The thinking behind the work.
I share my thoughts in essays, articles in the press, and talks I give at conferences and conversations with teams.
Essays
Driving on free sunshine, and the app that makes it make sense.
Under California’s NEM 3.0, PG&E buys my surplus solar at four cents and sells it back at up to fifty-eight. I built Helios in eight days to time the car charging and the home batteries against tomorrow’s forecast, and reached 93% self-sufficiency.
Pixels under my fingernails again.
A close look at Surf Vikings, a hyper-local surf forecasting PWA built with AI-native tools. I reflect on returning to production code, compressing the path from product judgment to working software, and why judgment remains the expensive part.
More software, better moments.
As the economics of software change, small teams can afford to care about the long tail of real problems that used to go unserved. I argue that AI-native building can create more software, more builders, and better peak moments for users.
Velocity is not the strategy. It’s the prerequisite.
As execution costs collapse, judgment on what to build becomes the real differentiator. I argue that teams need to embed early validation inside the velocity loop so they can move fast without accelerating in the wrong direction.
We chose the wrong metaphor. It’s math, not magic.
AI is framed as magic in modern product interfaces, but users need a better mental model for probabilistic systems. I argue for moving beyond sparkle icons toward clearer metaphors that make AI legible, learnable, and trustworthy.
The interaction paradigm is breaking. Here’s what replaces it.
The atomic unit of UX is shifting from the interaction to the delegation. I identify three unsolved design problems of the agentic era: Presence, Legibility, and Orchestration, and propose the Delegation Layer as a framework for what comes next.
In the press
How to harness skills that AI can't automate.
A guest essay for the Figma blog on the human judgment that survives automation, and where designers should spend their attention next.
Apple unveils iOS 19 accessibility features.
Quoted on the dark mode and accessibility work at Aetna Health, a first for a leading health insurance app.
Putting design leadership on the map.
An article and embedded video featuring Eliel speaking on the role of design leadership inside large organizations.
Real talk about AI from the Figma Leadership Collective.
A write-up of the Figma Leadership Forum panel Eliel participated in, on what AI does and does not change for design teams.
How Charles Schwab fought back against the robo-adviser startups.
The feature on Schwab Intelligent Portfolios, linked from the Schwab chapter of the work, on building the first robo-advisor at scale.
Talks and presentations
