The hero’s journey, and where things go wrong Dear readers, I meant to sit down and write what I’ve learned about innovation, but somehow in the process this morphed into a different kind of essay. I blame this on my absolute sheer delight at listening to Beyonce’s remix of of Dolly Parton’s Jolene. What is innovation but the story of the hero’s journey, and what is a hero’s journey but the classic story of leadership? I hope you enjoy this two-sided tale. Warmly, ~Julie In this issue: The origins of leadership The origins of burnout What leadership actually is What l ..read more

In celebration of some of the women that set the bar for me Dear Readers, When I look back on my working life, there are episodes which feel like a bad sitcom, where I acted in such a way that the me-of-today is thoroughly mortified. The Looking Glass is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Oh, there are seasons where I puffed my chest, where I played “cool girl,” where I wore the smooth mask of professionalism. There are seasons where I fell apart behind closed doors and locked stalls. I attribute much ..read more

The limitations of executive functioning; invention and certainty; management as faith Dear readers, The thing that sets us human beings apart from the rest of the animal kingdom is our rational brain. Call it System 2, our planning process, our executive epicenter, math mode — whatever you want. But this thinking grey matter is what tamed the soils to grow our food and the dogs to heed our call; what enabled the bicycles, and later the bicycles of the mind. Or so goes the story I told myself, for years and years and years. Draped in the robes of a STEM education, drinking ..read more

Practical, magical, uncertain, and yet a tool for the most decisive Dear Readers, Many of you know that I have been building a company over the last 3 years. It’s long been a dream of mine to run this kind of 0→1 marathon. Some folks express surprise when I tell them that my company is an analytics and data company. But… aren’t you a designer? They ask. Didn’t you work on huge consumer products? Why would you jump to enterprise? And to data, of all things? The simple answer is that my co-founder Chandra had a bold idea, and I believed we could make it happen. The lucky answ ..read more

Imagining what dream collaboration looks like Dear readers, instead of my usual short snippets on a theme, this is Part 2 of the essay Chains of Assumptions, a topic near and dear to my heart. Two extra sections are included behind the subscriber paywall. Not All Assumptions are Salient One feature of our smart human mind is that it’s really good at finding shortcuts. Discontent to spend precious energy on what’s already assumed to be well-known, our mind naturally hones in on what appears salient. This is why we don’t find ourselves requestioning the laws of physics every  ..read more

How to avoid the false veneer of perfection Dear readers, instead of my usual short snippets on a theme, I’m sharing an in-progress essay on a topic near and dear to my heart. A short summary and set of implications are behind the subscriber paywall. As always, thank you for your reading and support. Sending you much love and warmth during this holiday season. One of our team members, Nishant, asked me a question in a 1:1 recently: “How can I have impact?” Now, this is the kind of question managers are asked so often it’s usually stored in the caches of our brain. So I opened my mout ..read more

What is beauty? Why is nature beautiful? The case for making beautiful things Dear readers, I used to think beautiful was a word to describe people. Then, as a surly teenager forced into national park road trips, I begrudgingly added nature into the bucket. Later, as I trod the path of design, it became a word to describe interfaces or objects. A website here, an app there, a sleek aluminum edge, an airy monochrome composition. My currency, in some ways, comes from my eye’s scrutiny for beauty. But I am continuing to discover how limited that eye is. Enjoy these tidbits on the theme ..read more

What you and your biggest work adversary have in common; the magic incantation in times of conflict; and 5 steps for disagreeing effectively Dear readers, For years and years, the greatest stress from my job came from conflict. Being in a heated argument felt like flipping on an emergency siren in my brain. I hated the feeling. Why did I hate it? The answer is layered in many mistaken beliefs and that pesky thing called ego. What can we do about workplace conflict? Actually, a lot, and the theme of today’s letter. I hope some of these ideas help you see conflict in a different w ..read more

A long-form piece on some age-old misconceptions So you want to write a book? Or you want to start a blog? Or your humble hope is simply to write better? If I got a nickel for every time someone told me with shining eyes about their writing dreams, I would be able to build a library vast enough to house every Great American Novel conceived but never written. And I get it. If you are reading this, you probably feel a certain fondness for words. You are probably the type of person who: Remained alert through decades of English classes Secretly hope text-based platf ..read more

The most important thing my manager ever told me; we vs. me mentality; the future of AI-powered user experiences Hello readers! One of the things I get unreasonably excited about is drawing threads across different learnings. I get the same satisfaction out of it as introducing two good friends at a dinner party who you just KNOW will hit it off. Except in this case, it’s two ideas and the setting is my head. Of course, sometimes the introduction doesn’t have staying power. The golden thread frays over time. Or it snaps, because hey, that is a totally wrong conclusion! But the love of dis ..read more