Thoughts on UX, building products, and the state of design. No fluff, no hot takes for engagement—just what I've learned over 27 years.
Why trades workers need voice interfaces, and how Val's design decisions reflect that reality.
How Orchestrator connects formation, compliance, and marketing into one platform for SMBs.
Running 4+ production services on a single Netcup box. Docker, Caddy, and the infra story.
Val's user research: 89% male, median age 42, truck-driving Carhartt crowd. Privacy hard rules.
Construction, trades, small business. How to earn trust when your users have been burned by software.
The reality of maintaining a portfolio of live services solo. What works, what breaks.
An update on bootstrapping: revenue, infrastructure costs, and creative freedom two years in.
Career evolution from Microsoft and Indeed to Go, KMP, and SvelteKit solo builder.
What it actually takes to establish design in a company that's never valued it.
Walls of text. Too many choices. Hidden surprises. The mistakes I see over and over.
Breaking out of the bubble. Objective trend analysis without the hot takes.
Escape hours-for-dollars. Patterns for scaling knowledge into products.
Executives want the meat upfront. Learn how to translate UX work into language they care about.
Accessibility isn't optional. It's a legal requirement, and it's good design.
Three audiences with almost nothing in common. Except they all need great UX.
A co-worker told me once that I'd never truly be happy until I worked for myself. He was right.