Facebook’s VP of Product Design and Responsible Innovation on how we design for social settings, which present dilemmas with complex trade-offs — not problems with tidy solutions. I consider myself a professional-grade problem solver. It’s a big part of my identity and the way I see myself adding value to…

As technologists, we are all stewards of some of the most powerful communication tools ever created. These tools have generated a lot of good in the world, but their very power requires a deep sense of responsibility and a commitment to making the most ethically responsible decisions possible, every day…

In addition to supporting a number of Facebook’s design and user research teams, I lead our Responsible Innovation & Design core team. We work to cultivate ethical foresight in our product teams and develop and train teams across the company in responsible design practices. What follows is a public version…

I waited tables and worked retail for years throughout high school, college and graduate school to support myself. I learned so many valuable lessons working in those places, and I’m a generous tipper as a result. …

I want to share a talk I gave on the design track at SXSW in early March of this year. This talk was inspired by a deeply held belief that we are at a critical time in my company and our industry’s history, and to propose some ways in which…

I’ve just hit my five-year mark at Facebook, and it’s made me nostalgic for the early days in some ways, but not in others. Something I don’t miss is how hard it used to be to attract great design talent to the business side of Facebook. With all of the…

This piece was originally posted on the Designer Fund blog. Designer Fund invests in startups co-founded by designers to build and educate design teams through Bridge. A few years ago, I hurt myself knitting. I knitted four baby sweaters in 10 days — including during some very extended international flights…

Dear Grandma, I was thinking of you last night. I’ve been having a stressful few weeks and as I often do, I turned to your recipes to give me and my family some comfort. The act of making your stuffed peppers makes me feel closer to you and to my…

One day, I was having my weekly 1:1 meeting with my boss, Andrew Bosworth. We were going through the regular updates about my team, things going on at Facebook more generally, yada yada. Then he asked me a somewhat startling question…. “So, Margaret, what’s going off the rails on your…