Rosenfeld Review Podcast: Recent Episodes
The Rosenfeld Review Podcast (Rosenfeld Media)
Lou Rosenfeld talks with a LOT of brilliant, interesting changemakers in the UX world and beyond. Subscribe to the Rosenfeld Media podcast for a bird's eye view into what shifts UX faces, and how individuals and teams can respond in ways that drive success.
What if your next big career move didn’t involve managing people—but managing impact? Catt Small joins Lou to unpack the rise of the staff designer: a role that's redefining what senior-level growth can look like for designers who want to lead without becoming managers.Catt shares insights from her forthcoming Rosenfeld book, The Staff Designer: Grow, Influence, and Lead as an Individual Contributor, where she draws on her own experience at companies like Etsy, Asana, and Dropbox—alongside interviews with nearly 30 other design pros—to clarify a path that’s increasingly relevant in today’s flattened organizations.Catt explains why staff designers thrive at the intersection of strategy and execution, influence and diplomacy. Staff design isn’t about hierarchy; it’s about navigating complexity, guiding quality, and mentoring others, all without direct reports. Whether you're a senior designer wondering what’s next or a leader trying to support IC career growth, this episode reframes design leadership for the modern era.
Design operations is increasingly about navigating a moving target. AI-infused tooling is upending established models, and the pace of change is forcing teams to rethink everything from handoffs to team dynamics to what quality even means.As systems fracture and new patterns emerge, Ops leaders are stepping into roles that feel more like architects than managers—shaping the blueprint for how design and engineering build together in real time.One of those leaders is Aletheia DeLivre, Senior Program Manager of Design Engineering Collaboration & Strategy at Microsoft, and a featured speaker at the upcoming DesignOps Summit. In this conversation, she and Lou unpack how AI is disrupting workflows, accelerating timelines, and reshaping power dynamics between disciplines.
What does it take to transform a century-old tech giant into a design-led organization? Doug Powell—executive coach, former IBM design leader, and featured closing speaker at this year’s Design Ops Summit—joins Lou for a wide-ranging conversation on scaling design, building community, and leading through unpredictable change.Doug shares hard-earned lessons from IBM’s ambitious and trailblazing design transformation from the mid-twenty-teens: how centralization jump-started progress, why decentralization required careful timing, and what metrics ultimately proved design’s business value. Along the way, he offers thoughtful advice for today’s design leaders and ops pros who are navigating evolving roles and growing complexity.Whether you’re leading a design team or supporting one behind the scenes, Doug’s insights are a must-hear for anyone shaping the future of design operations.
What do video games and world-building have in common? Everything. Lou reconnects with Cheryl Platz—author, designer, and creative director—to explore the evolving world of video game development. Cheryl shares what drew her back to the gaming industry after years in enterprise UX and voice design, and how her new book, The Game Development Strategy Guide, distills insights across disciplines to help teams build modern games that truly thrive.The conversation ranges from the power of cross-functional collaboration to the benefits UX skills bring to game development to the monetization models shaping today’s games. Cheryl reflects on the challenges facing the industry—massive layoffs, misaligned incentives, and a lack of shared understanding—and how a more human-centered, sustainable approach could be a game changer. Whether you're a UX professional, game developer, or just curious about what makes great video games tick, this episode offers a sharp, wide-angle view of where the field is headed.
Design operations isn’t just about process—it’s about shaping better products, teams, and organizations from the inside out. José Coronado joins Lou to unpack why DesignOps deserves to be treated as a true design discipline. Drawing on his experience leading global teams at JPMorgan Chase, Target, and beyond, José shares strategies for embedding operational roles into business units, measuring impact, and scaling design without sacrificing quality.They explore how enterprise UX has evolved since the iPhone, why service design is the right lens for thinking about internal operations, and what it takes to foster effective cross-functional collaboration. The conversation offers a preview of José’s upcoming panel at the 2025 DesignOps Summit—and plenty of practical insights for DesignOps professionals at any stage of their journey.
What happens when you combine righteous anger with unwavering hope? You get George Aye—and the “Angry Hour.”In this lively episode, Lou Rosenfeld chats with George Aye, co-founder of Greater Good Studio, about his mission to create spaces for “pissed off optimists”—people who see the world’s injustices and refuse to give up on making things better. George shares the philosophy behind Angry Hour, a growing series of meetups uniting professionals from diverse fields around shared frustration and hope. He explains how these gatherings channel collective energy into meaningful connections, local nonprofit support, and even bigger plans like the upcoming Livid Conference—a national gathering for changemakers who are angry enough to care and optimistic enough to act.If you’re searching for solidarity in uncertain times—or simply wondering how to turn anger into action—this conversation offers insight, inspiration, and a glimpse into a movement fueled by equal parts rage and resolve.
What do you do when a successful tech career leaves you feeling like an empty shell? For Francois Burra, the answer was to look inward and transform his life—and help transform an industry.Lou Rosenfeld talks with Francois, a UX designer turned digital decarbonization consultant, about how a personal crisis led him to channel his “infinite energy” into tackling the tech industry’s overlooked climate impact. Francois shares how he co-founded Climate Product Leaders and co-authored Sustainable by Design: A Playbook for Product Managers—a free, practical guide brimming with best practices and real-world case studies for weaving sustainability into everyday product and design work.They explore how sustainability intersects with design, product management, and hot topics like AI, highlighting how even small steps can create meaningful change. Francois also offers candid reflections on career pivots, mental health, and finding purpose-driven work that feeds both your soul and the planet.
Matt Webb doesn’t just talk about emerging technologies—he builds with them, lives with them, and prototypes the futures they might bring. In this episode, Lou Rosenfeld talks with Webb—designer, technologist, and featured speaker at the upcoming Designing with AI 2025 conference—about how GenAI represents a kind of temporal leap: a sudden arrival of capabilities that feel like they should've taken another decade to develop.Matt shares how he explores "weak signals"—small, often personal experiments or observations that hint at larger shifts to come. From building an early website with GPT-3 to creating an app that tracks the black hole at the center of the Milky Way, Matt explains how play, laziness, and curiosity drive his invention process. He also touches on how GenAI changes our relationship to search, learning, and even design itself—pushing us into a world where conversations with information replace traditional retrieval methods. The discussion spans adaptive design, epistemic journeys, and the potential for everyone to become a maker of tools, apps, and meaning.
What happens when a cognitive psychologist turned UX researcher brings a critical eye to AI? Dr. Llewyn Paine shares her unique perspective at the intersection of emerging technology and user research. With experience spanning neuromarketing, 3D television, and mixed reality, Llewyn has seen the hype cycles come and go—and learned to spot the gap between promise and practical value.Llewyn and Lou explore the parallels between now-defunct technologies and today’s AI surge, noting how often new tools are overmarketed before their implications are truly understood. Llewyn urges researchers to engage with AI not as passive users but as experimenters: to test, retest, document, and analyze like scientists. Her recent workshop revealed how even identical prompts to the same model can yield wildly different results—an important reminder that AI is non-deterministic and context-sensitive.Llewyn also shares a behind-the-scenes look at curating the Designing with AI 2025 conference, built around both the realities of today and the creative possibilities of tomorrow. She reminds us that critical thinking, experimentation, and thoughtful documentation are the UX research community’s superpowers in this unpredictable AI era.
Tough conversations can feel like real-life horror stories—but they don’t have to. In We Need to Talk: A Survival Guide for Tough Conversations, Joshua Graves offers a practical, psychologically grounded toolkit for navigating conflict with clarity and courage. Drawing on insights from neuroscience, psychology, and his own lived experience, Graves explains why our brains react so strongly to tension and conflict—and what we can do about it. Lou and Joshua discuss workplace power dynamics, emotional triggers, and avoidance patterns, showing how even a moment of pause can shift the outcome. Joshua’s advice? Slow down. Breathe. Ask questions that begin with what or how instead of why. And remember, you're allowed to step away and come back—conflict doesn't need to be resolved in the heat of the moment. Whether you're facing pay disputes, boundary violations, or breakdowns in trust, Joshua’s goal isn’t to script your response but to equip you with flexible, self-aware tools you can adapt to your own voice.
Most organizations don't suffer from a lack of research—they suffer from a failure to use it well. Jake Burghardt, author of Stop Wasting Research, joins Lou to explore why so many valuable insights are lost after the study ends—and what we can do about it. Burghardt argues that building a research repository is only the first step; real impact comes from treating research like a renewable resource that feeds decisions over time.Drawing on his work with the ResearchOps community, Burghardt outlines three root causes of research waste: poor preparation, lack of motivation to use insights, and weak integration into decision-making processes. He introduces practical frameworks, like the concept of an “Insight Summary Hub,” that help organizations surface, prioritize, and apply past research effectively. Whether you're at a startup or a large enterprise, Burghardt emphasizes that moving from isolated studies to collective knowledge-sharing is critical to building true research wealth—and creating a culture where insights drive action.
What happens when two brilliant minds from the world of information architecture team up to create a podcast that’s part leadership playbook, part intellectual high-wire act? That’s exactly what Harry Max and Jorge Arango set out to explore with their new podcast, Traction Heroes. Lou Rosenfeld chats with two and learns how they envision their project and how their podcast differs from traditional interview formats.Instead of scripted discussions, Traction Heroes features Harry and Jorge reading thought-provoking passages from books to each other—without prior preparation—sparking impromptu, insightful conversations. The goal? To decode complex ideas and turn them into actionable advice for leaders and decision-makers. The pair leverage their complementary strengths: Harry’s applied, results-driven approach, and Jorge’s deep, theoretical mindset. Together, they aim to help listeners gain traction in their careers and lives, all while keeping the dialogue engaging and accessible.Launched in January 2025, the podcast avoids technical or siloed jargon, and focuses on practical tools for structuring decisions and creating meaningful outcomes. Available on major platforms and at TractionHeroes.com, the show promises a fresh take on leadership and decision-making.
Why do so many organizations struggle to learn and evolve? Robin Beers, an organizational psychologist and founder of Ubuntu Culture Company, argues that businesses have been stuck in a transactional mindset—hoarding knowledge rather than embracing it as a dynamic, social process. In this conversation, she explains why researchers must shift from simply delivering insights to becoming knowledge curators, helping organizations not just understand their customers, but also reflect on their own strategies and structures.Robin explores how organizations often present themselves based on internal hierarchies—rather than how customers actually engage with them—and how researchers can help bridge this gap. She also discusses the critical need for sense-making, the skills researchers should develop to navigate complex systems, and why UX research must expand beyond just improving digital products.As a speaker at Advancing Research 2025, Robin will offer practical strategies for researchers to drive real change within their organizations.
What happens when an academic researcher trades a university lab for the fast-paced world of tech? Katie Hansen, Senior UX Research Manager at Thumbtack, shares her journey from studying unconscious bias at Princeton to leading research at companies like Etsy, Instagram, and Facebook. She breaks down the challenges of transitioning from academia—where studies take years—to industry, where research needs to drive business decisions quickly.Katie dives into the power of survey experiments, explaining how they can uncover deep psychological insights and help teams prioritize what to A/B test. She also discusses the value of meta-analysis and literature reviews, showing how researchers can tap into existing knowledge to save time and uncover patterns.With two talks lined up at Advancing Research 2025, Katie will explore experimental research techniques and the impact of meta-analysis in UX. She also shares her favorite research tools, the importance of repositories, and why Hidden Brain is a must-listen for anyone fascinated by human behavior.If you’re looking to level up your research game and future-proof your career, don’t miss this conversation!
Failure is often seen as something to avoid, but Dan Ward sees it as a gateway to innovation. Dan is a military technologist, author, USAF veteran, and innovation catalyst at MITRE Corporation, and he and Lou talk about the profound lessons failure can teach. Drawing from his book LIFT: Innovation Lessons From Flying Machines That ALMOST Worked and The People Who NEARLY Flew Them, Ward shares stories of pre-Wright brothers (more accurately pre-Wright siblings) aviation experiments that, despite ending in failure, laid the groundwork for modern flight. He explains how studying and learning from setbacks can drive innovation and problem-solving in any field.Dan shares his innovation team's unique approach to failure: celebrating it with “failure cake.” This ritual helps his team process setbacks, learn from them, and destigmatize failure in a supportive environment. He also emphasizes the importance of storytelling, arguing that even the best ideas are meaningless if they can’t be communicated clearly. The conversation highlights how embracing failure and sharing its lessons are essential for growth, whether in aviation, design, or technology.Mark your calendars! Lou announces that Dan will headline Rosenfeld Media’s first Failure Friday on February 7, 2025, where he’ll further discuss the failure cake practice.
What keeps you up at night? For Brandon Schauer, it was climate change. In a stroke of genius, the former CEO of Adaptive Path decided to look for a role that would help him address his concerns about our planet. He ultimately transitioned to his current role as Senior Vice President of Climate Culture at Rare. Brandon has a big heart, and it can be felt in his conversation with Lou. They discuss his education and career path, highlighting his leadership role at Adaptive Path where the agency thrived by sharing knowledge and empowering new talent. As CEO, Brandon navigated business challenges and focused on building lasting client relationships and expanding the agency's impact. This experience eventually led to Adaptive Path's acquisition by Capital One, which marked a significant turning point in Brandon's career.His transition to climate work was driven by a growing concern for the environment. After struggling to find a direct path connecting design and climate change, Brandon discovered a role at Rare, an organization focused on behavioral change to reduce U.S. carbon emissions. His team at Rare works to identify and promote lifestyle changes, such as how people eat, travel, and power their homes. Brandon also shares how his design background continues to influence his work at Rare, particularly in "behavior placement"—a method of subtly integrating eco-friendly choices into entertainment to normalize sustainable behaviors. He emphasizes the soft power designers hold, noting how they can integrate sustainability into their work, even if their roles aren’t explicitly focused on climate. By doing so, designers can influence corporate decisions and consumer behaviors, helping to create a shift toward more sustainable norms in everyday life.
Imagine transforming a forgotten, dark space beneath one of New York’s most iconic landmarks into a vibrant community hub—this is the ambitious vision behind Gotham Park. Facilitating the vision and creation of the space beneath the Brooklyn Bridge is Lou’s guest, Rosa Chang. She shares her dream of transforming the neglected nine-acre area into a community-driven park. Initially underutilized and uninviting, the space is now being reimagined as a vibrant public hub for diverse groups to gather and connect.Rosa discusses the process of bringing her idea to the public, emphasizing the importance of listening to the community and allowing the vision to evolve through conversations. Rather than adhering to a rigid design from the start, she facilitates discussions with local stakeholders to ensure the park meets the needs of the people it serves. She highlights the significance of respecting the space's history while meeting contemporary needs.Their conversation also touches on Gotham Park's early successes, including the opening of the first acre and the push to revive iconic spaces like the Brooklyn Banks skate park. Rosa's approach has been one of connection and collaboration, bridging gaps between individuals and organizations to create a public space that fosters unity. Listen and be inspired!
Just as a rock climber meticulously checks their gear and follows strict safety protocols to navigate treacherous heights, security UX professionals must also anticipate risks and design safeguards to ensure a smooth and safe journey for users in a digital landscape. In Lou’s interview with Heidi Trost, author of Human-Centered Security: How to Design Systems that are Both Safe and Usable, Heidi highlights the critical safety protocols climbers and belayers follow, which mirror the precautions needed in system design to mitigate human error and anxiety. This analogy sets the stage for a broader discussion on security user experience challenges.Heidi stresses the necessity of cross-disciplinary collaboration, especially when dealing with sensitive data like personally identifiable information (PII) and electronic protected health information (EPHI). She points out how involving legal and security teams early can streamline projects and improve outcomes. Designers, as facilitators, must bridge the gap between complex security concepts and user comprehension. Heidi’s book helps them do this by using personas to understand how the dynamic between users, security UX, and threat actors shapes. Lou and Heidi’s conversation explores the evolution of multi-factor authentication (MFA) and its unintended consequences. What started as a simple 6-digit code morphed into a troublesome fatigue for users. Heidi underscores the importance of iterative design to adapt to these evolving challenges, likening the chaos of security interactions to a relentless ping-pong match.As they look ahead, Louis and Heidi discuss the rapid evolution of AI in security contexts, emphasizing the balance between technological advancement and user protection. With AI assistants poised to know more about individuals than ever, designers must remain vigilant to prevent potential misuse. Their conversation is an invitation for professionals to rethink how they approach security UX and design, encouraging a proactive stance in this ever-changing landscape.
Imagine being the service design lead of a healthcare network of 88,000 patients. Your team consists of five people. Sounds daunting, doesn’t it? This is the work that Carol Massa does every day at Northwell Health, New York's largest healthcare network. She brings her wisdom and experience not only to this episode of the Rosenfeld Review, but to the inaugural Advancing Service Design Conference on December 3-4, 2024. Starting as a design student at SCAD, Carol’s career path has taken her to management consulting and now to her pivotal position at Northwell’s Enterprise Digital Service division.Carol discusses her team's unique approach to service design, acting as translators of human insights for digital services. Her team’s work involves transforming research and data into actionable insights, creating playbooks, and facilitating collaboration across various departments. The focus is on enhancing patient and clinician experiences by streamlining administrative tasks through innovative digital tools.Throughout the conversation, Carol highlights the importance of building relationships and humanizing interactions. She shares insights on using familiar frameworks to engage clinicians and bridge gaps in communication, ensuring that all stakeholders understand the shared goals of improving patient care.What You'll Learn from this Episode: - The Role of Service Design in Healthcare: Understanding how service design can improve patient and clinician experiences within large healthcare systems like Northwell Health - Collaboration Across Disciplines: How a small service design team collaborates with various departments and stakeholders, including clinicians, engineers, and business strategists, to enhance service delivery - Translating Insights into Action: Techniques for translating complex data and human insights into actionable strategies and digital tools that address specific needs - Humanizing Interactions: The importance of building personal relationships and fostering open communication to bridge gaps - Prototyping and Testing Ideas: How rapid prototyping and testing can be used to validate ideas and improve processes, ensuring that new tools and services effectively meet user needs. - Adapting Existing Frameworks: Creative approaches to leveraging existing frameworks (like problems, goals, and tasks) in a way that resonates with different audiences, particularly in translating technical language for clinicians.Quick Reference Guide:0:00 - Meet Carol2:02 - Service design at Northwell7:25 - The makeup of the service design team9:49 - The operational tools and documentation the team uses13:46 - An example of incorporating and automating a new operational process17:36 - Why you need the Rosenverse20:04 - Action-driven problems, goals, and tasks24:35 - Breaking into established systems29:02 - Carol’s gift for listeners Resources and Links from Today's Episode:Advancing Service Design (inaugural conference) https://rosenfeldmedia.com/advancing-service-design/ Everyday Astronaut https://www.youtube.com/everydayastronaut
“Systems are very good at being resilient,” and “Systems are very good at dehumanizing,” are sentiments that anyone who has worked in organizational transformation or systems change can appreciate. Luke Roberts is the COO and co-founder of HighFive and a speaker at the upcoming Advancing Service Design Conference. As a self-proclaimed "systems provocateur," Luke emphasizes the importance of understanding the underlying dynamics of any system, whether it’s in education, healthcare, or corporate environments. He and Lou discuss the intricacies of how systems operate and the challenges faced when attempting to provoke meaningful transformation, often drawing on relatable insights from Luke’s work within education systems.One of the standout insights from the conversation is the vital role of time in enacting change. Luke argues that significant systems change requires a long-term commitment, with research indicating that anything less than three years typically fails to yield lasting results. This understanding is crucial, especially when organizations often seek quick wins that can lead to a cycle of temporary fixes without addressing deeper issues.Ultimately, our discussion reveals that provoking change is not just about identifying problems or changing individuals; it's about creating a collective vision and investing the time and energy required to realize it. As we navigate complex systems across various sectors, embracing the challenge of systems change can lead to meaningful and sustainable transformation.What You'll Learn from this Episode: - The Nature of Systems Change: Understanding that systems are complex and often resistant to change, requiring a nuanced approach to provoke transformation. - The Importance of Time: Recognizing that meaningful systems change typically takes at least three years, challenging the desire for quick wins and highlighting the need for long-term commitment. - Energy Dynamics in Systems: Exploring how the flow of information and attention affects change efforts, and how misdirection can stall progress. - Collaboration Across Stakeholders: The necessity of fostering collaboration among all participants—whether in education, healthcare, or corporate environments—to create a shared vision for change. - Provocation as a Tool for Change: Learning how to challenge existing norms and behaviors within a system without blaming individuals, thereby encouraging open dialogue and reflection. - Practical Examples and Insights: Gaining insights from real-world examples, such as the education system, to illustrate how systemic issues can perpetuate negative outcomes and the strategies needed to address them.Quick Reference Guide:0:14 - Meet Luke2:40 - An example of change at a system level - bullying in schools5:50 - Helpful frameworks - mapping and metaphors9:06 - Why training individuals is not a long-term solution14:00 - The window of change18:13 - 5 reasons to use the Rosenverse20:28 - Provoking systems24:58 - Flow of energy28:49 - Luke’s gift for listeners Resources and Links from Today's Episode:Advancing Service Design - December 3-4, 2024 https://rosenfeldmedia.com/advancing-service-design/The Grasshopper: Games, Life, and Utopia by Bernard Suits https://www.amazon.com/Grasshopper-Third-Games-Life-Utopia/dp/1554812151/Leading Schools and Sustaining Innovation by Luke Roberts https://www.amazon.com/Leading-Schools-Sustaining-Innovation-Roberts/dp/1032015624/
“I’ve been asking myself the question, ‘Why are you doing that?’ since I was about four,” says Amanda Woolley. As an organizational development (OD) consultant and facilitator, she seems to have found the right profession. Amanda began her career with NHS England, eventually becoming the System Leadership Development Senior Manager before working as a consultant. Ironically, she initially rejected the notion that she was an “OD person,” not being entirely sure what the requirements were.In Lou and Amanda’s discussion, she reflects on her journey into OD. She explains that OD focuses on helping teams step back and evaluate how they work together, addressing the complexities and “weirdness” that can emerge in workplace dynamics. They discuss the ideal environment for creating effective change in an organization, emphasizing the importance of neutrality, creativity, and ownership. Amanda shares a personal story about being a caregiver at a young age for her ill mother. She reflects, “My best experiences in healthcare are when people have broken the rules.” Today, she brings stakeholders together so that procedures can be rewritten to make protocols efficient and effective for all involved—and she’ll bring her experience and OD perspective to her panel at Advancing Service Design 2024 (virtual, December 3-4). What You'll Learn from this Episode: - The purpose of Organizational Development and who typically does itCommon “weird” challenges organizations face - When and why organizations should bring in consultants, like OD specialists, to provide a neutral perspective and facilitate better communication and problem-solving - Amanda’s career path and the rich experiences that inform her work todayQuick Reference Guide:0:14 - Meet Amanda1:50 - Systems and organizational development share a focus on frameworks and language5:08 - What is organizational development, and who does it?6:24 - Being aware of what’s weird and doing something about it9:43 - The triggers that expose the need for an organizational development specialist14:21 - Creating space that invites change and creativity17:15 - 5 things about the Rosenverse 19:53 - How Amanda’s experience with the National Health Services in the UK has influenced her work today27:27 - Amanda’s gift for listenersResources and Links from Today's Episode:Advancing Service Design Conference - December 3-4, 2024 https://rosenfeldmedia.com/advancing-service-design/Tomorrowmind: Thriving at Work with Resilience, Creativity, and Connection―Now and in an Uncertain Future by Martin Seligman and Gabriella Rosen Kellerman https://www.amazon.com/Tomorrowmind-Resilience-Creativity-Connection_Now-Uncertain/dp/1982159766
What do music and DesignOps have in common? So much that Rachel Posman and John Calhoun use music as a framework for their new book, The Design Conductors: Your Essential Guide to Design Operations—the first book written about the subject. Both of the authors come from creative backgrounds (John as a musician, Rachel as a ballet dancer), and they describe how their personal experiences influenced their approach to the book and their work.The music analogies are plenty. One example is the importance of orchestration in design operations, equating it to coordinating a team to work harmoniously, much like a conductor leading an orchestra. Rachel and John explain that design operations is a creative process, blending design and management, and that those creative aspects are often underestimated.They highlight the maturing nature of design operations as a discipline, noting that the book fills a gap in resources for both newcomers and experienced professionals. The book is structured in two acts (another musical metaphor): the fundamentals of DesignOps, and the practical, tactical methods for building and scaling teams.Rachel and John also discuss some common challenges in DesignOps, like making the invisible work visible and advocating for the value of the discipline. They stress the importance of "working loudly" to ensure that the contributions of design ops teams are recognized so that teams are properly resourced.What You'll Learn from this Episode: - Why Rachel and John chose a musical metaphor to use in their book - Why Rachel and John decided to write the first book on Design Ops - How the book is formatted and why there is something for everyone - Why Rachel encourages her team to “work louder”Quick Reference Guide:0:24 - Introduction of Rachel and John2:45 - Brining a music metaphor to design ops and highlighting the creativity within operations6:53 - The design materials of operations7:42 - Communication9:40 - Building the plane while flying11:06 - What the book covers and who it’s for14:22 - 5 reasons you need the Rosenverse17:14 - The journey readers can expect to take21:07 - The big errors and challenges in design ops23:34 - Ideas for working loud and being visible27:06 - Gifts for listeners
The best operating models for design orgs are mission-driven, evolving, and team-developed. Those criteria might seem daunting, but Daniel Orbach, Lou’s guest and a speaker at September’s DesignOps Summit, explains how he facilitates a dynamic culture of co-creating with his team at JP Morgan Chase. Daniel outlines his framework, one where the whole team is involved. It’s a dynamic, fluid process that builds teamwork, creates buy-in, and establishes a framework of periodic review, which encourages continual evolution.Lou and Daniel discuss the impact of rituals and mission statements on both teams and individuals. They also explore the impact of a team’s operating models on the broader organization and how interactions with various teams can foster shared understanding within the broader context of the organization. What You'll Learn from this Episode: - How mission statements can inspire and drive operating models - The power of organic rituals and the unusual, unifying ritual of Daniel’s team at JP Morgan Chase - How cross-pollinating between teams can create a shared vocabulary and increase understandingQuick Reference Guide:2:36 - Introduction of Daniel3:14 - Co-creating operating models with a team4:33 - On mission and operating models7:19 - Quarterly impact retrospectives9:16 - Rituals and mission 12:55 - Co-creating operating models15:34 - Why you need the Rosenverse18:39 - Operating models’ effects on broader organizations21:00 - Shared vocabulary23:07 - Cross-pollinating in organizations to facilitate shared understanding25:05 - Operating models and the individual28:09 - Daniel’s gift for the audienceResources and Links from Today's Episode:DesignOps Summit https://rosenfeldmedia.com/designops-summit/2024/Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War by John Coram https://www.amazon.com/Boyd-Fighter-Pilot-Who-Changed/dp/0316796883Pieces of the Action by Vannevar Bush https://www.amazon.com/Pieces-Action-Vannevar-Bush/dp/1953953204
Being simultaneously data-driven and creative seems paradoxical. So does building statistics into the creative process. John Paul de Guzman has managed to do both. As the founder and chief creative of Frost Design and Consulting Group, and speaker at the upcoming DesignOps Summit, millions of Filipinos have been impacted by their work with major FinTech and telecom projects. Much of the UX/UI talent in the Philippines is self-taught, often struggling with the gap between academic training and industry expectations. To address this, John Paul developed a systematic approach to training and design processes. John Paul and Lou discuss how Frost has embraced data-driven design, which, contrary to the creative chaos one might expect, has led to more efficient workflows and better client outcomes. By integrating tools like Trello and Figma, and leveraging AI for task management, John Paul has significantly reduced administrative overhead. This approach allows designers to focus on their work rather than getting bogged down in busy work. They can track work in real time, eliminating the need for status meetings and improving overall productivity—a win-win for both the team and their clients.What You'll Learn from this Episode: - How John Paul and his team at Frost systematically integrated data into their creative processes - How John Paul addressed the talent gap in his companyThe tools he uses to track workflows and achieve always-current status on projects - How probabilistic analysis helps predict project timelines and manage client expectations more accurately - How John Paul is integrating AP in the project-tracking processQuick Reference Guide:0:13 - Introduction of John Paul2:16 - The path that got John Paul where he is today5:18 - What it means to be data-driven8:39 - Systematizing the data-driven design process by tracking workflows11:58 - Mapping the workflow16:01 - Break18:45 - Tools for probabilistic analysis and managing time24:11 - The level of granularity John Paul’s team tracks25:56 - Handling aspects of work that are more conceptual and difficult to atomize30:46 - John Paul’s gift for listenersResources and Links from Today's Episode:DesignOps Summit 2024 https://rosenfeldmedia.com/designops-summit/2024/
Giving feedback to subordinates can be just as stressful as receiving it. Yet evaluations are a critical component of retention, employer/employee expectations, and production in general. Having an evaluation framework and system in place creates efficiencies, fills voids, and benefits everyone on the team. Enter Ignacio Martinez, associate director at Grand Studio in Chicago. He’ll be delivering a talk at the Design Ops Summit in September, “Fair and Effective Designer Evaluation”. In this podcast episode, Ignacio and Lou explore the importance of a well-structured evaluation framework that highlights “glows and grows” in the areas of craft, quality, client interaction, and teamwork. Ignacio’s system, built on the very accessible Google Sheets, combines quantitative metrics with qualitative feedback to reduce bias and offer a comprehensive assessment of designers' performance. His framework allows for continuous feedback from peers, project directors, and supervisors. What You'll Learn from this Episode: - The principles and methodologies behind creating a fair and effective designer evaluation system - How contributions from peers, career managers, and directors can create a robust evaluation system - The importance of a structured framework with clear categories and traits such as craft, quality, client interaction, and teamwork. - The benefits of incorporating both quantitative metrics and qualitative feedback to minimize bias and provide comprehensive evaluations. - How to create a framework for continuous ongoing feedback from peers, project directors, and supervisors - How evaluation criteria may evolve based on internal prioritiesQuick Reference Guide:0:13 - Intro of Ignacio3:54 - Evaluating designers then and now6:32 - Gut feelings versus using a system8:27 - Defining desired traits and levels11:49 - The framework of the documentation14:54 - The Rosenverse17:34 - Who are the evaluators? Are they biased? Are they anonymous? 21:33 - The frequency of evaluations 22:36 - Consider what makes the business run26:05 - The importance of transparency26:51 - Ignacio’s gift for listenersResources and Links from Today's Episode:Blurb of Ignacio’s “Fair and Effective Designer Evaluation” https://rosenfeldmedia.com/designops-summit/2024/sessions/fair-and-effective-designer-evaluation/ DesignOps Summit virtual conference - September 23-25 https://rosenfeldmedia.com/designops-summit/2024/Rosenverse https://rosenfeldmedia.com/rosenverse/Donald Glover https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2255973/
Is it time to advance the practice of service design? Ben Reason and Patrick Quattlebaum think so. They’re veteran service designers and co-authors of a pair of Rosenfeld books—Service Design: From Insight to Implementation and Orchestrating Experiences respectively.Ben, founder of LiveWork Studio, and Patrick, who founded Harmonic Design in Atlanta, join Lou to talk about launching a new Rosenfeld conference—Advancing Service Design—designed to highlight the service design’s potential for a new generation. They see opportunities for service design to go deeper—by integrating with and strengthening existing practices, like product management and agile, and broader—by better connecting systems that span multiple organizations (think healthcare).Working with the Rosenfeld team, they’re creating a conference program that you can be a part of—they describe the kinds of presentation proposals they’re looking for from prospective speakers. Patrick and Ben hope you’ll join them in advancing service design; the conference will take place virtually December 3-4. What You'll Learn from this Episode: - The real meaning of service design - How service design is evolving - Some crucial differences between work in the North America and Europe - Why communication between organizations is so important - How the upcoming conference will inspire and support you - How to contribute and become part of the upcoming case studies - How the panel discussions at the December conference will be differentQuick Reference Guide:0:15 - Introduction to Ben and Patrick1:50 - Being change agents to take Service Design to the next level5:03 - Announcing a new conference: Advancing Service Design– Looking at Service Design Through Different Lenses6:05 - Perspectives on different sides of the Atlantic11:30 - Why service design exists in the first place 12:38 - More about the upcoming December virtual conference17:40 - Call for proposals for the case studies and what they are looking for19:00 - Ben’s ideas for the conference: The next iteration of service design going from within an organization to between multiple organizations21:09 - Patrick’s ideas for the conference: Getting the people who want to transform things to communicate and the complexity of partnering together23:05 - Bringing success from the inside24:45 - Commercial break27:10 - Personal story from Patrick about communication highlighting the broader concept of the case studies for the conference 32:30 - Personal story from Ben about connection across systems37:16 - A different type of panel discussion to be at the conference40:15 - Gifts for listenersResources and Links from Today's Episode:Apply to speak at ASD2024 https://rosenfeldmedia.com/apply-to-speak-at-advancing-service-design-a-new-conference-from-rosenfeld/ LiveWork Studio https://liveworkstudio.com/Harmonic Design https://thisisharmonic.com/Service Design: Form Insight to Innovation by Andy Polaine, Ben Reason & Lavrans Løvlie https://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/service-design/Orchestrating Experiences: Collaborative Design for Complexity by Chris Risdon and Patrick Quattlebaum https://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/orchestrating-experiences/Movie: Clueless https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112697/The Ready https://www.theready.com/Brave New Work by Aaron Dignan https://www.bravenewwork.com/
Leah Buley and Joe Natoli have teamed up to make something great (check out the reviews on Amazon!) even greater. How? Well, considering that The User Experience Team of One: A Research and Design Survival Guide was written more than a decade ago, it was time to revisit the content and make it even more relevant for today’s UX teams. After all, times have changed. But the fundamental principles of the original book haven’t changed. They are as solid today as they were 11 years ago. What has changed is that the methods have been adapted for the speed of change in today’s businesses. Joe says it best: “These methods are shorter. They're simpler. They’re more direct in a lot of ways, and they cut to the chase in a way that longer processes don’t. I've met plenty of senior people who are throwing up their hands and going, ‘We're doing all the things. Why isn't this working?’ And the truth is, they're kind of overworking and overthinking. Everything in this book is practical and direct and gets you from point A to B. I just don't think there's any better way to get there.”What You'll Learn from this Episode: - About Leah’s experience as a solo UX practitioner and the inspiration behind the first edition of UX Team of One - How the UX field has changed over the past decade - How the second edition aims to provide comprehensive yet practical UX methods that can be applied in various organizational settings - About the shortcomings of UX boot camps and educational programs - A perspective that balances UX advocacy with business objectives and the reality of corporate politics - How to navigate and thrive in a UX career despite industry challenges, focusing on practical, adaptable methods and tools.Quick Reference Guide:0:46 - Introduction of Leah and Joe1:33 - The User Experience Team of One, second edition6:46 - Large or small team, Leah and Joe’s book is comprehensive without being overwhelming 8:58 - Righting wrongs12:14 - What’s new in the second edition – striving to do more with less15:58 - Break - plug for the Rosenverse18:20 - The current shitstorm21:39 - On speed24:40 - On toolkits. Tools and methods are two different things. 28:16 - Who needs The User Experience Team of One?30:45 - Leah and Joe’s gifts for the audienceResources and Links from Today's Episode:Rick Rubin’s The Creative Act https://www.amazon.com/Creative-Act-Way-Being/dp/0593652886 Jakob Bro, jazz guitarist https://jakobbro.com/web/ Confessions of a Pricing Man by Hermann Simon https://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Pricing-Man-Affects-Everything/dp/3319203991 Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe https://www.amazon.com/Bonfire-Vanities-Tom-Wolfe/dp/0312427573 The User Experience Team of One: A Research and Design Survival Guide by Leah Buley and Joe Natoli https://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/the-user-experience-team-of-one-second-edition/
Have you ever thought about the similarities between art and science? Or about how math is the language of the universe? No? Welcome to a perspective shift. Ultimately this episode is about making things better, not just different. But how we get there is through a thoughtful and entertaining discussion with the witty and philosophical Erin Weigel.Erin is the author of the recently published Design for Impact: Your Guide to Designing Effective Product Experiments. She brings a fresh, accessible, and humor-filled take on what may seem like a dry topic: experimentation. Erin and Lou discuss how both art and science are concerned with looking at the world through new perspectives. Both disciplines involve careful observation and critical thinking. While art uses form, color, and texture to communicate, science communicates through the language of math. Erin discusses the importance of experimentation in design, advocating for always defaulting to experiments even if they’re the quick and dirty kind. Most of us don’t have the resources for randomized controlled experiments, but even less rigorous experiments can provide valuable insights. All experiments involve tradeoffs. Do whatever experiments you can within the constraints that you have. Erin and Lou also discuss the following: - Normal distribution, central limit theorem, and what can be learned from outliers - The power of experiments to unite multidisciplinary teams by getting away from opinions and finding the truth - How professionals can use the principles of experimentation to navigate uncertainties and drive meaningful improvements - Discerning the impact of changes madeWhat You'll Learn from this Episode: - How Erin, with a fine arts background, became the principal designer at Booking.com and the Senior Group Product Design Manager at Deliveroo - The fundamental similarities between art and science - Why you should never skip the experimental phase - How experimentation unites people across disciplines - The difference between making things different and making them betterQuick Reference Guide:0:32 - Introduction of Erin; similarities between art and science4:05 - Barriers between art and science5:58 - Statistics is fun!12:37 - Defaulting to experimentation18:06 - Break - 5 reasons to use the Rosenverse20:36 - Experimentation as a uniting force25:49 - Make things better, not just different28:32 - Erin’s gift for listenersResources and Links from Today's Episode:Design for Impact: Your Guide to Designing Effective Product Experiments by Erin Weigel: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/design-for-impact/Ologies Podcast with Allie Ward: https://www.alieward.com/ologiesRosenverse: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/rosenverse/Factfulness: 10 Reasons We’re Wrong About the World and 10 Reasons Why Things are Better Than You Think by Hans Rosling: https://www.amazon.com/Factfulness-Reasons-World-Things-Better/dp/1250107814
In the latest episode of the Rosenfeld Review, Lou sits down with old friend Peter van Dijck, author of Information Architecture for Designers: Structuring Websites for Business Success, one of the first books ever written on Information Architecture. Peter is now a partner of Simply Put, a Colombian company that builds and designs useful AI Agents—including the soon-to-launch Rosenbot!Peter offers insight into the world of AI. Having been one of the first to speak about IA, it is fascinating to hear what he now has to say about AI. Join Lou and Peter as they take you through the journey where language itself is transforming from design to technology.What You'll Learn from this Episode: - An introduction to the Rosenbot, an AI bot that Peter’s company is developing for Rosenfeld Media - Some basic vocabulary for speaking about AI and ML so you “don’t feel like an idiot” - Mind-blowing truths about the potential of Generative AI’s language capabilities - How writing has transformed from a design to a technology and learn what that means for how we interact with the data - About the importance of highly curated information when training bots and the tricky balance that comes when you want to present less polished sources like unedited conversations - The importance of the human side of things - The biggest surprise that has come from working in the industryQuick Reference Guide[0:15] - Lou’s introduction of Peter Van Dijck [3:00] - AI on a basic level [4:59] - Generative AI’s language capabilities[18:08] - How we interact with metadata and writing as a technology[20:00] - How real-use cases make technology more exciting and instantaneous[22:19] - Information about the new Designing With AI Conference [23:33] - Some of the jargon around AI and IA [24:16] - Introduction to Lou’s Chat Bot, the Rosen Bot[24:39] - The importance of training bots on highly curated information[28:34] - The tricky balance of curated and less polished content[30:26] - The human side of things[31:55] - Different interaction models[37:58] - The biggest surprise working in the industry[38:30] - A Gift For YouResources and Links from Today's Episode:Peter Van Dijck Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petervandijck/Peter’s Company, Simply Put: https://www.getsimplyput.ai/Information Architecture for Designers: Structuring Websites for Business Success https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00YDJPPCMThe My Climate Journey Podcast: https://www.mcjcollective.com/media/podcast
In a time of massive layoffs across the tech industry, and with the inevitable advancement of AI, is it time for tech workers to organize — as in, unionize? I know, I know. You thought unions were for 1950’s factory workers. Not so. Ethan Marcotte, author of You Deserve a Tech Union (and coiner of the term “responsive web design”) thinks it’s high time for tech workers to protect themselves by coming together and deciding what’s most important to them as a collective. Certainly, tech workers don’t face the same kind of potential life-threatening working conditions of industrial America, but they still deserve a seat at the table when important decisions about their work are being discussed. With issues related to equality, transparency, workplace harassment, and how AI is shifting roles and affecting how work gets done, there’s a lot to talk about. Ethan will bring his perspective on tech workers and how they’re being impacted by AI to the upcoming Designing with AI virtual conference in June. What You'll Learn from this Episode: - What’s attractive about unionizing for tech workers of the 2020s - What tech workers would change if they could - About tech walkouts and unions that have already happened - Helpful resources for starting conversations with coworkers - The potential relationship among AI, reskilling, and worker unionsQuick Reference Guide:0:20 - Introduction of Ethan3:35 - How Ethan became interested in the idea of tech unions6:04 - “Weren’t unions for the manufacturing industry in the 1950s?”9:32 - The things tech workers would change if they could11:14 - Conversations among employees – are they safe? Are they protected?13:28 - On organizing for the greater good of humanity17:11 - Plug for Managing Priorities: How to Create Better Plans and Make Smarter Decisions by Harry Max19:06 - How we should feel about AI22:36 - AI, reskilling, and when workers don’t want to leave mundane tasks behind31:08 - Employees “voting with their feet” is costly for organizations33:24 - How future workers may organize as it relates to AI36:30 - Ethan’s gift for listenersResources and Links from Today's Episode:Designing with AI virtual conference, June 4-5, 2024 https://rosenfeldmedia.com/events/futures/ You Deserve a Tech Union by Ethan Markcotte https://www.amazon.com/Deserve-Tech-Union-Ethan-Marcotte/dp/1952616603 WorkerOrganizing.org https://workerorganizing.org/ Tech Workers Coalition https://techworkerscoalition.org/ TheFutureIsLikePie.com https://thefutureislikepie.com/
Dan Hill is the director of the Melbourne School of Design at the University of Melbourne, and author of Dark Matter and Trojan Horses: A Strategic Design Vocabulary and Designing Missions. And he’s the opening speaker at the inaugural Designing with AI conference, where he’ll be presenting “Designing for the Infrastructures of Everyday Life”. Like it or not, AI is a growing part of our infrastructure—not just the infrastructure of our phones, our computers, and the internet—but that of our physical world. It’s increasingly used to support the very fundamental systems that maintain our cities, hospitals, utilities, and educational systems. On some levels, this is cause for concern. After all, we’ve seen other implementations of AI (think riding-sharing services) that have not lived up to their promise but have instead aggravated some of the problems they sought to address.Dan is a big-picture guy with an ability to draw principles from history and other sectors. He understands that utilizing AI is inevitable. The challenge is recognizing the interconnectedness of our various systems and working together to build infrastructures that truly create better life experiences for all. What You'll Learn from this Episode:- The many facets of infrastructures- How AI is currently being used and how it might be used in the future to support our infrastructures- Why ride-sharing is not exactly an AI model worth repeating- Why the Japanese and Finnish models work well in those environments but aren’t necessarily transferable to more diverse cultures- Why quality of life will only improve with a more holistic, integrated design approachQuick Reference Guide0:37 - Introduction of Dan3:49 - AI as infrastructure8:30 - How AI might be used to further support infrastructure systems12:09 - Will the impact of AI actually make life better? 18:59 - Plug for Managing Priorities by Harry Max. Get 15% off!20:15 - The metaphor of designing looking through a lens and technology’s impact on the material world26:16 - Helpful models – the Japanese and Finnish cultures31:52 - Dan’s gift to the audienceResources and Links from Today's Episode:Dark Matter and Trojan Horses: A Strategic Design Vocabulary by Dan Hill https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Matter-Trojan-Horses-Vocabulary/dp/0992914639/ Managing Priorities: How to Create Better Plans and Make Smarter Decisions by Harry Max https://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/managing-priorities/ Designing with AI Conference, June 4-5 https://rosenfeldmedia.com/events/futures/ Smoke and Ashes: Opium’s Hidden Histories by Amitav Ghosh https://www.amazon.com/Smoke-Ashes-Opiums-Hidden-Histories/dp/0374602921
In the latest episode of the Rosenfeld Review, Lou sits down with social scientist Tricia Wang, coiner of the term “thick data,” and formerly a partner at Sudden Compass. Tricia is passionate about research and AI. She envisions massively improved research outcomes and opportunities for researchers, but only if researchers take the lead in incorporating AI into their work. Rather than seeing themselves as “users” of AI tools, researchers must work as AI’s “shapers,” serving as its senior partner.Tricia’s vision is to cease the fear-mongering surrounding the subject of AI and instead embrace the amazing opportunities for growth and better work by becoming active in the control of AI’s future. What You'll Learn from this Episode: - The truth about the potential for AI use in research and the gift that it actually is - The difference between a “user” and a “shaper” in the digital age - The importance of taking an active role in the development of AI in the future - How being an asset class dehumanizes us as peopleQuick Reference Guide: [0:16] - Lou’s introduction of Tricia Wang[2:52] - Tricia discusses our future and how we talk about AI[3:49] - Thoughts on the narrative of fear-mongering we have in the West about AI[5:47] - The relationship between humans and AI[5:59] - A new framework: users vs shapers[9:07] - The problem with taking on a passive role with a technology unlike anything we have ever seen[11:06] - People who use AI successfully are active shapers[15:33] - Info on Advancing Research 2024[17:23] - How users, shapers, and AI affect the field of research[20:42] - The existential question of what it really means to be a researcher[31:28] - Tricia’s advice concerning using AI in research[35:07] - Tricia’s gift for the audience[38:34] - Tricia wants to hear from youResources and Links from Today's Episode:Tricia Wang https://www.triciawang.com/Sudden Compass https://www.suddencompass.com/James Bridle, Ways of Being: Animals, Plants, Machines: The Search For A Planetary Intelligence https://www.amazon.com/Ways-Being-Machines-Planetary-Intelligence/dp/0374601119Brett Christopher, Rentier Capitalism: Who Owns the Economy, And Who Pays For It?https://www.amazon.com/Rentier-Capitalism-Owns-Economy-Pays/dp/1788739728 Advancing Research 2024 https://rosenfeldmedia.com/advancing-research/2024/
In the latest episode of the Rosenfeld Review, Lou sits down with Neil Barrie, the co-founder and CEO of TwentyFirstCenturyBrand, to delve into the intriguing intersection of brand building, culture, and user experience research. Neil, an outsider in the realm of user research, brings a fresh perspective from the world of brand research; you can hear more from him at the Advancing Research 2024 conference in New York City, March 25-26.Neil emphasizes the need for researchers to adopt a cultural lens when designing product experiences. Drawing from his extensive experience working with influential brands like Airbnb, Bumble, Headspace, and others, Neil suggests that by understanding and leveraging wider cultural factors, researchers can break free from the incremental nature of product development and create more memorable, distinctive, and influential brands.The conversation touches upon the "wind tunnel effect," where products and services, much like cars in the 90s, risk becoming efficient but less distinctive. Neil argues that by paying attention to cultural factors and experiences, researchers can uncover breakthroughs that go beyond the interchangeable norms of the industry.Neil’s insights highlight the transformative potential of cultural understanding in user research, offering researchers a valuable lens to navigate the ever-evolving landscape of product experiences.What You'll Learn from this Episode: - The importance of adopting a cultural lens in user research to achieve breakthroughs - The concept of the "wind tunnel effect" and its impact on product development - Examples from brands like Pinterest, showcasing the power of cultural understanding in shaping user experiences - The dialogue mapping technique for evaluating how brands communicate certain themes and how people perceive themQuick Reference Guide:[0:11] - Lou’s introduction of Neil Barrie[3:03] - A discussion on the wind tunnel effect in research[4:24] - Frameworks for understanding culture[5:41] - Examples from Pinterest[11:29] - Plug for Advancing Research 2024[13:23] - The tools of a brand strategy expert[17:18] - One challenge, multiple perspectives[19:29] - Reconciling disconnects in research[22:00] - The qualities needed for this type of research[24:13] - Neil’s gift for the audienceResources and Links from Today's Episode:Advancing Research 2024, New York City, March 25-27, 2024 https://rosenfeldmedia.com/advancing-research/2024/A Colorful View From the Top – a book featuring candid interviews with luminaries of color who made it to the top in various fields. https://www.amazon.com/Colourful-View-Top-Twenty-One-Extraordinary/dp/1408715791/The Deluge by Stephen Markley https://www.amazon.com/Audible-The-Deluge/dp/B0B4YTWP7K/
Author, researcher, speaker, and frequent Rosenfeld Review guest Steve Portigal joins Lou for a chat on the state of the user research industry – where we’ve been, where we are, and where we’re headed. If the field of research was once a lonely desert, today it’s a jungle. It was once a field where researchers could get lost and forgotten. Today, the field is teaming with life—so much so that you could get eaten alive. Gleaning lessons from the past, Steve doesn’t want us to forget the desert. But he has no desire to return there. In his chat with Lou, they look back, and they look ahead. They discuss shifts in community and networking, and how research agencies are being replaced by in-house research teams. Finally, the two discuss Steve’s role in the upcoming, in-person Advancing Research conference in Queens, New York. What you’ll learn from this episode:How the world of user research has evolved over the last 25 years from a widely-respected industry expertHow the research industry has shifted from agency-based work to in-sourcingAbout Steve’s work, career, and booksAbout the upcoming, in-person Advancing Research Conference About Steve’s role in past Advancing Research Conferences Quick Reference Guide:[0:00:29] Introduction of Steve[0:02:50] “Dog fooding”, preparation, and collaboration that happens before conferences[0:09:30] Comparing the user research field and community now to how it was 25 years ago. [0:16:22] The evolution of networking, connections, and community[0:23:09] Shifts and pivots Steve has seen over the last 25 years in the user research field[0:30:32] Writing it down and moving on[0:35:13] Plug for Advancing Research Conference, including Steve’s role[0:36:27] Steve’s gift for listenersResources and links from today’s episode:Steve Portigal’s Rosenfeld Media books: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/people/steve-portigal/ Advancing Research Conference (March 25-27): https://rosenfeldmedia.com/advancing-research/2024/Steve’s website: https://Portigal.com The Wok: Recipes and Techniques by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt: https://www.amazon.com/Wok-Techniques-J-Kenji-L%C3%B3pez-Alt/dp/0393541215
We hear a lot about diversity, equity, and inclusion, but you probably haven’t heard it like this. Nigerian-born Victor Udoewa, service design lead at the Centers for Disease Control's Office of Public Health Data, Surveillance, and Technology, brings a beautiful perspective that challenges current research methodologies. Victor introduces the notion of the pluriverse, emphasizing that people inhabit different worlds with unique ways of being and knowing. He draws attention to the diverse perspectives that shape people's beliefs and understanding, emphasizing the importance of acknowledging and bridging these gaps.He also uses a tree as a metaphor, in which the roots are ways of being, the trunk ways of knowing, and the branches and leaves are methodologies and methods. The metaphor suggests that inclusive research should not just focus on the green parts of the tree but what’s underneath the surface, getting to the very roots of being.Recognizing the limitations of mainstream research toolkits and critiquing methodologies grounded in Western ways of being, Victor proposes that truly inclusive research goes far beyond having diverse teams study diverse audiences.This episode is just a taste of Victor’s talk at the upcoming in-person Advancing Research Conference, “Beyond Methods and Diversity: The Roots of Inclusion.”What You'll Learn from this Episode: - The Pluriverse Concept: The idea that the world comprises multiple realities, ways of being, and existences - Standpoint Theory: The idea that individuals at the bottom of a social hierarchy possess a knowledge that is inaccessible to those at higher levels - Victor’s Tree Metaphor: Roots symbolize ways of being, the trunk represents ways of knowing, and branches and leaves denote methodologies and methods - Radical Participatory Research: Allowing research to emerge organically from the ways of being of the community involvedQuick Reference Guide:[00:10] Meet Victor Udoewa[02:16] About Victor’s talk at Advancing Research [04:26] The pluriverse and asymmetry of knowledge[11:20] Social hierarchy, ways of being, and methodology[12:52] The tree metaphor - getting to the roots[22:20] Research starting with a way of being[26:47] Cultural individualism on research[33:02] Victor’s gift for listenersResources and Links from Today's Episode:Songlines by Bruce Chatwin https://www.amazon.com/Songlines-Bruce-Chatwin/dp/0140094296 Decolonizing Methodologies by Linda Tuhiwai Smith https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/decolonizing-methodologies-9781786998125/ Advancing Research 2024 https://rosenfeldmedia.com/advancing-research/2024/
Harry Max is an executive coach, consultant, and hands-on product design and development leader. He’s also the author of the forthcoming Managing Priorities: How to Create Better Plans and Make Smarter Decisions.For individuals, teams, and organizations, from managing things, people, places, rules, activities, and projects, Harry’s new book Managing Priorities gets to the heart of how we prioritize and make and implement decisions, whether one-off or events that happen on a regular basis. Harry uses DEGAP, a design-thinking framework that he says he didn’t invent but discovered, to explain how successful organizations and leaders set, implement, and execute priorities. DEGAP closes the gap between a current state and a desired state:D - decide E - Engage (commit to the process)G - gather (collect information and items to prioritize)A - arrange (sort and create frameworks)P - prioritizeHarry and Lou also discuss the importance of flexible thinking (a superpower of designers) when it comes to prioritization, communication, and implementation. What you’ll learn from this episode: - How Harry went from technical writer to designer to executive coach to SXSW speaker to author - What DEGAP is, why it makes a difference when dealing with prioritization, and how Harry discovered it - Why DEGAP is like a design-thinking framework - The unique prioritization challenges designers face - The unique gifts designers bring to addressing prioritizationQuick Reference Guide[0:00:26] Introduction of Harry [0:01:59] A discussion on prioritization[0:04:27] Orders of prioritization[0:07:39] Distinguishing priorities of the individual, team, and organization – DEGAP[0:12:26] More about DEGAP at the individual and organizational levels[0:15:39] Advancing Research 2024, March 25-27[0:17:13] Review of Harry’s career path[0:23:47] Unique prioritization challenges for designers[0:26:25] Harry’s gift for the listenersResources and links from today’s episode:Managing Priorities: How to Create Better Plans and Make Smarter Decisions by Harry MaxAdvancing Research Conference 2024 https://rosenfeldmedia.com/advancing-research/2024/4000 Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman https://www.amazon.com/Four-Thousand-Weeks-Management-Mortals/dp/0374159122Oliver Burkeman’s Maestro course https://www.bbcmaestro.com/courses/Oliver%20Burkeman/time-management
Jorge Arango is an Information architect, author, and educator, and he’s written a new book, Duly Noted, about the age-old practice of notetaking. If you’re like me, you’ve been taking notes since your school days. Back then, we used notebooks, a Trapper Keeper, and sticky notes – anything that could help us ace a test, remember important tidbits, and consolidate ideas. Notes are an extension of the mind. But it was always a headache to organize them, synthesize them, and recall them at the right time. Enter the digital age – which tried to improve on the humble art of notetaking, but apps like Notes and Stickies tried to replicate digitally what we were using in the real world. Newer apps like Obsidian let go of real-world metaphors by utilizing three principles: shorter notes, connecting your notes, and nurturing your notes to build a knowledge garden that will serve you for the rest of your life. If you bring value to the world through your thinking, you have the responsibility to look after your thinking apparatus. Duly Noted will augment, magnify, and extend your capacity to think well. Externalizing your mental processes is one of the most powerful means we have to think better. If used well, the humble note will help you be a better thinker and a more effective human.What you’ll learn from this episode: - A history of notetaking tools - Why notetaking is a personal endeavor - How digital notetaking tools have evolved - About Jorge’s new book and how, upon reading it, you just might become a better thinker and increase your effectivenessQuick Reference Guide[0:00:12] Introduction of Jorge and his books[0:01:18] Introduction of Jorge’s new book on taking notes and creating a knowledge garden, Duly Noted[0:09:47] Books that will make you a better knowledge worker[0:14:14] Design in Product Conference [0:15:35] Managing knowledge with computers[0:26:03] Knowledge as a garden[0:28:09] On tools for nurturing a knowledge garden[0:33:08] How Jorge uses AI with Obsidian[0:36:37] Jorge’s gift for listeners Resources and links from today’s episode:Information Architecture for the Web and Beyond by Louis Rosenfeld, Peter Morville, and Jorge Arango https://www.amazon.com/Information-Architecture-Beyond-Louis-Rosenfeld/dp/1491911689 Living in Information: Responsible Design for Digital Places by Jorge Arango https://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/living-in-information/ Duly Noted by Jorge Arango https://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/duly-noted-extend-your-mind-through-connected-notes/O’Reilly’s book Mind Hacks by Tom Stafford https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/mind-hacks/0596007795/ Tools for Thought by Howard Rheingold www.rheingold.com/texts/tft/ Design in Product Conference, November 29 https://rosenfeldmedia.com/design-in-product/ Roam Research https://roamresearch.com/ Obsidian https://obsidian.md/ The Extended Mind: The Power of Thinking Outside the Brain by Annie Murphy Paul https://anniemurphypaul.com/books/the-extended-mind/ Figure it Out: Getting from Information to Understanding by Karl Fast and Stephen Anderson https://www.amazon.com/Figure-Out-Getting-Information-Understanding-ebook/dp/B085412Q1X Build a PKG (Personal Knowledge Garden) Workshop https://buildapkg.com
Have you ever felt like the product people want to move too fast? You realize that speed is important, but the quality of the product is going to suffer and the results are going to disappoint.Or have you ever wished you had a seat at the table during the initial strategy sessions of a new project, rather than being brought in mid-stream?Do you feel intimidated when talking to the folks on the business and finance side of your organization?If so, this episode is for you. Ellen Chisa has a background in engineering and an MB. She is a founder, venture capitalist, and partner at boldstart ventures. In short, she has to care about the business side of things. But she also cares about user-oriented product design, and she wants the voices of those in the design space to be heard.The best place to start, she asserts, might be by listening and learning. Ellen encourages designers to familiarize themselves with their organization’s business models and financials. If you’re feeling squirmy about that prospect, Ellen lays out a workable approach that will put both you and the business analyst at ease. Ellen’s goal is to help you create more business impact while still feeling like a designer. Ellen will be the opening keynote at the November 29 Design in Product virtual conference. What you’ll learn from this episode: - About Ellen Chisa’s background, her current position, and the contribution she’ll make at the Design in Product Conference 2023 - Where Ellen sees the future going—combining APIs with generative AI - Why designers will benefit from learning about the business and financial side of their organization - How a designer can approach a business person with ease and curiosity - A strategy for getting a seat at the table for the initial strategy sessions of a projectQuick Reference Guide[0:00:20] Introduction of Ellen Chisa and Design in Product Conference[0:02:22] The double diamond approach to design[0:04:09] Potent combinations of design tools[0:05:02] Ellen looking ahead at where technology will go[0:07:08] Creating more business impact while still feeling like a designer[0:09:45] How to get a financial toolkit for designers[0:12:08] Accessible metrics for non-business people[0:17:32] Design Ops Summit, October 2-6, 2023 [0:19:02] Feeling like a designer and building a coalition[0:21:12] How to slow the cadence[0:23:04] Is it better to focus on revenue and growth or derisking?[0:25:09] Advice for those who feel reserved about approaching others[0:27:06] Ellen’s gift for listenersResources and links from today’s episode:Design in Product Conference 2023 https://rosenfeldmedia.com/design-in-product/ Readwise – save notes from books https://readwise.io/ Obsidian https://obsidian.md/
Today’s interview is just a taste of what you’ll learn at Rosenfeld’s upcoming Design in Product conference—featuring John Cutler’s closing keynote. John is the senior director of product management at Toast, a doodler, a former band member, a UX researcher, and business analyst. He’s also the prolific writer behind “The Beautiful Mess, a Substack newsletter with over 36,000 subscribers, where he writes about cross-functional product management—especially the messy parts. As someone who likes “messy, creative endeavors” and building things with other people, John enjoys unpacking the complicated parts of collaboration, getting to the heart of messes, and finding a way forward involves much more than identifying patterns. John finds that each person’s frame or perspective is only one of many. This is one reason the relationship between product and design is a complicated ecosystem, and the whole system—not just a part—needs to evolve together. In an effort to reach consensus across teams, John notes that it’s easy to fall into the alignment trap where the so-called alignment is fragile and where consensus becomes more valued than a true solution. John encourages listeners to get comfortable with the complicated mess, to truly listen to multiple frames and perspectives while holding onto their own, and then to roll up their sleeves and explore a way forward together. What you’ll learn from this episode:About John’s background and his brief stint in a band that opened for othersAbout the upcoming Design in Product conferenceAbout the messiness of product development and problem-solvingAbout avoiding the traps of alignment and over-simplificationQuick Reference Guide[0:00:24] Introduction of John Cutler and Design in Product 2023, and the back story behind “The Beautiful Mess”[0:05:01] Patterns in messes[0:10:23] The relationship between product and design[0:14:11] Dealing with varying work speeds and perspectives [0:20:32] Design Ops Summit, October 2-6, 2023[0:21:45] The alignment trap and the simplification trap[0:30:50] A new metaphor for looking at teams in organizations[0:34:04] John’s special words for listenersResources and links from today’s episode:Design in Product 2023 https://rosenfeldmedia.com/events/ The Beautiful Mess, John Culter’s Substack https://cutlefish.substack.com/Images of Organization by Gareth Morgan https://www.amazon.com/Images-Organization-Gareth-Morgan/dp/0761906320/
While we’ve been developing design systems for years, we’re only just now learning how to create systems that are successful and sustainable. Dan Mall is the author of the soon-to-be released Design That Scales: Creating a Sustainable Design System Practice, which explores the cultural elements that contribute to sustainable design systems. Not surprisingly, it’s usually pain that motivates change. In fact, companies occupying the number one spot in their respective markets usually have the least incentive to change. As the saying goes, “Number two tries harder.” But even in the most-ready-for-change scenarios, design systems sit, at best, at a third level of priority. Dan asserts that the challenge is to approach design systems as a byproduct of the products and features that bring customers value. Otherwise, design systems will always be on the backburner. Dan and Lou discuss tricky topics around design systems: - Designers’ fear of job loss to design systems. - As we move toward sustainable design systems, who should make the decisions? Who does what and when? - How to approach design systems in a sustainable way. - The best way for product and systems teams to collaborate. What you’ll learn from this episode: - Why culture, rather than product maturity, will determine whether design systems are successful - How to address fears of job loss as a result of design systems - How to keep people motivated through a systems change - How product and design teams can work together efficiently - How design systems have changed over time - The role of governance in systems change - Why following precedent within your company will get you farther fasterQuick Reference Guide[0:00:32] Introduction of Dan Mall and his book Design that Scales – Creating a Sustainable Design System Practice[0:04:49] On reaching cultural alignment[0:07:01] What prompts design systems change [0:09:26] When jobs feel threatened[0:12:21] Cultural signs and markers of design system success [0:16:59] November 29th, 2023 – Design in Product Conference[0:18:20] On governance and sustainability[0:24:44] On collaboration between product and design teams[0:27:33] The evolution of design systems for ICs[0:30:35] Design Systems University[0:32:38] Dan’s gift to listenersResources and links from today’s episode:Design in Product Conference on November 29, 2023 https://rosenfeldmedia.com/design-in-productDesign Systems University https://designsystem.university/ The Useful School https://usefulschool.com
Believe it or not, Steve Portigal’s UX research classic Interviewing Users came out ten years ago, back in 2013. A few things about user research have changed since then, to put it mildly, so we at Rosenfeld did two things: we convinced Steve to write a second edition (coming out October 17), and to join us on the Rosenfeld Review to discuss all the things that have changed.In addition to being an author, Steve is a user researcher, consultant, and teacher. He helps companies grow their businesses, culture, and brands by interviewing users. He also helps companies build more mature in-house research practices. Having been on both sides of the interviewing process – as both interviewer and interviewee – Steve can empathize with both roles. Over the last decade, he has seen user research evolve from a focus on consumer products to company culture and supportive technologies in the B2B space. Effective research, in addition to data gathering, involves analysis and synthesis. Steve defines analysis as breaking bigger things into smaller things and synthesis as putting what was broken down back together into a new framework, or insight. This is where the magic of research happens. A chapter dedicated to the art of analysis and synthesis is one of the profound additions to this latest edition of his book.What you’ll learn from this episode: - About Interviewing Users and what’s new in the second edition - About Steve’s work as a researcher, author, and consultant and how his work has shifted over the last decade - Changes in the research field and why most of us are researchers to one degree or another, even if it’s not in your title or job description - How analysis and synthesis are different and why both are needed for insights - About the “We already knew that” response many researchers get and what it really means Quick Reference Guide[0:00:19] Introduction of Steve Portigal[0:04:30] Experience on both sides of the interview process[0:08:06] Shifts in language and jargon Steve has noted over the last decade [0:12:13] The evolution of user research – less with consumers and more within businesses or B2B[0:15:10] Speculation on where the leading edge of user research will be – or perhaps more importantly, who will be doing it – in another 10 years[0:19:02] Rosenfeld Media Communities[0:21:17] What’s new in the 2nd Edition version of Interviewing Users – analysis, synthesis, and insights[0:28:38] “We already knew that” phenomenon that researchers often encounter[0:32:20] Steve’s gift for listenersResources and links from today’s episode:Interviewing Users (2nd edition) by Steve Portigal https://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/interviewing-users-second-edition/ Doorbells, Danger, and Dead Batteries: User Research War Stories by Steve Portigal https://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/user-research-war-stories/ “How-to with John Wilson” on HBO https://www.hbo.com/how-to-with-john-wilson
Sahibzada Mayed and Lauren Lin will be speakers at the upcoming DesignOps Summit on October 2-4, 2023. Their talk, “Cultivating Design Ecologies of Care, Community, and Collaboration,” will showcase the intersection of care-centeredness and design operations. Lauren has wanted to be a designer since she was in third grade. What kind of designer? An “everything” designer! From a young age, she embraced the idea that “you can design anything” from fashion to environments to moods and feelings. Today she employs ethical research practices and co-design to shift power and amplify youth voices, design toys, and bring play into her work at Ideo Play Lab.Mayed has a social service and social impact background. Through a community-oriented storytelling approach, they co-lead strategy and research at Cause and Affect, a relational design consultancy in Canada. Lauren and Mayed’s partnership began with conversations and exploration about what they could do to shift power dynamics and create more cohesive and engaging designs for all. The biggest hindrance, say Lauren and Mayed, is power hierarchies. Design leaders need to critically think about social identities, institutional positions, and other complexities and dimensions. How power shows up in our practices is always shifting and changing, and decentralizing power has to be an ongoing and emergent process.And it all starts with ideas and conversations. Mayed and Lauren have found that speculative design is a powerful way to reflect on the “now” and dream about what the future could look like. All real-world shifts begin with ideas, relationships, and conversations. These elements are at the heart of design. What you’ll learn from this episode: - About Lauren and Mayed’s backgrounds - How their partnership came about - About the talk titled “Cultivating Design Ecologies of Care, Community, and - Collaboration” that they will deliver at October’s DesignOps Summit - About power hierarchies in design and what design leaders can do to help decentralize power - About the role and potential of speculative designQuick Reference Guide[0:00:19] Introduction of Sahibzada Mayed and Lauren Lin[0:01:03] Mayed and Lauren’s backgrounds[0:05:53] The working partnership between Mayed and Lauren[0:08:45] Power hierarchies and design[0:11:56] The DesignOps leader’s role[0:15:26] Alternative means of engagement[0:18:36] DesignOps Summit, October 2-6, 2023[0:19:59] A care-centered approach to the future through establishing patterns[0:24:37] Mayed and Lauren’s gifts for the audienceResources and links from today’s episode:Ideo Play Lab – https://ideoplaylab.com/Cause + Affect – https://causeandaffect.com/Planet Justice Textbook from Slow Factory – https://shop.slowfactory.earth/products/planet-justice-textbook“The Mind-Body Check for Radical Research” Google doc - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OBViDEMBh9lYndX-_gNI_5LNMPfMFhCA-Mek6M-VnGI/editDesignOps Assembly - https://www.designopsassembly.com/
Zariah Cameron is Co-Director of Community + Research and the founder of AEI – Advocate, Educate, Innovate Black Design. She will be a speaker at October’s DesignOps Summit on streamlining an inclusive design practice. Many companies and corporations have good intentions when it comes to inclusive design. But too often that’s where things both start and stop. Zariah helps companies operationalize their inclusive design principles and ideals by looking at design from all angles and instilling effective processes. When exploring ideals of equity and inclusivity, many confuse inclusivity with accessibility. Accessibility is a fine place to start, but it’s just the beginning. Accessibility tends to be passive while inclusivity is active. Inclusive design proactively seeks out the marginalized, the underserved, and minority groups. It doesn’t make assumptions but seeks input, feedback, and follow-through. For many companies, the most effective way to pursue inclusive design is to work with grassroots organizations. Partnering with such organizations provides corporations access to a diverse pool of participants. It’s a process of co-creation and involves a long-haul-relationship mentality. Zariah mentions a variety of organizations that design teams could partner with to access diverse talent:Creative Reaction LabPause and EffectAroko Cooperative – seeking equity, liberation, community healing, and ecocentricyWhat you’ll learn from this episode:About Zariah’s talk at the upcoming October 2024 DesignOps SummitHow inclusive design differs from accessibilityHow companies can proactively partner with organizations to access a wide range of underserved and marginalized participants Quick Reference Guide[0:00:37] Introduction of Zariah[0:02:04] Inclusive design[0:04:11] An example of a principle that needs to be operationalized[0:05:25] How to take a more operational approach to inclusive design[0:08:04] Inclusivity is active, not passive. It’s also relational.[0:14:18] Inclusivity is relational and communal [0:15:03] More on the AEI organization[0:17:24] Other work with HBCU students[0:19:40] A reminder about the October 2-4 DesignOps Summit[0:20:48] Organizations to partner with to advance inclusivity and equity[0:24:21] Zariah’s gift for listenersResources and links from today’s episode:Creative Reaction Lab - https://crxlab.org/ Pause and Effect - https://www.pauseandeffect.ca/ Aroko Cooperative - https://www.aroko.coop/State of the Black Design Conference in March 2024 - https://www.thesobd.com/ DesignOps Assembly - https://www.designopsassembly.com/
Jay Bustamante has always been about conserving time and resources by building tight processes to create efficiencies in his life and work. In all the jobs and positions he’s held, he would notice gaps, consult with stakeholders, find solutions, and fill those gaps. Eventually he learned there is a name for this type of work: DesignOps. Today Jay is a DesignOps leader and an experienced strategist at VMware. And he’ll be a speaker at the October 2023 DesignOps Summit.
When it comes to streamlining and building efficiencies, AI seems like a no-brainer, right? Not so fast. AI brings big expectations and can result in a lot of frustration if proper groundwork isn’t laid. DesignOps teams that proactively facilitate collaboration between engineers, business teams, end users, and other stakeholders can save time, money, and greatly increase the likelihood of a successful product that will reflect the company’s values.
In this episode, Jay and Lou explore the following concerning AI: • Good data makes all the difference • Why AI can easily reinforce existing biases • Why case studies and knowing the most impactful need are crucial • Setting proper expectations • Why Design’s role is to slow things down and to make sure that the right people are invited to the conversation, that the right questions are asked, and that all voices are heard early in the process.
What you’ll learn from this episode: • How Jay got where he is today • How to slow down the development of AI solutions to avoid ethical and technical snafus • Which voices need to be at the planning table • How DesignOps can steer the design boat and keep everyone on the same page with the same goals • How companies (even big ones like Amazon) can get tripped up when AI reinforces biases
Quick Reference Guide [0:00:25] Introduction of Jay and the October 2-4 Design Ops Summit [0:02:11] Jay’s professional journey into design ops [0:05:36] Jay joined VMware to do strategy work and ended up doing design ops work [0:07:35] AI in a design ops context [0:10:32] An example from Amazon of AI-aided hiring gone wrong [0:15:39] Design Ops Summit – October 2-4, 2023 [0:17:01] On being proactive with use cases and identifying red flags and slowing down [0:22:13] On being careful with data [0:25:43] On bringing voices together and being a facilitator [0:28:09] Jay’s gift to listeners
Resources and links from today’s episode: DesignOps Assembly - https://www.designopsassembly.com/ AI Fairness 360 by IBM - https://www.ibm.com/opensource/open/projects/ai-fairness-360/ Fairkit-Learn (Python)- https://pypi.org/project/fairkit-learn/ DesignOps Summit 2023 - https://rosenfeldmedia.com/designopssummit2023
Jenae Cohn is executive director at the Center for Teaching and Learning at UC Berkeley and, along with Michael Greer, author of the new book Design for Learning: User Experience in Online Teaching and Learning. Jenae and Michael’s book helps designers create compelling educational content. Think of it as required reading for anyone designing an online course, webinar, training, or workshop. Designing a platform intended to educate goes beyond traditional UX design.
Jenae’s book does the following: • Looks at the science behind learning and articulates how to help someone be a learner • Helps designers understand the complex array of needs that learners have and create more purposeful learning experiences
Learning is motivated by social interactions and emotions. In fact, the learning process is typically social, and most are motivated knowing that they’re not learning in isolation but in or for community. Designers should capitalize on these motivations.
Tips for making online learning more social: • Take “temperature” checks throughout the course – for example, a poll or quiz • Allow comments on shared artifacts and shared annotation • Prompt discussions and assign roles if needed • Remember that a webinar will not necessarily create a social experience
As designers get started on creating online instructional material, Jenae reminds them to be kind to themselves. After all, designing for learners is an iterative learning process. Also, it’s critical to create checkpoints and opportunities along the way to garner feedback. With the aid of Jenae and Michael’s book, we can depart from the days of dull online courses and make them truly vibrant spaces of growth.
What you’ll learn from this episode • Why typical online learning platforms are so dull and what can be done differently to make them more engaging and compelling • How instructional designers and UX designers can learn from one another • How designers can make online learning more social • How designers can know if they’re meeting their goals
Quick Reference Guide [0:00:21] Introduction of Jenae Cohn [0:01:41] Design for Learning – Why we need a UX book for learning/teaching products [0:05:17] Why UX designers may be surprised by what they didn’t know about designing with learning in mind [0:08:58] What instructional designers can learn from UX designers [0:12:14] Hybrid environments in learning products [0:15:07] DesignOps Summit – Oct 2-6, 2023 https://rosenfeldmedia.com/designopssummit2023/ [0:16:13] Learning is social – how to help online learners stay engaged [0:24:58] How a designer can determine if their learners have had a good outcome [0:30:40] Advice for designers moving into the learning design space [0:33:29] Jenae’s gift to listeners
Resources and links from today’s episode: Design for Learning: User Experience in Online Teaching and Learning by Jenae Cohen and Michael Greer https://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/design-for-learning/ The UX of Educational Technology Community https://www.uxedtech.com
Not too long ago, Donna Lichaw, author of The User’s Journey, was helping companies solve product problems by organizing the experience of a product or service into a narrative arc where the user is the hero. Then she ran into a question that she couldn’t shake — a question that, once answered, would morph her business from product development to leadership development. The question unveiled a people problem rather than a product problem. “We don’t have problems bringing products into the world. We have problems getting along with everyone, feeling good about our work, building team morale, dealing with internal fighting. We’ve been helping our customers be heroes. How can I be a hero?”Over seven years of researching how to help leaders be heroes, she found inspiration in a variety of places, including Gestalt therapy, narrative therapy, and executive and somatic coaching.Her conclusion can be found in her new book, The Leaders Journey: Transforming Your Leadership to Achieve the Extraordinary. Think of the book as a map for people to become the natural leaders they already are and can be through a process of radical acceptance that leads to real, lasting change. People grow into superhero leaders when they fully embrace themselves — strengths and weaknesses. Donna’s approach to leadership is a refreshing departure from the typical advice of talk louder, take up more space, and listen more. This is a different — a journey that is unique to each individual. • Discover your superpowers. When you’re not leveraging your superpowers at work, you’re not as powerful as you could be. When you contain your superpowers, you’ll feel sad, depressed, and restricted. • Know your kryptonite too. When you understand the “why” behind your weaknesses, you’ll often find a superpower underneath. By embracing your quirks and appreciating how they serve you, you’ll open yourself to insights about how to move forward. What you’ll learn from this episode: • Why Donna felt compelled to transition her business into leadership coaching • About the two books Donna has written for Rosenfeld Media • Why one-size-fits-all leadership programs are a dead end • How appreciating your weaknesses can lead to self-discovery and growthQuick Reference Guide[0:00:51] Introduction of Donna Lichaw and a brief summary of her book The User’s Journey[0:02:23] About the origins of The Leader’s Journey: Transforming Your Leadership to Achieve the Extraordinary, Donna’s new book[0:03:10] Donna recalls leading a workshop that raised an important question[0:07:44] Looking for inspiration and resources to answer the question, “How can I be a hero?”[0:11:24] Finding value in everything, yet recognizing what is less helpful[0:13:57] Dealing with leadership stereotypes and churn[0:19:10] Enterprise UX 2023[0:21:15] All leaders have superpowers and kryptonite[0:26:06] Leaning into your personal kryptonite [0:30:25] How the adult film industry and literary smut fit into all of this[0:35:06] Donna’s gift for listeners – access to her work!Resources and links from today’s episode: • Enterprise UX 2023 https://rosenfeldmedia.com/enterprise-ux-2023/ • Donna’s amazing toolkit https://www.donnalichaw.com/toolkit • The Leader’s Journey: Transforming Your Leadership to Achieve the Extraordinary by Donna Lichaw https://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/leaders-journey/ • The User’s Journey: Storymapping Products that People Love by Donna Lichaw https://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/storymapping/
Boon Yew Chew is senior principal UX designer at Elsevier and an IxDA local leader and board alumn. He will be a speaker at the upcoming 2023 Enterprise UX Conference on June 6th and 7th, delivering a session on “Making Sense of Systems – and Using Systems to Make Sense of the Enterprise.”Systems thinking can seem abstract and theoretical, but Boon reveals some unexpected ways that systems thinking can have a profound impact on individuals and relationships within organizations. Who knew that systems thinking could be an emotional intelligence tool?Lou and Boon begin today’s episode by discussing the history of systems thinking and how it developed in the ‘40s and ‘50s, mostly within scientific communities, and grew into other fields and disciplines. It offered a new way of thinking about how things develop and change over time. Boon goes on to describe his path into systems thinking and how, with its holistic, big-picture perspective, there is little room for blaming individuals when problems are viewed through a systems thinking lens. A system can give context to the behavior or clashes within an organization and alleviate frustration. Believe it or not, systems thinking can be a relationally lubricating tool.Systems thinking can help us answer the following: • Where do I fit? • Where do the people I’m serving, working with, developing with, and creating for fit within the system? • How is the organization I’m part of itself part of a bigger system? A summary of Boon’s insights: • Systems thinking helps us understand context, empathize, and understand other people and the context they work in • Systems thinking provides a visual language that other people can learn from • Language can help reveal not just problems, but how problems relate to each other even when they may not seem connected • Systems thinking is a tool that can help with prioritizationWhat you’ll learn from this episodeThe history of systems thinking, especially how it first developed within scientific communities The differences between systems and design thinkingHow systems thinking can reduce finger-pointing and relational conflictWhy it’s best to embrace messy differences as part of the processHow to bring systems thinking into the workplace without confusing or alienating othersQuick Reference Guide[0:00:12] Introduction of Boon Yew Chew[0:02:31] System thinking versus design thinking[0:04:44] The history of systems thinking[0:08:51] Being trained in one framework and finding it incomplete in the real world[0:10:32] Boon explains how he navigated towards systems thinking[0:16:12] When you feel like your goals are clashing with those of others in the organization[0:19:08] On labels, understanding, reducing friction, and acceptance[0:22:16] Enterprise UX 2023 is back![0:24:19] Boon’s Enterprise UX talk is titled “Making Sense of Systems and Using Systems to Make Sense of the Enterprise.” Applied aspects of how UX people are using systems thinking in enterprises[0:27:17] Boon “eats his own dog food” and does “double work” [0:27:52] An example of what success might look like[0:31:45] A summary of how Boon uses systems thinking[0:35:29] Boon’s gift for listenersResources and links from today’s episode: • The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization by Peter Senge: https://www.amazon.com/Fifth-Discipline-Practice-Learning-Organization/dp/0385517254 • Enterprise UX 2023: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/enterprise-ux-2023/ • Systems Innovation Network, a community of systems practitioners run by systems practitioners: https://www.systemsinnovation.network/
Ren Pope has a passion for all things data, information, and knowledge, and he strives to make them more accessible, organized, and enduring. You may be surprised that this conversation about information architecture takes us back to classic Greek philosophy, specifically ontology, which is concerned with the nature of being—that is, what is real and not real. What is inside a computer cannot be seen, yet it is real in the sense that it has value and can impact reality. And as a modern ontologist, Ren wants to make information accessible and useful. That often starts with assigning names to things—nouns and verbs to label the functions of an organization so that things can be indexed, searched, retrieved, crosslinked, and so that relationships can be defined through metadata.It’s a complicated process for small businesses and consultants, and the challenges rise exponentially for enterprises with multiple departments and silos. With 60 years of shared experience, Ren and Lou remember when companies were dependent on Excel Spreadsheets and PowerPoint to manage the complexities of a living and evolving organization (many still are!). Today there are multiple options for organizing both structured and unstructured data, and thanks to ontologists like Ren, the tools are getting better. Lou and Ren’s discussion spans from the philosophical to the practical. Ren shares some concrete ways to use ontological thinking in your everyday work: • Find all the nouns and verbs your organization uses to describe its functions. • Define what you are trying to accomplish. • Focus your scope. The narrower the domain, or the more specific the task, the easier your task will be. If you don’t have a narrow, well-defined scope, you will probably over-collect data. • Find how the nouns and verbs interact. • Have a method for maintaining your data.Ren will be presenting at the upcoming 2023 Enterprise UX conference June 6-7: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/enterprise-ux-2023/What you’ll learn from this episode: • About classic ontology and how it relates to the digital age • How information architecture has evolved over the last 30 years • What is ontological thinking and how to incorporate it into your work • The relationship between information architects, engineers, and the end user • About the upcoming Enterprise UX Conference in June: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/enterprise-ux-2023/Quick Reference Guide • [0:00:58] Introduction of Ren Pope • [0:02:17] Ontologist vs information architect vs interactive designer vs knowledge manager • [0:06:00] Ontology within organizations and particular challenges for enterprises • [0:09:50] Metadata for structured and unstructured data • [0:14:01] LLM summaries, single metadata terms, abstracts, summaries – they all have their place and all can work together • [0:18:50] How normal people can benefit from ontology or better IA at an enterprise level • [0:23:28] Data needs to be captured, managed, and represented • [0:27:41] A glimpse of the back-in-the-day solutions, like Excel Spreadsheets and PowerPoint, and how far we’ve come • [0:29:40] The scale of volume and complexity of the enterprise environment keeps growing. Is technology keeping up? • [0:35:08] Ren’s gift to the audience – Mettle Health: https://www.mettlehealth.com
Erica Jorgensen is one of Rosenfeld Media’s newest authors with the publication of her book, Strategic Content Design: Tools and Research Techniques for Better UX. ( https://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/strategic-content-design/ ) With a background in journalism, her book draws on her experiences as a content designer with the likes of Chewy, Microsoft, Slack, Amazon, Starbucks, Nordstrom, and Expedia. Erica’s book is a toolkit of research techniques for anyone struggling to create content that makes an impact. Not all companies have dedicated research budgets or teams, yet research can save us from redos and yield more targeted, effective content. Without research, you may be flying blind without even realizing it. We assume the words and phrases on our websites and apps are effective, and a little due diligence can confirm those assumptions or enlighten us about something that was previously completely outside our awareness. Erica warns us to be prepared because content research will open proverbial cans of worms. False assumptions will be exposed, and what you learn may take your work in unexpected directions. Oftentimes, the whole company will need to get on board when language has to be changed or cleaned up. In a nutshell, content research will expose problems. But it will help you make progress, and the payoff is worth it. What you’ll learn from this episode: • About Erica’s career journey in content design • Case study: The impact of one company’s confusing language, and how content research came to the rescue • How to incorporate content research into non-research roles • How to prioritize and strategize content research • How to harness content audits to highlight what needs attention • Why it’s important to present your team’s work in the most flattering light possible
Jill has been listening to customers and clients for over 20 years. She has worked for organizations like Etsy and Blue Apron, and has since started Field Notes Consulting, a research and strategic planning practice serving both public and private sectors. She is method-agnostic, harnesses full-stack research, and interrogates all data to get to the real data or the root cause.While hard data and numbers are important, data alone does not equal insight. Making sense of the data often requires listening to customers, human-scale frameworks of things like journeys and experience mapping, and, of course, minimizing researchers’ biases. It’s often the outside-in perspective that brings it all together to give us insight that will highlight consequences and implications. Jill is a champion of what she calls “interventions” and doing interventions across silos. She shares an example from her time at Blue Apron that beautifully illustrates how one research silo can lose direction without insight from other silos. Some interventions Jill recommends include: • Remember that everyone in the organization is on the same team and after the same goal • Encourage observation • Bring cross-functional teams together • Fit KPIs and OKRs in the story of the userJill will be leading a session, “Inconvenient Insights: The Researcher’s Role is to Stay Curious,” and a workshop, “Holistic Insights: Collapsing Functional Silos for Maximum Impact” at the Advancing Research Conference March 27-29, 2023.What you’ll learn from this episode: • How Jill defines insight and why it won’t be uncovered from hard data alone • How “interventions” across silos can help everyone in the organization win • A taste of what Jill will cover in her talk and workshop at Advancing Research 2023 Quick Reference Guide[00:00] Introduction of Jill[01:50] Jill’s role at Advancing Research Conference March 27-29th, 2023[02:27] Jill’s love-hate relationship with data[07:25] How we get insights from data[09:36] Lessons from Blue Apron [14:13] How to perform or support interventions[21:54] On interventions outside your area of expertise and considering the interconnectivity of the entire organization[30:43] Looking back on information and library science school [34:52] Jill’s book recommendation[36:49] Jill’s session and workshop at the upcoming Advancing Research Conference in March
Prayag Narula is the founder and CEO of Marvin, a tool for qualitative researchers. Prayag will also be a speaker at the Advancing Research Conference where he’ll share the stage with Rida Qadri, a research scientist at Google. Humans have been doing quantitative research for thousands of years – well, for as long as math has been around. Qualitative research, on the other hand, is fairly new to human history, emerging only in the 20th Century. And qualitative research has taken a backseat to what Prayag calls “the tyranny of math,” the prevailing attitude that if research is not math-based, it’s not valid. But that doesn’t diminish the importance of qualitative data. Decisions at all levels are made based on qualitative data every day. Here are some characteristics of qualitative research: • Qualitative research is scientific and has been used in the social sciences for scientific discovery for six decades. • Qualitative data is highly variable and semi-structured, so creating software for it has enormous challenges. • Taking notes and asking questions are inherent parts of qualitative research, and tools that can search and synthesize such data can dramatically enhance productivity and outcomes.It’s time for qualitative research to be given its due. Enter Marvin. Software not only gives validity and legitimacy to qualitative research, it makes it more useful. Marvin uses AI to add context to the conversation and to help with analysis. The tool is free for individuals and teams of two researchers.Prayag is excited about the use of open AI and ChatGBT. He’s not worried about these tools replacing researchers, but they do give researchers another data point, that is, what AI can glean from the data. AI can help us find patterns that we didn’t see before or might give an interpretation of the data or ask a question that hadn’t been previously considered. With tools like Marvin, it’s an exciting time to be in research. What you’ll learn from this episode • How software brings legitimacy to processes and data • About Marvin, a tool that “automates the tedious parts of qualitative research” • How AI can augment research • What to expect from Prayag’s upcoming talk with Rida Qadri at Advancing Research – “HCI 2.0: Humanity Deserves the Attention that UX Research has to Offer” – which will include implementing technologies in a socially responsible wayQuick Reference Guide[00:00] Introduction of Prayag[01:07] Upcoming talk at Advancing Research March 27-29, 2023[01:29] Prayag gives a history of his entrepreneurial experience[05:15] Prayag explains why he felt driven to provide a centralized place for data[08:53] Does having software to support qualitative research contribute to its perceived legitimacy?[11:00] On the nature of qualitative research being highly variable and semi-structured and what that means when it comes to writing software[16:12] Break: Rosenfeld Media Communities[18:16] Prayag describes the Marvin tool, available for free for individual researchers and teams of two [0:19:52] The role of AI in research software[0:25:04] On AI’s ability to synthesize data across various sectors of an organization[0:29:08] More details Prayag’s upcoming talk with Rida Qadri at Advancing Research in March [0:32:33] Prayag’s gift to the audienceResources and links from today’s episode: • HeyMarvin.com • Advancing Research 2023: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/advancing-research-2023/ • A Tale of Two Cultures: Qualitative and Quantitative Research in Social Sciences by Gary Goertz and James Mahoney: https://www.amazon.com/Tale-Two-Cultures-Qualitative-Quantitative/dp/0691149712 • Session details for “HCI 2.0: Humanity Deserves the Attention that UX Research has to Offer”:https://rosenfeldmedia.com/advancing-research-2023/sessions/hci-2-0-humanity-deserves-the-attention-that-ux-research-has-to-offer/
Sheryl is the author of the soon-to-be-released Closing the Loop: Systems Thinking for Designers: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/systems-thinking-for-designers/ With a background in journalism and political science, and having worked at or with Adaptive Path, Substantial, Frog, Ikea, Microsoft, and the Gates Foundation, Sheryl has an interest in the big picture of systems thinking and how it applies to designers.Working on projects of enormous scale that could directly or indirectly affect thousands or millions of people can put researchers and designers in a state of paralysis as they realize the potential consequences of their work. Systems thinking can help move us out of that state of paralysis and into one of thought, collaboration, and action. Sheryl explains how systems thinking fills the gaps that design thinking alone can leave behind. • Expand your scope from the user to anyone who could be affected by the product. • Don’t just ask how the product will be used. Asked why the product is needed at all. • Expand your thinking. Think broadly about who the stakeholders are and the various contexts that could be impacted by your design. • Imagine different solutions that you might not be able to execute, solutions that might require a policy change or a different business model.An approach like the above will feel slower – at least initially. If you have impatient supervisors and engineers, gain alignment with them by getting them involved in the process. • Help them understand the status quo and envision the future. • Have them go through the exercise of creating visual maps with you.What you’ll learn from this episode: • The relationship between design and systems thinking • How design thinking falls short • How systems thinking fills in the gaps by expanding your thinking and looking outside your scope of expertise • Why systems thinking feels slower but is more collaborative and more efficient in the long run • How to gain alignment with your decision-makersQuick Reference Guide[00:00] Introduction[01:44] Ways to overcome decision paralysis[04:55] Navigating the complexities of the world through systems thinking[06:45] The problem with formalized systems thinking[08:24] Design thinking vs. systems thinking[13:22] The kinds of interventions that drive successful innovation[15:42] How long-term thinking helps overcome compliance issues[17:38] The difference between Cloud Space and Clock Space[22:10] How designers can tell their superiors to slow down[25:22] An easy way to gain alignment with your decision-makers[30:38] Sheryl’s gift to the audience[32:05] Parting thoughtsResources and links from today’s episode: • The Book of Delights by Ross Gay: https://www.amazon.com/Book-Delights-Essays-Small-Overlook/dp/152934977X/ • Closing the Loop: Systems Thinking for Designers by Sheryl Cababa: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/systems-thinking-for-designers/
Authors Maria Giudice & Christopher Ireland join Lou to discuss their new book, Changemakers: How Leaders Can Design Change in an Insanely Complex World, which comes out on January 17.Get a taste of what they cover in the book, from systems thinking to navigating change, and how to look broadly at patterns to understand the context in which you are establishing change. The authors explain the wide range of industries they drew from in their research and interviews, as well as the highly emotional aspect of changemaking in society today. Bonus: they share some tools you can use to become a changemaker. Maria recommends: The Knowledge Project podcast - interviews with an eclectic range of people. Host Shane Parrish is one of the best interviewers Maria has ever heard! https://fs.blog/knowledge-project-podcast/ Christopher recommends: Non-profit Interact Project, which provides free design education to kids in underserved communities. https://www.inneractproject.org/Get the book: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/changemakers/
Lou has Rich Mironov, CEO of Mironov Consulting, as his guest. Rich runs a blog and has been writing for over 20 years about business and the psychology that goes into product management. Together, they discuss ways that Product Management and UX can work more fluidly together. They dive into how you can bring your team together so everyone is working on the same page. Rich brings some nuggets of advice he has collected over his many years in the industry and touches on the talk he will be giving at Rosenfeld Media’s Design in Product Conference. https://rosenfeldmedia.com/events/futures/
Lou sits down with Catt Small, Director of Product Design at All Turtles, who will be speaking at the Design in Product Conference on December 6, 2022. They discuss how designers and product managers can learn each other’s lingo and build relationships that will make both their jobs easier. Together, they sort through different workplace scenarios that new and more seasoned designers can encounter and Catt dispenses wisdom she has picked up throughout her career.
Register to attend the conference: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/events/futures/design-in-product/register/
Catt is a product design leader, game maker, and front-end web developer. She is currently the Director of Product Design at All Turtles, a globally distributed product studio solving meaningful problems. Catt has done design work for companies of all sizes including Asana, Etsy, SoundCloud, and Nasdaq. She started coding around the age of 10 and designing at the age of 15. She graduated from SVA with a BFA in Graphic Design in 2011 and later received an MS in Integrated Digital Media from NYU in 2016. Catt also makes awkward video games, writes about professional development, and draws artwork of all kinds. You can follow her @cattsmall on Twitter and view her work at www.cattsmall.com.
Lou talks with Whitney Hess as she discusses her vast career in UX design and transition into coaching. She breaks down the different methodologies and philosophies she utilizes with each client and how she embodies her work beyond her coaching. Together, Whitney and Lou discuss the different risks and leaps of faith she has had to take during her career and how that ultimately led her to be a more effective coach.
Whitney recommends: Upperlimiting is a concept by Gay Hendricks from his book The Big Leap. Here's an article on the hidden barriers that get in the way of us moving from our Zone of Excellence to our Zone of Genius. https://experiencelife.lifetime.life/article/overcome-your-upper-limits/
Whitney Hess is a coach, writer, and designer on a mission to put humanity back into business. She believes empathy builds empires.
Whitney helps creative leaders design their careers and accelerate their missions. Her techniques help people gain self-awareness, identify blind spots, navigate obstacles, and bring their whole selves to their work.
For more than a decade, Whitney was a user experience consultant making technology easier and more pleasurable to use. She has been recognized for her work with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, Foundation Center, Seamless, Boxee, and WNYC. She is named as a co-inventor on a U.S. patent with American Express.
Whitney is a two-time graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, with a Master’s in Human-Computer Interaction and a Bachelor’s in Professional Writing and HCI. She is a Certified Integral Coach through New Ventures West and a Professional Certified Coach (PCC) with the International Coaching Federation. She writes on her blog Pleasure & Pain, co-hosts the podcast Designing Yourself, and speaks at conferences and corporations worldwide.
A native New Yorker, Whitney lives in Maine with her partner Fredrick Selby. They are in the early stages of planning their circumnavigation.
Lou sits down with Kara Kane, one of the curators of the Civic Design Conference, to discuss her role in the public sector and how that’s changed over the years. They preview the narrative she and her team have put together for the conference as well as discuss the challenges and victories she has faced through her career that have left her with her current optimistic view on the growth of civic design in the public sector.
Lou sits down with Christian Crumlish, a product and UX leadership consultant at Design in Product, where he also hosts a product/UX community. Together they discuss the challenges that Design and Product traditionally have faced. They explore the intersection of these two functions and the need for a long overdue conversation: how Design and Product can be better partners. Christian is named as the curator of the newly announced Design in Product conference, hosted by Rosenfeld Media on December 6, 2022. They go on to discuss how this event will help designers and researchers better understand the challenges that product people face in order to improve their working relationship. https://rosenfeldmedia.com/events/futures/design-in-product/
Lou sits down with co-founder and executive director of the Public Policy Lab, Chelsea Mauldin. She gives us a preview of the talk she will be giving at the upcoming Civic Design Conference, Nov. 16 - 18th. They dive deeper into the intersection of design in the public sector and how that can look when dealing with all levels of government policy. Chelsea briefs Lou on how her nonprofit partners with government personnel to develop policy, and how the civic design community is growing today. She also discusses the different struggles her nonprofit faces versus those in the private sector.
Lou sits down with Alex Schmidt, author of our new title Deliberate Intervention: Using Policy and Design to Navigate the Harms of New Technology. Together, they give us a rundown of the many harms modern technology has brought to society and how designers are attempting to work with policymakers to tackle these issues. Lou and Alex also discuss proactive approaches teams can take to counteract those harms and biases that often arise as technology companies grow and how bringing design and policy closer together in this field could benefit everyone long term.
Ahead of the 2022 DesignOps Summit, Lou speaks with guest Jon Fukuda, a co-founder of Limina where for 18 years he has been delivering UX and technical design to his clients. His focus is on facilitating the implementation of scalable research and design operations. Lou and John discuss the concept of digital transformation and explore what it looks like to walk a client through the difficult terrain of operationalizing their design processes, how to have those difficult conversations surrounding company culture, taking the lead as a change agent, and more.
Jon is co-founder of Limina.co with 20+ years as a User Experience Specialist with a focus on UX Strategy, Design Thinking, and UI Design with experience leading human-centered requirements, strategy, interaction design, testing, and evaluation. Most recently, Jon has dedicated his efforts to Research & Design Operations facilitation for scalable/sustainable human-centered systems.
Lou sits down with Atlassian’s Design Enablement Coordinator, Jess Norris, to discuss her talk on ADHD that she’ll be presenting at this year’s Design Ops Summit. After being diagnosed with ADHD a little over a year ago, Jessica went on a journey to discover the secret superpowers that lie within everyone with a neurodivergent brain. She now urges managers to use these perspectives that team members may bring to the table to enhance their design ops work.
When it comes to design operations, it can be challenging to find the best method to provide the creative team with the tools they need that will eliminate some of their more mundane tasks to allow them more time to focus on their ideas and innovative work. Lou talks with Candace Myers, design operations leader with Netflix StudiosXD, about how she integrates technology and practices to optimize her efficiency in the creative and design fields. Candace will be speaking at the DesignOps Summit 2022 virtual conference, September 8-9.
Candace recommends: I am obsessed with the Pivot Podcast with Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway. It has EVERYTHING that ops professionals needs to consider- human intent & emotion, business conditions, what good and poor leadership looks like, and brand strategy. It's a must listen for anyone in tech, but especially generalists.
Lou sits down with the Head of Design for the Data Team at Amplitude, Courtney George, to discuss her talk “Scale Your Organization and Grow Your Designers” that she is giving at this year’s DesignOps Summit. What is a Design Leader’s role in providing stability for their team? How has that role changed over the course of the pandemic? Over the past few years, the security levels employees feel at their jobs have fluctuated drastically. Are there tools we are already using that can help our teams feel more confident in these uncertain times? Listen as Courtney and Lou touch on these topics, and more.
Courtney Recommends: The Coaching Habit by Michael Bungay Stanier
Courtney Maya George is a design leader, mentor, mom of two, and a sketchnote hobbyist. She is currently the Head of Design for the Data team at Amplitude, where she’s building up a new product offering and growing the design organization. Prior to Amplitude, she spent nearly eight years at Adobe, where she built a design team from the ground up focused on the Developer Ecosystem.
She believes in creating an inclusive design culture and thrives on building relationships, solving complex and ambiguous problems, and coaching designers to take control of their own career growth.
Follow her on Twitter @courtneymaya and LinkedIn linkedin/in/courtneymayageorge
With the surge in popularity and need for hybrid and virtual events, Lou sits down with Intel’s Director of Accessibility, Darryl Adams, to discuss how technology can make in-person and virtual conferences more accessible and inclusive to speakers and audience members with disabilities. He also speaks to how accessible conference design can be improved and fine-tuned for speakers with disabilities, and help those without disabilities feel more comfortable presenting. What kind of accessibility principles and design factors should conference hosts consider for audience members with disabilities and those without disabilities when setting up for in-person and virtual events? How does this technology increase engagement and diversity in attendance? Listen as Darryl and Lou touch on all these topics, and more.
Darryl Adams recommends: Demystifying Disability by Emily Ladau
Darryl Adams is the Director of Accessibility at Intel. Darryl leads a team that works at the intersection of technology and human experience helping discover new ways for people with disabilities to work, interact, and thrive. Darryl’s mission is to connect his passion for technology innovation with Intel’s disability inclusion efforts to help make computing and access to digital information more accessible for everyone and to make Intel an employer of choice for employees with disabilities.
For the full transcript: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/announcements/podcast-making-conferences-more-accessible-with-darryl-adams-intels-director-of-accessibility/
Natalie Marie Dunbar joins Lou to discuss the lonely pursuit that is content strategy. She also digs into what it means to build a content strategy practice—whether you’re just starting out as a solo practitioner, scaling up in a large organization, or trying to make a case for your CS practice’s value. Her new Rosenfeld Media book, From Solo to Scaled: Building a Sustainable Content Strategy Practice, serves as a “companion” to address this loneliness as much as it is a guide to the resources needed to create a sustainable content practice.
This episode offers a preview of what Natalie calls the Content Strategy Practice Blueprint. There are five components to that blueprint, including making the business case, building strong relationships, creating frameworks and tools, and establishing meaningful measures of success.
For more, check out Natalie’s new book, From Solo to Scaled,—now available from Rosenfeld Media. https://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/from-solo-to-scaled-building-a-sustainable-content-strategy-practice
Natalie recommends: Jonathan McFadden, a content designer, copywriter + storyteller. https://mcfaddenj20.medium.com/
How can remote workers stay connected without burning out? At Wayfair, it quickly became clear that virtual happy hours and virtual team lunches were adding time to peoples’ schedules without really adding value.
Rusha Sopariwala is a Senior Manager of Product Design at Wayfair, and she helped her team pivot to important new rituals for remote teams, like dedicated “focus times” to lighten meeting loads, mindfulness over different time zone differences, and “camera off” meetings to reduce employee exhaustion.
In this episode, get a taste of what Rusha will cover during her presentation at Design at Scale 2022 this June 8-10 — from tips for helping remote employees share their passions, to creating remote connections without adding to potential burnout.
Learn more about Rusha: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/design-at-scale-2022/speakers/rusha-sopariwala/
Rusha recommends: Hidden Brain Podcast by Shankar Vendentam which dives into human brains and just how we perceive and think and how our unconscious patterns drive our behaviors. It really makes science digestible in a beautiful story. It humbles me as we design human centered experiences, just how complex we are! https://www.npr.org/series/423302056/hidden-brain
Follow Rusha on Instagram and LinkedIn www.instagram.com/rrrusha www.linkedin.com/rrrusha
How can individual designers use their skills to improve the experience of people in disaster situations?
Emily Danielson, Senior Design Strategist at ExxonMobil, joins Lou to not only consider this question, but to reflect on past experiences—including the database she developed which was used by the FBI in a multi-million dollar federal corruption lawsuit—and look ahead to her talk at the upcoming Design at Scale conference this June.
Emily recommends: Learn more about the benefits offered by mutual aid and ways for UX professionals to use their skills to support our communities: mutualaiddisasterrelief.org
Learn more about Emily’s talk at Design at Scale 2022: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/design-at-scale-2022/sessions/i-mean-i-can-lift-a-shovel-design-skills-in-disaster-response/
What is it like to start work on a new book on the big picture of design right before a global pandemic?
Kevin Bethune, author of the new book Reimagining Design: Unlocking Strategic Innovation joins Lou to share his experience and insights learned from doing just that, as well as the importance of curiosity, how to understand one's own privilege, and overcoming doubt from others.
Kevin will be speaking at Design at Scale 2022 this June; learn more about his talk and register for the conference: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/design-at-scale-2022/speakers/kevin-bethune/
Kevin recommends: Follow Radha Mistry, who leads the foresight practice at Autodesk https://www.radhamistry.com/about
Follow Kevin on Twitter: https://twitter.com/kevinbethune
Check out Kevin’s website: https://www.kevinbethune-reimaginingdesign.com/
How can you use the humble question to be a better leader?
Over the past year or two, Brave UX Podcaster Brendan Jarvis has been asking great questions of over 75 of the best and brightest design leaders with the goal of surfacing the biggest questions facing the field, and using them as a springboard to becoming a better leader.
Brendan joins Lou for a wide-ranging conversation about questions—a preview for his talk at June’s Design at Scale 2022 conference. Along the way, they cover the importance of diverse perspectives, the controversies of Amazon Alexa, and how designers can get a seat at the table.
Warning: this talk may raise more questions than it provides answers for!
Learn more about Brendan’s conference presentation and register for Design at Scale 2022: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/design-at-scale-2022/sessions/ux-leadership-trends/ Listen to Brendan’s podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/nz/podcast/brave-ux-with-brendan-jarvis/id1552607805 Follow him on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brendanjarvis/, YouTube: View his YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/TheSpaceInBetween Check out his website: https://thespaceinbetween.co.nz/
If the past two years haven’t made it clear, researchers and designers absolutely must be prepared to understand and address trauma as a factor in our work and our lives. Social worker, designer, and Advancing Research 2022 speaker Rachael Dietkus joins Lou on the Rosenfeld Review to plumb the intersection of social work, UX, and how these play out in trauma-informed research and design. She shares her approach to applying trauma-informed principles to the research process, and highlights important key factors including:
• Defining Rachael’s three main intersections between design and social work: social work values, design research methodologies, and trauma-informed (also known as trauma-responsive) principles • The importance of asking how the above three principles meld together in design to foster a humanistically-informed lens • The ways social work as a care field translates into user experience design, and why this is a necessary step to include in design methodology • How the concept of “care,” which includes building relationships, establishing rapport, hearing other people’s stories, and more is central to ensuring human-centered design principles • Addressing the preexisting disconnect between designers (from a process-based perspective) and social workers (from a humanistic perspective), and how collaboration between the two can positively impact end users • Ensuring the preconditions that need to exist are shared and maintained at the highest level of integrity, and how a safety plan can help bring this to reality • The importance of assessing risk when building new programs and policies, as well as addressing adjacent process methodology-related contexts • How engaging with people from a design perspective means engaging with trauma, and why that positively challenges designers to show up in a wholesome capacity • What it means to weave compassion and understanding into design • How the trauma-informed approach can serve as a set of preventive measures that can help mitigate potential negative impacts for users
Learn more from Rachael’s talk, “Learnings from Applying Trauma-Informed Principles to the Research Process” at our upcoming virtual conference, Advancing Research 2022 (virtual, March 9-11). Register today! rosenfeldmedia.com/advancing-research-2022/
Although large areas of the federal government focused on design as a practice do not closely involve the citizenry in their design processes, Victor Udoewa, Chief Experience Officer and Service Design Lead, NASA, has taken a vastly different approach to end user design methodology in government.
In this episode of the Rosenfeld Review, Victor brings us up to speed on participatory design and its pros and cons. He also explains his radical approach to it—a meta-methodology he’s used in service and system design—and how his radical approach enables people to participate in and influence high-level government design projects.
Victor shares his insights around key areas of participatory design, including:
• A redefined approach to “radical” participatory design, and how this difference meaningfully distinguishes his work from a socio-human perspective • A focus on his department’s efforts to help develop the economy in support of small businesses • Weighing the impact of “power” in design organizations as they shape methodology from a higher-level perspective • How incorporating end user insights can holistically influence design outcomes despite existing power dynamics that may have previously stunted those opportunities • How methods such as the collaborative design studio can derive a wider range of insights from end users • Demystifying participatory design by bridging the gap between old and new perspectives • Rethinking how information is shared from a socio-economic perspective • The benefits in shifting research from an investigation-based methodology to a more humanistic approach, such as navigating a socio-human system • Rethinking poverty as the lack of relationships from which money flows, and how this parallel can be drawn with information/research initiatives
Learn more from Victor’s talk, “Radical Participatory Research: Decolonizing Participatory Processes” at our upcoming virtual conference, Advancing Research 2022 (virtual, March 9-11). Register today! https://rosenfeldmedia.com/advancing-research-2022/
Covid has fragmented our teams, workplaces, work rituals, and in some circumstances, our self-confidence. It has also forced us to learn, adapt, and improve our work at a stunningly rapid pace.
It’s a great time to take stock of what we learned these past two years, and get ready to apply those lessons in the years to come. In this episode of the Rosenfeld Review, Lou speaks with long-time Design at Scale conference curators Kit Unger and Lada Gorlenko to discuss how the conference presents the perfect opportunity to make that pivot—and make the case for you to be a part of the conference program.
Topics discussed include:
• How closely-aligned teams can forge ahead despite the challenges Covid has presented • The importance of reconsidering how teams currently support objectives • Learning to work together in new ways that help shift the existing work dynamic into a positive and more powerful frame • Uncovering drivers that allow teams to surpass pre-established boundaries around collaboration • Shifting how we perceive ownership—across all levels—in organizations Operationalizing teams to scale quality
Design at Scale 2022 takes place June 8-10, and we’re looking for speakers. Have an idea for a presentation that fits this theme? Please apply by 11:59pm ET, Monday, February 21, 2022. If you're selected, we'll pay you an honorarium, help you prepare as part of a speaker cohort, and provide subject matter and professional speaker coaching—so if you're new to speaking, you'll have ample support. Apply here: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/design-at-scale-2022/2022/01/30/design-at-scale-2022-call-for-presentations/
What connects product designers and UXers? And does that connection help in the transition from UX to product management?
In this episode of the Rosenfeld Review, you’ll meet Christian Crumlish, Founder of Design in Product and author of the soon-to-be released Product Management for UX People. Christian and Lou deep dive into the world of product management and its relationship with UX, as well as the advantages design practitioners share when moving into product management roles.
Highlights from this discussion include:
• Understanding the current state of product management relative to UX; • The superpower designers can tap into when communicating effectively, and how that skill is inherently utilized by product management folks (the “language of the bosses”); • How designers/strategists/researchers share an advantage by shifting to product management through intuitively asking questions such as “how will we grow?” and “how can we keep this going?” with consideration to cost-effective solutions; • The need to be decisive in the face of fairly complex issues across the time-horizon; and • Why honing in on the value of listening closely to those who work adjacent to product managers will help define the cross-functional roadmap.
Product Management for UX People is now available for purchase from Rosenfeld Media on February 1! https://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/product-management-for-ux-people/
Creating and maintaining an inclusive environment that makes anyone feel welcome requires conscious and consistent effort. Whether it’s presentation, operation, or curation—incorporating your team’s voices in a healthy and organic manner as a business practice requires thinking outside the box.
In this episode of the Rosenfeld Review, you’ll hear from Danielle Barnes, CEO of Women Talk Design, as she and Lou discuss the fundamentals of designing meetings and conference presentations that are more inclusive.
Key points Danielle and Lou address include:
• Remolding non-inclusive systems to which women and non-binary folks are forced to adapt; • Assigning rotating facilitator roles, and how those roles can promote inclusivity; • How truly “listening” to those who are speaking can give facilitators the insights they need to curate a fantastic meeting; • Raising awareness for the consequences of being talked over, and how to drive safety and accessibility in meetings for team members; and • Tips to improve your natural stage presence when giving a talk.
You’ll also hear insights in how to create more inclusive environments by empowering those whose voices are not heard—and how safe spaces, when done right, help make this happen.
What can designers learn from astronauts and race car drivers?
In this episode of the Rosenfeld Review, Lou speaks with Katie Swindler to answer this and similar questions in her upcoming Rosenfeld Media book, Life and Death Design. Katie’s new book will help us redefine how we might view a core human function – specifically, the stress response – and how stress can be an informative tool for designers.
As an experienced presenter who has spoken on UX topics internationally at industry events, Katie believes that brands who wish to truly connect with consumers must expand utility through emotion. She illustrates how leveraging stress-informed design enables users to perform optimally during high-stress or traumatic experiences.
Important questions Katie tackles are:
How does understanding the stress response help designers deal with high-stress situations? How can designers leverage redundancy and biomimicry to enhance a final product? How stress-informed design can support experts in a way that preserves an organic workflow? How did conscientious attention to detail in design help save the lives of heroic users? What is “abusive design,” and how do we avoid it?
Life and Death Design contains these and many more fascinating examples that serve as beautifully counter-intuitive resources for designers. Sign up to be notified when Life and Death Design is available to order! rosenfeldmedia.com/books/life-and-death-design/
Learn more about Katie: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/people/katie-swindler/
Angelos Arnis is a strategic designer focusing on delivering experiences with humane principles. For the past 10 years, he has been working with product/service companies and startups, both in early and high growth stages.
Angelos is currently changing the ways of working at Posti Group, Finland’s postal service. He is a co-founder at Joint Frontiers, and a co-host of ‘Human, the designer’. Additionally, he is a community organizer at IxDA Helsinki, as well as an alumnus organizer of Joint Futures, DSCONF, & Junction Hackathon. In his free time, he enjoys making music, and playing computer games.
In this talk, Angelos discusses the State of DesignOps 2021 Global Report, and will be sharing this information during this year’s DesignOps Summit 2021 on September 29 - October 1. Angleos began his journey to better understand how one can position their career in design, which then led to exploring more questions that can present a wider range of answers on the subject.
The quantitative data collected for the report was done in the form of surveys, and Angelos has provided us with valuable insights around the state of design operations. Additionally, he will present relevant qualitative research during this year’s summit program. Some highly-anticipated questions Angelos answers in this podcast include:
1) What DesignOps career opportunities are available to professionals in the field? 2) What ladder-climbing opportunities currently exist in design? 3) How would you describe the positioning of typical design practices? 4) What surprises you most about the commonalities you’ve identified?
As of the time of this recording, the State of DesignOps 2021 Global Report has not yet been released. The full scoop will be available during the DesignOps Summit 2021 - don’t miss out! https://rosenfeldmedia.com/designopssummit2021/register/
Sarah Brooks is a design leader and intrapreneur who uses strategic design and mixed-methods research to help teams and organizations reach better outcomes. She has worked in enterprise, federal, non-profit, start-up, and hybrid organizations. If you’re one of millions of US military veterans, her work at the Veterans Administration has touched your life. We are pleased to welcome Sarah as a member of the Civic Design conference (https://rosenfeldmedia.com/civic-design-2021/) and community curation team! In this Rosenfeld Review episode, she shares her experience at the VA, digging into specific challenges when working within a large org, learning what ‘patriotism’ means from people who are in the service, and how soft-skills (people skills, really) are needed at the systems level.
Sarah recommends: Emergent Strategy by Adrienne Maree Brown https://www.amazon.com/Emergent-Strategy-Shaping-Change-Changing/dp/1849352607
Tickets to Civic Design 2021 are now available; register now! https://rosenfeldmedia.com/civic-design-2021/
More about Sarah: Sarah Brooks is a design leader and intrapreneur working at the intersection of foresight, service design, and mixed-methods research approaches to help teams and organizations reach better outcomes. She has worked across the enterprise, federal, non-profit, start-up, and hybrid organizations.
Currently, Sarah is the Executive design leader responsible for the development and diffusion of standards and practices that create experience excellence across IBM's product and service teams. She is an active mentor, author, educator, and speaker on the art & craft of seamless experiences and living systems approached to complex challenges.
Sarah is the author of System Shifting, in the book Strategic Design Thinking: Innovation in Products, Services and Beyond, and the essay Collective Strength and Greater Understanding Through Co-Design in the book Leap Dialogues: Career Pathways in Design for Social Innovation.
Sarah served as a 2014-2015 U.S. Presidential Innovation Fellow at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs continuing on as a political appointee until the end of the Obama-Biden Administration, working as Chief Design Officer leading a team that worked on strategic transformation priorities.
Prior to government service, Sarah lived in San Francisco and worked in the social impact ecosystem and currently lives in Montauk, New York.
Martha Dorris, Founder and CEO, Dorris Consulting International, has almost 34 years of government experience in acquisition, technical and program management to customer experience. Martha has run many government organizations that build and deliver agency and citizen facing programs to deliver government services anytime, anywhere on any device.
Most recently, Martha led and managed GSA’s Office of Strategic Programs where she brought a customer-centric lens to the services and acquisitions they award. In this Rosenfeld Review episode, she takes a dive into her projects at the GSA improving Customer Experience (as opposed to the previous focus on Customer Service), as well as work across the government and her advice for anyone just starting out.
We are pleased that Martha is supporting the curation team for our new Civic Design conference and community, which will be launching soon with our first monthly videoconference. Sign up here to be notified: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/civic-design-2021/
Tickets to Civic Design 2021 are now available; register now! https://rosenfeldmedia.com/civic-design-2021/
Ariel Kennan is a service design and product development leader who has worked across the public, private, academic, and nonprofit sectors. She is currently a Senior Fellow at the Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University. We are pleased to announce that she has joined the curation team of our new Civic Design conference and community, which will be launching soon with our first monthly videoconference. Sign up here to be notified: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/civic-design-2021/
In this Rosenfeld Review episode, Ariel discusses the myriad of public service projects she’s had a hand in, and particularly the ways in which Civic Design can improve peoples’ lives, especially those who are underprivileged (for example, the application for unemployment benefits during the covid-19 pandemic.)
Ariel recommends: Creative Reaction Lab — building capacity in historically marginalized communities and training designers to work in new ways. https://www.creativereactionlab.com/
We are excited to welcome Charlotte Lee as a co-curator of our new Civic Design conference and community, which will be launching soon with our first monthly videoconference. Sign up here to be notified: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/civic-design-2021/
In this episode, Charlotte and Lou discuss the intersection of design and technology, machine learning, how the House of Representatives legislates, and more. She also shares details about her current project, redesigning congress.gov, and a peek into what you can expect from the Civic Design Conference.
Looking for a great read? Charlotte recommends: Humanocracy https://www.humanocracy.com/ by Gary Hamel and Michele Zanini
About Charlotte: Charlotte Lee is an award-winning entrepreneur and human-centered design practitioner based in Washington D.C. She is the founder and CEO of Monday Design Company, a service design consultancy as well as Kastling Group, a digital transformation consultancy. She is a strategic advisor to public and private executives in organizations undergoing IT modernization. Many of her clients seek partnership to help execute their vision of a holistic view of transformation that places human achievement as the measure of success. Her professional path in product management and user experience design was taken with the vision of a more human-friendly world in every way. Charlotte’s current portfolio at the House of Representatives exemplifies her two biggest passions- human centricity and strengthening democracy. She is very energized by the opportunity to apply HCD and design thinking to examine and reimagine the way ideas turn into law.
Caroline’s book “Surveys That Work: A Practical Guide for Designing and Running Better Surveys” https://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/surveys-that-work/ is a decade in the making — and finally coming in July 2021! Here, Caroline shares some glimpses into the methodologies and tricks she’ll share in the book, and how it evolved along the years.
Caroline recommends: Mentor Black Business https://blackbusiness.mcsaatchi.com/ founded by Akil Benjamin
More about the book: Surveys That Work explains a seven-step process for designing, running, and reporting on a survey that gets accurate results. In a no-nonsense style with plenty of examples about real-world compromises, the book focuses on reducing the errors that make up Total Survey Error—a key concept in survey methodology. If you are conducting a survey, this book is a must-have.
Surya Vanka, speaker at the upcoming Design at Scale conference, joins Lou to discuss “Design Swarms,” which he’ll also cover during his conference presentation. Surya shares his experiences working to solve major social problems like gender discrimination and the opioid crisis through design thinking exercises. He also discusses ways leaders can step back to create more value from the “swarm.”
Surya recommends: Design for the Real World: Human Ecology and Social Change by Victor Papanek https://www.amazon.com/Design-Real-World-Ecology-Social/dp/0897331532
About Surya’s talk at Design at Scale 2021: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/design-at-scale-2021/ Enterprises, even those with mature design practices, find it difficult to tap into the creativity of all of its workforce. Yet unleashing that broad creativity is now needed more than ever as success of teams depends on having the nimbleness of an ant farm to adapt and find their way around obstacles. Enterprise design processes, systems and ops are often tied to old top-down command/control organizational models. Design Swarms is an approach that has been used and adopted by teams within companies like Amazon, Amgen, Autodesk, Callison, Deutsche Bank, Lilly, T-Mobile, Microsoft, and REI to unleash swarm creativity at scale.
About Surya: Surya Vanka is a transdisciplinary designer who has worked at the leading edge of physical and digital experiences. He is founder of Authentic Design, was president of the Seattle Design Festival, chair of Interaction Week 2019 and chair of 50th anniversary International Design Conference of IDSA. Surya was director of user experience at Microsoft, a tenured professor of design at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a fellow at the prestigious Center for Advanced Study. He is creator of Design Swarms method, a light weight design technique used in business, non-profit and education worldwide. Surya won the Microsoft Engineering Best Practice Awards twice, Ohio State University 50th Anniversary Distinguished Design Alumnus Award, Microsoft Achievement Award, Accessibility Achievement Award, World Brand Congress Leadership Award and several other industry recognitions. He has been consultant to companies like Amazon, Amgen, Autodesk, Callison, Lilly, Microsoft and REI. He frequently keynotes speeches at the most prestigious conferences and has won top speaker awards three times. His work has appeared in numerous publications and news programs, including TEDx, Form, I.D., Design Council, WIRED, Interactions, the BBC and National Public Radio. Surya is the author of two books on design, several publications, and has taught design on every continent but Antarctica.
A self-described “failed architect,” Sha Hwang joins Lou to discuss the challenges of scale when merging two companies, and his journey from Trulia and Stamen Design to being part of the team that rescued Healthcare.gov and, subsequently, founding Nava, a public benefit corporation formed during those efforts.
Sha Recommends: • Civic Technologists Practice Guide https://www.amazon.com/Civic-Technologists-Practice-Guide/dp/1735286508
Sha will be speaking at Design at Scale 2021 this June 9-11. https://rosenfeldmedia.com/design-at-scale-2021/sessions/the-lost-year/
About Sha’s talk, The Lost Year: The pandemic made it painfully clear that the failure of critical public services causes real harm, both physical and financial. Our healthcare system is being overwhelmed, millions are pouring onto unemployment, and we’ve seen an unprecedented number of people trying to access government programs. It has never been more important for government services to be simple, effective, and accessible to all, yet we’re far from that vision today. In this talk, Sha Hwang, co-founder and chief operating officer of Nava Public Benefit Corporation, will discuss the opportunities designers have to build government services that prioritize equity and resiliency—and the responsibility that comes with designing systems that serve millions of people.
About Sha: Sha Hwang is the COO and co-founder of Nava, a public benefit corporation formed during efforts to help fix HealthCare.gov. Nava partners with government agencies to improve critical public services, and now works across several projects in the US on programs including Medicare, Veterans Affairs, and unemployment benefits and paid family leave at the state level. Nava has helped tens of millions of people enroll in critical programs, streamlined processes to save decades of labor years, and saved government agencies hundreds of millions of dollars. A failed architect and accidental entrepreneur, Sha has worked with clients such as the New York Times, the Harvard Library Lab, MTV, Flickr, and Adobe. Previously, Sha worked at Stamen Design and later cofounded the company Movity, which was acquired by Trulia.
Sheri is the author of the upcoming book Giving a Damn about Accessibility, and a speaker at Design at Scale 2021 this June 9-11. In this latest Rosenfeld Review podcast, she discusses the critical importance of starting projects and products with a mindset of accessibility. Spoiler alert: it’s far more difficult to go back later.
VMWare, where Sheri is currently an Accessibility Architect, recently launched an Accessibility Champions program, increasing their hires with disabilities and those with interest in specialized training. She and Lou talk through the program and other ways you can scale accessibility—even while acquiring new companies, as Sheri has experienced (more than ten in two years!)
Interested in learning more? Check out Sheri’s presentation at DAS2021: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/design-at-scale-2021/sessions/accessibility-at-scale/
Sheri recommends: Haben Girma, the first Deafblind graduate of Harvard Law School https://habengirma.com/ Lily Zheng, DEI Consultant https://lilyzheng.co/
Sheri Byrne-Haber is a prominent global subject matter expert in the fields of disability and accessibility. She is best known for launching digital accessibility programs at multiple Fortune 200 companies, including McDonald’s, Albertsons, and VMware, as well as consulting on government and education accessibility.
Sheri’s award-winning Medium blog summarizes legal cases and issues facing people implementing accessibility programs, with over 300,000 readers since its launch. Sheri is a frequent panelist and speaker at accessibility related conferences and an active member of several accessibility committees and non-profits, helping drive and communicate the evolution of accessibility standards.
Design at scale is perhaps the most interesting challenge facing the design industry right now. How do you maintain quality and not get bogged down as your team grows? Much of the discussion focuses on systems and processes, but that starting with systems runs exactly contrary to the true value that design brings to companies, which is a humanistic and creative problem-framing and problem-solving approach. In other words, this focus on systems could ironically undercut design’s potential within organizations— in other words, “Design at Scale” is humanism at scale, and share what’s needed to keep people at the center of this work.
Peter Merholz will be both a speaker and a workshop instructor during this year’s Design at Scale conference! Here, Lou and Peter muse over stories from the early days of information architecture before meandering their way to contrasting UX in the public versus private sectors. They also discuss a preview of Peter’s talk at the conference, Design at Scale is People!
More about Peter’s workshop, Design Your Design Organization: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/design-at-scale-2021/cohorts/design-your-design-organization/
Peter recommends: HmntyCntrd https://hmntycntrd.com/
More about Peter Peter Merholz has been active in digital design and product for 25 years, most notably in building premier user experience consultancy Adaptive Path, and now advising teams on design organizations and leadership. Recent clients include The New York Times, Wells Fargo Bank, Cloudflare, and Zendesk. He co-wrote Org Design for Design Orgs (O’Reilly), the first book focused on the organizational, managerial, and operational challenges of building in-house design teams. https://www.petermerholz.com/about-peter/
Jim and Lou go way back - to when they still called it “library school!” Thirty years later, Jim is a NY Times bestselling author who specializes in science-themed graphic novels on subjects ranging from Jane Goodall to Alan Turing.
Here, Lou and Jim discuss the evolution of cartoon and graphic novels,how their audiences have changed over time, and the role of storyboarding in their respective crafts.
About Jim Jim is the author of fourteen (and counting) graphic novels about scientists. His most recent books include Naturalist (with E.O. Wilson), Astronauts: Women on the Final Frontier, Hawking, about the famous cosmologist; The Imitation Game, a biography of Alan Turing; Primates, about Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Biruté Galdikas; and Feynman, a book about the Nobel-prize winning physicist, bongo-playing artist, and raconteur Richard Feynman. His books are New York Times bestsellers, have been translated into over a dozen languages, and have received praise from publications ranging from Nature and Physics World to Entertainment Weekly and Variety. Jim lives in Michigan and comes to comics via careers in nuclear engineering and librarianship.
Jim recommends: "Ologies" podcast with Alie Ward "99% Invisible" podcast with Roman Mars 826: 826national.org/, which provides writing and tutoring support for kids across the U.S. (Jim has tutored and taught for 836michigan for over a decade.) The Sirens of Mars by Sarah Stewart Johnson Once Upon a Time I Lived on Mars by Kate Greene
Diana Deibel and Rebecca Evanhoe first crossed paths on a Slack channel back in 2018, where they were seeking out colleagues who might know a thing or two about conversation design.. Fast forward to 2021, and their new book on conversation design is finished and available for preorder! Conversations with Things teaches you how to design conversations that are useful, ethical, and human-centered—because everyone deserves to be understood, especially you. In this episode, they chat with Lou about writing the book, the ethics of voice design, and more.
Diana recommends: • AmberNechole Hart’s Why does Siri sound white? https://slideslive.com/38925092/why-does-siri-sound-white?ref=tag-33116-latest • We Should Get Together by Kat Vellos https://weshouldgettogether.com/books
Becca recommends • Design Justice: Community-Led Practices to Build the Worlds We Need By Sasha Costanza-Chock https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/design-justice • Design Justice Network https://designjustice.org/
Steve Krug, author of Don’t Make Me Think, and Rocket Surgery Made Easy, is back for a third appearance on the Rosenfeld Review Podcast! Here, he shares some details with Lou about his book in the works, Writing Made Slightly Easier, and his perspective on the process of writing in general (and why he might advise against it!).
Check our Steve’s previous two appearances: How To Get Usability Testing Right: https://soundcloud.com/rosenfeld-media/how-to-get-usability-testing-right-steve-krug Life with the Apple Watch and other wearables: https://soundcloud.com/rosenfeld-media/conversation-with-steve-krug-life-with-the-apple-watch-and-other-wearables
Steve’s wise words for writers: Don’t be afraid to always start at the beginning. Always assume that your reader knows less rather than more.
Steve recommends: Follow Laura Klein on Twitter https://twitter.com/lauraklein
More about Steve Krug: https://sensible.com/
What is the role of care in user research? Why is care a user researcher's greatest superpower—not only in how we do our work but how we lead? In her talk at Advancing Research 2021, Etienne Fang, Principal Researcher at Amazon Search, will discuss the importance of inclusive leadership and share lessons on leading through care, helping researchers leverage their research strengths for leadership as individual contributors, team leads, and people managers alike.
Etienne Fang is a human-centered research and strategy leader passionate about people and the power of their stories to create inclusive experiences for all. She is currently a Principal Researcher at Amazon focused on inclusion and has previously led research teams at Uber, Method Products, and The Clorox Company. She is the founder of Redefining Having It All, a non-profit organization that supports female empowerment through stories of women’s ambition.
When stakeholders have access to real-time data about millions of user interactions, how can qualitative researchers articulate the value of small-sample studies for product and business strategy?
Katy Mogal, UX Research Lead at Google Assistant, joins Lou to offer a preview of the case study she’ll share at Advancing Research 2021 (https://rosenfeldmedia.com/advancing-research-2021/sessions/but-do-your-insights-scale/), including learnings about how human-centered researchers can effectively collaborate with functions like data science and business strategy, and how to persuade analytically-minded stakeholders to embrace rich qualitative data about people’s needs and motivations as an input to business strategy.
Katy recommends: • Ideo University’s course “ Insights for Innovation” https://www.ideou.com/products/insights-for-innovation • Jump Associates’ workshop on how to move from data to insights through a synthesis process: https://www.jumpassociates.com/learning-posts/insight-action-making-connection/
Register for AR2021: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/advancing-research-2021/register/
About Katy: Katy is on a mission to help product teams develop and ship experiences that make people’s lives better, through building and leading research teams that deliver synthesized insights with a strategic point of view. While working in marketing at Warner Bros. in London, Katy became fascinated with the idea of using survey and analytics data to understand and build for human needs. After graduating from the Wharton School she joined strategic consultancy Lieberman Research Worldwide as an account manager, where she led insights-based strategy engagements for clients including Nike, Weight Watchers and Viacom. Later she moved to Cheskin Research, a design and marketing consultancy that was a pioneer in applying ethnographic research to problems of design strategy. Exposure to a wide variety of data types, and experience bringing them together to tell a holistic story of user needs, became a theme that has run through her career in research and insights. She went on to build and lead UX and Design research teams at Fitbit, Facebook and most recently at Google, where she currently leads research teams on Google Assistant. Katy’s current focus is on developing the research function as a strategic partner to UX, Product Management and Engineering, and as a force for culture change in product organizations. Her side hustles include teaching product design and design research courses at Stanford Continuing Studies and California College of the Arts, and frequent speaking engagements at conferences such as UX Week, UX Lisbon, FlUXible and People Nerds. In her spare time Katy enjoys throwing weights around at the CrossFit gym in San Francisco’s Mission District, where she lives with her husband, son and two rescue dogs.
Lou and Jeff Sussna, author of Designing Delivery: Rethinking IT in the Digital Service Economy, examine the relationships between Design and Operations, DevOps and DesignOps, and DevOps and Agile before wending their way to promise theory, which looks at the “promise” made between a product and its user. Color Lou convinced on the promise of product promises!
• Watch Jeff’s presentation at the 2017 DesignOps Summit: https://youtu.be/uWZxsul8Rek • Read Jeff’s book, Designing Delivery: https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/designing-delivery/9781491903742/ • Listen to Jeff on a previous episode of the Rosenfeld Review, DesignOps in a Post-Industrial World: Crash-Coursing Complex Systems: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/designops-community/archive/designops-jeff-sussna/ • Jeff recommends: Mark Burgess’ Thinking In Promises: http://markburgess.org/TIpromises.html
Jeff is Founder and CEO of Sussna Associates, a Minneapolis consulting firm. Sussna Associates helps software teams and executives meet the demand for continuous service delivery.
More about Jeff: https://www.sussna-associates.com/about#jeff Twitter: @jeffsussna LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffsussna/
Want to help make better product decisions? You’ve got to combine qualitative human insights from user research with data analytics and experimentation. Questions about how many users do something goes to analytics, questions about which design might work better goes to user research. But what if you partnered with those other teams to answer the questions together? In her session at Advancing Research 2021, Marieke McCloskey, UX Research Lead at Humu, will share how, as a qualitative UX researcher, she’s partnered with analysts to identify high-growth opportunities and gain a deeper understanding of users.
In this episode of the Rosenfeld Review, Marieke offers a glimpse into her presentation, and what led her to the insights she will share at the conference.
• Marieke recommends: No Hard Feelings: The Secret Power of Embracing Emotions at Work by Liz Fosslien and Mollie West Duffy • Follow the authors: https://twitter.com/lizandmollie
• Attend Advancing Research 2021 https://rosenfeldmedia.com/advancing-research-2021/register/ • About Marieke https://rosenfeldmedia.com/advancing-research-2021/speakers/marieke-mccloskey/
We’re bringing Creativity Evangelist Denise Jacobs to our virtual workshop lineup this year! Here, she chats with Lou about how the current era of “doom-scrolling” means it’s more important than ever to unlock our creative minds and make meaningful connections.
One challenge of working remotely is the loss of a sense of personal connection. Having tools that allow you to collaborate in a virtual environment and overcome isolation is a way to expand the collective creativity of the whole team.
Her workshop (https://rosenfeldmedia.com/public-ux-workshops/master-creative-collaboration-and-communication/) is an opportunity to expand your knowledge base, skill set, and be inspired by creativity and collaboration using new and different tools to figure out how to add extra life to the work-from-home environment.
Denise’s three day workshop this February (10 hours over 3 segments: February 2-4, 2021) will focus on leveraging collective brilliance, becoming confident in sharing your ideas, and learning to be an excellent listener. Next comes “the fun part” — how to use improvisation to make collaboration feel like a game, and not like work.
Denise Recommends: ° Restore Yourself by Edy Greenblatt https://www.amazon.com/Restore-Yourself-Antidote-Professional-Exhaustion/dp/0981929915 ° Around the Writer’s Block by Rosanne Bane https://www.amazon.com/Around-Writers-Block-Science-Resistance-ebook/dp/B0085DP1LM
About Denise Denise Jacobs is a Speaker + Author + Creativity Evangelist who speaks at conferences and consults with companies worldwide. As the Founder + CEO of The Creative Dose, keynote speaker, and trainer, she helps individuals in companies unleash their creativity through banishing their inner critic and hacking their creative brains. Denise’s keynotes and trainings give A Creative Dose™ – an injection of inspiration and immediately applicable tools to help people do their best work. Through working with Denise, people become engaged contributors, synergistic collaborators, and authentic leaders. Denise is the author of Banish Your Inner Critic, the premier handbook on silencing fears to unleash creativity. A web and tech industry veteran, Denise is also the author of The CSS Detective Guide and co-author of the Smashing Book #3 1/3 and Interact with Web Standards. She is also the founder of Rawk The Web and the Head Instigator of The Creativity (R)Evolution.
After abandoning the world of academia, Natalie Hanson found an innovative way to connect with other ethnographers: she founded a new community (Anthrodesign)!. This year, she brings her community-organizing talents to the second Advancing Research conference as Lead Curator. She joins Lou to share her own story and the story of the conference, offering a sneak peek into what we’ll cover — and what the conference might look like five years in the future.
Join anthrodesign: https://anthrodesign.com/ Follow Natalie on Twitter (@ndhanthro) and Instagram (@faeriewigs)
Learn more about the Advancing Research conference this March 10-12 and get your tickets: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/advancing-research-2021/program/#tab=day-1&type=conference-session
About Natalie Natalie Hanson has been working and researching at the intersection of business strategy, technology, social science, and design for fifteen years.She is currently a Principal at ZS, where she leads the User Experience practice. The UX team at ZS engages in research and human-centered design for enterprise software and custom client solutions. As an anthropologist, Natalie’s research has focused on work practices and work environments. She has a special interest in how institutions respond and transform in response to macro-economic, industry, and regional trends, and how the resulting organizational changes affect the lives of employees. You can learn more about Natalie at http://www.nataliehanson.com, and more about the online community of ethnographers she manages at http://www.anthrodesign.com.
What’s it like to build out a design organization that spans many countries, languages, and culture? Wizeline co-founder Wendy Johansson discusses the insights she gleaned when opening a second Wizeline office in Guadalajara, then a third and fourth in Vietnam and Thailand. From different societal norms to language barriers, her story can inform your own ways of collaboration with new people and cultures, whether abroad or just within your own team.
Wendy recommends: • The Culture Map: Breaking Through the Invisible Boundaries of Global Business by Erin Meyer https://www.amazon.com/Culture-Map-Breaking-Invisible-Boundaries/dp/1610392507 • David Hoang’s Career Hype Doc https://davidhoang.substack.com/p/your-career-hype-doc
Follow Wendy on Twitter: https://twitter.com/uxwendy
Wendy is our next DesignOps Community videoconference guest, January 21, 4pm-5pm EST: “Designing a Design Team Culture When You're Decentralized at a Consultancy.” Join the community for an invitation: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/designops-community/
Though trained as a computer scientist, Jamika Burge admits she does not have the heart of a programmer; rather, she’s interested in surfacing and connecting with the humanity of the technology we create. Jamika has taken that approach in her past work, including a stint at DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), where she studied the impact of games on learning. Jamika now leads AI Design Insights at CapitalOne, and is also one of the Advancing Research 2021 Conference curators. Here she shares the story of her career path, and the work she is doing with blackcomputeHER.org (pronounced ‘black computer’), an organization she co-founded that is dedicated to supporting computation and design workforce development for black women and girls.
Jamika Recommends: Gendershades.org, a project by Joy Buolamwini, Lead Author and Timnit Gebru, PhD, Co-Author
Keep up with Jamika: JamikaBurge.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/JDBurge Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/j.jurious/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamika/
More about AR2021: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/advancing-research-2021/
Allan Chochinov, Founding Chair of the MFA in Products of Design graduate program at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, joins Lou to discuss how his program approaches the education of new designers—from the belief that grades can hamper creativity and risk taking, to the need for his students to learn the art of careful listening. After eight graduating classes, Allan offers surprises and insights about different career trajectories for design students, and clear evidence that career paths are often non-traditional.
Allan Chochinov is a partner of Core77, the design network serving a global community of designers and design enthusiasts since 1995. More about Allan: https://www.allanchochinov.com/
Allan Recommends: •Girls Garage by Emily Pilloton https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44601186-girls-garage?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=ghIzeV0mbb&rank=1 •Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6260997-half-the-sky •Not to Scale: How the Small Becomes Large, the Large Becomes Unthinkable, and the Unthinkable Becomes Possible by Jamer Hunt https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51203318-not-to-scale •Present Shock by Douglas Rushkoff https://rushkoff.com/books/present-shock/ •User Friendly: How the Hidden Rules of Design Are Changing the Way We Live, Work, and Play by Cliff Kuang and Robert Fabricant https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/41940285-user-friendly •By Design: Why There Are No Locks on the Bathroom Doors in the Hotel Louis XIV and Other Object Lessons by Ralph Caplan https://www.secondsale.com/i/by-design-2nd-edition-why-there-are-no-locks-on-the-bathroom-doors-in-the-hotel-louis-xiv-and-other-object-lessons/9781563673498?gclid=Cj0KCQjwreT8BRDTARIsAJLI0KLamLylKCGMu5u7Sz-ZM8lyn8ZgDdugGTwGC7dHJgHBEu_vqp2OL-waAmPQEALw_wcB
Lou and Bria Alexander, Brand Experience Program Manager at Adobe, range widely in a conversation on diversity, equity, and inclusion—and how they pertain to how a conference program might challenge your beliefs, the ways in which capitalism influences design, co-creation, and more. Bria will be the emcee at our upcoming conference, the DesignOps Summit, October 21-23. Check out the program and get your ticket: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/designopssummit2020/program/#tab=day-1
Bria’s recommendations: • The Curb Cut Effect https://racialequitybuffalo.org/files/winter_17_the_curb_cut_effect.pdf • How To Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi https://www.ibramxkendi.com/how-to-be-an-antiracist-1 • The 1619 Project podcast thttps://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/23/podcasts/1619-podcast.html • Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson: https://www.amazon.com/Caste-Origins-Discontents-Isabel-Wilkerson/dp/0593230256 • August 2 John Oliver episode discussing U.S. history: https://slate.com/culture/2020/08/john-oliver-american-history-textbooks-slavery.html
More about Bria: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/designopssummit2020/speakers/bria-alexander/
Kat Vellos, author of Connected From Afar: A Guide for Staying Close When You're Far Away and We Should Get Together: The Secret to Cultivating Better Friendships, is our opening speaker on day one of the DesignOps Summit this October 21-23, 2020.
Here, she discusses the issues of loneliness in the workplace, and how managers can support their teams—especially in the time of remote work and added stresses from a global pandemic. In addition to supporting employees’ humanity, a manager who keeps their staff happy enough to stay can have a major impact on a company’s bottom line—at the average national voluntary turnover rate of 25%, a company of 100 people with an average salary of $50,000 will spend between $625,000 and $2.5 million dollars on staff replacement costs in one year.
Kat Recommends: Building Brand Communities https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/617261/building-brand-communities-by-carrie-melissa-jones-and-charles-h-vogl/
Learn more about Kat’s session at the DesignOps Summit and get your ticket: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/designopssummit2020/sessions/opener-day-1/ Follow Kat on Twitter: https://twitter.com/KatVellos The Connection Club: https://weshouldgettogether.com/
Jonathon Colman, Senior Design Manager at Intercom and DesignOps Summit 2020 speaker joins Lou to discuss the challenges of developing content operations (and, sure, let’s go there: ContentOps). Should ContentOps stand alone, or be situated as part of a larger DesignOps team? Jonathon also shares how his team sets consistent expectations and defines success metrics across for designers of all stripes, whether they focus on content, product, research, or design roles.
Check out Jonathon’s upcoming DesignOps Summit 2020 presentation and get your ticket to the conference: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/designopssummit2020/sessions/maximize-the-impact-of-content-design/
• Learn more about Intercom’s hiring practices and more: www.Intercom.design • Follow Jonathon on Twitter: https://twitter.com/jcolman Jonathon recommends: •Blogs by companies doing good work -https://polaris.shopify.com/ -https://spotify.design/ -https://medium.com/facebook-design •Current favorite podcast: https://www.ouropinionsarecorrect.com/
Vincent Brathwaite, one of the featured speakers at this year’s DesignOps Summit, and Lou go meta: they have a conversation about having a conversation about differences. Their discussion ranges from working through our ever-changing vocabulary of identity to establishing a protocol for genuine, authentic conversations.
Vincent also offers suggestions for how to reflect on and own one’s ignorance and accept uncertainty—issues that design leaders continue to wrestle with as they create design teams that are more representative of the world they serve.
• Vincent recommends: Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson: https://www.amazon.com/Caste-Origins-Discontents-Isabel-Wilkerson/dp/0593230256 • Learn more about Vincent’s upcoming DesignOps Summit talk: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/designopssummit2020/sessions/opener-day-2/ • Register for the DesignOps Summit: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/designopssummit2020/register/
Vincent Brathwaite is a Caribbean American multi-disciplinary design leader, educator, and speaker. For the past two decades, he has worked to transform communities through disruptive design thinking. Driven by integrity, empathy, kindness, courage, and resilience, his mission is to design experiences that help leaders positively impact the world. Visit his website at https://www.vincentjbrathwaite.com/design
Cheryl Platz—Rosenfeld Media author, emcee of our Advancing Research and Enterprise Experience conferences, puppeteer, and Principal UX Designer at Gates Foundation—shares the inspiration that drove her new book Design Beyond Devices: Creating Multimodal, Cross-Device Experiences (published December 2020). If you’re an interaction designer, you’ll want to listen as Cheryl dramatically expands our understanding of one of interaction design’s final frontiers. Cheryl recommends: Wired for Speech by Clifford Nass and Scott Brave:https://www.amazon.com/Wired-Speech-Activates-Human-Computer-Relationship/dp/0262640651 Follow Cheryl: https://twitter.com/funnygodmother Get updates on her new book:https://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/design-beyond-devices/
Alana Washington and Lou embark on a really wide-ranging conversation, touching on: • The changing nature of work in the time of pandemic, • How we can handle the intersection of our personal and private lives when working remotely, • The restorative power of something as simple as putting down the phone and holding a physical book, and • How DesignOps can help businesses enact more human-based processes.
Alana serves as a Senior Design Program Manager at Uber Freight. She’s also part of the DesignOps Summit 2020 curation team. The team is looking to frame the program against the difficult backdrop of these challenging times, when designers need more support than ever before. That’s why resilience is our theme for DesignOps 2020; we’ll explore design operations’ role in helping individual designers, design teams, and entire organizations adapt, survive, and thrive. Learn more: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/designopssummit2020/
Alana’s recommended resources: • 24/6: The Power of Unplugging One Day a Week by Tiffany Shlain https://www.amazon.com/24-Power-Unplugging-One-Week/dp/1982116862 • Emergent Strategy by Adrienne Maree Brown https://www.akpress.org/emergentstrategy.html • Lou recommends: 6 tips for surviving a racism pandemic by Alana herself! https://womentalkdesign.com/talks/6-tips-for-surviving-a-racism-pandemic/
Kit Unger started her UX career as a “team of one,” and now manages a team of over 30 people as Senior Director of Experience Design at Smartsheet. We’re excited to have her as the leader of a group of presentations on “Keeping Up with Rapid Growth – From Startup to Enterprise” at Enterprise Experience 2020 (September 1; details here: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/enterprise2020/enterprise-experience-program/#day-2)
In this episode, she shares the role she wishes she’d hired for 20 employees ago, the elements of scaling a team quickly, and offers a preview of her EX2020 speakers’ presentations: •Building for Scale: Creating the Zendesk UX Research Practice with Veevi Rosenstein https://rosenfeldmedia.com/enterprise2020/sessions/building-for-scale-creating-the-zendesk-ux-research-practice/ •A Top-Down and Bottom-Up Approach to User-Centric Maturity at Scale with Vasileios Xanthopoulos https://rosenfeldmedia.com/enterprise2020/sessions/a-top-down-and-bottom-up-approach-to-user-centric-maturity-at-scale/ •Lead Effectively While Preserving Team Autonomy with Growth Boards with Jackie Ho https://rosenfeldmedia.com/enterprise2020/sessions/lead-effectively-while-preserving-team-autonomy-with-growth-boards/
Kit’s shoutout: Sarah Hubbard, co-founder of Seattle Women of Design and UX https://www.meetup.com/seaDUXX/ More about Kit https://rosenfeldmedia.com/enterprise2020/speakers/kit-unger/
After a start in digital software, Kate Rutter realized that qualitative definitions of success could, and needed to be, made more quantitative. Years later, she’s Principal at Intelleto, Adjunct Professor in the IXD program at California College of the Arts, and the instructor of our upcoming UX workshop “Crafting Metrics for UX Success." https://rosenfeldmedia.com/public-ux-workshops/crafting-metrics-for-ux-success/
In this episode, she reflects on the extraordinary success with qualitative metrics she has observed in the UX field, and the room for growth around numerical metrics, as well as the many challenges companies are faced with when trying to determine which metrics really matter. Kate’s four part workshop (August 6-7 and August 13-14) is intended to help designers gain a numerical understanding of success—and determine what metrics they need to measure in the first place (not just the easy ones!)
Kate’s recommended reading: • Lean Analytics by Alistair Croll and Benjamin Yoskovitz https://www.amazon.com/Lean-Analytics-Better-Startup-Faster/dp/1449335675 • The Tyranny of Metrics by Jerry Muller https://www.amazon.com/Tyranny-Metrics-Jerry-Z-Muller/dp/0691174954 • Don’t Let Metrics Undermine Your Business, Harvard Business Review: https://hbr.org/2019/09/dont-let-metrics-undermine-your-business
Kate’s shoutouts Julie Zhuo https://medium.com/@joulee John Cutler https://medium.com/@johnpcutler Laura Klein https://rosenfeldmedia.com/people/laura-klein/
Follow Kate on Twitter www.twitter.com/katerutter
Best Buy’s Jamie Kaspszak and USAA’s Frank Duran join Lou and Bob Baxley to discuss how UX plays a critical role in bridging their organizations’ silos and disciplines. It’s a preview of what they’ll cover at this year’s Enterprise Experience conference, where they’ll be joined by four other speakers, all who are wrestling with the team sport of organizational transformation. Learn more about these sessions, which take place virtually on September 3. https://rosenfeldmedia.com/enterprise2020/
About our podcast guests and their sessions: Bob Baxley, SVP, Design & Experience at ThoughtSpot, leads the group of speakers who are wrangling silos https://rosenfeldmedia.com/enterprise2020/speakers/bob-baxley/ Jamie Kaspzak’s talk: “Not Your Ordinary Re-Brand: Design’s Path to Driving Customer Obsession at Best Buy” https://rosenfeldmedia.com/enterprise2020/sessions/not-your-ordinary-re-brand-designs-path-to-the-c-suite-at-best-buy/ Frank Duran’s talk: “Put Me In, Coach: The team effort that goes into hiring and developing design talent” https://rosenfeldmedia.com/enterprise2020/sessions/hiring-and-developing-design-talent
Dan Willis is Director of Customer Experience at the General Services Administration’s Centers of Excellence, and the mastermind behind past Enterprise Experience conferences’ wildly-popular “Storytelling Sessions.” At this year’s Enterprise Experience conference, Dan will be leading Theme 3: “Through the Looking Glass – The Outsider’s Perspective on the Enterprise” on Wednesday, September 3. (Full program here: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/enterprise2020/enterprise-experience-program/#day-3). Considering Dan’s extensive government experience means he’s all too familiar with large, slow moving and bureaucratic enterprises. In this wide-ranging episode of the Rosenfeld Review, Dan shares anecdotes from his career and offers some sneak peeks into the six sessions he’ll be leading on day three of Enterprise Experience 2020.
More about Dan: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/enterprise2020/speakers/dan-willis/ Listen to our 2018 interview with Dan: https://soundcloud.com/rosenfeld-media/dan-willis-podcast; and another conversation in 2015: https://soundcloud.com/rosenfeld-media/secrets-to-a-great-ux-story Follow Dan Willis on Twitter: twitter.com/uxcrank
Top designers are often thrust into leadership roles, and it’s easy to forget that these two roles do not require the same skillset. In this episode, design managers and Liftoff! co-authors Chris Avore and Russ Unger discuss the mistakes and lessons they—and MANY others—have made in their new book, four years in the works. Liftoff! is a guide for new leaders looking for guidance about managing design teams effectively, and established managers who want to level up their expertise.
Order Liftoff! before July 7 and save 15%; for free shipping in the U.S., enter code FREESHIPLIFTOFF at checkout. https://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/ux-leadership/
Influencers mentioned: Meet the diverse variety of contributors to the book: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/ux-leadership/liftoff-opening-credits-contributors-guests-and-reviewers/ Jacqui Frey: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacquifrey/ Kara DeFrias: https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/blog/2013/03/01/meet-pif-kara-defrias Emileigh Barnes: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emileighbarnes/ Lou Adler: https://louadlergroup.com/about-us/team-bios/lou-adler/ Noah Bushnell, Finding the Next Steve Jobs: https://www.amazon.com/Finding-Next-Steve-Jobs-Nurture-ebook/dp/B00DF58I56/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr= Laura Hogan, Resilient Design Management: https://larahogan.me/blog/coming-soon-resilient-management Amy Edmonson on Psychological Safety: https://hbr.org/podcast/2019/01/creating-psychological-safety-in-the-workplace Maggie Hsu Wagner: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mkhsu/
Authors Stephen P. Anderson and Karl Fast discuss the complex world of information (think incomprehensible tax policies to confusing medical explanations) we are faced with, and the ways in which information can be transformed into better presentations, better meetings, better software, and better decisions. Stephen also shares a personal anecdote about part of the inspiration for the book. Get your copy: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/figure-it-out/
Mentioned in the episode… Stephen’s latest project: The Mighty Minds Club. Learn more and subscribe: https://www.producthunt.com/upcoming/the-mighty-minds-club Karl’s recommended reads: Smarter Than You Think by Clive Thompson https://www.amazon.com/Smarter-Than-You-Think-Technology/dp/1594204454 and Messy: The Power of Disorder to Transform Our Lives by Tim Hartford https://www.amazon.com/Messy-Power-Disorder-Transform-Lives-ebook/dp/B01BD1SU2E/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1587498076&sr=1-1 Stephen’s interesting people to check out: Nicky Case and her “explorable explanations” https://ncase.me/; Bret Victor and real time feedback loops https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bret_Victor
Amy Bucher is Chief Behavioral Officer at Lirio at Mad*Pow and author of our newest book, Engaged: Designing for Behavior Change. Amy has a PhD. in Psychology, so you’d be forgiven for assuming that she works in academia. Instead, she ended up at an agency where she focuses on healthcare and the many different motivational factors that are at play in the way people live their lives. In this episode, Amy and Lou Rosenfeld discuss the ethics of data collection, self-determination theory, fitness apps, her new book, and more.
Get Amy’s book: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/engaged-designing-for-behavior-change/ About Mad*Pow: https://madpow.com Amy’s recommended reading: Whisper Network by Chandler Baker https://www.amazon.com/Whisper-Network-Novel-Chandler-Baker/dp/1250205360
More about Amy: amybucher.com Follow Amy: twitter.com/amybphd
Lada Gorlenko, Director of UX Research at Smartsheet in Seattle, is the lead curator of this year’s Enterprise Experience conference (August 31-September 3, virtual, rosenfeldmedia.com/enterprise2020).
Lada began her career in prison, spending lots of time with murderers and drug dealers! Not what you think, though: she was a psychologist researching the personality changes caused by long-term imprisonment. The experience led her to a better understanding of how universally transferable the principles of research and design are, whether in a prison or at an enterprise. In this episode of the Rosenfeld Review, Lada shares her career path and the story of how she ended up in UX, and the themes she’s developed for the upcoming Enterprise Experience conference.
Lada recommends: "Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping" by Paco Underhill, an urban anthropologist. https://www.amazon.com/Why-We-Buy-Science-Shopping/dp/0739341928
See the themes, theme leaders, and program here: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/enterprise2020/enterprise-experience-program/ Register here: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/enterprise2020/register/
Mariano Suarez-Battan is the co-founder and CEO of MURAL https://mural.co/, a tool for remote collaboration—and longtime partner/sponsor of Rosenfeld Media’s conferences. MURAL was founded in 2011 after Mariano experienced first-hand the struggle of working remotely with a large, distributed team while designing video games. In this episode of the Rosenfeld Review, Mariano and Lou discuss the challenges of collaboration among remote teams and how platforms like MURAL can level the playing field between coworkers, often flattening hierarchies and changing culture in the process. Mariano also shares his predictions about how workplaces will operate five years in the future.
Learn more: mural.co/ebook
Mariano’s shoutout - IBM’s Phil Gilbert, one of MURAL’s early adopters, and Tim Brown, former CEO at Ideo who introduced Mariano to Phil.
Follow Mariano on Twitter: https://twitter.com/batmelon
MURAL is sponsoring all three of Rosenfeld Media conferences this year: Advancing Research https://rosenfeldmedia.com/advancing-research-2020/, Enterprise Experience https://rosenfeldmedia.com/enterprise2020/, and DesignOps Summit https://rosenfeldmedia.com/designopssummit2020/. Be sure to stop by their booth!
Brianna Sylver, founder of Sylver Consulting and speaker at the upcoming Advancing Research conference (March 30-April 1, NYC), joins Lou to break down the importance of insight. At its core, insight is about shifts in perspective and can come from anywhere—user research, market research, psychology, mining big data; according to Brianna, it doesn’t really matter. Rather, she emphasizes the importance of capturing all the threads in one container. Lou and Brianna dive into what an insights container can look like, and best practices for making insights actionable.
Brianna’s shoutouts: Heather Dominick, her business mentor, and the impact of her work with “highly sensitive entrepreneurs” (https://www.businessmiracles.com/), and Dr. Elaine Aron’s work on “the highly sensitive person.” https://hsperson.com/
Learn more about Brianna’s upcoming talk at Advancing Research, then get your tickets: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/advancing-research-2020/sessions/the-intent-to-effect-pathway-how-design-and-designers-can-deliver-the-greatest-value-to-organizations/
Order Writing Is Designing: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/writing-is-designing/
Michael Metts and Andy Welfle, authors of the new Rosenfeld Media book Writing Is Designing, get meta and discuss writing about UX writing with Lou Rosenfeld. They also stress the importance of looking through the “lens of language,” when solving problems – reworking your existing language to make things clear from the outset, rather than fixing problems by adding more copy later. Their book will help those responsible for digital copy communicate more effectively—from designers to marketers who might never have considered themselves “UX people.”
Andy Welfle and Michael J. Metts are the co-authors of the upcoming Rosenfeld Media title, Writing Is Designing, available January 14, 2020. Order Writing Is Designing: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/writing-is-designing/
What Andy’s reading: Strategic Writing for UX https://www.amazon.com/Strategic-Writing-Engagement-Conversion-Retention/dp/1492049395 What Michael’s reading: Content Strategy is Boring (and that’s okay) https://www.braintraffic.com/blog/content-strategy-is-boring-and-thats-ok
Christian Madsbjerg is the cofounder of ReD Associates, and author of Sensemaking: The Power of the Humanities in the Age of the Algorithm and The Moment of Clarity. We’re also so pleased to announce that he’ll be speaking at our inaugural Advancing Research conference (March 30-April 1 in NYC).
In this episode of Rosenfeld Review, Christian and Lou discuss the differences between social sciences research and data science, and the challenges that arise when organizations try to align them. Christian and Lou also touch on academic chauvinism, the shortcomings of anthropology (despite how much Christian appreciates the subject), and the importance of looking at “people as people.”
Register for Advancing Research 2020: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/advancing-research-2020/register/
Christian’s recommended reading: Radical Empiricism by William James and The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure by Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff (the book is an expansion on an article of the same title which appeared in The Atlantic in 2015 https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/09/the-coddling-of-the-american-mind/399356/)
More about Christian: In addition to working closely as an adviser to senior executives, Christian Madsbjerg writes, speaks, and teaches on the practical application of the human sciences in business. His work has been featured in publications such as The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, The Washington Post, Der Spiegel, and Bloomberg Businessweek. His latest book, Sensemaking: The Power of the Humanities in the Age of the Algorithm, was published in the spring of 2017 by Hachette Book Group. His book The Moment of Clarity, co-written with ReD partner Mikkel B. Rasmussen and published by Harvard Business Press in the fall of 2014, has been translated into 15+ languages. Christian is currently teaching at The New School in New York City and working on a new book about the power of observation. He studied philosophy and political science in Copenhagen and London and has a Masters from the University of London.
Four members of our Advancing Research curation team join Lou to discuss the research they did to help shape our inaugural Advancing Research conference (New York City; March 30-April 1, 2020). The team analyzed over 700 survey responses (including about 10,000 answers to open-ended questions!) to learn about user and customer researchers, their learning behaviors, and what they want from conference experiences. Read their summary of the results here: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/advancing-research-community/archive/who-does-research-and-how-do-they-learn/ ; you can also explore the study’s quantitative data yourself via Tableau: https://public.tableau.com/profile/lou.rosenfeld.rosenfeld.media#!/vizhome/WhoDoesResearchandHowDoTheyLearn/StoryDraft1
Podcast guests: Abby Covert (principal investigator), Staff Information Architect at Etsy Sean Oslin, Consultant at Aventine Hill Partners Rocio Werner, Senior User Experience Researcher at ZS Patricia Thommi, User Experience Researcher at ZS
The rest of the team: Johan Sarmiento, Steve Portigal, Natalie Hanson, Lou Rosenfeld
Current Design and Research Operations practices face three huge, overarching challenges: •Proving value and measuring outcomes •Partnering outside design •Change management
In this episode of Rosenfeld Review, four DesignOps and ResearchOps leaders—Jose Coronado, Crystal Yan, Guneet Singh, and Rachel Posman—tackle these challenges from a rich set of perspectives, ranging from heading up DesignOps at a large, long-established corporation like JP Morgan Chase, to launching a whole new department at a young company.
Panel Members: •Jose Coronado, VP Design Operations | Head of DesignOps at JPMorgan Chase & Co. •Rachel Posman, Head of Design Operations, UberEats •Crystal Yan, Product Lead, New Initiatives, Remitly •Guneet Singh, Director of Customer Experience Programs, Docusign
Our closing keynoter at DesignOps 2019, Dave Malouf a veteran design leader, strategist, facilitator, researcher, and educator who has worked with some of the largest and fastest growing organizations globally. He was also one of the creators of the very first DesignOps Summit in 2017. Hear from him about the evolution of DesignOps, and his belief that we need a new framework that emphasizes the topline—the creation of value—over bottomline fixation on resource optimization. This new framing is at the root of DesignOps framework that Dave Malouf will share in his closing keynote. Get a taste of what’s in store for Dave’s keynote “Amplify, Not Optimize” at this year’s DesignOps Summit in New York City, October 23-25.
• Hear from Dave in his past appearance on Rosenfeld Review: https://soundcloud.com/rosenfeld-media/malouf-podcast • Follow Dave on Twitter: www.twitter.com/daveixd • Dave’s shoutout: Harry Max, upcoming Rosenfeld Media author! Sign up for updates on his book “Prioritization” https://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/prioritization-book ... AND Kristin Skinner, who has been “a pioneer in putting theory to practice.”
•More about DesignOps Summit: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/designopssummit2019/
Managing an effective design system program is a challenge. In his new workshop “Operating Design Systems” at this year’s DesignOps Summit (October 25), design systems guru Nathan Curtis will explore the operational topics that matter most: defining a system’s vision, forming a core team, scoping and making features, and communicating and contributing across a community. He’ll also zoom out, taking on higher-order challenges of multiple systems that overlap and conflict with one another, and the competition for capacity and attention that every system craves.
On this episode of Rosenfeld Review, you’ll get a taste of Nathan’s workshop on operating design systems. Learn more and register here: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/designopssummit2019/sessions/operating-design-systems-curating-a-product-serving-products/
Our opening keynoter at DesignOps 2019, Amy Thibodeau is a UX director at Shopify, where she’s responsible for UX Operations. In four years there, her role has changed dramatically, broadening from an initial focus on supporting content strategy. Hear her story, and get a taste of what’s in store for Amy’s keynote “Process and Ambiguity” at this year’s DesignOps Summit in New York City, October 23-25.
Follow Amy on Twitter: www.twitter.com/amythibodeau More about Amy: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/designopssummit2019/speakers/amy-thibodeau/ Amy’s shoutout - Lara Hogan, author of Resilient Management https://larahogan.me/
Kristin Skinner and Peter Merholz, co-writers of Org Design for Design Orgs, are teaching a full day workshop at the DesignOps Summit this year. On this episode of the Rosenfeld Review, they discuss the career milestones that brought them to the realization that there was a book to be written about the challenges they faced when coordinating and managing across teams.
What Peter’s reading: Uday Gajendar’s “Rise of the Meta Designer” in Interactions Magazine https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=3338285 What’s inspiring Kristin lately: Scott Berkun’s work http://scottberkun.com
More about the workshop: As the move to establish in-house design teams accelerates, it turns out there’s very little common wisdom on what makes for a successful design organization. In their full day workshop at the DesignOps Summit on October 25 in New York City, Peter Merholz and Kristin Skinner will draw from their groundbreaking book Org Design for Design Orgs, and address this lacuna by shining a light on the unsung activities of actually running a design team, the organizational and operational challenges and considerations, and what works and what doesn’t.
In this episode of the Rosenfeld Review, Lou and Angelos Arnis, Producer of the Joint Futures Conference in Helsinki, Finland (September 2-5, 2019), discuss the evolving landscape of design professionals’ needs, and how the Joint Futures Conference has changed to suit them. Rosenfeld Media is pleased to partner with Joint Futures this year to offer four full-day workshops on September 5, 2019.
For more about the workshops: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/public-workshops/helsinki-ux-workshops/ For more about Angelos: www.Arn.is Follow Angelos on twitter: www.twitter.com/angelosarnis
Jessica Ivins is a UX designer and facilitator at the Center Centre in Chattanooga, Tennessee. In this episode of the Rosenfeld Review, Jessica discusses the methods and philosophy employed by the Center Centre to produce industry-ready designers.
She shares the story of how, after speaking with hiring managers in the industry, co-founders Leslie Jensen-Inman and Jared M. Spool saw a need for an educational program that prepares designers to enter the workforce and start contributing from Day One with minimal onboarding. The Center Centre achieves this by offering a full-time two year program that more closely resembles a workplace experience than a traditional school. Students work on real world projects from large companies that span 3-5 months, and graduate with a portfolio of real world experience.
More about the Center Centre: http://centercentre.com/about
Matt Duignan manages HITS—Microsoft’s Human Insight System, a web-based platform that captures market and data science insights, serving as a cross disciplinary database. He chats with Lou about how his team democratizes the process of arriving at new insights by offering access to researchers’ knowledge and data from different silos across the whole company. He also touches on the challenges of making such a system work in the absence of a cultural commitment to curation, and getting disparate teams to remember that they aren’t only researching for their own departments, but for the benefit of others as well.
Learn more in “Skip User Research Unless You’re Doing It Right — Seriously” on Medium: https://medium.com/microsoft-design/skip-user-research-unless-youre-doing-it-right-seriously-15494e5ee033
Kristina Halvorson is the author of Content Strategy for the Web and producer of the Confab Conference, presented by her Minneapolis-based company Brain Traffic. In this episode of Rosenfeld Review, she discusses the best ways to deal with content chaos, navigate the changing nature of conferences (spoiler: they’re not dying!), and more.
Kristina’s content framework, Brain Traffic’s Content Strategy Quad: https://www.braintraffic.com/blog/new-thinking-brain-traffics-content-strategy-quad
Luke Wroblewski, Product Director at Google (and author of Rosenfeld Media book Web Form Design), discusses his perspective on how better user interface design can make a huge impact. With a degree in graphic design and experience teaching at the Graduate School of Library and Information Studies, he brings a range of experiences and perspectives to the problem of how a design craftsperson can become more strategic and have a bigger impact. Finally, he shares what’s on the horizon - the next “web form design” to be solved.
More about Luke: www.lukew.com
Dave Sifry is one of our curators for this year’s Enterprise Experience 2019 Conference – the 5th edition, which will be more focused on cross-functional collaboration. Dave brings a background in computer science, has launched and advised an impressive variety of startups, and now works in the Bay Area with a focus on organizational design.
After getting a computer at the age of 9, Dave realized he was hooked on programming, and the joy of figuring out problems to help create solutions for products and companies. After founding several companies and learning from both mistakes and failures, Dave shares the insights he gained from those experiences. From how creativity in an institution can create more innovation company-wide, to the importance of team diversity, Dave brings a wide range of perspectives to this year’s conference curation team.
Follow Dave on Twitter @dsifry More about Dave: www.sifry.com
Ellie Wu, Senior Director of Customer Experience Transformation at SAP Concur, chats with Lou about what exactly “customer success” means, her work with TedX SeattleWomen, and her contributions to this year’s reimagined program for June’s Enterprise Experience conference.
What Ellie’s reading: James Clear, Atomic Habits More about TedXSeattleWomen: http://tedxseattle.com/events/tedxseattlewomen/ Attend Enterprise Experience: www.rosenfeldmedia.com/enterprise2019
In this episode of the Rosenfeld Review, Karen McGrane and Lou address the growing concerns over sexual harassment at the IA Conference and other industry events. Karen and Lou explore the #metoo movement's impact on the industry and what steps we can all take to address what’s happening.
Learn more about Karen McGrane: http://karenmcgrane.com/
Sam McAfee is not a UX guy, which is why we’ve asked him to be one of our curators for Enterprise Experience 2019. This year’s program is designed to help UX leaders align, collaborate, and cooperate with peers from other functions in the enterprise—like engineering and product management, two areas Sam knows better than most. In this episode of the Rosenfeld Review, Sam shares his thoughts on the many forms leadership can take, how different types of people can all find their place on a larger team, and the way organizational structures affect the output of the people in them. A 20 year Silicon Valley veteran, Sam is the author of Startup Patterns, and helps companies build and scale new digital products, find and master product-market fit, and improve software development process and teamwork while scaling.
More about Sam: – Startuppatterns.com
Sam’s recent reads: –Team of Teams by Stanley A. McChrystal https://www.mcchrystalgroup.com/insights/teamofteams/ –Drive by Daniel Pink https://www.danpink.com/drive./ –Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thinking,_Fast_and_Slow –Essentialism by Greg McKeown https://gregmckeown.com/book/
Rich Mironov, author of The Art of Product Management, shares his experiences and advice around how product managers can approach the process of figuring out what an end user really wants, while managing a team of people with different perspectives on the same question.
Rich is joining the curation team for this year’s Enterprise Experience Conference–read more about the new approach we’re taking this year: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/enterprise2019/updates/reaching-beyond-ux-sister-enterprise-silos/
Check out Rich’s book: The Art of Product Management: Lessons from a Silicon Valley Innovator https://www.mironov.com/book/
What Rich is reading now: Escaping the Build Trap by Melissa Perri https://melissaperri.com/book/
In this 100th episode of the Rosenfeld Review podcast, Lou talks with Whitney Quesenbery, co-author of two Rosenfeld Media books, about her work at Center for Civic Design. Hear about how Whitney works to improve federal voting standards at the procedural and product levels to make voting a part of everyday life.
Learn more about Center for Civic Design: https://civicdesign.org/ Follow their Medium publication: https://medium.com/civic-designing
We see a trend in the work we do: the shift from looking at the micro level to more and more macro perspectives. With this in mind, Lou brings in Cornelius Rachieru, founder/co-curator of the Canux conference, and founder/managing partner of ampli2de, to discuss his work with "ecosystem mapping," a way to see how services and people relate to each other on a large scale. He discusses the move from mapping features to products to services and finally to ecosystems, and the methods he uses for creating an ecosystem map. Now we just have to wonder what the next level will be - universe mapping, perhaps?
Follow Cornelius on Twitter: @Corneliux Learn more about Canux: www.canux.io Learn more about ampli2de: www.ampli2e.com Follow Rosenfeld Media on Twitter: www.rosenfeldmedia.com
How does biology affect UX design? Lou talks with Alëna Iouguina, Senior Lead of Systems Research at Shopify, about how understanding the way the human brain works is one of the best things you can do to bolster your user research.
Follow Alëna Iouguina on Twitter: https://twitter.com/biologytodesign Joins us at the 2018 DesignOps Summit: https://designopssummit.com
How do you turn small design tweaks into waves of change? Lou chats with Hana Nagel, Lead UX Researcher at SAP, about how small, sustainable changes are the key to making lasting changes in your design organization.
Hana’s Interesting Person: Rana Chakrabarti https://www.linkedin.com/in/ranachakrabarti/ Follow Hana Nagel on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Miss_Hanie Joins us at the 2018 DesignOps Summit: https://designopssummit.com
If you want to make sustainable change, you have to dive deeper into the organization. Leisa Reichelt, opening keynote speaker at #DesignOps Summit 2018, shares how she built and lead user research teams for the Australian and UK governments and how she’s continuing her work at Atlassian as Head of Research and Insights.
How do you build an enterprise design organization from the top down, and turn design thinking into design doing? Lou chats with Doug Powell, Design Principal and Program Director of Education & Activation at IBM, about the challenges of bringing design ideas to life within a global organization. He also gives a sneak peek of his upcoming keynote talk at the 2018 Design Ops Summit.
Follow Doug Powell on Twitter: https://twitter.com/douglaspowell1 Joins us at the 2018 DesignOps Summit: https://designopssummit.com
What does sociology and the study of technology have to do with DesignOps? Everything! Lou sits down with Jacqui Frey, Director of Design Operations at MailChimp, to discuss her upcoming talk at the 2018 DesignOps Summit and why studying technology’s interconnectedness relates to all aspects of DesignOps.
Reading recommendations from Jacqui: Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown Joins us at the 2019 DesignOps Summit: https://designopssummit.com
How do you build an ontology? Lou talks with Carol Smith, about the challenges of developing an artificial intelligence ontology, and how information architects can and must play a role in technologies that use artificial intelligence.
Follow Carol Smith on Twitter: https://twitter.com/carologic Reading recommendations: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/designing-agentive-technology/
Lou talks with Carl Smith, Owner at Bureau of Digital, about the challenges of curating the right content to make design and UX conferences successful for both the owners and the attendees.
Connect with the Bureau of Digital’s community: https://bureauofdigital.com Follow Carl Smith on Twitter: https://twitter.com/carlsmith Join us at our second DesignOps Summit this November: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/designopssummit2018/
Engineers are very familiar with the term technical debt—but what about design debt? Lou talks with Audrey Crane, Partner at DesignMap, about why, if you’re always learning, design debt is a good and necessary thing.
Follow Audrey Crane on Twitter: https://twitter.com/audcrane Joins us at the 2018 DesignOps Summit: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/designopssummit2018
How can startups employ good design practices from the beginning? Lou talks with Irene Au, Design Partner at Khosla Ventures, about her work with setting up companies with robust design practices, and why user research is an investment every company should make.
Irene’s Reading Recommendation: https://www.subtraction.com/2018/04/02/in-defense-of-design-thinking-which-is-terrible/ Follow Irene Au on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ireneau Join us at our second DesignOps Summit this November: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/designopssummit2018/
What does it really take for an organization to embrace UX design as the foundation of creating products? Lou talks with UX guru and co-founder of the UX design school Center Centre Jared Spool about the paths organizations take to reach the UX tipping point.
Follow Jared Spool on Twitter: https://twitter.com/jmspool Get your ticket for our virtual conference, The Business Case for Design: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/business-case-for-design/
Holistic design is a term being thrown around, but what does it really entail? Listen as Lou talks with Kerry Bodine, customer experience expert and founder of Kerry Bodine & Co. and author of Outside In, as they discuss how UX designers can benefit by using service design as a framework to create product and customer journeys.
Follow Kerry Bodine on Twitter: https://twitter.com/kerrybodine Get your ticket for our virtual conference, The Business Case for Design: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/business-case-for-design/
Dave Malouf has worked with Rosenfeld Media to curate our EUX program, but did you know that he’s also active in the DesignOps movement? Lou sat down with Dave to talk about the emerging framework of DesignOps, and how it’s more than just design combined with operations.
If you want to get in on the ground floor of defining DesignOps, join us at the next DesignOps Summit: http://www.designopssummit.com
Follow Dave Malouf on Twitter: https://twitter.com/daveixd Follow Rosenfeld Media: https://twitter.com/rosenfeldmedia
What are the hidden side effects of the digital products and services you make? Author and design consultant Jorge Arango shares why it's important to create products as digital places. Hear how you can intentionally reframe your digital products to create with deeper intent and meaning for users–and society as a whole.
Follow Jorge Arango on Twitter: https://twitter.com/jarango Buy a copy of Living in Information: Responsible Design for Digital Places: https://rfld.me/2rN8HCL
Pressure keeps mounting for designers to be more than just designers. What can you do if you find yourself serving as the intermediary between different departments? Dan Brown talks with Lou about his workshop Facilitation for Designers and shares the habits, behaviors, and techniques you can bring into your own practice.
Sign-up for Dan’s workshop, Facilitation for Designers, at Enterprise UX 2018: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/eux2018/sessions/facilitation-for-designers/ Follow Dan Brown on Twitter: https://twitter.com/brownorama
As an organization and its products expand, so do the complexities of making sure that that there’s a consistent user experience. How do you accomplish that across multiple teams and locations? Lou talks with Nathan Curtis of EightShapes about his workshop at Enterprise UX 2018, Scalable Design Systems, and how having a design framework bridges the gap between teams and creates a cohesive customer experience.
Follow Nathan Curtis on Twitter: https://twitter.com/nathanacurtis
What happens when you take apart the individual pieces that make up the design of your organization? And, more importantly, how do you make it better? That’s where Organizational Design comes into play. Lou chats with Adam Connor, VP of Organizational Design at Mad*Pow and author, about his upcoming workshop at Enterprise UX 2018, Transformation by Design.
Transform your enterprise at Enterprise UX 2018: http://enterpriseux.net/ Follow Adam Connor on Twitter: https://twitter.com/adamconnor Follow Rosenfeld Media: https://twitter.com/rosenfeldmedia
Designing the experience for customers to move through all of your touchpoints has gotten more complex: from your call center through your website, app, email, social media, on-the-ground store...the list goes on. Lou chats with authors Chris Risdon & Patrick Quattlebaum about their latest book, Orchestrating Experiences. Learn how you can collaborate differently across your teams to design a consistent experience that meets customers where they are.
Follow Chris Risdon on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ChrisRisdon Follow Patrick Quattlebaum on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ptquattlebaum Get your copy of Orchestrating Experiences: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/orchestrating-experiences/
Enterprises present complex challenges for designers and, really, everyone in a large org. Lou talks with Dick Buchanan about his pioneering work around the “fourth order of design,” and how design and systems thinking are related. Learn why Richard believes enterprises are the ultimate design challenge.
Join Dick at Enterprise UX 2018: http://enterpriseux.net/ Follow Rosenfeld Media: https://twitter.com/rosenfeldmedia
Big data is getting its fifteen minutes of fame - but where does qualitative data fit in, if at all? Lou talked with Tricia Wang, co-founder of Sudden Compass, about the importance of integrating qualitative and quantitative data, and why the only way to successfully scale an enterprise org is to bring back the human element. Tricia is our Scale theme leader at Enterprise UX 2018 Conference and introduces the lineup of speakers.
Follow Tricia Wang on Twitter: https://twitter.com/triciawang Follow Rosenfeld Media: https://twitter.com/rosenfeldmedia
Everyone has a story to tell, and UX practitioners are no exception. Lou talked with seasoned UX consultant Dan Willis about his role as the Storytelling Curator at the Enterprise UX Conference. Dan discusses the process that speakers go through to join the pantheon of past Enterprise UX Conference Storytellers - and how you can be part of this amazing tradition.
Apply to be a Storyteller at this year’s Enterprise UX: https://rfld.me/EUX2018story Follow Dan Willis on Twitter: https://twitter.com/uxcrank Follow Rosenfeld Media: https://twitter.com/rosenfeldmedia
When it comes to investing, most people think of dollars. But if you work in enterprise tech, you must invest in your people or your budget gets squandered. Amy Marquez, Manager of the Alexa Personality Experience team at Amazon, shares how you can better invest in people. And gives a sneak peek into what you can expect to hear about investing at the Enterprise UX 2018 conference. We’d love to see you at this year’s Enterprise UX conference: http://enterpriseux.net/
Follow Amy Marquez on Twitter: https://twitter.com/amymarquez Follow Rosenfeld Media: https://twitter.com/rosenfeldmedia
What do blockchains and conversational UI have to do with UX? Everything. Nathan Shedroff, founder of a new startup SEED Vault Ltd., believes the blockchain technology will transform the way we run businesses and achieve greater transparency in businesses for the overall social good. Hear how his new venture will use these emerging technologies to improve user experience.
Follow Nathan Shedroff on Twitter: https://twitter.com/nathanshedroff Follow Rosenfeld Media: https://twitter.com/rosenfeldmedia
A large organization operating online steps required to define how it manages digital politics: that’s how Facebook happens. Digital governance ensures large organizations can scale in ways that meet ethical standards. Lou talks with Lisa Welchman, digital governance expert and author, who explains the two big factors that lead to governance failures.
Follow Lisa Welchman on Twitter: https://twitter.com/lwelchman Follow Rosenfeld Media: https://twitter.com/rosenfeldmedia
We know we should have good communication skills, but what does that look like in an enterprise UX environment? In this episode, Margot Dear, Senior Director of User Experience at ADP, gives an overview of the different facets of communication. Hear about how she uses journey mapping to make a difference to talking to C-level execs. Finally, Margot gives a sneak peek into what you can expect to learn about communicating at Enterprise UX 2018.
We’d love to see you at this year’s Enterprise UX conference: http://enterpriseux.net/
Follow Margot Dear on Twitter: https://twitter.com/madgeodear Follow Rosenfeld Media: https://twitter.com/rosenfeldmedia
How do you build enterprise-level products while keeping ethics and diversity at the forefront of your process? Eduardo Ortiz, Product Designer of Siberia introduces the 3 experts who will speak about their experience developing ethical products within the enterprise environment at the Enterprise UX 2018 conference.
Join us at Enterprise UX: http://enterpriseux.net Follow Eduardo Ortiz on Twitter: https://twitter.com/eduardoortiz Follow Rosenfeld Media: https://twitter.com/rosenfeldmedia
Lou sat down with author Kevin M. Hoffman to talk about his book, “Meeting Design: For Managers, Makers, and Everyone”. Kevin explains how and why design thinking can be applied to meetings. Listen for tips you can use right away to set your meetings up for success.
Buy a copy of Meeting Design: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/meeting-design/ Follow Kevin M. Hoffman on Twitter: https://twitter.com/kevinmhoffman Follow Rosenfeld Media: https://twitter.com/rosenfeldmedia
It’s one thing to have the data and research, and it’s another to put it together in a way that teaches you something as an organization. Lou sits down with Phil Kemelor, VP of Client Services of MaasMedia, to discuss how digital data can complement the qualitative methods of UX best practices, in organizations of all sizes.
Follow Phil Kemelor on Twitter: https://twitter.com/philkemelor Follow Rosenfeld Media: https://twitter.com/rosenfeldmedia
The road of life is filled with many twists and turns. Design and UX careers are no different. Lou chats with Dirk Knemeyer about the evolution of his own journey, from the days when they founded UXnet.org, to Dirk’s divergent path as a tabletop game designer, chairman of Involution Studios, and the worldwide travels that led him to become a social futurist.
Follow Dirk Knemeyer on Twitter: https://twitter.com/dknemeyer Follow Rosenfeld Media: https://twitter.com/rosenfeldmedia
At first glance, the emerging field of DesignOps doesn’t have much in common with creating video games. Erin Hoffman-John, CEO of Sense of Wonder and Assistant Professor of Carnegie Mellon's Entertainment Technology Center in Silicon Valley, talks with Lou Rosenfeld about how game designers have a more direct connection to their users, and what that means for UX practitioners.
Erin is one of our speakers at this year’s DesignOps Summit! Stay tuned for details about next year’s conference.
Follow Erin Hoffman-John on Twitter: https://twitter.com/gryphoness Follow Rosenfeld Media: https://twitter.com/rosenfeldmedia
The fable of The Blind Man and the Elephant is a favorite here at Rosenfeld Media. But how does that apply to enterprise design? Lou sits down with Milan Guenther, co-founder of EDA (Enterprise Design Associates) and the creator of the Intersection Conference (http://2017.intersectionconf.com) to talk about how this fable has influenced their views on enterprise design - and how its influencing the future of UX.
Follow Milan Guenther and EDA on Twitter: @ent_des Follow Rosenfeld Media: @rosenfeldmedia
How does your enterprise handle the selection and implementation of new technology? Lou chats with Tony Byrne and Jarrod Gingras, authors of “The Right Way to Select Technology” and founders of the Real Story Group, to discuss how enterprises can select the correct technology without the headaches–or throwing money away.
Follow Tony Byrne on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TonyByrne Follow Jarrod Gringas on Twitter: https://twitter.com/jarrodgingras Follow Rosenfeld Media: https://twitter.com/rosenfeldmedia
Lou and Jeff Sussna discuss the challenge of synthesizing development and operations in a digital world. How do you scale design as part of a responsive digital business when everyone is digital? Jeff Sussna is the author of Designing Delivery. As principal at Ingineering.IT, he helps clients apply Agile, DevOps, and Design Thinking to maximize delivery speed and service quality.
Join Jeff and Lou at the DesignOps Summit: http://rfld.me/2uvcarb Follow Jeff Sussna on Twitter: https://twitter.com/jeffsussna Follow Rosenfeld Media: https://twitter.com/rosenfeldmedia
Everyone, no matter your role, can benefit from improving your project management skills. Brett Harned sits down to talk about his new book, “Project Management for Humans," and his career journey from creative to professional project manager.
Follow Brett Harned on Twitter:https://twitter.com/brettharned Follow Rosenfeld Media: https://twitter.com/rosenfeldmedia
In this episode, Tricia Wang, the founder of Constellate Data, turns the tables on our host Lou Rosenfeld. Lou tells Tricia his own war story of a failed client project with Borders Books. They discuss the dangers of silence, the value of speaking up, and when walking away from an impossible situation can be the best thing you can do for your career.
Follow Tricia Wang on Twitter: https://twitter.com/triciawang Follow Rosenfeld Media: https://twitter.com/rosenfeldmedia
Companies are investing in design like never before. But it's worth nothing without a plan. Kristin Skinner, Head of Design Management at Capital One, chats with Lou about the core values of DesignOps and how these ideas are shaking up the traditional corporate structure for the better.
Let’s talk DesignOps. Join us this November at Rosenfeld Media’s first ever DesignOps Summit: http://rfld.me/2uZmSH3
Follow Kristin Skinner on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bettay Follow Rosenfeld Media: https://twitter.com/rosenfeldmedia
How does an enterprise based on physical products become a software-based company? Lou talks with the VP of UX at GE Digital David Cronin to discuss how GE is transforming into a software-based business. David talks with Lou about how to bring together different operational teams with designers, and how designers can help facilitate the discussion between departments.
Join us this November at Rosenfeld Media’s DesignOps Summit: http://rfld.me/2eNVR3j
Follow David Cronin on Twitter : https://twitter.com/davcron Follow Rosenfeld Media: https://twitter.com/rosenfeldmedia
In this episode Sarah Kettles, Design Program Manager at Airbnb, talks with Lou about her journey from user research into the newish field of design operations (DesignOps). Hear how Sarah developed her DesignOps superpower, and how she uses it to ensure Airbnb stays a well-oiled design machine.
Want to sharpen DesignOps for your team? Join us this November at Rosenfeld Media’s first ever DesignOps Summit: http://rfld.me/2uCl2d0
Follow Sarah Kettles on Twitter : https://twitter.com/sarahkettles Follow Rosenfeld Media: https://twitter.com/rosenfeldmedia
To most designers, DesignOps sounds like a necessary evil. But not to Michael Polivka, Chief of Staff for Experience Design at Autodesk. Michael talks with Lou about how DesignOps actually serves product teams. And how adaptive modeling and radical prioritization from the top down can make design scalable in an enterprise environment.
Learn more about DesignOps at the inaugural DesignOps Summit this November 6-8, 2017 in NYC: http://rfld.me/2tJZRbC
Follow Michael Pollvka on Twitter:https://twitter.com/michaelpolivka Follow Rosenfeld Media: https://twitter.com/rosenfeldmedia
Can UX mapping transform someone’s life? Jim Kalbach, Head of Customer Success at Mural and author of “Mapping Experiences,” pondered this question when a global counter-terrorism organization approached him to facilitate a workshop in Abu Dhabi. The users were former violent extremists turned activists against terrorism. Jim chats with Lou about how this mapping experiences translates to social impact.
Read Jim’s work on his blog: https://experiencinginformation.com/ Follow Jim Kalbach on Twitter: https://twitter.com/JimKalbach Follow Rosenfeld Media: https://twitter.com/rosenfeldmedia
Why has artificial intelligence (AI) captivated the attention of everyday consumers now? Lou chats with Chris Noessel, Global Practice Design Lead for Transportation at IBM to explore how "smart" technology is shaking up many industries. His new book, “Designing Agentive Technology: AI That Works for People,” explores solutions, implications and ethics of design "smart" products for customers.
Buy Chris' book: http://rfld.me/2tXjjSf Follow Chris Noessel on Twitter: https://twitter.com/chrisnoessel Follow Rosenfeld Media on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rosenfeldmedia
What goes into crafting a truly amazing enterprise-level user experience? Theresa Neil, founder of Strategy + Design, discusses the unique UX challenges faced by enterprise-level clients. She outlines a strategy for EUX veterans - and for those new to UX - to ensure that you don't reinvent the wheel.
We’re honored to have Theresa Neil as our Theme Leader for Crafting Enterprise Experiences at this year’s EUX Conference. Get your tickets at www.enterpriseux.net or follow along on Twitter at @EXConference.
Follow Theresa Neil on Twitter : https://twitter.com/theresaneil Follow Rosenfeld Media: https://twitter.com/rosenfeldmedia
Did you talk to your smartphone today? Ask Google Home to play your favorite audiobook? The two-way conversation with technology has graduated from metaphor to reality. Lou sits down with Giles Colborne, author of “Simple and Usable” and the CEO/founder of CX Partners, to explore how having meaningful, interactive conversations with our tech is shaping and changing UX design.
Giles spoke at To Be Designed, a virtual conference we held on April 25. Buy the recorded program here: http://rfld.me/2nYaDYX
Follow Giles Colborne on Twitter : https://twitter.com/gilescolborne
How will "smart" technology and AI impact work for humans? Dr. Elizabeth Churchill, director of UX at Google, talks to Lou about how she sees AI providing a creative counterpart to work done by humans, not as a means to supplant it. She discusses the difference between coordination tooling and skills tooling, and how both are primed to be invaluable components of the EUX toolbox.
We’re ecstatic to have Elizabeth as our opening keynote speaker at the 2017 Enterprise UX Conference. Get your tickets at http://rfld.me/2ouQx8H or follow along on Twitter at @enterpriseUX.
Follow Elizabeth Churchill on Twitter : https://twitter.com/xeeliz Follow Rosenfeld Media: https://twitter.com/rosenfeldmedia
To many, Mark Templeton is synonymous with Citrix and UX. As CEO, he revolutionized enterprise software by making it user-friendly. For many, that would be enough of a legacy - but not for Mark. He discusses what a legacy means to him, and gives a sneak-peak into his closing address at EUX 2017.
Follow Mark Templeton on Twitter: https://twitter.com/markbtempleton Follow Rosenfeld Media: https://twitter.com/rosenfeldmedia
What do exotic big cats, enterprise UX, and silos have in common? Answer: they all require empathy and understanding. Lou sits down with Toby Haug, Head of Design & Co-Innovation Center at SAP, to discuss building bridges between silos, and how his design network (Design at Business) radically changed his approach to connecting with enterprise silos.
Love this podcast? Join us & Toby at the annual Enterprise UX Conference: http://rfld.me/2ouQx8H
UX looks at the interaction between products and people. But smart technology often leaves one user out in the cold: the robot. Lou chats with Carla Diana, a hybrid designer, author, and educator to discuss why smart tech is only as good as its interactions with people.
Carla is speaking at To Be Designed, our future and tech virtual conference on April 25. Buy tickets or the recorded program here: http://rfld.me/2nYaDYX
Find out more about Carla Diana at : http://www.carladiana.com
How much do you want your socks to know about you? Should they alert you that they need to be repaired or be made of self-cleaning fibers? Or should they be able to go one step further and order you a new pair as soon as they’re worn out? Lou sits down with Liza Kindred, founder of Third Wave Fashion, to talk about wearables, tech, and how “me” commerce is leading the charge for mindful tech.
Liza will be speaking at To Be Designed, our future and tech virtual conference on April 25. Buy tickets or the recorded program here: http://rfld.me/2nYaDYX
Check out Third Wave Fashion: http://thirdwavefashion.com/
Leaving a UX legacy at an enterprise level requires stamina, courage, and grit. But the common denominator for creating a UX legacy is a surprising one: empathy. Lou talks with Colette Vardeman, Executive Director of Design at USAA, about her current experiences, past challenges, and what she’ll be covering as Theme Leader for Creating a Legacy at 2017’s Enterprise UX Conference. Join us at Enterprise UX: http://rfld.me/2ouQx8H
Follow Colette Vardeman on Twitter: https://twitter.com/colettev Follow Rosenfeld Media: https://twitter.com/rosenfeldmedia
What does an interdisciplinary enterprise team need to focus on to ensure customer satisfaction? Lou talks with Phillip Hunter, Head of UX at Alexa Skills, about the unique challenges of growing and leading enterprise UX teams to success. Phillip Hunter is the Theme Leader for Leading Teams That Execute at 2017’s Enterprise UX Conference.
Get tickets at www.enterpriseux.net or follow along on Twitter at @enterpriseUX. Follow Phillip Hunter on Twitter: https://twitter.com/designoutloud Follow Rosenfeld Media: https://twitter.com/rosenfeldmedia
What's the difference between Customer Experience and User Experience? Are they working together to create a consistent experience with users of your products? Sarah Bloomer, former Director of Customer Experience and Insights at Forrester Research, talks to Lou Rosenfeld about what companies can do to build bridges between their Customer Experience and User Experience teams.
Follow Sarah Bloomer on Twitter: https://twitter.com/boolie Follow Rosenfeld Media: https://twitter.com/rosenfeldmedia
The Lean Product Playbook by Dan Olsen has revolutionized the way start-ups get their products to market. But what if you don't work in a startup? Dan reveals to Lou Rosenfeld how the lean philosophy can be applied to companies of all shapes and sizes–even enterprises. Learn what the common challenges and solutions are to bringing the lean philosophy into an established company.
Follow Dan Olsen on Twitter: https://twitter.com/danolsen Follow Rosenfeld Media: https://twitter.com/rosenfeldmedia
A couple of researchers walk into a bar. After a few drinks, they fess up their most embarrassing tales of research gone wrong. In this podcast, Steve Portigal talks about how that one night at the bar (and cat pee) sparked the idea for his book Doorbells, Danger, and Dead Batteries. Learn why Steve believes in the value of failure stories, and how he convinced a skeptical Lou to publish the book.
Follow Steve Portigal on Twitter: https://twitter.com/steveportigal Follow Rosenfeld Media: https://twitter.com/rosenfeldmedia
Most companies innovate backwards–focusing first on what features or products they can build. In reality, you're in the relationship business. Authors Nathan Shedroff and Steve Diller talk about new tools they’ve developed to help businesses innovate with customer relationships in mind.
Buy the Book: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/blind-spot/ Follow Nathan on Twitter: https://twitter.com/nathanshedroff Follow Rosenfeld Media: https://twitter.com/rosenfeldmedia
Throwing money at technology won’t automatically make your company more innovative or productive. So how do you pick the right tools for your organization? In this episode, Real Story Group founder Tony Byrne talks about what digital leaders need to do to make tech buying decisions that drive success.
Follow Tony on Twitter: https://twitter.com/tonybyrne Follow Rosenfeld Media: https://twitter.com/rosenfeldmedia Buy books by Real Story Group: http://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/#digital-reality-checks-books
Does your company struggle to find and use video, audio, and image assets after you’ve created them? Do they disappear into a dark netherworld on your server? In this episode, Theresa Regli, author of Digital and Marketing Asset Management, breaks down what to ask before buying kludgy and expensive software. And which vendors rank highest on her list of otherwise lackluster DAM vendors.
Buy Theresa’s book: http://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/digital-and-marketing-asset-management/ Follow Theresa on Twitter: https://twitter.com/theresaregli Follow Rosenfeld Media: https://twitter.com/rosenfeldmedia
Too often, companies take a “research band-aid” approach to user research. Fixing things over here that causes problems over there. Julie Stanford, founder of Sliced Bread Design, and talks about how to avoid playing Whack-A-Mole when researching and designing products.
Register for User Research for Everyone Conference: http://userresearchforeveryone.com Follow Julie on Twitter: https://twitter.com/juliestanford Follow Rosenfeld Media on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rosenfeldmedia
Usability testing helps you find bugs in your product. But it can’t tell you if customers love your product. In this episode, UX Team Of One author Leah Buley talks about the insights under your nose that you probably aren’t using. And offers a realistic approach to rapid research and product development.
Follow Leah on Twitter: https://twitter.com/leahbuley Follow Rosenfeld Media: https://twitter.com/rosenfeldmedia
Every company wants to make useful products that people want–but few really do. In today’s episode, Steve Krug, author of Rocket Surgery Made Easy, chats with guest host Laura Klein. Steve shares tips for setting up a successful usability test–and what two questions you should never ask during the test. Ever.
Sign up for the User Research for Everyone Conference: http://userresearchforeveryone.com Follow Steve on Twitter: https://twitter.com/skrug Follow Rosenfeld Media: https://twitter.com/rosenfeldmedia
You're sitting in front of a mound of user research data. How do you take that mound and make it into valuable bite-sized chunks? How do you make decisionmakers care? Abby Covert, author of How to Make Sense of Any Mess, shares her approach to packaging research in ways that get at what audiences need.
Buy Abby’s book: https://www.amazon.com/How-Make-Sense-Any-Mess/dp/1500615994 Follow Abby on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Abby_the_IA Follow Rosenfeld Media: https://twitter.com/rosenfeldmedia
Cindy Alvarez knows how to go toe to toe with leaders who resist user research and still get it done. The author of Lean Customer Development shares tips from her experience for conducting research–even when you don't have formal authority or budget.
Buy Cindy’s book: http://www.leancustomerdevelopment.com/ Follow Cindy on Twitter: https://twitter.com/cindyalvarez Follow Rosenfeld Media: https://twitter.com/rosenfeldmedia
Erika Hall wants us to get one thing straight: getting research right isn’t about the method you choose. It’s about gathering research to make the right design decisions for your business. Hear Erika’s ideas for how to bake research into the product design process. And why every organization needs a “team philosopher.”
Buy Erika’s book: https://www.amazon.com/Just-Enough-Research-Erika-Hall/dp/1937557103 Follow Erika on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mulegirl Follow Rosenfeld Media on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rosenfeldmedia
Nate Bolt knows more about recruiting for user research than the average human. He created the first moderated remote testing software, founded Ethnio, and authored the book Remote Research. In this podcast, Nate sits down with Lou to share ideas for how to get started, and what to look for in an ideal research participant.
Buy Nate’s book: http://rfld.me/scboltbk Follow Nate on Twitter: https://twitter.com/boltron Follow Rosenfeld Media on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rosenfeldmedia
As a designer since the early days of Flash, Val Head knows first hand how animation design has evolved to become a powerful tool for creating better user experiences. Hear Val’s insights from her book Designing Interface Animation––for how using motion to enhance your brand, and mobile UX.
Buy Val's book: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/designing-interface-animation/ Follow Val on Twitter: https://twitter.com/vlh Follow Rosenfeld Media: https://twitter.com/rosenfeldmedia
Why was the F16's requirements document one tenth as long as the F15's, and yet the F16 took half as much time and money to develop? Dan Ward knows; he spent 20 years innovating within the US Air Force. He has advice you'll want to hear on rapid innovation and how and why to keep projects small and simple.
We grabbed Boon Sheridan—a veritable Swiss Army knife of UX—and asked him that simple question that's not really so simple: what do you know now that you wish you would have known when you started out in UX?
Boon's got three things on his wish-he-woulda-known list: how to communicate complex concepts, synthesize disparate types of data, and help different kinds of people communicate. And how to wireframe under water. OK, well not that.
Boon also shares his recipe for career success. Its four ingredients—theory, experience, inspiration, and guidance—may sound straightforward, but they're really tough to find.
Longtime friend Marcin Treder of UXPin chats with Lou about the importance of a systematic approach to design and the difficulty that large scale or distributed teams of staying methodical and aligned. Visit UXPin's table at Enterprise UX next week and meet their team.
The Brilliant Tomer Sharon talks to Lou about his approach to research, the value of culture and process over deliverables and the emerging off-screen frontier of UX design.
Lou and Andy Budd discuss the evolution of the UX conference over the years, the importance of an attendee-centered experience and program design, the differences between American and European conference markets and their changing relationship to Karaoke as time goes on. A fascinating look behind the curtain for those of us who live our lives between conference trips.
Rackspace's KC Teis sits down with Lou to share his perspective on leadership: his own story of growth and discovery, people he has seen blossom from unassuming designers into highly effective leaders, and, above all, the need to be an authentic, consistent and humane. 20 minutes of tremendous conversation.
KC's organization Rackspace is a founding sponsor of Enterprise UX (www.enterpriseux.net). They will host the event for the second time June 8-10 at their beautiful headquarters in San Antonio.
Enterprise UX (www.enterpriseux.net) braintrust Uday Gajendar and Dave Malouf get together with Lou to talk us through the reasons that UX design needed a conference for enterpise, how they tackled the unique challenges of community building and programming posed by an emerging subset of the profession, and how they plan to keep from being 'one hit wonders.'
Rosenfeld Author and delightful person Donna Lichaw comes on the podcast to talk about the significance of narratives in daily life and how that connects in a very significant way to the design professions.
Enterprise UX (www.enterpriseux.net) theme leader and super-nice Brooklynite Ted Booth talks through the process of designing for the multitudes. After hearing from Ted, you will never see your thermostat the same way again.
Stephanie Gioia of XPLANE comes by to tell Lou about the value of visual thinking in making sure teams are framing the problem in the same way and work with a shared intention. XPLANE will be moderating Challenge Sprints, a new experiment in conference programming making their debut at Enterprise UX this year in San Antonio. (www.enterpriseux.net)
Lou and fellow Michigander/Information Architect Dan Klyn talk about carrying ideas and practices from their originators to a broader community of practice. Wurman, Alexander, and the elusive dream of an ordered, life-affirming digital information landscape.
Lou talks to Mariano Suarez-Battan and Jim Kalbach of Mural.ly to discuss the state of User Experience Design, working solutions for distributed teams, and how design leaders can start putting together optimal solutions one piece at a time.
Look for Mural.ly to make an appearance at EnterpriseUX in San Antonio, June 8-10. www.enterpriseux.net
Eminent design mind, USAA VP and Enterprise UX 16 theme leader Richard Dalton stops by to discuss Disney's Magic Bands, the nuts and bolts of building a world-class design capability into an enormous 90-year-old company and the tenuous future of auto insurers in a world without car accidents. Richard will be a theme leader on "The Politcs of Innovation at Enterprise UX, June 8-10 in San Antonio www.enterpriseux.net
Susan Worthman, Design stategist, writer and Associate Dean of the Design MBA program at CCA talks Lou through the nuances and challenges of building and retaining a potent experience design team in a moment where that is a significant challenge. She will be a theme leader at Enterprise UX in San Antonio, June 8-10: www.enterpriseux.net.
Jack Moffett, leader of the apps development group at GUI Immedius, talks to Lou about the importance of systems and standard practices for designing at scale when the stakes are high. Jack will be a theme leader at Enterprise UX 2016, June 8-10 in San Antonio: www.enterpriseux.net.
Design Guru and sketch-noting virtuoso MJ Broadbent tells Lou about her transition from smaller scale UX consultancy to an exciting position within GE Digital. Be sure to catch her sketch noting work at Enterprise UX 2016 www.enterpriseux.net.
Lou visits with old friend Peter Morville for a discussion of the evolution of the internet, what they expected for the internet twenty years ago, and guessing at what we may see twenty years down the road.
Craig Villamor tells Lou about the unique challenges of making UX a priority in a rapidly growing company.
Now more than ever, customers demand great experiences from their products. To answer the call, many traditional companies are looking for design leaders to create end-to-end, human experiences. How can you parlay your design superpowers into skills that drive big change? Rise of the DEO co-author Maria Giuduce shares ideas taken from her book and personal experiences.
It happens all too often: a beautifully designed product ends up loved and used by only few dozen people. Laura Klein talks with Lou about how UX designers and product managers can borrow ideas from growth hacking to grow a bigger base of users for the products they make.Get her book, Build Better Products: http://rfld.me/2fp77Cd
Lou and longtime friend Steve Krug exchange opinions about their new wearables: Lou’s fitbit and Steve’s Apple Watch. Hear which wearable earns a thumbs down, why Steve thinks wearables will become a game changer, and Lou’s idea for how the fitbit could aid stressed out cat owners.
Empathy is a hot conversation topic these days but much as we try, we’re not quite using our empathy muscles to their fullest extent when solving design problems for real people. Indi Young, author of Mental Models and Practical Empathy talks about how our assumptions can lead us astray.
Buy Practical Empathy: http://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/practical-empathy/ Buy Mental Models: http://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/mental-models/ Follow @indiyoung Follow @rosenfeldmedia
Well-crafted UX depends on having a company culture that’s set up to design well. Can you influence the culture of your company? Yes. Marc and Lou discuss three unique approaches to culture change happening in corporations like IBM and Citrix today. This is a preview into a panel Marc will lead on Designing Organizational Culture at Enterprise UX in San Antonio (May 13-15). Get tickets at www.enterpriseux.net or follow along on Twitter at @enterpriseUX.
UX commando Dan Willis talks with Lou about his experience handpicking a “best of” lineup of UX tales to be performed live at the Enterprise UX conference this May 13. Dan shares a few tips on how to present a memorable story in five minutes–and whether it’s ever a good idea to drink a beer before going on stage. See the official line-up or follow along on Twitter at @enterpriseUX.
Four years ago GE discovered it was one of the largest software companies in the world--but not building software very well. Hear how Greg Pettroff, as GE’s Chief Experience Officer, slowly built a community inside the company to evangelize the importance of design in a developer-focused culture. Greg will give the opening keynote at the Enterprise UX 2015 conference in San Antonio this May 13-15. Get tickets at www.enterpriseux.net or follow along on Twitter at @enterpriseUX.
Lou Rosenfeld and Steve Sanderson break down ways designers can use experimentation as a tool for innovation in enterprises. Steve also gives a preview to hot topics to be covered around innovating in big business at Enterprise UX, San Antonio, TX, May 13-15.
@stevesanderson www.stevesanderson.com
@enterpriseux www.enterpriseUX.net
What does quality and craft look like in the Enterprise UX world? Kendra and Lou take on the unique challenges of designing software to meet the needs of a constantly changing world.
Craft Amid Complexity is a key theme at the upcoming Enterprise UX 2015 conference, where Kendra will deep dive into the topic along with fellow experts David Cronin, Uday Gajendar and Peter Morville.
@kshimmell http://www.cooper.com/people/kendra_shimmell
@enterpriseUX www.enterpriseux.net
When you sit in the middle of an organization, it's easy to believe you can't change things. Dave and Lou talk about how we can tap our powers of liminal thinking to shed light on why people act the way they do and create safe spaces that foster better collaboration.
Buy Dave’s book: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/liminal-thinking/ Follow Dave on Twitter: https://twitter.com/davegray Follow Rosenfeld Media: https://twitter.com/rosenfeldmedia
Steve and Lou dig into the challenges of learning about people who engage with enterprises—how to gather data, and how to synthesize that data to get to something like true insight. Insight at Scale is a major theme at the upcoming Enterprise UX 2015 conference (San Antonio, May 13-15), where Steve will dig deeper into the subject along with Kelly Goto, Christian Rohrer, and Chris Chapo.
Jason Scott takes a break from saving the Internet to talk with Lou Rosenfeld by The Rosenfeld Review Podcast (Rosenfeld Media)
Chris Avore and Lou Rosenfeld talk about their upcoming conferences: Pro/Design in New York City on January 30 (hosted by Nasdaq) and Enterprise UX in San Antonio on May 13-15(hosted by Rosenfeld Media and Rackspace).
Pro/Design will be held on Friday, January 30, 2015. There are currently no more tickets available. However, Nasdaq will be releasing live stream information on Monday, January 26. http://prodesignconf.com/ Stay updated about Pro/Design here: @PROdesignconf and #prodesignconf Follow Chris on Twitter here: @erova Follow Chris and his team at Nasdaq here: @NasdaqDesign
Enterprise UX will be held on March 13-15, 2015. For more about Enterprise UX: www.enterpriseux.net @EnterpriseUX @RosenfeldMedia
Recorded July 25, 2014
Brett Helquist @BHelquist www.bretthelquist.com/
Deb Gelman @dgelman rosenfeldmedia.com/experts/debra-gelman/
Design for Kids rosenfeldmedia.com/books/design-for-kids/
Lemony Snicket www.lemonysnicket.com/
Recorded March 28, 2014 at the IA Summit, San Diego
Donna Lichaw @dlichaw http://www.greatnorthelectric.com/
Eduardo Ortiz @eduardoortiz http://about.me/efortiz
Designing for Villains http://2014.iasummit.org/designing-for-villians/
Mary Gaitskill/Secretary http://marygaitskill.com/ http://www.secretarythemovie.co.uk/html/home.html
Sanky Panky http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanky-panky