How Traveling With Kids Still Teaches Me About Design Thinking
Because the Most Teachable Moments Aren’t in Workshops.
A few months ago, I wrote about flying solo with my two little girls on a 16-hour flight to India - no iPads, just a curated bag of activities, snacks, and a mom armed with user research & product design instincts. I remember feeling a mix of nervousness and excitement, triple-checking the “activity bag” I’d packed: everything under $5–10, new and engaging, tailored to their age and interests.
Somewhere over the Pacific, my three-year-old turned to me and asked for the bag instead of the screen. That tiny moment was my validation - proof that thoughtful design works when you really understand your users. Back then, I was designing for my kids.
Now, I’m designing with them.
This Thanksgiving, we’re road-tripping to Los Angeles - seven hours in the car, two kids now 4 and 7, and a whole new set of needs. The old sticker books and finger puppets have evolved into magnetic play boxes, family word games, memory challenges, and playlists we curate together. I still pack activity bags for them, and while some toys require sharing, they now co-create the experience - choosing what they want to bring along and how they want to spend the drive.
It’s the same shift every thoughtful designer makes: moving from assumptions to collaboration, from designing at someone to designing with them.
When I think about it, this is design thinking in its purest form - a focus on the user journey. Who is your user? What do they need right now? How do you reduce friction, anticipate frustration, and still leave space for joy? My “users” might be 4 and 7 in this case, but the challenge isn’t that different from any project I’ve worked on or any venture I’m building - you’re still mapping needs, testing small systems, and iterating to make the experience smoother.
Motherhood has become my design lab. Every tantrum avoided, every idea tested, every system improved is a prototype of patience and empathy.
That same curiosity I practice in parenting spills over into my professional life too. That same design mindset - one of iteration, empathy, and experimentation - has shaped everything I’ve built since. I’ve grown Empower the Gap through consistent writing, real conversations, and small experiments… following what resonates and learning from what doesn’t. It’s been a journey of opening new doors and learning to close others - like pausing Oorvii to focus on Parent Pocket Guide. I’ve learned that iteration isn’t failure - it’s growth. Choosing to try and choosing to stop are both forms of progress.
As Tom Vanderbilt writes in Beginners, staying curious and willing to start again is what keeps us moving forward.
Because whether you’re designing a product, building a brand, or planning a family trip, the process is the same: research, prototype, iterate, learn, repeat.
So as I plan snacks and games for another long stretch of highway, I’m reminded that this - all of it - is the work. The listening, the adapting, the co-creating.
Parenting didn’t take me away from design thinking. It makes me live it, every single day.