Maximum Effort — Hi, I’m Sam

Maximum Effort

Posted on December 9, 2018

A few of my coworkers and I say “Maximum Effort” to each other a lot. Don’t confuse Maximum Effort with perfectionism.

per·fec·tion·ism noun

refusal to accept any standard short of perfection.

Our team is called Design Systems. We make trade-offs on a daily basis. Our job is to maintain a bunch of components, tools, documentation, technical infrastructure, design guidelines, etc. The goal is to make all of the UI more consistent and to make the teams using the design system more productive.

We’re a small team relative to the rest of the engineering and design teams we support. Focusing on what is impactful is key. We can’t make everything perfect. Most things are far from where we’d like them to be as perfectionists.

The words “I don’t care” are rarely uttered. When we do say them, it’s usually out of frustration or exhaustion. We support each other through this since we all know no one means it. We pride ourselves on always doing our best. This is difficult and often requires us to persevere through resistance.

Working with this small group of people has been the most rewarding part of my career. It’s so refreshing to be around others with the same sense of pride in their work and drive to always do their best. Thanks team.💖