Why most design calls are where good work goes to die

I avoid calls like the plague.

I hate them. I know, I know.. every designer wants to hop on Zoom. Discovery calls, kickoff calls, feedback calls, alignment calls. Your calendar's basically a graveyard of 30-minute blocks where nothing actually gets decided.

I'll be straight with you: most design calls are theater. Someone shares their screen. Five people have opinions. Nobody remembers who said what. Nothing gets decided. And you walk away with design-by-committee garbage that makes everyone equally unhappy.

Written feedback is better. Figma comments are better. A Slack thread where you've had time to think about what you actually want to say. Well, that's better.

Here's why: when you write "the hero section feels cluttered" and point to the exact spot, I know precisely what you mean. When you say it on a call while Gilbert, my dog, is barking in the background and another person is asking about the previous slide, it evaporates into the digital ether.

Plus, async communication means we both work when we're actually sharp. I design better at 2 AM than I do at 2 PM on a Wednesday. You probably have clearer thoughts about the design after you've lived with it for a few hours than you do in the moment.

Good asynchronous work is clear enough and specific enough that there's no room for confusion. No need for three follow-up calls to figure out what we decided.

The result? We iterate faster. We make clearer decisions. We produce better work. And neither of us wastes time performing productivity in meetings when we could be actually producing something.

I'll work however you work. Email. Slack. Figma comments. Carrier pigeon if that's your thing. I just won't be in meetings all day when I could be designing instead.

Your project deserves my best work, not my best meeting performance. Those are two very different things.