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Alrighty then! Here’s what my journey to preparing my first conference talk. The topic is design systems and how as design systems peeps we should aim to become replaceable. Here we go 
First a few points for context: — English isn’t my first language
— The message isn’t a success story, it’s a work in progress
— I’m terrified
— I want it to be relatable
— There’s a lot I don’t know yet about some of the points I want to defend
*the state of the talk as of today*
I got the opportunity to give this talk at a Berlin design systems meetup 2 weeks ago. So I have a first quite polished draft and a presentation.
I got the opportunity to give this talk at a Berlin design systems meetup 2 weeks ago. So I have a first quite polished draft and a presentation.
*things I learned from it that I'd like to improve for #config2021*
need more examples of every point
whenever I defend a point I need to tell why
bigger GIFs
need to take my time
need more examples of every point whenever I defend a point I need to tell why bigger GIFs need to take my time
Drafts 
i tend to switch between different text editor and note apps because I can't seem to find the perfect one. so far what I stick to the most is Gdocs. BUT. I like to use courier and highlight text to feel like it's a little more physical to avoid writers block.
i tend to switch between different text editor and note apps because I can't seem to find the perfect one. so far what I stick to the most is Gdocs. BUT. I like to use courier and highlight text to feel like it's a little more physical to avoid writers block.
also i find it pretty and simple 
and here's a little peek into my favorite slides from the current talk that might not fit into the next version:
if you're wondering how i got to the first draft and the topic.
1. I brainstormed topics and it did not go well. The only noteworthy idea which i might revisit is that design can be about making pretty things too. (please don't throw a sandwich at me)
1. I brainstormed topics and it did not go well. The only noteworthy idea which i might revisit is that design can be about making pretty things too. (please don't throw a sandwich at me)
2. Then I tried to read the one book people keep telling me is boring. And I don't think they're wrong. But it has a lot of good stuff in there. I made it through a few pages and I went to bed. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/106728.The_Timeless_Way_of_Building
3. As I was dozing off of course I came up with the idea. What is the timeless way of building design systems?. I got up, wrote a very sleepy outline and that was the beginning of it.
4. A few days after I remembered something my lovely partner @AdamSurak always says as director of infrastructure: "Building reliable teams and making myself replaceable".
5. And that made me start digging into systems engineering and design systems and there are SO MANY similarities. So I decided to dig into what timeless really means and how we can get there following @AdamSurak's philosophy.
So let's see in the coming weeks where all of this takes us... 
Welp. This week has been as long as 2020. And in 2020 fashion I'm in quarantine with COVID. On the up side, I have a lot of time ahead of me for my talk.
Today I want to focus on content. I need to do research for references and examples that back up my ideas around systems thinking. The main challenge is:
How does one find examples of such abstract ideas? For example: 'Design systems principles ≠ Product design principles' - Let's see what I can find.
Tonight I’ve been writing 
like I’m running out of time because I literally am. Have my last content check tomorrow and then I need to really work on my slides TO MAKE THEM NICE
like I’m running out of time because I literally am. Have my last content check tomorrow and then I need to really work on my slides TO MAKE THEM NICE
but here I am at this moment googling things I find relevant to my topic. Next search is: shitty work advice from the 90s
I do this because I feel some of the biggest mistakes I’ve made in my career were due to the work culture my generation was taught.
As a backup plan I just might end up quoting the Office
this was yet another genius idea from my partner. so this is to say that inspiration can come from a anywhere you just have to do things in the open.
Today I'm working on the slides.
One thing I'd love to see @figmadesign add to the tool is the ability to add speaker notes. It doesn't sound like an easy task
For now I usually just create a component for notes and use it to note in what i say in each slide. It's never super accurate it's just to have an idea.
One problem I have no hack for is... how to enumerate all the slides without needing to reorder them. One time I lfet one slide out because it felt like too much of a hassle. Anyone has ideas for it?
Update: slides sum up to 100. not al slides are filled up yet but I want to keep a certain pace. i’m happy with the part i talk about design systems principles. i’ve used the word YOLO. and a word cloud from the Web 2.0 era.
Today’s update. I did the dry run and everything felt better afterwards.
Today I panicked. I didn’t have as much ready as I had anticipated and I really felt like dropping out of the conference.
It’s my first big conference so I expected to have some ups and downs. Luckily folks at @figmadesign were really sweet and supportive and I finish the dry run feeling excited and motivated again
I’m sharing because maybe you’re thinking it takes some kind of special confidence or talent to submit a talk to a big conference. It doesn’t.
All it takes is finding a topic you love and write about it. Leave the rest to future you and all the people around you willing to help you and hype you up when you need it.
I don’t feel like I’m there yet but I’m very excited about connecting with people and hope they can take something away from my talk. 
less than 24h away from the talk — I’m somewhere around 10 slides left to put together and add final details like footnotes with credit for the images. I’m also hoping to scream the talk while I shower which has worked well in the past. And 
*exhales*
*and hopes not to ramble*
and that's a wrap! a few thoughts before finishing this thread:
it doesn't matter how much you practice, you will leave things out you wish you had said the design community has so many fantastic and supportive people and i'm just so humbled
i need better notes next time
to tell good stories every slide needs to be a consequence of the last. in my talk it wasn't and that something i want to really improve next time
can't stress enough how important it is to ask for help when you're panicking or are stuck (note to myself too)
tidy up your figma files 
this has been an incredibly rewarding and learning experience. it's been difficult to juggle with getting covid and other life things that happened in between but i've felt so supported by @figmadesign and my teammates at @github and my IRL and Internet friens
i'm so happy to have so many new friends because of this experience. i'm just so so happy 
thank you for allowing me to share my thoughts.
