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Nick Basile @nick-basile.com · 30/10/2025

"you stop designing AT developers, and start designing WITH them" Tech Takes | How do I actually get my designs used by my dev team? __ #productdevelopment #productdesign #startup #webdev #webdesign #ai #design

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Nick Basile @nick-basile.com · 29/10/2025

Prepping my JavaScript for Designers course! After lots of iterations, I feel like I've finally cracked how to sequence all the JS content so it just clicks right away for designers 😁 We're up to 6 sections and over 50 lessons--can't wait to start filming!

Split-screen showing a Notion course list for “JS for Designers” with lessons marked “Not started,” and a code example explaining arrays of objects with merchants like Taco Bell and McDonald’s, followed by examples such as Airbnb listings and groceries apps.

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Nick Basile @nick-basile.com · 10/10/2025

Anyone else naming their Figma layers like this? 👀 Feels like it helps dev/ai <> design collaboration, but could also get confusing on larger teams. Plus, it assumes design team can work with HTML/CSS structures.

A Figma layer list using HTML elements and Tailwind CSS classes as layer names.

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Nick Basile @nick-basile.com · 09/10/2025

If you're a designer who's always been curious about how JavaScript variables work, then tomorrow's Technically Lit newsletter is just for you 😄 Sign up today to make sure it lands in your inbox: technicallylit.com/newsletter

technicallylit.com

Newsletter | Technically Lit

Get practical coding lessons & tips, our latest content, plus a little something extra every Friday.

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Nick Basile @nick-basile.com · 30/09/2025

Want to make smarter technical decisions, collaborate effectively with developers, and thrive in an AI world? Join the Technically Lit newsletter for practical coding lessons & tips, our latest content, plus a little something extra every Friday: technicallylit.com/newsletter

technicallylit.com

Newsletter | Technically Lit

Get practical coding lessons & tips, our latest content, plus a little something extra every Friday.

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Nick Basile @nick-basile.com · 30/09/2025

If you’re a designer, PM, or builder trying to figure out how to keep up with all the change, this one’s for you. 📺 Watch here → youtu.be/iZ16iS9I7Dc

youtu.be

Balancing execution, strategy, and AI: the expanding role of product designers - Sylvia Nguyen Dang

YouTube video by Nick Basile

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Nick Basile @nick-basile.com · 30/09/2025

Some of my favorite insights: 🎨 Balancing new AI tools with timeless design principles ⚖️ How to decide which new tech is worth adopting (and which to skip) 🤝 Building strong collaboration between designers, PMs, and engineers 🔑 Keeping users at the center, even as tech reshapes the process

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Nick Basile @nick-basile.com · 30/09/2025

Sylvia shares what it’s like to design at the intersection of healthcare, technology, and collaboration while navigating the flood of new tools without losing sight of what matters most: the people you're designing for.

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Nick Basile @nick-basile.com · 30/09/2025

How do product designers keep up with today’s ever expanding list of responsibilities? On the season two premiere of Technically Lit, I sat down with Sylvia Nguyen Dang, Principal Product Designer at DIG, to explore this question and a whole lot more.

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Nick Basile @nick-basile.com · 23/09/2025

Interested in more technical tips for designers? Join our newsletter and get a few in your inbox every Friday: technicallylit.com/newsletter

technicallylit.com

Newsletter | Technically Lit

Get practical coding lessons & tips, our latest content, plus a little something extra every Friday.

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Nick Basile @nick-basile.com · 23/09/2025

If you’re a designer who wants to understand the real interplay between design and development, this one’s for you. Check out the full episode here and let us know what you think! www.youtube.com/watch?v=qa5n...

youtube.com

Design great loading states: what items should my skeleton display? | Tech Takes

YouTube video by Nick Basile

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Nick Basile @nick-basile.com · 23/09/2025

We break down the edges of the skeleton pattern, why “designing for max states” matters, and how designers can push creativity without losing sight of what’s technically possible.

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Nick Basile @nick-basile.com · 23/09/2025

It's often where design intent meets dev reality. Miss the mark, and the product feels clunky or broken. Nail it, and even a 10-second wait feels intentional.

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Nick Basile @nick-basile.com · 23/09/2025

Skeleton loaders, spinners, previews… they aren’t just filler. They’re the direct translation of how data flows, how fast systems respond, and how dev decisions surface to the user.

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Nick Basile @nick-basile.com · 23/09/2025

Our latest Tech Take episode gets into one of the most overlooked parts of product design: loading states. As designers, we love to obsess over finished screens, but the in-between moments are where trust is built (or lost).

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Nick Basile @nick-basile.com · 16/09/2025

We’ve given our site a light refresh for season two, so check it out to stay in the loop with all of our latest content! technicallylit.com

technicallylit.com

Technically Lit

Become a product designer who codes with confidence.

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Nick Basile @nick-basile.com · 16/09/2025

Thank you as well to everyone who has taken the time to listen or watch one of our episodes. Your kind feedback truly means the world and makes it all worth it!

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Nick Basile @nick-basile.com · 16/09/2025

We have a couple of incredible conversations lined up already that I can’t wait to share, and we’re looking for more! So, if you’re a product designer, please reach out! We’d love to have you on the show.

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Nick Basile @nick-basile.com · 16/09/2025

Looking forward, I’m so incredibly excited to be kicking off season two! This season, we're going to focus a little bit more on product designers - specifically, how they're leveraging technology and coding skills to do their jobs better, faster, and smarter than ever before.

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Nick Basile @nick-basile.com · 16/09/2025

It feels like every product conversation these days is hyper-focused on one discipline, and it was so refreshing to hear everyone share how they connect the dots between different roles and job titles, and what it actually takes to build incredible products.

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Nick Basile @nick-basile.com · 16/09/2025

And… that’s a wrap for season one of the Technically Lit podcast! Thank you so much to all of the incredible guests who joined us on the show. I feel so lucky to have had the chance to speak with each of you.

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Nick Basile @nick-basile.com · 02/09/2025

👉 If you’ve ever wondered how product management changes when you go from a 30-person startup to one of the biggest companies in the world, you won’t want to miss this episode. youtu.be/7LPGK2t65dI

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Selling optimism and other lessons from being a Microsoft product manager - Adam Wilson

YouTube video by Nick Basile

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Nick Basile @nick-basile.com · 02/09/2025

Adam also shared how his technical background has been a superpower. Early in his career, he was writing code to replicate customer bugs. Today, that fluency lets him navigate Microsoft’s most complex products and collaborate deeply with engineering teams.

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Nick Basile @nick-basile.com · 02/09/2025

At a startup, a PM’s ideas can become the roadmap by default. At Microsoft, Adam is one of 10,000 product managers competing to influence priorities. That means the real job isn’t just writing PRDs--it’s selling optimism, generating buy-in, and aligning entire orgs across multiple leadership chains.

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Nick Basile @nick-basile.com · 02/09/2025

Most of our Technically Lit conversations have been with people building in scrappy startup environments. That’s why I’m so excited for our latest episode with Adam Wilson who brings a very different perspective straight from Microsoft.

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Nick Basile @nick-basile.com · 19/08/2025

– And ultimately, good product means solving real pain. Code, design, and process only matter if they multiply against that. Check out the full conversation on YouTube! youtu.be/_WiI8aZnb4M

youtu.be

Why Good Code Isn’t Enough for a Good Product - James Pacheco

YouTube video by Nick Basile

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Nick Basile @nick-basile.com · 19/08/2025

– Most founders underestimate how hard product design really is. The “what now?” moments for users take far more thought than you expect. – Cross-functional collaboration is the antidote to the “us vs. them” tension between product, design, and engineering. Squads work better than silos.

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Nick Basile @nick-basile.com · 19/08/2025

– Agency work reveals that tech choices are business choices. Code quality matters, but incentives and constraints often decide the direction. – The best product managers don’t dictate every step. They give teams freedom, trust them to figure it out, and refine together.

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Nick Basile @nick-basile.com · 19/08/2025

Our conversation was jam-packed with so many incredible insights, I had a hard time picking what I should share as the lead-in here. These are a few of my favorites:

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Nick Basile @nick-basile.com · 19/08/2025

As James Pacheco shared on this week’s Technically Lit episode: “A beautiful product that doesn’t solve a problem people care about is a bad product.”

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Nick Basile @nick-basile.com · 19/08/2025

Stop thinking perfect code = a great product. Your team ships clean architecture. You polish the UI until it gleams. You document every edge case. But none of that guarantees you’re building something users actually need.

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Nick Basile @nick-basile.com · 14/08/2025

Tomorrow’s Technically Lit newsletter dives into a question I’ve been obsessed with: what actually makes a great product team and how you can spot them. We’re now on Substack, so if you want the full breakdown (and future issues) grab the link in the comment 👇

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Nick Basile @nick-basile.com · 05/08/2025

Want more on building high-trust, high-output teams? Check the full convo with Holdy here: 🎧: open.spotify.com/episode/3OHp... 📺: youtu.be/z7G9kwct-dc

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Nick Basile @nick-basile.com · 05/08/2025

You can’t Notion your way out of bad vibes. You build real culture by: ✅ Modeling curiosity ✅ Rewarding transparency ✅ Cultivating psychological safety, not fear ✅ Treating mistakes as inputs, not failures

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Nick Basile @nick-basile.com · 05/08/2025

But culture shows up when things break down. – Can juniors ask “basic” questions? – Is feedback honest or passive aggressive? – Do design, product, and engineering trust each other, or just tolerate? That’s your culture. Not your sprint board.

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Nick Basile @nick-basile.com · 05/08/2025

As Ryan Holdaway said on this week's Technically Lit podcast: “Process is how we work. Culture is how we treat each other.” Most teams miss this. They try to fix trust issues with better tooling. Or fix communication with more meetings.

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Nick Basile @nick-basile.com · 05/08/2025

Stop confusing process with culture. Your team does standups. You run retros. You’ve got a Notion doc for everything. But a full calendar and all the docs in the world won't magically translate into a stellar culture.

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Nick Basile @nick-basile.com · 22/07/2025

If you’re tired of product blaming marketing for “bad leads” and marketing blaming product for “no story"... ...this one's for you. Watch: youtu.be/oTVJP0PuqQw Listen: open.spotify.com/episode/4QZ8...

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Nick Basile @nick-basile.com · 22/07/2025

We got into: 🤝 How product and marketing can finally stop stepping on each other’s toes ⚙️ The GTM operating system that actually works for early-stage teams 📉 Why “growth loops” became buzzwords, and how to make them real again 🧠 Building marketing systems that learn, not just launch

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Nick Basile @nick-basile.com · 22/07/2025

In this episode of Technically Lit, I sat down with growth leader Alex Mann to unpack why product + marketing tension runs so deep, and how to fix it.

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Nick Basile @nick-basile.com · 22/07/2025

Are product and marketing the ultimate frenemies? Different tools. Different timelines. Same goal: build something people actually want. And when they don’t get along? Everything breaks. 🧵

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Nick Basile @nick-basile.com · 17/07/2025

Wrote about dealing with the paradox of scaling (how adding more people does not linearly translate to more output) for tomorrow's Technically Lit newsletter. Join us to read all about it: technicallylit.beehiiv.com/subscribe

technicallylit.beehiiv.com

Technically Lit

Learn how to make smarter technical decisions, build better products, and collaborate more effectively with developers, without learning to code.

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Nick Basile @nick-basile.com · 16/07/2025

🎥 Watch the full episode here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=H33O...

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Nick Basile @nick-basile.com · 16/07/2025

This isn’t just for engineers. If you're a PM, designer, or anyone touching product workflows, understanding CRUD makes you way more impactful.

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Nick Basile @nick-basile.com · 16/07/2025

In the latest episode of Tech Takes, we dive into: ✅ What CRUD actually looks like in real products ✅ How to spot data gaps in your UX ✅ Why CRUD is a killer product checklist ✅ How it improves cross-functional collaboration

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Nick Basile @nick-basile.com · 16/07/2025

The result? ⚠️ Incomplete UX ⚠️ Frustrated users ⚠️ Misalignment between product, design, and engineering

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Nick Basile @nick-basile.com · 16/07/2025

But here’s the catch: most teams don’t design for the full lifecycle. They nail the “read” experience… Forget about “delete”… And treat “update” like an afterthought.

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Nick Basile @nick-basile.com · 16/07/2025

From creating listings on Airbnb to updating profiles on LinkedIn, CRUD is quietly powering your product. It’s how data is created, consumed, changed, and removed...and it’s everywhere.

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