Skilled by Design: Recent Episodes

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Trust is a critical component of any successful relationship, whether personal or professional. In this episode, we talk with Austin Govella, a cofounder of The Synozur Alliance and an experienced designer, about the skill of building trust.

Comments, questions, and your own tips for building trust are welcome on Twitter (https://twitter.com/skilledby) or at our website (https://skilledbydesign.com).

Tips from this episode:

• Be honest and transparent in your communications.
• Seek to understand the needs and perspectives of others.
• Focus on delivering value and follow through on your commitments.
• Practice active listening and empathy.

About Austin:

Austin Govella is a cofounder of The Synozur Alliance, a consulting firm that helps clients improve the employee experience. With 25 years of experience in design, Austin has worked with a wide range of clients to create better user experiences. He is the author of Collaborative Product Design and Work the Room, a book about workshop facilitation.

Connect with Austin:

• Austin's blog: https://www.agux.co/
• Austin's LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/austingovella
• Work the Room: https://www.agux.co/book/work-the-room

Resources mentioned in the interview:

• Workshop checklist: https://www.agux.co/workshops/checklist
• The trust equation: https://trustedadvisor.com/why-trust-matters/understanding-trust/understanding-the-trust-equation

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What are the skills you need to be a better researcher or to make research a more deliberate part of your workflow or toolkit?

The two co-founders of research-insight focused and London-based Dualo join us to share their insights about research skills.

Please rate and review the podcast!

Also, comments and questions are welcome on twitter: https://twitter.com/skilledby

Tips from this episode:

• Develop your proactive muscles. Don't wait for permission to do research.
• Learn to deliver informed decisions, not just data sets.
• Constantly improve and refine your ability to ask good questions
• Get organized and make research a habit.

About Nick, Dan, and Dualo:

Nick Russell: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nsrussell/ Dan Robins: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielpaulrobins/

Dualo is a stakeholder-friendly research repository that helps product teams to organise, connect, and showcase their key research findings across the wider organisation.

Website: www.dualo.io

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/dualohq

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Thanks for listening! 

Find a glossary of over 100 soft skills on our website: https://skilledbydesign.com/skills

Intro/outro music credit: Weero & Mitte

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Is learning a skill? How about enabling learning for others? Yup, they're for sure skills; important ones. Jethro Jones, host of the Transformative Principal podcast, joins us to talk about learning and education. He shares some great insights for thinking longer-term as we educate the rising generation of citizens, workers, and leaders.

Please rate and review the podcast!

Also, comments and questions are welcome on twitter: https://twitter.com/skilledby

Tips for improving your learning skills:

• If you want to learn a skill, ask people questions about it to show that you're interested and that it's important to you.
• Think beyond the short-term to the long-term benefits of learning that skill
• Never stop learning

You can find my friend Jethro, his podcast, and his books here:

• https://jethrojones.com
• https://twitter.com/jethrojones
• https://transformativeprincipal.com/
• https://www.amazon.com/SchoolX-principals-transformative-experience-themselves/dp/1913622118
• https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09X5TGRR6/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

Jethro's bio:

Jethro Jones, 2017 Digital Principal of the Year, is a former principal and host of Transformative Principal Podcast. He is also the founder of The Center for Cyberethics, independent, non-partisan educational institute dedicated to the study and promotion of cyberethics, and author of the book, SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves! He also recently released a second book, How to Be a Transformative Principal. Jethro has worked as a principal at all K-12 levels, including a prison school, a district coach, distance learning team lead, and English teacher. He lives with his wife and four children in Washington state.

Find a glossary of over 100 soft skills on our website: https://skilledbydesign.com/skills

Intro/outro music credit: Weero & Mitte

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We've all heard that storytelling is an important skill to have as a designer (or member of society), but what does that entail? What does it all mean?! That very question led Jamie Dixon to some answers that he put in a book called The Story Habit - and he joins us this episode to tell us about it.

Please rate and review the podcast!

Also, comments, questions (and stories) are welcome on twitter: https://twitter.com/skilledby

Tips for improving your storytelling skills:

• Watch for nodding heads. When people are agreeing with you, that's when you can challenge them.
• Build a habit of noticing change. Change is where the stories are.

Big thanks to Jamie for sharing his time and expertise! You can find him and his book here:

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrjamiedixon/
• https://www.shapingpaths.com/jamie-dixon/
• https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B6BG7J92

Jamie's bio:

Jamie Dixon is a coach, trainer and author. He has worked with ambitious leaders in over 160 multinational companies over the last decade. He coaches and trains in both English and Mandarin, and is also conversational in Japanese.

He's the author of three books: The Story Habit, Overcome and Get it Done, and Shaping Paths: How to Design and Deliver PRACTICAL Training.

Jamie is an IAC accredited coach, a certified Tiny Habits coach, a Marshall Goldsmith Stakeholder Centred Coach, and is also certified in DISC.

In his spare time, Jamie enjoys spending time with his wife and kids, reading, meditation, calisthenics, and Yoga.

Find a glossary of over 100 soft skills on our website: https://skilledbydesign.com/skills

Intro/outro music credit: Weero & Mitte

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Hey, there! In this episode, I'm checking in. No interview this week, just a quick update on life and the podcast.

We're looking for guest/topic suggestions. Send them our way at https://skilledbydesign.com/guests.

Also, we'd love to discuss your questions and comments about what you're hearing on the show. Let's discuss together on Twitter @skilledby: https://twitter.com/skilledby

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About this interview
Sarah Doody is a UX Researcher,  Experience Designer, and she's the Founder and CEO of Career Strategy Lab. She helps companies and teams understand the people and purpose behind the products they are creating.

Since 2004 Sarah has been leveraging the power of storytelling and research to help teams reduce the risk of re-work and instead, build the right products and features the first time around. 

Career Strategy Lab™ is a UX career accelerator that helps UX professionals get hired without applying to hundreds of roles. This is done through group and individualized UX career coaching.

List of skills discussed
- Critical thinking
- Thinking strategically

Tips for improving strategic thinking
- Slow down
- Make space to think about future outcomes
- Do career research and create a career roadmap

References and links
- https://careerstrategylab.com
- https://sarahdoody.com

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About this interview

Andrea Small is a design strategist, educator, and writer. She studied architecture and metalsmithing and has a Masters degree in Human Centered Product Design. Andrea is currently Creative Lead at Samsung Research America on their R&D Innovation Team in Mountain View, CA.

### List of skills discussed
- Being creative in the face of challenges
- Implementing design thinking
- Maintaining an open mind
- Navigating Ambiguity
- Problem solving
- Taking risks
- Thinking laterally

### Tips for improving ambiguity-navigation skills
- Do things to build curiosity in low-risk ways like going down an unfamiliar isle at the grocery store
- Crumple a piece of paper or draw squiggles on a page and ask yourself what you can make from it
- Draw a hundred circles and make them into a hundred different things
- Pause daily and practice exploring the five balances
1. Perspective: look in / look out
2. Pace: speed up / slow down
3. Focus / unfocus
4. Follow the course / create your own path
5. Scale: Zoom in / zoom out

### Links
1. http://www.andreasmall.com/
2. Twitter: @dresmall
3. Navigating Ambiguity: Creating Opportunity in a World of Unknowns (https://www.porchlightbooks.com/product/navigating-ambiguity-creating-opportunity-in-a-world-of-unknowns--andrea-small?variationCode=9781984857965)

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About this interview
Lindsey Hamilton is the Head of Mindset Conditioning at IMG Academy where she leads, develops, and facilitates a team of 12 mindset coaches that oversee the mental skills development of over 1,200 middle school and high school aged student-athletes. She also leads the IMG Institute through developing and delivering high performance mindset coaching to executive level business professionals and corporate teams interested in optimizing leadership and enhancing organizational excellence. Lindsey holds two bachelor’s degrees from Chapman University in psychology and sociology, a master’s degree from the University of Utah in Exercise and Sport Science with an emphasis in psychosocial aspects of sport, and is currently pursuing her doctorate in kinesiology at UNC Greensboro.

List of skills discussed
- Being coachable
- Coaching others
- Delivering clear and useful criticism
- Learning eagerly from criticism
- Leveraging Resources
- Reframing
- Staying motivated to take on new challenges
- Taking risks
- Team building

Tips for improving mindfulness skills
1. Ask yourself what you would do if you were being your most confident self
2. Put that intention into a word or phrase and put it somewhere you'll see/interact with it everyday (like your password)

Interview breakdown
Tommy: 1:30
What is a mental conditioning coach?

Lindsey: 1:38
* Mental conditioning is training mental skills so you can perform at your best, regardless of the circumstances
* It's helping your mind work for you and not against you

Tommy: 2:26
Mental skills... what kind of skills are we talking about?

Lindsey: 2:37
- Acting with confidence
- Managing pressure situations
- Controlling self doubt / Using effective self talk
- Visualizing positive outcomes
- Managing anxiety
- Effectively taking feedback
- And many more...

Tommy: 4:46
Those skills seem relevant for everyone, but especially designers...

Lindsey: 5:06
- We are each the designer of our own life
- We can approach ourselves like a design problem: what is the problem to solve and how can I redesign myself to accomplish my goals?
- We often don't see that we can step outside of our anxieties or fears and design our way into more of what we want to be

Tommy: 6:03
Viewing ourselves as a design problem is a fascinating concept!

Lindsey: 6:42
- Self awareness is a skill, too:
1. being able to take a step back
2. having the courage to do so
3. troubleshooting the challenges you find
- Mental performance improvement really starts there

Tommy: 7:16
With what age group are you typically working?

Lindsey: 7:24
- Middle - high school-aged kids, so 13-18 mostly
- Also work with corporate executives

Tommy: 7:48
How do you help the kids develop that self awareness?

Lindsey: 8:01
- Self awareness is where you start everything

Tommy: 9:40
You manage a team of 12 coaches?

Lindsey:
- Actually 13, but just hired 5 more!

Tommy: 10:02
It must be interesting to teach mindfulness and awareness to coaches who teach the same thing to others.

Lindsey: 10:17
- You will get better by default - just by engaging in the work, having conversations, etc.
- But how do we get better by design?
- Planning to create a development program for the coaches so they can continue to get better and accomplish what they want to

Tommy: 12:12
So, you help the kids learn to be coachable?

Lindsey: 12:27
- Coachability is the foundation of building mental flexibility (or mental toughness)
- Sometimes coaching comes from ourselves, sometimes others, sometimes from our mistakes
- It can be hard to take criticism

Tommy: 12:43
Where do you start to become more coachable? How do we develop mental flexibility so we can better deal with critique and criticism?

Lindsey: 14:26
- Sometimes we feel like the work we put forward is final, but it never really is.
- Designers typically understand that product design is iterative and collaborative.
- We can take that iterative, collaborative mindset and apply it to ourselves.

Lindsey: 16:30
- UX design is what you do, not who you are.
- When you have an idea that fails, you're not a failure.
- We need to make space to separate those things because until we do, we're going to have a hard time taking feedback because it's going to feel personal.
- Remember to also GIVE feedback mindfully. We can critique outputs or behaviors without tearing down the person.

Tommy: 17:41
I saw a cartoon once where in the first frame two people were facing each other arguing over something. In the second frame, they were standing together facing the problem together.

Lindsey: 18:17
- We do an exercise with our athletes where they face off across a stretched out rope. They try to convince their partner to come to their side of the rope.
- Sometimes someone will give in and go to the other side. Sometimes nobody will move.
- The way you win is to BOTH move - to switch sides. It rarely occurs to people because they've been facing off "against" another person, even though they were called PARTNERS through the whole exercise!

Tommy: 20:19
What's the difference between the actions of confidence and the feelings of confidence?

Lindsey: 20:38
- People feel like you either have confidence or you don't
- If you woke up tomorrow with all the confidence in the world, how would you do your work differently?
- What if you woke up tomorrow with all the confidence in the world, but nothing changed? We'd be disappointed.
- We want confidence not because it makes us feel a certain way, but that it's going to change our life in some way.
- The actions of confidence come first and the feelings come later
- [[Nelson Mandela]] taught this principle throughout his life

Tommy: 27:24
Imposter syndrome is real for so many. Seems like nobody can feel confident until they've put themselves out there and tried.

Lindsey: 28:18
- Most of us have transitioned into our current work or roles by trying something we weren't sure would work
- Hopefully people are constantly pushing themselves out of their comfort zone and then taking confident action that ultimately leads to a better product

Tommy: 29:39
Confidence still leaves space for humility.

Lindsey: 29:53
- What's the different between confidence and arrogance?
- Arrogance is when you believe in yourself to the extent where you no longer feel like you need to collaborate or ask for support; you turn down resources.
- Confidence allows you to believe in yourself and your work while staying open to other ideas and opinions. You recognize you are separate from your product.

Tommy: 32:00
What can we do today to start building mental flexibility?

Lindsey: 32:25
1. Ask yourself what you would do if you were being your most confident self
2. Put that intention into a word or phrase and put it somewhere you'll see/interact with it everyday (like your password)

References
1. IMG Academy: https://www.imgacademy.com/plus/coaches
2. Twitter: https://twitter.com/lindsey08h
3. Instagram: https://twitter.com/lindsey08h

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About this interview Gregg Behr, executive director of The Grable Foundation, is a father and children’s advocate whose work has drawn comparisons to his hero, Fred Rogers. For more than 15 years, he has helped lead Remake Learning—a network of educators, scientists, artists, and makers he founded in 2007—to international renown. Formed in Rogers’ real-life neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Remake Learning has turned heads everywhere from Forbes to the World Economic Forum for its efforts to ignite children’s curiosity, encourage creativity, and foster belonging in schools, libraries, museums, and more. A graduate of the University of Notre Dame and Duke University, Gregg holds honorary degrees from Carlow University and Saint Vincent College. He’s an advisor to The Brookings Institution and The Fred Rogers Center, and has been honored by President Obama, the Disruptor Foundation, and AASA as an innovator and thought leader. Ryan Rydzewski is an award-winning author and speaker. A graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, he taught elementary school in south Louisiana before earning an MFA in nonfiction writing from Chatham University. As a science and education reporter, his magazine stories focus on everything from schools to space travel to Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, and he regularly leads workshops for educators, parents, and neighbors nationwide. Born in Erie, Pennsylvania, Ryan lives in Pittsburgh with his wife, Jacqueline.

List of skills discussed

• Being curious
• Being truthful with self and others
• Treating others with kindness
• Inspiring others
• Acting with passion
• Living with purpose
• Paying attention to detail
• Behaving consistently and authentically
• Developing rapport
• Treating others in a friendly manner
• Imagining possibilities

Tip for how to improve caring skills

• Start noticing what's going on around us
• Identify the atmosphere we want and don't want to be working in
• Notice how we can create an atmosphere where people feel loved, safe, and believe they can do their thing... and do it better
• Be intentional about how we build relationships and connect with people
• Take time out before digging into working with someone to connect first

Links

• Twitter: @greggbehr
• Twitter: @RyanRydzewski
• https://www.amazon.com/When-You-Wonder-Youre-Learning/dp/0306874733

Interview breakdown

Tommy: 1:20

Tell us about "When You Wonder, You're Learning"

Gregg: 1:36

• Both Ryan and Gregg grew up in Western Pennsylvania

• Mr Rogers was a Pittsburg native and is a local hero in the area

• As we studied learning science, we realized that a lot of the published papers read almost like a script from Mr Rogers' Neighborhood

• Decided there was another story to tell about Fred Rogers; that of him as a scientist

Tommy: 3:54

If you want to create an outstanding experience, you have to put in the work like Fred Rogers did.

Ryan: 4:29

• Good design makes things look easy

• Every aspect of every episode of Mr Rogers' Neighborhood was grounded in some principle of child development (learning sciences)

• As we realized over time the amount of effort that went into each of over 900 episodes, we started to admire Fred as a writer, artist, philosopher, and designer

Tommy: 5:57

It seems like it's easier to resonate with Fred Rogers because he was so authentic.

Gregg: 6:14

• Mrs Rogers (Joanne) wrote the forward to When You Wonder, You're Learning

• She said that no one practiced being Fred Rogers more than Fred Rogers

• No one cared about the work more than Fred himself

Tommy: 7:03

It's important to care about what we're doing, and to do things in areas we care about.

Ryan: 7:31

• Mr Rogers was the same in real life as he was on his show

• He made people feel special in real life just like he did on television

Gregg: 8:48

• Priviledged to do work on behalf of the Grable Foundation and Remake Learning

• So much of the work is about design

• The work has been informed mightily by designers steeped in human centered design

• Crafting great learning experiences is a huge design challenge

Tommy: 9:50

Why is curiosity so important to creativity?

Ryan: 11:23

• Curiosity can be called a 'state of not knowing'

• Adults aren't as good at staying in that state of not knowing

• As adults, we feel like we need to be in control; be the expert

• Fred Rogers exposed a different way by talking to people at the top of their field and how they have struggles and self doubt too, but they keep working at it keeping themselves in that state of not knowing

• Mr Rogers celebrated the process of developing a skill

Gregg: 13:35

• Designers are often looked to as the creative ones

• Mr Rogers reminded us that everyone has something worth giving

• Designers be finding those with passions and interests worth sharing; unleash those passions in ways that contribute to whatever problem you're solving

Tommy: 14:51

How do you unleash or champion that creativity in others?

Ryan: 15:38

• Mr Rogers would bring amazing people onto his show and let them love what they did

• We should love what we do in front of others, especially those we want to bring along in our projects or on our journeys

Gregg: 18:04

• Skateboard story

• Start with something familiar before going to the place of mystery and novelty

Tommy: 21:42

How can we start improving our caring skills today?

Gregg: 22:07

• Start noticing what's going on around us

• Identify the atmosphere we want and don't want to be working in

• Notice how we can create an atmosphere where people feel loved, safe, and believe they can do their thing... and do it better

Ryan: 24:32

• Be intentional about how we build relationships and connect with people

• Take time out before digging into working with someone to connect first

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About this interview Scott Christopher is an author, public speaker, actor, and consultant. In his book, The Levity Effect, Scott explores the importance of levity in all aspects of life, not the least of which is the workplace.

In this episode, Scott talks to us about the lackluster success of his various books, his humble yet humor-filled upbringing, and reading Woody Allen books when he was three (or something like that). He helps us explore the development of a good sense of humor and how that can make us more effective professionals.

List of skills discussed

• Cultivating a sense of humor
• Behaving consistently and authentically

Tip for how to improve this skill

How can I be funnier? What is my sense of humor?

1. Exposure - allow yourself to be exposed to various different types and styles of humor. Something unexpected might resonate with you or tickle your funnybone.
2. Inventory - keep track of what is funny to you. Remember, bookmark, save that genre or YouTube channel or whatever it is and keep going back to it.
3. Application - draw something up from your memory and apply it in the moment. Get out of your shell a little bit and share something you found funny with others that will hopefully also find it funny.

Three things to focus on:

1. Lattitude - what you allow others to get away with in your (work) environment. Let others flex their humor muscles.
2. Attitude - what you contribute to the levity mix. Your sense of humor.
3. Gratitude - less to do with humor and more to do with levity. Showing gratitude lightens things up. It builds culture, morale, performance, etc.

Links

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-christopher-33544b17/
• IMDB: Scott Christopher - IMDb
• The Levity Effect: Why it Pays to Lighten Up: Gostick, Adrian, Christopher, Scott: 9780470195888: Books - Amazon

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About this interview Dr. Susie Wise is a designer and educator based at the d.school at Stanford. She wrote a book called Design for Belonging (released April 19, 2022) where she explores the concepts of feeling, seeing, and shaping belonging.

In this episode, Dr. Wise talks to us about how she got involved in the d.school at Stanford and how that journey led her to write Design for Belonging. We explore the difference between belonging and “othering” and other concepts like Impostor syndrome or stereotype threat.

Tip for how to improve this skill

• Make a map of the places and spaces that you’re in (in your life)
• Identify where you feel strong belonging and a lack of belonging
• Explore why those spaces make you feel that way
• Apply your learnings to the spaces you are creating

Links

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/susie-wise-33b4a0/
• Stanford d.school: https://dschool.stanford.edu/
• Book: https://designforbelonging.com
• Twitter: @susiewise
• Instagram: @susiebwise

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About this interview Sharon Steed is the founder of Communilogue, a consultancy focused on teaching empathy and inclusion. As a person who stutters, Sharon felt uncomfortable talking to others, especially groups. Her fears and discomfort sidelined her from making progress toward many of life’s milestones. She eventually figured out how to be okay with her insecurity and those courageous efforts have opened a lot of doors, many of which allow her to help others.

In this episode, Sharon helps us look at the skills of feeling and showing empathy. She breaks down an ‘empathy mindset’ consisting of perspective, patience, and connection.We touch on the roles of vulnerability and curiosity in the journey toward empathy, and we look at some differences between sympathy and empathy.

List of skills discussed

• Empathy
• Vulnerability
• Curiosity
• Sympathy
• Courage
• Overcoming difficulty

Tip for communicating with empathy

• Approach conversations from a place of openness
• Remind yourself to leave judgment behind
• Prepare yourself to be curious before entering a conversation

Links

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharon-steed/
• Communilogue: https://www.communilogue.co/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/sharonsteed

LinkedIn Course: Driving Inclusion with Empathy

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About this episode Steve Arntz is the co-founder and CEO of Campfire, an immersive leadership development program that builds better managers by blending authentic peer connection, actionable content, and scalable technology. Before becoming an entrepreneur, Steve was a product director at Instructure.

In this episode, we talk with Steve about listening. Throughout a career as a product manager, and now for the last two years building a company, Steve has honed and now teaches about the skill of deliberate listening. As you deliberately listen in on this interview, you’ll hear us discuss how listening helped Campfire make a huge pivot that fundamentally changed the company’s direction. We also discuss listening one-on-one as well as listening at scale to help us really understand the shape of the problems we tackle everyday.

Tip for how to improve this skill

• As you listen, consider mind, body, and space
• Pair one-on-one listening with broader at-scale listening
• Develop your listening skills by practicing on the people who matter most in your life

Notes

• The Making of a Manager by Julie Zhou: The Making of a Manager: What to Do When Everyone Looks to You: Zhuo, Julie: 9780735219564: Amazon.com: Books
• Simon Lamb - Purposeful Change https://youtu.be/aX7aVIg4ifA
• The Dark Knight Watch The Dark Knight | Prime Video (amazon.com)
• Campfire: https://getcampfire.com
• Steve Arntz | LinkedIn

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About this interview Jared Spool is a prolific writer and speaker on the subject of usability and experience design. He co-founded a UX school located in Chattanooga called Center Centre that focuses on teaching UX skills.

In this episode, Jared talks a bit about Center Centre and the structure of the skills they teach there. We talk about the frequently overlooked skill of “facilitated leadership” which you can think of as the skill of effectively facilitating meetings or workshops.

Quick tips for how to improve facilitated leadership

• Watch one, do one, teach one
• Watch a meeting or workshop and deconstruct it. Identify the different parts and participants. Develop a vocabulary.
• Run a meeting or workshop to experience it for yourself. Discover what is easy and what is hard. Figure out what you can improve and then try again.

• Teach someone else to run a meeting. As you try to explain, you will have to consider things in different ways allowing you to learn even more.

• Read Kevin Hoffman’s book, “Meeting Design”

Notes

• Find Jared Spool
• On Twitter @jmspool
• Center Centre: https://www.uie.com/

• Linked in: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jmspool/

• Meeting Design: For Managers, Makers, and Everyone: Hoffman, Kevin M., Sutter, Matt, Gothelf, Jeff: 9781933820385: Amazon.com: Books

https://skilledbydesign.com

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Skilled by Design is a podcast for UX Designers, Product Designers, and Product Managers that are interested in identifying and improving their skills. As I kick off this new project, I wanted to quickly introduce myself and explain what the plan is for this podcast. Thanks for listening! Music by Weero & Mitte