There’s a quiet moment near the end of the Netflix series Arcane — one of those rare silences that lands heavier than any explosion.
Two inventors, once united by ambition, stand apart. One has been physically transformed by the very technology they built together. The other, haunted by its consequences. What began as a pursuit of progress has spiraled into something colder, darker — and now, irreversible.
Amid the fallout, one of them finally speaks. Not with blame. Not with anger. But with the weight of regret.
“In the pursuit of greatness, we failed to do good.”
That line hit me hard.
Ambition
At the time (early 2022-ish), it was still early days in rebuilding the design system at Webflow — the tech, the processes, the team.
There were so many things we wanted to do. Ambitions of evolving the design language. Creating new processes. Refactoring color tokens. Advancing accessibility. All the fantastic things we could do to really make things great.
And because of that, we didn’t do much at all. We were stuck in a loop of big plans and small progress — and the people they were meant to support? They were losing faith.
Just like in Arcane... In the pursuit of greatness, we failed to do good.
That realization stung. Because it was true.
How did we get here? We had just started. How did we already become one of those teams — the kind that says a lot and does very little? The kind that values the hypothetical greatness of the system more than the practical service of its users?
That was the turning point.
Webflow has always encouraged us to dream big. But I realized then: dreaming big won’t get us there. But doing the work... just might.
Service
It reminded me of my restaurant days. I didn’t work anywhere fancy — and maybe that was a good thing. My first job was at a steakhouse. And it was there I first understood what “serving the customer” really meant. It wasn’t something people said — it was something you felt in how they moved.
It didn’t matter if you were busy. Or short on prep. Or having a bad day. When the ticket came in, you made the food.
You made it good. You made it fast. You made it right.
That’s what service meant.
Triad
In tech, we have a phrase for this triad: the "Iron Triangle".
Good. Fast. Cheap. Pick two.
I get it. But I’ve always disliked how it’s used — not as a principle, but as a punchline. Not to guide, but to excuse. It shows up in planning meetings like a get-out-of-effort-free card. A quick way to dismiss ambitious ideas. “Can’t be done. Look at the triangle!”
(I can’t even imagine bringing that mindset into a kitchen.)
It’s something I’ve rejected — and time and again, I’ve proven it wrong. (Even with tech debt. Stakeholders. Deadlines. Complexity. The usual things).
You make it good. You make it fast. You make it right.
Doing good
That’s what we refocused the Design System team around: service.
We looked at what our surface areas needed. And instead of trying to do everything, we focused where we could make a difference. No grandiose roadmaps. No manifesto of principles. Just work. Just people.
We paid attention. We stayed close. We stayed ahead. We didn’t try to prove ourselves. We tried to be useful.
And in doing so — I think we did some good.
We helped launch Made in Webflow and became the Marketplace. We helped scaffold the Dashboard UI, moving it from legacy Angular to modern React.
And after months of doing good — of working directly with people, of showing up consistently — we were ready. Ready to support every surface area in the 2023 Webflow rebrand.
A massive project. We had five months. A small team. Every surface area had to change. Every product team would be impacted. And yet, nothing could stop. Nothing could break. Nothing could leak.
We accepted the challenge. And we did the work.
We made it good. We made it fast. We made it right
Doing great
If you’re chasing something great — a vision, a standard, a future — don’t lose sight of where it starts. Not with perfection. Not with promises. But with service.
In the pursuit of greatness, do not fail to do good.
Doing good — consistently, quietly, imperfectly — is how you get great.