The company continues to produce value incidentally through inertia, but it’s now much harder to steer, and there is a lot of inefficiency and waste. If the world changes significantly it’ll have a harder time pivoting.
Rather than thinking that our failures make us weak, unworthy or isolate us from others, this pillar of self-compassion encourages us to foster a sense of universal belonging.
A year is what it takes for Earth to complete a trip around the sun. We can say that we’re back to the point where we started — predictable seasons and collective celebrations of recurring events. We are passengers of this giant spaceship hurtling through space and time — we’re going ’round and ’round and only the journey can be described and the destination, unknown.
The measurement of a year is in our minds. Is there really a point in space and time wherein nature will tell that “this is the the last second of the year, the next is a new one”? There are many meaningful implications of knowing a year that will end and a year that brings inspirations anew. But if we are waiting to change something within our selves, for the better, why wait for a new year, or a new month, or a new day — why not now?
The disintegration of the concept of prepacked time — as in, how time are neatly wrapped into seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years — also breaks down the structure of what enables us to be in sync with the rest of the world. I remember a time in college when I lost track of time (or rather didn’t care about it) and found out that I was about to join an accounting class with only a minute left. I opened the door and the professor wasn’t surprised because that was the nth time a did it. In a business law class, I wasn’t so lucky as I joined it two-thirds along the way. As I sat down, the professor booted me out, deservingly. It was an embarrassing moment.
Why did I do it? It may be established that a session wouldn’t be complete, or better yet, worthwhile, when you’ve missed some thoughts from the teacher and the students. But as they say, better late than never. I was still able to squeeze what ever meager drop that I could in those instances, however that would mean to me and my own goals. Admittedly, that was my younger self who didn’t know any better.
To those of us who will be syncing with the rest of the world, and especially with someone we care about, it’s better to be at the right space and the right time with them. For ourselves, in getting better in any aspect, the time to start is now.
As you know, I take pictures and they mostly go to archival, which for me, it is Flickr. But before those pictures get archived, I digitally process them locally, meaning, in my personal computer. I have a system of folders organized by months and weeks and days. You can imagine it’s tedious to create them manually — which I did for as long as I can remember. Today, I put in an hour of effort to automate the creation of one year’s worth of folders, so that will be for 2023, plus folders for the remainder of 2022.
A screenshot of the auto-created folders using a batch file
Things I needed to make it happen
A spreadsheet that can automate the generation of text which I will use for the folder names
A batch file that can execute the actual creation of the folders in Windows
Spreadsheet
Google Sheets to the rescue! The formats that I needed for Sheets to generate are these:
Months prefixed by a three-digit sequential numbers so that they can be sorted in the proper sequence in a file viewer (e.g., 001 – January, 002 – February, etc.)
Days in the format yyyy-mm-dd
Weeks — I’ve added weekly folders to further organize the days that could really grow into a hot mess especially when there are multiple folders in just one day
Here is the actual spreadsheet that contains all the formula that I’ve used:
Windows batch file
A batch file is like executing a command in the command line of Windows but this one is all pre-packaged in a file. You just double-click it and it will execute.
From the spreadsheet, I copied the generated text from there and pasted it in Notepad++ which has a Line Operations > Join Lines function — really helpful in fixing the format of the copied and pasted text from the spreadsheet.
Here is the actual content of the batch file that I’ve used to create the 2023 folders. Here’s how you can use it on your own:
Select all those texts below
Copy and paste to a text editor
Save it with .bat as an extension (for Notepad: “Save as” then choose “All files” then put “.bat” at the end of your file name)
Put the batch file inside a folder where you want to create these folders
Avaloq is implementing its core banking system at UnionBank, a digital trailblazer in the Philippines’ financial sector. The bank’s wealth management business serves the entire wealth spectrum, including business leaders, entrepreneurs and philanthropists across the Philippines.
It’s been 2 months already since I’ve hit my 2-year mark in Avaloq. It’s been the best 2 years of my professional career by far — seeing the team in Manila grow from 7 to 13, supporting the promotion of 3 designers, hearing about how our visual designers have grown their skills towards UX design — all these just makes me grateful for being with a supportive team. I’m able to perform well with them and all their achievements are based on their hard work and are well-deserved. Props to the global product design team, especially in Manila!
This year is memorable because I got the chance to meet most people in the local teams that I work with. This became possible because it became relatively safer to meet each other face-to-face. During our team buildings, I felt like I was meeting up with old friends due to the fact that I already met with them frequently through video calls.
A collage of Avaloq Philippines team buildings in 2022. Top left: Product Development & Design Manila; top right: Product Design Manila; bottom left: Avaloq Philippines Management; bottom right: during a birthday celebration at the office.
Still wearing 3 hats
About me on one hand — how have I grown from the previous year? I thrive in my role as a line manager with our regular 1:1s that give us opportunity to touch base with each other, to have that constant support in regards to each individual’s work experience in Avaloq. In the recent months, HR had launched a better process for employee career growth and salary review — these topics, we openly discuss in our bilas. Being able to connect with designers on a more personal level is something that I find valuable in a line manager’s role.
On the other hand, I’ve also grown in my role as a DesignOps lead, focusing on capacity planning. Sure, there were bumps along this road (and will always have) and for each one, my manager was there to support me. Take for example when I first saw the annual budget spreadsheet, I must admit that I was intimidated by the complex facade of it. I put it off until I was forced to face it with less working time. Looking back, this was one of my lowlights. I struggled to communicate early and frequently with other leads. Consequently, with little time frame, I found it even more challenging to schedule meetings wherein most of them were available. Supposedly, as the glue that supports everyone together, my performance in this area was watery.
A diagram showing Brian Dys’ Avaloq roles in 2022
On the bright side, I was able to share these challenges with my manager and he helped me by listening and advising. I’m managing it better and proactively evangelizing DesignOps to the whole team, one step at a time. My lesson is to look for people who can help and ask for their help.
When the going gets tough with those two main roles, I ramp down in my individual contributor role — yes, I also help out in the mobile and web banking product teams. This opportunity keeps my product design chops well-oiled, so to speak. In a ramp down manner, I would be supporting the team on a high level — helping them make better decisions and communicate better with stakeholders.
Juggling three different roles sounds a lot, and it is. With better work management, I am able to take a step back, have a down time and think strategically.
What’s next?
Recruitment is a priority, not for replacements but for growth. What excites me is the fact that we’re looking for ways to support junior designers in the Manila team. I see the value in the unique kind of drive to learn and contribute that budding designers have — and that will be an awesome addition to our team.
A screenshot of Google Maps showing the different locations of the Avaloq product design team in 2022.
What floats my design boat?
Well-roundedness, is one. As you could have read, I’m moonlighting as a freelance designer since way back college. In this avenue comes various types of design work — from corporate identities, to websites, to apps, to yearbooks, and what have you. I’m also mentoring designers, especially those who are at the early start of their UX journeys. These endeavors are a symbiosis with my day job in which one enriches the other.
To cap it off, all of the things that I love doing prepares me for my dream to help, design-wise, in the digital delivery of public service in my home country, Philippines. I’m looking forward into the not-so-far future of a more efficient and more accessible online government services for Filipinos. Think GOV.UK design system for Philippines, as a start.
TRIZ works to formalize the belief that somebody, somewhere has already solved your problem. Just as different species have converged upon similar biological solutions when faced with shared environmental constraints (like the dorsal fin helping both dolphins and sharks thrive in the ocean), TRIZ helps us recognize engineering strategies that have converged across categories and industries, when faced with shared technical constraints.
The agency has also revised projections for its old web developers and digital designers category; it now projects the category will grow almost 40% between 2020 and 2030, validating the demand that so many people working across the tech and design industries have been feeling for years.
[ntt_rl_unsplash href=”gL3-jTs_Q7g” photographer=”Girl with red hat”]
This all leads to a strange and provocative conclusion: Time is contagious. As we converse with and consider one another, we step in and out of one other’s experience, including the other’s perceptions (or what we imagine to be another’s perception, based on our own experience) of time
Young workers would make viral TikToks about how older workers look like crap all day, blearily wandering from their beds to their couches. WFH is for dumpy Millennials and Never leaving your house is kinda pathetic! would be the general idea.
