract cycle time cut from six weeks to three. AI-enabled workflows helped. Knowing what I needed before I walked into any negotiation helped more.

Senior Manager, Product Operations

Running B2B events at the executive level sounds straightforward until you're coordinating production across the U.S. and Europe, managing sponsors with six-figure commitments, and accountable to attendees who paid to be in the room.

Small core team. High standards. No margin for visible failure.

Margins up 25%. Vendor costs down 25%. Sponsorship revenue up 35%. CSAT above 95%.

In events, the product is the experience. If the experience breaks, everything breaks. It hasn't.

Event Director

Built the operating model from nothing. Repeatable systems, budget ownership, vendor strategy, and the rhythm that kept multi-location events from turning into chaos. Set the standard the Event Director role runs on today.

Head of Operations / COO

Running a business for 17 years alongside full-time executive roles isn't a side hustle. It's proof of capacity.

I built Elemental as an endurance athlete and coach because I understood the problem from the inside. That's still true. When you're timing 800 athletes at 5am on a mountain, everyone on the crew knows their job, owns their piece, and doesn't wait to be told what to do when something goes sideways. That's not an accident. That's the standard I set.

200+ road, trail, and track events. 99% timing accuracy. 30+ events a year. Clients come back because we show up and get it right.

Founder

Nevada's cannabis market expansion was the Wild West. New regulations, high stakes, no playbook.

I ran operations through all of it. Team of up to 200 people. Rapidly scaling, heavily regulated environment where hiring fast without lowering the bar wasn't optional, it was the job. I built the leaders inside the org who carried the standard when I couldn't be in the room.

Scaled wholesale more than 10x. Grew revenue 50%. Maintained less than 0.1% inventory variance across multimillion-dollar stock throughout the entire growth cycle. Managed capital projects from $10M to $50M including full facility builds and operational expansion.

One compliance miss could have shut the business down. Nothing did.

Head of Operations / General Manager

Fortune 500 clients. MGM properties. High-profile events where visible failure wasn't an option and nobody got to have a bad day when the client was watching.

15+ multimillion-dollar events. Production teams of 50+ per event. On time, on budget, 95%+ client satisfaction. We got called back.

Event Manager

SageWater specializes in large-scale residential repipe and rehab. I ran operations across 2,000+ projects in Nevada with crews and staff of 50+ running dozens of concurrent jobs at any given time.

Leading in high-volume construction means setting a standard and then building the supervisors and crew leads who carry it without you standing over them. You can't be on every job site. You build people who don't need you to be.

Senior Project Manager

Combat Engineer. Logistics Technician. Armorer. Schweinfurt, Germany.

I managed equipment ordering and supply chain for an armored unit, owned weapons accountability for the unit, and led soldiers in a zero-failure environment. Leadership in the Army isn't theoretical. You set the standard, you model it, and your people either meet it or they don't. There's no gray area.

It's where the standard got set.

Combat Engineer

Operations Leader | I Build the Systems That Keep Companies From Falling Apart | Extreme Ownership | Vendor Strategy | Event Execution

Strong leaders admit when they do not know.

Not because it sounds humble. Because it is efficient.

Pretending to have every answer slows the room down. People wait. They defer. They hold back ideas because they assume the leader already decided.

The moment you say, “I don’t know,” something shifts. The team leans in. Ownership spreads. Solutions get better.

Needing help is not weakness. It is awareness.

If you are the smartest voice in every conversation, you are probably talking too much.

I got a new tattoo last month.

Jocko's GOOD. Right on my forearm, where I see it every day.

It is going to grow. Eventually, it will include the end of that same piece:
"Get up, dust off, re-load, re-calibrate, re-engage. And go out on the attack."

People will ask why. Here is the honest answer.

It is too easy to slip into the negative. Things break. Plans fail. Races go sideways. Deals fall apart. The world will give you plenty of reasons to focus on what went wrong.

GOOD forces an interruption. The computer dies mid-race. Good. I already have a backup running. The event hits a wall. Good. Now I know exactly where the weak point is. The plan falls apart. Good. The plan was probably wrong anyway. The negotiation went sideways. Good. I learned a better technique.

This is not optimism. It is a discipline. And like any discipline, it has to be practiced until it becomes automatic.

That is why it is on my arm.

Because some days I need the reminder before my brain goes somewhere less useful.

As a leader, your mindset is contagious. If you spiral, the room spirals. If you reset and move, the room moves with you.

GOOD is the reset.

#leadership #operations

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50 plus pounds on my back. 75 minutes. Pavement.

Dragging that kind of weight around is not fun. I want to be clear about that. Nobody is out here loving every step of a ruck. You just do it anyway.

This is prep for the Ruck Race League March Challenge. 25 percent of bodyweight for 75 minutes. The Furnace. It is exactly what it sounds like.

I do it because discipline equals freedom. And because I cannot ask anything of my team, my family, or anyone in my chain of command that I am not willing to demand of myself first.

Here is the controversial part.

If you cannot lead yourself, you are not a leader. You might be a manager. You might be in charge. But leadership requires something more than a title or authority. It requires that the people around you actually want to follow you.

That starts with how you show up when nobody is watching. The early morning. The extra weight. The thing you do not want to do but are committed to anyway.

People are paying attention even when you think they are not. They are watching whether your standards apply to you or just to them.

Be the person people choose to follow.

Not because they have to. Because they want to.

#leadership

This is my amazing wife, Sandy.

New Year's Eve. End of her first 100 miler.

She did not finish because she felt good. She finished because she refused to stop.

Blisters. Aches. The kind of tired that sits in your bones and starts negotiating with your brain around mile 60. Every step after that is a choice. Not a physical one. A mental one.

The body will lie to you. It will tell you that you have nothing left. That stopping is reasonable. That you have already done enough.

Discipline is knowing the difference between actually done and just uncomfortable.

Sandy knows the difference.

I have watched a lot of people train for events like this. The ones who finish are not always the most fit. They are the ones who learned to keep moving when every reasonable thought says stop.

That lesson does not stay on the trail. It follows you into every hard thing after.

Grit is not something you have. It is something you practice until quitting stops feeling like an option.

She rang that bell.

#leadership #operations

It has been a while since I have actually run.

Torn quad in December took care of that. No regrets, though. It is not every day you get to play laser tag supervised by Navy SEALs/SpecOps guys.

Today, it is one foot in front of the other. No fanfare. No applause. Just moving.

That is how most things worth doing actually get done. Not with a grand moment or a perfect starting point. Just a decision to start and the discipline to keep going.

Dean Karnazes said it best.
"Run when you can, walk if you have to, crawl if you must. Just never give up."

That applies well beyond running.

Whatever you are working through right now, just keep moving forward.

#leadership

5,000 people. Wilmington. Last weekend.

My primary timing computer died mid-race.

First instinct is to react. Fix it fast, fix it loud, let the stress show. That instinct is wrong.

Detachment is not distance. It is discipline. You pull back just far enough to see the problem clearly without your emotions making it worse. Then you act.

I switched to the backup that was already running. Results slowed. The primary timing company stressed. I stayed calm, kept the team steady, and fixed it.

Nobody on that course knew anything went wrong.

That is what Echelon Front means by detachment in practice. Not checked out. Not cold. Just controlled enough to respond instead of react when something breaks in front of a crowd.

The job is not set up. The job is what happens when it breaks.

#leadership #operations

“My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure.”

What stands out to me is the second half.

Failure is part of the work. Projects stall. Events break. Decisions miss. Anyone operating at a real level will fail at some point.

The real danger is getting comfortable with it.

I have seen teams normalize underperformance. Deadlines slip, and everyone shrugs. Standards drift, and no one calls it out. Over time, that becomes the culture. Not excellence. Not urgency. Just acceptance.

There is a difference between learning from failure and settling into it.

One builds capability. The other builds mediocrity.

The leaders I respect do not panic when something goes wrong. They also do not ignore it. They dissect it, fix it, and reset expectations. Calm. Direct. Unapologetic about the standard.

Failure is not the problem.

Comfort is.

Courtesy of Echelon Front

Echelon Front

Nobody has ever left a meeting thinking "I wish that had been longer."

Corporate culture did not collapse overnight. It drifted.

One small compromise at a time. A missed conversation here. An ignored signal there. A push for output without a pause to ask what it is costing the people doing the work. Over time, that drift becomes the new normal.

There was a time when steady leadership and earned loyalty were not buzzwords. Managers knew their teams. Expectations were firm. Respect was mutual. If something went wrong, it was addressed directly. If someone did well, it was recognized without being turned into a campaign.

Now, too many environments feel transactional. People are treated like interchangeable parts. Pressure flows downhill. Recognition flows upward. Leaders talk about culture while quietly rewarding behavior that undermines it.

If you want to change the trajectory, start with yourself. Keep your word even when it is inconvenient. Set standards and hold them without shifting them to fit the mood. Protect your team when the pressure rises instead of using them as insulation.

Loyalty is not a perk. It is a response to consistent behavior. When people feel respected and treated fairly, they commit. When they feel used, they disengage.

Culture is not what you declare. It is what you tolerate and reinforce every day.

Timing in the mud and rain!

Elemental Race Timing

Elemental Race Timing

Detachment is not distance. It is discipline.

At Echelon Front, detachment means stepping back far enough to see what you cannot see when you are in the middle of it.

When you are too close, everything feels urgent. Every issue looks personal. Emotions rise. Decisions get reactive.

Detachment creates space. You pull back. You assess. You ask what actually matters right now. The problem often looks different from ten thousand feet.

I have had moments where staying in the weeds felt responsible. It was not. It made me slower and more emotional. The solution did not show up until I paused and looked at the situation without ego attached.

Detachment is not cold. It is controlled. It is choosing to respond instead of react.

If things feel chaotic, you might not need more effort. You might need more perspective.

"The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers."
Ralph Nader

If your only goal is to create followers, that is an ego problem.

Great leaders raise people up without worrying about being outgrown. They share what they know. They put people in positions to succeed. They celebrate when someone they developed moves past them.

Being part of the process that makes someone better than you says more about your leadership than any title or follower count ever will.
I have seen leaders hoard knowledge because they were afraid of being replaced. That is not leadership. That is insecurity with a job title.

The best leaders I have been around made themselves less necessary over time. Not because they checked out, but because they built people who did not need them for the basics anymore.

That is the goal.

If everyone around you is dependent on you for answers, you have built a following. If everyone around you is solving problems, growing, and pushing past where you found them, you have done the job.

One of those is leadership. The other just feels like it.

#leadership

Today I am cleaning up a mess that did not have to happen.

Someone went around the team. Skipped the people who could have helped. Made the move that looked good for them in the moment and left the wreckage for everyone else to deal with.

This is not a skill problem. It is a character problem.

Teams exist because no single person has every answer. Using your teammates is not a sign of weakness. It is how the work actually gets done without creating casualties along the way.

The people who go around the team are usually optimizing for how they look, not for the outcome. And it works, right up until someone has to come behind them and fix what they left.

I do not mind doing the work. That is part of the job.

What I mind is that it was completely avoidable.

Use your team. Ask for help. Let people do what they are there to do. The mission matters more than the moment you get to look like you handled it alone.

Do not be this person.

#leadership #operations

Meetings are not work.

They are either alignment or avoidance.

If you leave without a decision, an owner, and a next action, it was not productive. It was theater.

Fewer meetings.
More ownership.
Finish things.

Accountability is quiet.
Blame is loud.

If every mistake turns into a postmortem with twelve people defending themselves, you are not fixing the problem. You are just assigning fear.

Teams that feel safe owning mistakes fix them faster.

Teams that feel hunted get very good at hiding.

Choose which one you want.

Leadership is not a title. It is a ripple effect.

If the people around you are thinking bigger because of your example, that is leadership. If they are pushing themselves to learn more, take on more responsibility, and raise their standards, that says more than any promotion ever will.

I have worked for leaders who talked about vision all day. Few inspired it. The ones who did were consistent. They showed up prepared. They admitted mistakes. They held the line when standards slipped. You did not just hear what they believed. You saw it.

Inspiration is not hype. It is modeling.

If your team is growing, stretching, and stepping into more than they thought they could handle, you are doing the job.

If they are shrinking, playing it safe, or waiting to be told what to do, something needs to change.

Leadership is measured in who people become because you were in the room.

“Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.”

I like this because it shifts the focus away from optics.

Success is easy to measure on paper. Titles. Revenue. Followers. Awards. Value is harder to fake. It shows up in whether the team performs better because you are there. Whether problems get solved faster. Whether people grow under your leadership.

Chasing success often turns inward. How do I look? What do I gain? Being of value turns outward. Who benefits? What improves? What moves forward because I showed up?

In operations, value is not glamorous. It is fixing what is broken. Removing friction. Making someone else’s job easier without needing credit for it.

If you aim to be useful long enough, success usually follows.

If you aim only at success, you risk missing the point entirely.

Where are you adding real value right now?

The org chart says one person is in charge.

The group chat tells a different story.

Strategy is easy. Execution is where most teams stall.

Everyone loves the high-level plan. Brainstorms feel productive. Slides look sharp. Then the meeting ends and reality steps in. No one owns the next move. Deadlines slide. Momentum fades.

It is rarely a talent issue. It is rarely a resource issue. It is the gap between the idea and the next concrete action.

Big plans fail when no one translates them into work that real people can actually do.

I have seen this pattern too many times. A new process rolls out. Teams nod in the kickoff. Monday shows up and confusion sets in.

What works is not complicated.

Write the steps in plain language.
Assign tasks to names, not departments.
Set deadlines measured in days, not quarters.
Follow up without being asked.

One stalled initiative on my team sat untouched for months. We broke it down, assigned ownership, tightened timelines, and delivered in weeks. No magic. Just disciplined follow-through.

Operational strength is not about talking well. It is about finishing what you start.

Are you building plans, or are you building outcomes?

Pavle Lucic

Senior UI/UX Designer @ Toptal | Prototyping, Branding, UI Development

I am a Senior UI/UX Designer at Toptal, a network of the world's top 3% of software engineering, design, and finance talent. With over 10 years of experience in the design industry, I have a proven track record of creating visually engaging and user-friendly interfaces for in-car navigation systems, SaaS apps, and marketing websites.

My background in business and economics gives me a unique perspective on how to design UX and UI that are not only aesthetically pleasing, but also functional, efficient, and user-friendly. I am passionate about solving complex problems, collaborating with diverse teams, and learning new skills. I am also Adwords Search Certified, which demonstrates my ability to optimize the online presence and performance of my clients. My goal is to help tech companies increase their revenue by improving the user experience of their products.

Senior UI/UX Desiger

2 tools that will replace entire product teams in 2026

(designers can do the development now)

1/ Claude → Your thinking layer 
↳ Industry analysis in 15 minutes 
↳ Competitive breakdowns in 20 minutes
↳ User journeys mapped instantly
↳ Feature priorities without PMs 
↳ Strategy without strategists

2/ Figma → Your design AND development layer 
↳ Systems, not screens 
↳ Components that scale 
↳ Figma to code pipelines 
↳ AI-assisted building 
↳ Ship without developers

Old model: 

PM + Strategist + Designer + Developer 4 people. 
4 weeks. 4 handoffs.

New model: 

Designer + Claude + Figma 1 person. 
2 days. 0 handoffs.

Strategy. Design. Development. One designer.

The handoff era is over.

Repost this ♻️ if you're building this way.

P.S. Are you still handing off or already shipping?

Senior UI/UX Designer

Senior UX Designer

UI / UX designer & UI Developer

Visual Designer

UI/UX Designer

Senior UI/UX Product Designer | UX Strategy | Figma

English

Serbian

Every designer should SAVE this Accessibility Checklist: 

1. Images include alt text
2. Buttons have clear labels
3. Body text is 16px or larger
4. Text contrast is at least 4.5:1
5. Click targets are minimum 44px
6. Forms show clear error messages
7. Icons are never used without labels
8. Navigation works with keyboard only
9. Animations can be reduced or disabled
10. Focus states are visible for keyboard users

Follow this checklist, and you'r already ahead of 90% of products online.

Accessible design isn’t complicated.
It’s just intentional.

Save this post for your next UI review.

(Repost for other designers ♻️)

P.S. Which one do you check last before shipping a design?

Here's a proven way to stand out as a UX designer in 2026.

(Without adding another certification to your wall)

Stop focusing on "designing screens". 
Focus on "designing outcomes".

When you present work to stakeholders?

Your job is not to show how pretty it looks. 
It's to show why it matters.

This is the main "metric" of everything you design"

1. User pain points → Connect them to cost
2. Redesigns → Show the numbers behind them
3. They need a solution → Be their strategic partner

Stop hiding behind "I'm just the designer".

Share the "why" → Not just the "what"
This builds irrevocable trust.

Don't just push pixels. 
Push thinking. 

Make sure your seat at the table stays. 

When restructuring comes? 
(And it will) You'll still be there.

Pretty? No. → "Impactful". Always.

(Repost this for your network ♻️)

P.S. Do you notice some designers hiding behind Figma files? Avoiding the business conversation entirely?

Every time I share this advice, some designers get mad. 

“Users do judge products visually”
“The UI matters more than ever now”
“Brand perception starts with visuals”

My advice: Stop using UI and UX like they mean the same thing.

Chances are: Your interface matters a lot.
Chances are: Your user experience matters even more.

(Fun fact: A product can look amazing and still frustrate users)

So...

If you want better product discussions
If you want smarter design decisions
If you want to solve the right problems

Separate UI from UX. (Thank me later)

P.S. Don’t get mad. ✌️

UX vs UX

Junior designers add design elements. 

But senior designers remove.

One rule that fixed 80% of my designs:

Take your finished screen.
Start deleting things. One by one.

In practice:

That extra icon? Remove.
That extra border? Remove.
That extra shadow? Remove.

Keep going until something breaks. Stop there.

Everything you deleted before that? Never needed.

Took me years to trust subtraction over addition. 
Now it's the first thing I do on every project.

💾 Save this for your next design review.

P.S. What element do you always overuse?

Most recruiters ask designers:

“Do you have experience in our specific industry?”

I think the better question is:

Can they understand the audience?
Can they define the real problem?
Can they bring a fresh point of view?

They’re hired to:

Think deeper.
Observe better.
Design smarter.

Industry knowledge is useful. Sure.

But if that’s your no. 1 hiring filter...

Chances are: you’ll get familiar ideas, safer choices, and the same patterns your competitors already use.

Sometimes, the best designer for the job is the one who is not stuck inside the industry bubble.

Because fresh eyes catch what insiders stop noticing.
Great design is not about knowing the category best.

It’s about understanding people best.

P.S. What matters more: industry experience or design thinking?

There's  2 types of designers.

The "creative" and "disciplined" designer:

Creative designer:

Always has the wildest idea in the room → sometimes too wild to ship
Portfolio is beautiful → but their project delivery is unpredictable
Pushes boundaries → but sometimes pushes deadlines too
Gets praised in brainstorms → but panics during execution
Gets noticed → but doesn't always get rehired

The "disciplined" designer:

Shows up every day with the same energy → Day 1 or Day 100
Delivers on time → even when the work isn't "groundbreaking"
Communicates progress clearly → no surprises for stakeholders
Portfolio shows shipped work → real products, real outcomes
Gets paid → consistently, repeatedly, and without chasing

(Bonus) 

Type 3: 
The rare designer who has both → They run the industry :)

Creativity is the spark.  Discipline is the engine.

One gets you in the door. 
The other builds your career. ❤️

(Invest 3 seconds into reposting this one, will you?) ♻️

P.S. Which type are you right now? Be honest.

Unpopular opinion: Figma is the last tool you should open.

Not the first.

Here's the process I use for every project:

Phase 1 → Discovery (1 week)
Research. Competitors. Customer Journey.
↳ You can't solve what you don't understand.

Phase 2 → Prototyping (2 weeks)
Architecture. Flows. Wireframes. Testing.
↳ You can't design what you haven't structured.

Phase 3 → Design (5 weeks)
UI Concepts. Final UI. UI Kit. Handoff.
↳ Now you design. Not before.

8 weeks total. 

"But that's too slow."
No. 

Redesigning a product 3 times because you skipped research is slow. 

Arguing with devs because there's no handoff doc is slow. 
Rebuilding flows because nobody tested the wireframe is slow.

Process isn't slow.

Skipping process is slow.

(Save + Repost for others ♻️)

P.S. Do you follow a process or wing it?

For years, they told us:

Learn computers. Avoid manual work.

Now?

AI is writing emails.
Designing logos.
Making presentations.
Even coding.

Meanwhile…

The plumber is somewhere chilling like:
“Good luck teaching ChatGPT to fix your bathroom.” 🙂

Funny times, friends.

The “safe” jobs suddenly don’t feel that safe.
And the jobs people looked down on?
They’re looking very… employed.

P.S. Which non-computer job is winning the AI era? 😂

"Good designers have a natural eye for color."

No they don't.

They have a system.

And most of them use the same one:
60-30-10.

60% of the screen is one neutral 
30% is one supporting tone 
10% is one accent

It's simple a ratio.

You could pick ugly colors and still make a clean UI with this rule.
You could pick beautiful colors and still make a mess without it.

The "eye" people talk about? It's pattern recognition.

And pattern recognition comes from systems.
Not talent.

Start with the system.

♻️ Repost or Save if you're tired of the "natural talent" myth.

P.S. Talent or system what matters more? 👇

I've been studying dark UX patterns for a while now.

Here's everything I see on one Temu product card:

"Deal" badge → urgency without a deadline
"17K+ sold" → social proof replacing analysis
1,180 reviews → volume creating false authority
Fake "original" price → anchoring your perception
Cart icon right next to the price → reducing friction
Product image with dimensions → implying precision
Everything above the fold → no scrolling needed to buy
Percentage shown in orange → framing savings over cost

8 design decisions.

But...0 of them are about helping you choose.
All of them are about helping you click.

Feel free to repost this ♻️ 

But my ask is:
Next time you shop online, count the tricks first. Then decide.

P.S. Which one surprised you (1-8)? Anything I missed? 👇

My non-negotiable rules for writing button copy.

(7 micro-copy rules every junior designer needs to know)

Lead with the outcome e.g. "Get Your Free Guide"
"Sign Up" = vague → "Start for Free" = clear value
Keep it to 2-5 words → Longer than that? Rewrite it.
Never use "Submit" → Nobody wants to "submit" anything
Never write what the system does → Write what the user gets
Kill the # 1 objection inside the button e.g. "Try It, No Credit Card"

Read it out loud → If it sounds like a robot wrote it, it's wrong.

Bonus: 
Never use "Submit" on a button because you ran out of ideas. 

If you can't describe the value in 5 words, you don't understand the feature well enough.

Bad CTAs describe the process. 
Good CTAs describe the outcome = That's the whole game.

(Save + Repost for others ♻️)

P.S. Do you follow UX copy rules?

Being great at design is not enough.

You can be very skilled...and still lose the project.

What clients remember is not just:

1. Your portfolio
2. Your systems
3. Your creative taste

They also remember:

1. How you handled feedback
2. How easy it was to build with you
3. How safe it felt to disagree with you

Design does not happen in isolation. It happens through conversations.

Through trust.
Through people.
Through uncertainty.

The best designers don’t just push pixels. They move people.

P.S. People don’t just remember the final design. They remember what it felt like to get there. 😊

P.P.S.  Design is not just visual. It’s human ♻️

2 years ago I was handing off Figma files.

Today I push code to GitHub.

Same person. 
Same skills. 

One new tool. AI.

I didn't hire a developer.
I didn't go back to school. 
I didn't learn computer science. 

I just started "building."

Backend? AI. 
Databases? AI. 
The scary stuff? AI.

Design, UX, how it feels?

That's still me.
Always will be.

Turns out, a designer who builds the "whole thing"?
Pretty powerful.

♻️ Repost if you know a designer who needs to hear this.

P.S. Which idea have you been sitting on? Tell me below. 👇

Here's something I never post about.

(it starts with a DM I almost ignored)

Last week someone messaged me on Linkedin.

"Hey, do you do branding?"

My first instinct: no.
My second instinct: why not?
My third instinct: LinkedIn says I'm a product designer.

I replied anyway. "What do you need?"

She said: 
"Logo for pilates studio".

I quoted the project. She said yes.
I sketched directions in Procreate on the couch.
I opened Adobe Illustrator. Not Figma. Illustrator.

My iPad on my lap. Coffee getting cold.

She wrote back 4 words.
"Don't change a thing."

And I just sat there.

Because I almost said no.
Because I convinced myself that product designers don't do this kind of work.

I thought:

That it wasn't my lane. 
That I needed to be a "brand designer" first.

That night I scrolled through my files.

Logos I made and never showed anyone. 
Brand identities sitting in folders named "personal" and "side work."

Years of work that never made it to my portfolio.

Because I thought it didn't count.
It wasn't "product design" so it wasn't real work.

That's the dumbest thing I've ever believed.

It's design. 
It counts.

P.S. The coffee was cold. The logo was good. Fair trade.

Most people think AI builders must be engineers.

But the next generation may be designers.

AI can write code.
But AI cannot design the product.

Someone must decide:

• What problem to solve
• How the flow works
• How the system behaves

That is product thinking.

Designers already do this.

P.S. Agree?

Top negotiators use this hack. It's called "echoing."

(here's how designers can use it on every feedback call)

So how it works?
Repeat the client's own words back to them.

That's why it's called the "Echo" method.

People trust their own words more than yours.
So make sure you use that.

Here's how it looks:

Client says: "I want it clean and minimal." 
Then later: "Add more icons, a banner, and a pattern." 
You say: "You wanted clean and minimal. Which of these fits that?"

Client says: "The homepage should feel premium." 
Then sends a reference that looks like a discount flyer. 
You say: "You said premium. This reference feels promotional. Let's find a better match."

Client says: "I love version 2." 
Two days later: "Actually, let's go back to version 1." 
You say: "You approved version 2 last week. What changed?"

No arguing. 

No "I told you so." 
Just their words "Echoing".

What if the client hasn't said anything specific?

Then quote the brief. 
The approved direction. 
The project goals defined.

Why this works: people respect their own words more than yours.

Use playback → fewer revisions, faster approvals.
Start quoting your clients back to them 😇

P.S. Repost this ( Save ⭐ this and Repost ♻️ )

Dark patterns are the biggest scam in tech.

And nobody's talking about it.

Today I tried to buy an CapCut app subscription.
Price on screen: €59.00/month.
Price at checkout: €299.99.

That's 30x markup.

This isn't a bug.
It's a feature.

It's called "bait and switch"one of the most common dark patterns in UX design.

Here's why it keeps working:

1. The purchase screen looks trustworthy
2. The real price only shows at the very last step
3. Most users tap "confirm" without reading

I teach designers to reduce friction.
But some companies use that skill to reduce your attention.

This wasn't some sketchy app.

It was in the App Store.
Processed through Apple.

If you're building products:

- Transparent pricing isn't a "nice to have"
- Transparent pricing is the bare minimum

Dark patterns are a tax on user trust.

And trust, once broken, doesn't come back.

♻️ Share this with someone who builds digital products.

CapCut

Quick UX test:

Where is “Cancel subscription”?

A. Upgrade plan
B. Personalization
C. Settings

Drop your answer below.

P.S. Bonus points if you explain the UX logic behind your choice.

No one will taught you this at any design workshop.

Your clients used to find you like this:

1. Search Contra ( or other freelance platforms )
2. Check your portfolio
3. Like your vibe
4. Read your bio
5. Send a message

Every step there was a real person deciding with their gut.

Do they like you.
Will they hire you.

But, software is now doing that process. 

Browsing profiles. 
Comparing freelancers. 
Choosing who to hire. 

Without a human in the loop.

Now:
AI agents entered the freelance market. 

Which means...

1. A new buyer category that evaluates without messaging you first
2. Profiles being scanned by software, not just humans
3. Less "let me think about it" - more instant decisions
4. More freelancers who have no idea this is happening
5. A new competitor category that delivers work 24/7

The point I want to make is:

Most freelancers don't fall behind because of skill. 
They fall behind because of awareness. 

I really hope YOU won't. 

(Repost further for others ♻️)

P.S. I created a playbook on how to attract these AI agents. 

P.P.S. Comment “AGENT” and I’ll send it your way. 

( Make sure we’re connected first ❤️ )

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