November 2025
I recently stepped into a Product Design Lead role — a hybrid role at my company where you split between IC work and people management — and started managing my first Product Designer. I wasn’t expecting a promotion this year, or at least not a track change like this. My goal has always been to level up as an IC, not become a people manager.
But when we started hiring and interviewing for a couple of roles back in July, something in me shifted. I felt ready and I wanted to formally try the role. Our org is unique and sometimes messy, both in culture and product challenges. We need people with a specific blend of experience, skills, and temperament to make everything work. That includes the design team taking a more active seat in leadership. After making a case for myself to my manager and his manager, and with performance review season coming up, it became official in October.
In this last few weeks, most of my energy goes into helping the new designer ramp up, keeping expectations clear, and figuring out what kind of manager I want to be. I’m still doing IC work, which I enjoy and do not plan to step away from, but that means the context switching is heavier. I’ve been in more meetings and involved in more projects than before, and probably will be for a while. I have also been deep in design ops: building our first official probation framework with clear criteria and principles, working with HR to implement it, and updating our interview rubrics. I like this work so far, even though I know I’m only scratching the surface. Managing someone is a different ballgame than design. I’m learning to be useful without overextending, and to nurture without coddling.
Compared to the first half of 2025, I haven’t traveled as much.
The last time I felt truly alive or a sense of wonder was at the airport lounge early in the morning, waiting to board my flight and journaling about how much I looked forward to the trip or the time off. Both times this happened recently were on flights to Hanoi, once in July and once in late October.
I think my brain knew I was on vacation mode, so everything work related turned into “out of sight, out of mind.” I was reading, checking out different coffee shops, tweaking my personal site, and being productive on my own projects, which actually made me feel engaged. I was having fun. On top of that, I was also catching up with my friends and spending time with my fiancée’s family. My routine was different. My environment was different.
Lately, weekends feel like I’m waiting for Monday. I still enjoy my weekends, but not fully, because work somehow lurks in the back of my mind. I know that some of it is because I allow it. At times things also feel too familiar and predictable. I’ve written about this before. I love familiarity and predictability, but lately I keep feeling like I need to get out of the city or plan a short trip more often, which is not what I want for my life: to rely on escapism. This is something I’m still working through.
I’m going to California for Christmas and New Year to spend time with my family. I haven’t seen them since last summer. This will be the last trip of this year. I’m looking forward to seeing them, and also to the feeling of being in an airport early in the morning, waiting to board, writing in my journal, knowing I’m about to get the reset I need.
I kind of wish I should have squeezed in a short trip at the start of September during the long weekend holiday. Work took up most of my energy in Q3, so I decided to stay home to relax and took just a few days off during my birthday week.
My fiancée and I are looking to visit Hong Kong and Shanghai during Vietnamese New Year in February. That should be amazing.
I finally got around to reading Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman, a book I put off since early 2024 when I first picked it up. I listened to most of it on Audible during my morning commutes, which made it much more digestible. I switched to my iPad mini for the last chapters.
I also enjoyed Good Work and The Pathless Path. Paul Millerd’s writing and journey are inspiring. His books remind me that work can be meaningful without consuming my identity, and that there is room to make time for what matters.
May 2025
Why is it that lately I daydream about being on vacation more often than before?
Maybe it’s because I’ve been traveling more and have started to see how lovely it is to truly rest, live outside of work more often, explore, and do my own thing. But what I’m craving isn’t new at all. It’s very familiar: being by the beach in Mũi Né like I did with my family last summer, and slow mornings in Paris with my fiancée. So it’s not really wanderlust or a craving for something novel. (I don’t actually like the beach that much, sand gets everywhere, but I do like going to resorts). I love my routine and wouldn’t change a thing, but I’ve been longing for those kinds of moments.