Katrina Alcorn didn’t start her career in design. She started in journalism and documentary filmmaking—two fields that, perhaps surprisingly, laid the foundation for a deep understanding of human experience.
In this conversation with Cristina McComic, Alcorn spoke candidly about her unconventional path into tech and design, including her personal experience with burnout. After taking a year off to recover, she wrote Maxed Out: American Moms on the Brink, a book that has influenced how she now leads: with empathy and a drive to build humane workplaces.
One of the most powerful lessons she shares is that good design isn’t about aesthetics. It’s about solving problems. It’s a way of thinking that can transform not just products, but how teams collaborate, how companies operate, and how we serve customers. And it requires humility, curiosity, and a willingness to listen deeply and iterate.
That same mindset applies to personal growth. Alcorn talks openly about feedback, failure, and the power of embracing a growth mindset. “There’s no such thing as good writing,” she says. “Only good rewriting.”
Whether you’re leading a design team, launching a product, or navigating a career crossroads, her message resonates: life is a prototype. We learn by doing, listening, adapting—and sometimes crashing. The key is to keep iterating.
Designing better products starts with designing better conversations. And sometimes, the most transformative one is the one we have with ourselves.