2023 Year in Review

Highs

Joined Stears as Design Lead in the beginning of the year
Was accepted into the Design Leadership Forum by InVision; a private global community of senior design leaders that share best practices, strategies, and resources across a range of design and leadership topics
Was promoted to Head of Design at Stears by May, 2023
Adenike and I celebrated five years together as a couple and one year married
Spoke at a conference and a couple of events and twitter spaces this year
Held 144 mentorship sessions for free on ADPList
Was recognised five times by ADPList as a top 1% Mentor on ADPList (February, March, July, November & December)
Graduated from Dribbble's Design System Course by Dan Mall. Learnt so much about design system workflows, tools, documentation and governance.
Got a Free 5G Broadband Router from MTN
Spent quality time with my family
Held zero debts this year
Grew my savings this year

Wasn't consistent with exercising and didn't gain as much muscle as I planned
Wasn't consistent with praying and studying the bible daily
The 2023 elections cast a long shadow of violence and hate. Witnessing it online and at the polls left me feeling deeply hurt and disillusioned.

Produced a Data Visualisation Guideline for my team
Led a team of Senior Designers to deliver incredible work for Stears and our clients
Designed new product features for our Web Platform and Mobile App
Designed and built new Landing Pages and Data Products (Using Figma and Webflow)
Got better at Project Management and QA

The best of 2023, determined by me and based only on my opinions (these are not necessarily content produced in 2023.)

Best Book: High Output Management by Andrew Grove
Best Investment: My Inverter for power backup which has provided me with constant power supply.
Best Mobile App: Risevest
Best Game: Genshin Impact
Best Newsletter: Proof of Concept by David Hoang
Best Podcast: 99% Invisible by Roman Mars
Best Podcast Episode: 'Jesus' on Founders podcast by David Sendra
Best Gift Given: Gifted Adenike an Apple Watch Series 8 for her birthday
Best Gift Recieved: A Carton of Capri-Sun from Adenike for Christmas
Best Decision: Focus mode, I now use focus mode on all my devices and turn off most notification especially for social media apps. This has reduced distractions and enabled me do more focused work
Best TV Show: Young Sheldon
Best Movie: John Wick: Chapter 4
Best Documentary: Danish Design (1961)
Best Meme: God Abeg meme by Ufot Ubon
Best Quote: “Indifference towards people and the reality in which they live is actually the one and only cardinal sin in design” -Dieter Rams
Best Article: A Paystack Friendship by Fuad

A few things I’d like to do and experience more of in the new year;