An introduction

Hi. I’m Lee Brooks, and this is the first thing on a site I’ve been meaning to build for years. Better late than perfect.

The short version: I’m a user experience engineer. That means I design in code. By day I work at Planning Center on Check-ins, the app churches use to check kids and volunteers in every Sunday — somewhere between two and a half and three million people a week, most of them in a two-hour window. It’s a good place to learn what “it has to just work” actually costs.

By night I run Squarehead Creative, a small design-and-build studio, and I’m starting a few things of my own. Holograil, a marketplace for collectibles, launches in a couple of weeks. Moor is a personal finance app that’s supposed to make you feel steadier, not worse. Hype Me is a social app for athletes and the people who show up for them. Yes, that’s a lot. I’m aware.

This site is where the work lives, and where I’ll write about it — mostly short notes on building products when you’re the designer and the engineer at the same time. What that’s good for, where it breaks, and what I’d do differently.

If any of that sounds like your kind of problem, say hello. I answer.