When you’re stuck on a tricky work situation or need an honest opinion on your spiffy new Zoom background, who do you call?

For us, it’s each other. We’re Danielle and Dave, design and research leaders at 1Password with 25+ years of combined experience across security, fintech, CPG, adtech, retail, and consulting.

For years, we’ve been each other’s call when leadership gets messy.

Leadership can feel incredibly isolating. The higher you climb, the fewer people you can be fully honest with. Yet most of our best breakthroughs happened in conversations with each other.

That’s why we wanted to start a newsletter of letters to leaders: dispatches from the conversations we have with each other, our peers and our mentors, that make us better every day.

We’d love to have you join the conversation.

What to expect?

Each issue we share honest letters on the messy realities of design, research, and leadership. Frameworks we actually use. Failures we’re still thinking about. Sometimes a guest letter or a podcast conversation with someone we admire.

Who is this for?

If you’re influencing decisions or mentoring others, you’re a leader — whether that’s a title on your badge or just how you show up. Whether you’re leading your first project or your fifth team, we’ve got a seat for you.

Pull up a chair, grab a coffee, and subscribe. We’re glad you’re here.

— Danielle & Dave

Heads up: the views here are ours, not 1Password’s. We believe deeply in the mission, the products, and the people we work with. While we may not always agree with every decision the company makes, we as leaders practice disagree and commit just like we ask our teams to. This is simply our own space to think out loud, separate from the company line.