Journal • Karolina S.

Welcome to my journal—a collection of personal and work-oriented essays. If you’d like to, you can subscribe to the RSS feed.

Against design system federation
Avoid the fraught model that will set your design system back.

Jul 14

Founder burnout
When you’ve given all you’ve had, quitting is a win, not a failure.

Jun 5

Year in Review: 2018
A reflection on 2018, professionally and personally.

Jan 12
2018: Books in Review
A review of 44 books I’ve read in 2019.

Jan 10

2017: Year in Review
A reflection on 2017, professionally and personally.

Dec 28
Three things you don’t need to become a speaker
Debunking the common myths about the fundamentals for becoming a presenter.

Sep 15
Women will never advance doing community work
How women sacrifice their professional development to create safe communities instead.

Aug 15
Conferences I won’t be speaking at
My rules for accepting invitiations to speak at events. Inclusion is key.

Jul 28
Story of a woman in the tech industry
Women face countless adversities and hostility in tech. Here’s my story.

Jun 29
Your tech job posting is broken
Often, quality doesn’t come with an abundance of job postings. Learn how to avoid common mistakes.

May 13
How to write a successful conference proposal
How to optimise your talk proposals for selection; advice from a fellow speaker and event curator.

Feb 1

Designing actionable emails
Advice on designing short, but informative transactional emails.

Aug 9
Building remote-first teams
Remote is on the rise, but how do we transition and ensure culture and productivity don’t suffer?

May 3
The Web isn’t uniform
The experiences of the Web can vary vastly. Let’s not forget who we’re building for.

Apr 23
A guide to empathetic hiring processes
Even companies publicly known for exemplary ethics and culture make the same mistakes.

Mar 11

The dark side of open source
Open Source has a dark side that’s hidden underneath the shiny benefits of a new career and Internet fame.

Jan 19

Where to work
Setting workplace expectations is crucial for your well-being and creating a happy work environment.

Feb 18

Design is not a democracy
There’s no shipping with democratic design. There’s stagnation.

Dec 16