2024 Year in review

Hello dear reader, this post is more for me than it is for you. I started this tradition a couple of years ago of reflecting on my previous 365 days at the end of every year.

I know 2025 is just a date, just a number. Nothing will miraculously change when the clock strikes midnight on January 1st, 2025. Yet the sound of that clock ticking towards 2025 is a beautiful sound this year. 2024 was filled with many wonders and beautiful memories at the same time it was the most trying year of my life. My wife requested that I summarize this year with an emoji: the poop emoji, I can't say I disagree.

Health

↓ The surgery

On January 10th, 2024, as Portland was getting pounded with one of the largest snowstorms the city had seen in years, I drove up to "the hill" to the campus of OHSU where I had surgery to implant an subcutaneous implantable cardioverter-defibrillator into my body. This came after years of deliberation with my doctors treating me for a chronic heart condition I have known about for 12 years. The surgery went smoothly, and I was able to go home that night. Unfortunately, all the childcare and meal support my friends had lined up for the next 2 weeks disappeared because people literally were snowed in for over a week. My wife was an amazing support during this time. I don't know how she did it. The emotional toll the surgery took may have been bigger than the physical toll, yet I did recover. It took 4 months before I could sleep on my left side.

My surgery didn't do anything to improve my condition, but it does provide a safety net. My chance of death from a sudden cardiac event went down to a fraction of a percent, which to me is huge. I have a small son, and I desperately want to see him grow up.

↓↑ Post surgery

Getting used to my body was challenging. I try not to think of myself as vain but looking in the mirror every day seeing large scars, and a large bulge in my side where the generator for my device is implanted was definitely a hard thing to accept.

My heart condition makes it harder for me to work out or do strenuous activities. My heart works 3 times as hard as a normal heart so if I try to run or intensely hike I tire easily. This isn't about building more stamina, it is what it is. I can also get light-headed faster than most people, and my condition can lead to sudden arrhythmias that could be fatal. When I discovered this years ago I had to stop working out, and change my lifestyle in large ways. I am late into my 30's and seeing my muscles atrophy knowing there wasn't much I could do was extremely discouraging.

Now that I have an ICD I felt confident enough to start working out again. Nothing wild, but I started lighter weight resistance training again. This has been a boost to my physical health, I have been able to build muscle again, this gives me hope that I can age with strength in order to keep up with my son when he reaches adulthood.

Personal life and family

↓ Goodbye good boy

My mom came to visit after my surgery to help with our toddler. While she was here our sweet boy Chainsaw who had been struggling with Cushings disease for the previous couple years took a turn for the worst. We said goodbye to our sweet boy on January 30th.  

I won't go into detail about Chainsaw as I have written a full post eulogizing our sweet boy, but I can say that grieving the first dog I ever had, the one who has been with me my entire adult life while recovering from a heart surgery sucked.

↓ We need a vacation

We had a rough start to our year with my surgery and the loss of our dog so we were looking forward to a family vacation in San Diego. Unfortunately, our AirBNB host didn't inform us that the entire complex and pool was under construction. There was mention of the Jacuzzi being repaired at the footnote of the welcome message a day before we left. The ground was literally ripped up with jackhammers, and construction debris piled everywhere. As a parent of a 2 year old needing to nap this made the trip hell. We tried to find another place but everything good within our budget was booked already. We were expecting a peaceful retreat with a relaxing garden and lawn, instead we had to fight the AirBNB host to pay us back part of our trip (30% not nearly enough), and make the best of it.  

↓ Preschool expulsion

At the end of spring our son's part-time preschool set up a meeting with my wife. On a Friday afternoon they informed us that our son was too much of a challenge for them and were removing him from care immediately. We weren't given any notice that this was even in the cards. The teachers had mentioned some situations had happened during pickups but nothing urgent - it was "normal behavior for a 2 year old." This was a major blow, as I was about to go on a work trip and as a full-time caretaker this was the only reprieve my wife would have for the week. It may seem like a little thing but getting cut out from a small school community you have invested in is extremely hard for many reasons. Our son was really sad and didn't know why he couldn't see his friends anymore, our ties were essentially severed from many family friendships we had formed within his school over the last year, and we lost stable part-time childcare which is very hard to find.

↓ A surgery for my wife

Two surgeries for one family just isn't fair. But my wife needed to have a small procedure done this summer.

↑ Sabbatical

We had a rough year and boy did we need a win. My 5 year sabbatical from Webflow was just that. I was able to take 5 weeks off from work. We traveled to Indiana to see my brother-in-law get married. We got to spend 2 amazing weeks in Maui as a family. My son loves water so a life jacket mixed with ocean and pool fun all day every day was the best childcare we have had. We capped the sabbatical with a trip from my parents.

↑ Bagel dates

I started a weekly tradition of going on a bagel date on Saturday mornings with my son. We grab bagels and then go play at a park or have an adventure. I will do this as long as he lets me.

↑ Finding the right care for our son

After getting kicked out of our preschool we were able to enroll my son in occupational therapy as well as support from the city of Portland. This has helped us funnel his sensory seeking activities in ways that meet his needs. Additionally, we were able to enroll him in a new preschool this fall which has been such a great place for him where he is excelling.

↓ A Christmas in the ER

Did I say two surgeries in one year is too much for a family? My bad, let's try three. Right before Christmas my wife Ali started experiencing nausea and abdominal pain, she went to an urgent care 7pm Christmas Eve. They pushed her to go to the ER with someone immediately. We put our son down, our friends stepped up and came over to wrap our presents and hang out while our son was asleep.

We were at the ER waiting for test results until 2am. The doctor came in and told us Ali had Appendicitis and would need surgery that day. What a blow. I unfortunately had to pack up and leave my wife at the hospital alone so I could relieve our friend. Ali had surgery, I hung out with a sick kid, and drove him all over town looking for an open pharmacy on Christmas so my wife could come home (that's right the hospital one was closed). We decided for a Christmas day do-over and had Christmas morning December 26th. We made the best of it, but it was a rough way to end the year.

↑ My wife being the biggest support during a rough year

I am so lucky and thankful. Thanks Ali.

Other wins

• ↑ An amazing trip with some of our best friends to Yachats OR
• ↑ We took a ton of day trips to the coast this year
• ↑ Our son learned to talk this year and being able to laugh and joke with him has been a joy
• ↑ Lots of Portland Timbers games
• ↑ Tons of summer bike rides with trips to the park
• ↑ Game weekend with my buds
• ↑ Summer BBQs with trampolines. Trampolines = free child care

Work

Working at a hyper-growth startup is wild. This year a ton came with it. Webflow has a completely new executive leadership team. This has brought a lot of great things, and things as a long-time tenured employee that you just need to navigate.

↑ Team retreat

We went to Quebec City as a company in May. It was so fun to have time in an interesting city with coworkers I typically don't get much face time with.

↑ Changing teams

In the summer I transferred teams internally from our Developer Ecosystem team to our Core Product team. This was a bittersweet change for me as I had spent the previous couple years building Webflow Apps new model from 0-1. But I was ready for a new challenge, and working on our core Website builder was something that I had been wanting to do since joining Webflow.

With the move I started reporting to a new director Hannah Hearth, this was a scary change as I had absolutely loved reporting to our head of product design Kev Wong. Luckily I got to spend a lot of time with Hannah at our team retreat and she immediately proved herself as a wonderful design leader!

↑ The Web Experience Platform (WXP)

Webflow acquired a company Intellimize this spring. We welcomed around 40 new teammates to the org and a completely new product. With this new product Webflow made a major strategy shift to go from a Website builder to a Web Experience Platform. With this we could support our customers through the build and optimization of their sites.

Webflow's navigation structure has been stretched over the last couple of years and with this new acquisition and product strategy the experience was bursting at the seams for both existing customers and new customers we were hoping to serve. With this I joined a tiger team to reimagine a new architecture for Webflow.

Our project ended up being funded, and I spent months working with customers and teams across our Engineering Product and Design org to implement these changes. Redesigning Webflow's core navigation was one of the scariest and horizontally cross-cutting projects I have ever taken on. I learned a ton, happy we did it, but also happy to move on from the project.

↑ New CEO

Getting a new CEO is scary. Luckily Linda Tong was not someone unfamiliar to our team. Linda had served as our COO and President at Webflow for a couple years. And it was clear she is an extremely capable leader. It was definitely a shock to see Vlad Magdalin step down, but I understood the change, how it would be good for Vlad and Webflow.

↓ Layoffs

Layoffs are hard. They happened at Webflow this summer and I had to say goodbye to a number of folks I had worked with for 5 years.

↑ Sabbatical

I mentioned it earlier but I celebrated 5 years at Webflow this year. An eternity in tech.

↑ Webflow Conf

Every year we throw Webflow Conf I don't believe we will outdo the previous year, but the amount of work our team shipped this year was absolutely wild. I am definitely lucky to have worked this past year with so many intensely talented and wonderful humans.

And Webflow acquired another company GSAP. Two acquisitions in one year! To me this is wild. When I joined Webflow 5 years ago we were a budding startup just starting to build real momentum. It is wild to see how far the company has come.

Random design things

• Fast Company wrote an article about my concept of a Blast Radius
• I was interviewed by my friend Ran on her show Ran Talks Design
• Launched my first Figma Plugin, Join Paths

Friends

I have the best friends in the world. And this year they came through in a big way for my family and I. They also came through for each other which is absolutely beautiful sight to see.

I have weekly rhythms that I absolutely cherished this year:

• Tuesday night dinners with friends and families
• Wednesday coffee with two of my best friends
• Wednesday game night with a group of guys I have absolutely come to love

Watching my friendships deepen this year through adversities was a highlight of my year. This year was rough, but I do know that my family and friends love me.