Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast User Defenders – UX Design & Personal Growth
| Titre | Date | Durée | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hitting Pause (2022) | 28 Mar 2022 | 00:07:00 | |
Life and career (re)focus this year have brought me to a place where I need to hit pause on this show’s production for the foreseeable future. Check out this broadcast for further info on this. Keep fighting the good fight, dear Defender! Jason jasonogle.com BioI’m a highly self-aware design leader with 30 years of experience leading and crafting digital experiences that solve complex problems, delight the users and exceed business outcomes. As a veteran HCI design practitioner, I’m passionate about designing thoughtful, innovative, elegant user interfaces and interactions that reduce friction and make life better for users and more profitable for business. Along with being comfortable with ambiguity, I’m a solutionist who’s borderline obsessed with solving problems, and among the few who sweats the small stuff (always have, always will). As a personal growth/mindset enthusiast, I’m convinced that being a great designer begins and ends with being a great human. I’m also the founder, host and producer of User Defenders Podcast, creator of the only Jakob Nielsen-endorsed Heuristic Evaluation Template, and I have a personal relationship with the Creator of the Universe. | |||
| 080: Everything I Know (So Far) on Landing a Job in UX with Jason Ogle | 30 Sep 2021 | 01:24:35 | |
This is the last episode of 2021. After nearly two years of outlining the content for this episode and nearly two months (at time of writing) of recording & editing, here’s everything I know (so far) on landing a job in UX. I hope this content is not only useful to you and anyone you know looking to land their first (or next) job in UX, but I sincerely hope this episode is greatly inspirational and even life-changing for you. I forgot to say it at the end of the episode, so Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Joyous New Year dear Defenders! Take care of yourself and each other, and I’ll see you on the other side of this year with more amazing UX/Design content! Jason Ogle BioJason Ogle is human, not dancer. He’s a growth-minded, avid reader and listener whose vehicle is a rolling university. He’s an innovative and strategic design leader focused on product creation, growth and conversion. He’s a passionate user defender who fights for the users who are victims of bad design decisions. He’s an influential podcaster who uses the enchanting magic of audio to inspire and equip an audience of hungry and ambitious designers. He’s an evocative (often contrarian) writer who believeth in the power of the written word. He’s a confident, highly self-aware servant-leader who believes that humans are so much more than resources. He’s a loving husband (22 yrs and counting) and father of six here on earth (which speaks to his leadership abilities), and one already in heaven (which speaks to his deep capacity for empathy). Fun facts: He once had to get a manicure to be a hand-model for a tech ad, got his uvula surgically removed while recovering from ankle surgery, and has a rare essay titled “Altars of Satan” given to him and signed by Eldridge Cleaver. Timestamps
Jason Ogle LinkedIn Jason Ogle Website Jason Ogle Resume (Before) [PDF] Jason Ogle Resume (After) [PDF] Land a Job in UX Series 079: Listener Spotlight – Landing My First UX Job [PODCAST] 055: How to Get Your Foot in the Door with Andy Budd [PODCAST] 056: Building an Effective UX Portfolio with Sarah Doody [PODCAST] 057: Interviewing Like a Boss with Andy Vitale [PODCAST] 058: Finding the Right Cultural Fit with Justin Dauer [PODCAST] Ken Coleman Show [PODCAST] Ken Coleman Resume Guide [PDF] Imposter Syndrome: Why We Have it and How to Kick it in the Privates [PODCAST] Radical Empathy with Seth Godin [PODCAST] Best Advice for Someone Looking to Land Their First UX Job (LinkedIn Thread) Build your design portfolio around one awesome story [ARTICLE] 2022 UX Salary Guide (US + Canada) – Vitamin T aText (Text Expander) Song credit at the end Comeback Kid by The Midnight Merch
Show transcript OriginSo, let me kick things off with a quick backstory. Toward the end of 2019, actually just before the holidays, worst possible time to be told you don’t have a job. Spoiler alert. I was called into an office, and immediately saw one of the VP’s of design, and also an HR person, and I knew immediately, okay, this is the end of my tenure. I had been at my company for nearly seven years. I was working for an extremely toxic leader. The first moment I realized that, my goal was to get as far away as possible from this person. An opportunity opened up for me to help out on more of a user experience focused team within the organization. And so, what I ended up doing was I ended up moving onto that team and into a user research capacity, which is really out of my wheelhouse, honestly. I’ve done little bits here and there, but I’ve never actually taken on that responsibility. But, it was a good stretch for me. And I learned a lot in a short amount of time was able to conduct some important research. I found myself sort of in limbo because there were a lot of changes that were actually started beginning to happen on this new team that I was on new leadership, and you know how that can happen. It’s happened to me before. You get hired by a specific leader, that person leaves, and a new leader comes in, and maybe they don’t like you for whatever reason. Maybe you’re not a yes man or yes woman. And they have an ego trip. This is a true story. And they don’t like that. And maybe there’s some age-ism issues, that happened to me too at the same place. This guy just wanted young people who would just comply and just do whatever he said and not challenge his decisions. So he got rid of me. Anyway, that’s sort of what happened again to me, just in a little bit of a different capacity. New leadership came in and I kind of found myself the new guy. And last one hired first one fired kind of thing. And so I ended up. Getting the talk and told, “Hey, we got to let you go.” And so of course that was, it’s always a gut punch, right? Especially when you’ve been committed to a company for so long and everything, but, all that to say they handled it extremely graciously with me. And gave me, like, I think two more months to kind of wrap things up and gave me time to even work on my portfolio. Got the severance, and everything, so I was super grateful for how they handle that. It was a just total pro way to do things and companies listening. I know you have to lay people off. I know it’s business, it’s not personal, but it certainly feels personal to the person being laid off. Really, please try your hardest, do your best to let that person off as gently as possible. Don’t just give them like a day and to just be gone. Right. It’s not cool. Especially when somebody served there, and been loyal for a while. Please take that to heart and please be respectful and empathic about how you go about doing these things because it hurts. It just, it just does it’s it may not hurt you because you still have a job, but it hurts the person being told they no longer have the means to provide for their family. So, the very beginning of January, 2020 before the great plague, I found myself in transition. It had been seven years nearly since I had to pound the pavement, and all of a sudden, here I am. I’m like scrambling to get a portfolio together and you’ve heard me talk about it before my website. I wanted to hand code it, and it’s still not done. And I had started it even before this happened. I was able to at least get a project on there and I was able to at least kind of get a homepage together. It was a rude awakening for me to all of a sudden find myself on the hunt. To all of a sudden find myself searching for work. And I really, honestly, I felt like a fish out of water. That’s the best way I can put it. It’s been a long time. I didn’t know what the market was like. And honestly, even in 2020, the supply of designers, I felt like was much higher than the demand. It’s been a journey, and I’m very grateful that my transitional period was only about a month, honestly, I’ve been in transition for a year before and that sucked. That really sucked. That was hard. And, I was able to thankfully do some freelancing in the midst of that, but, man it’s hard. I have empathy for you having been in your shoes not long ago. Count the CostsSo, before I jump into really giving you as much information and knowledge that I’ve learned about landing a job to date. I really want to actually take a second here to sort of challenge you. And I, honestly don’t do this and I haven’t really done this before. I want to ask you sincerely, and I want you to ask yourself, do you really want to do this? Do you really want to do this? I was reflecting on this a little bit and I love this stuff so much. Obviously. I love this work. I love talking about it. I love talking to others about it. And I love inspiring new designers. It’s one of my favorite things. And honestly, I never get sick of hearing when you tell me, thank you so much for what you’re doing, because of your podcast and this information that you shared or your guests shared. I got my first job in UX. I never get tired of hearing that. But I realized something about myself in reflection, and particularly before even thinking about doing an episode like this. I found myself really reflecting on how I can tend to possibly over-glamorize this field and only talk about the great parts. And that sort of stopped me in my tracks and it made me want to take a step back and try to make sure that I’m honest with you that even though this work is really, really awesome. It is really, really challenging. And it can be very trying. It can be very stressful. It can be deflating. I’m going to take a few minutes here and I’m going to challenge you. I’m going to challenge all of us, especially Defenders, especially you who are trying to get your first foot in the door. That you haven’t worked in this field before, but you have done enough research. You’ve listened to this show. Maybe listen to a few episodes and they inspired you, and I’m glad for that. I really want to talk to you, especially because folks that have been doing this for a while, you may already have an idea, but still tune in, listen to this. Because I really think this is important to count the cost of this work. One of the big challenges, which is again, is a great thing and I enjoy this particularly, but it also makes my head hurt, is solving some really big problems. UX is all about problem solving and trying to make life better for people you’ve never met. Think about that. There’s a lot of sacrifice and that’s why I say it a hundred times, but the superhero metaphor really works in this field. Because you are laying yourself down for people you probably have never met and you may never meet in your life. But you have empathy for these folks because you’re trying to help them. You’re trying to solve a problem they themselves cannot solve on their own. That requires a lot of effort. Especially the big problems. Small problems are easy and they’re fun to solve. The big problems, it’ll make your head hurt and honestly, sometimes it’ll make your heart hurt. Okay. So I want to put that out there, especially if you’re working on complex software. Which thankfully my new job. I am doing a lot of that. So It’s exhilarating and it’s incredibly intimidating. Think about that. If you love solving problems. If you fall more in love with the problem than the solution. Keep listening, and keep pursuing this work cause I believe you’re going to do well. And I believe we’re all going to benefit from that. From you being in this field, working. The other thing I want to say, you have to be okay with ambiguity, and you have to get comfortable with not having all the answers. And then here you go. I’m wearing a shirt right now. that says, “Your ego is not your amigo.” That’s honestly one of the pillars of doing this work and getting into this field, you’ve got to check your ego at the door and you got to leave it there. Okay. If you don’t, you’re going to have a lot of problems in this field and if you’re a leader, God help you and God help the people that are serving under you. Because you’re going to be a terrible leader. You gotta be okay with admitting you do not have all the answers because you don’t. And be willing. To take it a step further. You need to be willing to find those answers wherever you can. And here’s a great response, if somebody asks you, do you know this or like kind of looking to you to have the answer. If you don’t know, be honest and say, I don’t know the answer to that, but I can find out. Right. We have the cannon of the world’s knowledge in our pockets now. We can find out the answer to pretty much anything, I think. To be successful in this work requires immense humility and confidence. It’s a really interesting dichotomy, but it’s possible. It’s hard, but it’s very possible. Because again, this is not about you. This is about solving other people’s problems and providing valuable service. Not shining a spotlight on how awesome you are. I’m sorry. if that discourages you and you want to show boat and you want to be the one in the spotlight all the time, this is not the work for you. That’s a hard truth. But it is true. The best products that I’ve ever worked on and that I’ve ever seen, always involve a team of very different people working together to make it so. If you have introverted tendencies like me, this is another one you’re going to wrestle with. You have to take your headphones off. Get out of your chair and talk to others, a lot. Okay? And now in this pandemic age of remote work, that means of course, many more virtual meetings where you’re talking and you can’t see the faces and reactions of the folks on the other side, that can be unnerving, because not everybody is going to have their camera on all the time and that’s fine. It’s a new normal, we have to be used to that. And we just don’t know. If you lack confidence in that and you just wonder if people are hating on you on the other side and you can’t see their faces, That’s unnerving. You have to grow a lot in confidence and you will when you put yourself out there and you just do it, even if you fall again, get back up more on that later. Expect to be called on and contribute to meetings. That is if it’s not you setting the agenda and running the dang things, a lot. Designers are leaders. Okay. I don’t care if you have a title or not, you are leading the design of the thing that you’re working on. You will be leading a lot of meetings. So be prepared to be called on for answers. Again, be honest about it and, and be transparent. But be confident. You’re the expert. You’re the expert here. So. You’re going to probably be running a lot of meetings, design reviews, and things like that. You gotta get comfortable with discomfort. Okay. So. Introverts unite, separately in your own homes. Again, I touched on this earlier. You want to fall more in love with the problems than the solutions, and that’s hard, especially for newer designers. I know this personally, because I remember the beginning of my journey, I tend to love everything I create. You can’t do that. You can’t fall in love with your solutions, because going to be called out on it. You’re going to have to articulate your design decision. You’re going to have to sell and persuade stakeholders and leadership and customers of your design, and you’re going to have to defend sometimes defend your design decisions. Especially when it’s backed up by research, hopefully it is. So you’re going to throw away a lot of work. Especially work that you love. So be ready for that. It sucks. It hurts. But kill your darlings, right? Like Bob said, Bob Baxley in his episode, I think 78. He said it’s like we’re building sand castles on the beach. Here today, gone tomorrow. In essence, that’s true. And that can be discouraging. So, if you’re wanting to create an art piece, like Van Gogh or something like that, that’s going to stand the test of time, maybe this isn’t the work for you. If you hate throwing away your work and especially your blood, sweat, and tears that went into it. This may not be for you. Okay. Again, in the same vain, be prepared for your work to be rejected. Hopefully not ridiculed, but Hey, it may happen. By your peers and stakeholders. You really have to grow thick skin in this work. That’s a fact. Countless iterations, countless refinements of something that isn’t even going to last terribly long in the grand scheme of things. Again, be willing to kill your darlings. But also in light of that, right? The flip side of that coin, be willing to put everything you can into making that the best possible solution for your users, for your business, and for your own sense of self pride with what you do. Pride in what you do and arrogance are two very different things. So, I’m not saying be arrogant about your word. I’m saying take pride in your work because you know what. It’s going to be better if you do that. There’s a designer out there who wrote this article that said, here’s my advice to new designers. If you hate everything you’ve ever done, you’re a designer. I disagree with that. I do disagree with that. I feel like if you don’t take pride in everything you do, you’ve got more work to do. I agree with Bob Baxley sentiment there as well. So, yeah, you’re going to probably hate it later. Because we’re designers, we want to make things better, but honestly, if you are shipping stuff that you hate. I don’t think you did a good enough job, and you should try to spend more time if you can doing that. I know sometimes our hands are tied with unrealistic deadlines. That’s my next point. You know, sometimes you are up against super aggressive and unrealistic deadlines where you’re still expected to deliver great work. That is hard to do. you will learn the more you do this. You’ll learn to manage expectations. The worst thing you can do is to set such an unrealistically high expectation, and not be able to deliver on that and/or burn yourself out while trying to uphold that standard that you yourself have set. You’re going to burn out. I promise you. It’s not worth it. I’m sure there’s a lot more on the negative side that we can talk about, but honestly, I think that covers some of the major stuff. You’re going to run into this. Now, if I’ve dissuaded you from pursuing this after hearing that, you can stop listening now. Honestly, you can stop listening now. This may not be for you. But if not, if you’re like, If I like motivated you, then, let’s keep going. Right. Let’s keep going. Let’s go into this. We’re going to get into portfolio next. PortfolioAll right, let’s talk about portfolio. What is the purpose of a portfolio? Well, it’s bait for landing your first interview. There’s a lot of questions around how many projects should I put in there? And there’s a lot of different answers depending on who you ask. I used to be of the mindset that I should just put all of the things I’ve worked on in my portfolio. And as a result, I had graphic design in there. I had print design. I had flash animations. I had logos. I had web designs. A lot of different stuff. I thought. That’s cool. It’ll show how well-rounded I am right. There’s a couple problems with this approach. One, you lose a lot of focus with trying to emphasize one really important project that you worked on. And two, you may have work that doesn’t reflect your career trajectory. Where you’re trying to go. I didn’t want to be a graphic designer any longer. I didn’t want to do print design any longer. If you look at my portfolio, it may tell you otherwise. And so it’s again having empathy for the recruiters looking at your work. What do you want them to see? What do you want them to know about you? What do you want them to focus on? I came across this really interesting article by Jake Knapp. And this article he wrote is called build your design portfolio around one and only one awesome story. That definitely grabbed my attention. So I checked it out and I tried it and it actually worked for me in getting my current job. I was able to really tell the story of this one project that I was most proud of at my previous position where I was able to actually not only design and help build, but actually ideate around this product solution. I actually came up with this product idea. And was able to pitch it to executives, get buy-in. I mean, this is a multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars of a product build. And I was able to be a part of the business case and everything, the whole life cycle. That was a compelling story. I was able to tell. I did that and again, it worked so there’s something to be said, but I worked for Jake Knapp because he got a job at Google doing this. Anyway, that’s something to consider, I’ll be sure to link that in the show notes, I highly recommend checking it out and giving it a shot Another thing to keep in mind is to treat your portfolio like a screenplay. Now I mentioned this to Sarah Doody in her episode, building an effective UX portfolio that’s episode 56 in the Land a Job in UX series. I used to study screenwriting a long time ago. I’m still an aspiring screenwriter. One of these days, I’ll write one probably in retirement. One of the major takeaways that I learned is that. Any of these movies that get made, it’s because they grabbed the attention of the producers or filmmakers or studios in the first page. They hooked them. And then they also wrote a great story too. They call that a page-turner. But the, how does that begin? It begins with grabbing the attention on page one. Telling a really interesting story. So think about that, and as it relates to your portfolio. And again, check out that episode with Sarah Doody yet to episode 56, I’ll be sure to link to all of this in the show notes as well. Here’s another really important thing to keep in mind that I wished I had known earlier on. Document your journey along the way. Now, what do I mean by that? I mean these projects, this one awesome portfolio story that you want to tell, if you’re not capturing data along the way, if you’re not capturing the struggles that you encountered, the solutions that you came up with to overcome how you collaborated with other team members, the lift that this product or app or whatever it is you created made, those things are going to be far more difficult to try to recall later than if you would just capture it along the way. And then here’s the other thing. If you have an analytics team, you may not, it’s not totally common yet, but it’s getting there, I think. If there’s an analytics team there make friends with them, buy them a coffee, buy them lunch or whatever. They’re the ones you’re gonna want to go to after the fact for data around what you contributed to in your role in this product, in this process. I was able to get some good data from one of my jobs that had an analytics person, and it made a big difference and it looks really good on my resume. I know it’s really popular to put pictures of stickies and post-its, and maybe you in front of those and. That’s fine. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s just, it’s so common now. And it’s almost like, okay, great, you have a bunch of stickies in front of you, right? Again, I’m not knocking you if you’re doing that, that’s fine. And I know that there’s a lot of work that goes into finding that solution, and it shows our research mind, which is great. But, I want to encourage you just to think more about, again, empathy for the recruiter. They don’t have a lot of time to look at your portfolio. They don’t have a lot of time to read your case studies. Think about this, try to frame your one awesome story and project in this way. Problem, solution, and lift. And of course your role in making that happen. Document your struggles. The problems you encountered, how you were able to innovate to overcome those. Those are great stories too, and what you learned, how you grew as a contributor, as a designer, as a thinker. But when you’re doing a case study, think about problem, solution and lift. That’s it. Don’t worry about the process as much, in my opinion, if they really want to know it, they can invite you for an interview and ask you about it. That’s just my opinion. I just feel like, they don’t have a lot of time. Keep that in mind. And then how about a call to action maybe at the end that says, Hey, I’d love to discuss my process with you. Here’s a button request an interview with me, right. Why not? And then give them a way to easily contact you for that. And please for the love of God, don’t send screenshots to anyone without a case study and then to go a step further. Don’t send screenshots in even a case study without an appointment to talk it through. I made that mistake once, and I learned really quickly. All they’re looking at is visual design. Essentially and they may not even read your case study. It doesn’t make sense. So, if somebody is interested in seeing your work, if you don’t have a portfolio online, of course. I’ll show you my work, let’s set up a time and on. I’ll send you the samples I’d love to talk you through it. Here’s another really important thing that I tried and really paid off. On this one awesome story or this project that you worked on or that you’re working on, make sure that you get some recommendations out of it. And these could be LinkedIn recommendations, those are great too, because that reflects on your LinkedIn profile, and also is you can extract it out and use it on your portfolio, on your project. I did this and it was really awesome, and I knew that my job, my tenure was coming to an end at one of my previous companies. On this project I worked on. And so I was able to actually ask all of the folks that I worked with on this project for recommendations, for endorsements about my role in this project. It’s awesome. People will generally oblige and it just goes a long way. It continues to tell that story of what you did, what you accomplished. It’s other people speaking on your behalf about your contributions and validates your story. So. Definitely check it out. I, I did this on my website and I’ll point you to it where you can see what I did there at jasonogle.com/work.html. If you’re interested. ResumeSo CV or resume, and some of you listening may be going, well what’s the difference? A resume is typically one page with work history, brief summary of skills and education. Nothing too personal. Strictly business, right? A CV equals curriculum vitae, and that’s Latin for course of life. PhDs don’t have resumes. They have CV’s. Here’s the challenge, do both a CV and a resume and do it on one page. What I’ve done with mine is I’ve actually put accolades on the left. And those are podcast episodes, published articles on prominent blogs. Et cetera. And what that does is just gives you that wow factor for recruiters to go, oh wow cool, this person has done some things, and it also gives them an opportunity to know you a little more if they’re interested. To get inside your head and your heart as a designer. And some of you listening, Defenders, I know right now. You want. I’m just starting out. I don’t have accolades. I get it. And I would encourage you, don’t wait to be invited to be on a podcast or to be published in a blog. Just start writing, just start contributing, start sharing on your social channels. Start adding value right now where you’re at. You have value to add, even if you’re just starting out. Don’t buy the lie, that you don’t have something to share and something to say that will encourage and enlighten someone, and someone that’s in your shoes similarly right now. Start anywhere, make sure you document those accolades, put them in your resume, start having a section in mind you’ll add later. It does stand out for sure. You don’t need that to get noticed. You don’t have to have that to get a job, but it will help you. When I was just going through my transition in 2019 into 2020, I was very discouraged. I’ve got a lot of kids. I we’re a single income. I was concerned. All of a sudden the livelihood that we had, the way to pay bills, et cetera, was stripped away from me. There’s this tug of war, right? Emotionally, at first you’re like, cool, something new, right? We do like newness sometimes, we do like change sometimes. Sometimes we hate it too. But, at first there’s this exhilaration of cool a new adventure is awaiting. And then after the first few rejections, you’re kind of like, crap, am I going to find a job? Is this going to work? So I found the Ken Coleman show and I don’t generally recommend podcasts, but I honestly, if you’re. In the midst of a search and you’re feeling discouraged, I found a lot of encouragement from his podcast. He takes questions from listeners and he gives them great insight and encouragement. He’s definitely an encourager, which is really helpful. and it helps you to feel like you’re not alone. So check it out for sure. I’ll be sure to link to it in the show notes. And here’s the other thing I learned from Ken Coleman. He’s got this. Resume guide that is so helpful. It’s a template. And it’s structured like this: in the beginning of your resume as early as possible reference someone you know at the company. That makes a huge difference. If it doesn’t land you that first interview, it will definitely get you to the top of the pile amongst the hoard of resumes that they’re probably getting on this role. So definitely always be networking, I’m going to get into that in a minute. But, also when you’re putting your, job descriptions, your job history, No paragraphs, nobody’s going to read that. Just bullet points. Just maybe four or five, whatever. Bullet points of what you did and the success it brought. Simple. So the first time I tried this, it worked. Now, I’m not going to say this is going to work every single time, but I will tell you that I was super encouraged that the first time I tried this at what I thought would be my dream job, it actually worked for me. So I’ll tell you the story really quickly. This is a nonprofit organization. They are all about rescuing kids from child sex trafficking. They use technology to do that. I just think that’s a super important mission. And so I was looking at their website all the time, and I just never saw any UX design roles. And, but I kept looking and I finally found one. It was right in the midst of my transition. I was like, perfect timing. I happened to know one person at the organization, I submitted that resume. I got a confirmation, they received it, but I kept waiting. It took about honestly two months before I heard back. And by that time I had already accepted a role at the company I’m still with presently. But I’m telling you they did respond and they said we would like to proceed with you. We’d like to move forward with you. Let’s go through the next steps kind of thing. So I’m just telling you, I was so elated to get that validation and that confirmation that this worked. But here’s the kind of the sad part of it is I had already accepted this role. I had already gone through the orientation and I know how expensive it is for companies to do that. So I did feel some loyalty to where I was at and I liked the people I was working with too. I sadly declined moving forward with them at that time, but hopefully kept the door open for future. But all that to say, this worked for me and you can check out my before and after resume on the show notes page at userdefenders.com/080. NetworkingOne of the most important parts of this entire process is networking. And you want to remember this acronym. A B N always be networking. Just as Andy Budd shared in episode 55, how to get your foot in the door. Most jobs that he’s hired for have not come from the spray and pray of the resume. It’s always been, someone knows someone and someone inside the organization enthusiastically recommends that person. So with that, it’s really important to always be networking and dig the well before you’re thirsty. And I’m not on Facebook anymore. Cause I kinda hate Mark Zuckerberg, so I deleted mine several years ago. And when I was on there, this happened all the time. I would get a DM. And I would look at the sender, and it would be somebody that I knew or worked with or went to school with whatever many years ago, and I hadn’t talked to this individual for like 10 years or more. And so there’s that initial like, oh, cool. That’s neat that this person thought of me and is reaching out. And then you’d go to open the message. And it’s them asking you in just a really canned impersonal way to like sponsor their marathon or something. Now that’s great. I’m all for sponsoring a marathon or helping a good cause. But it just feels so impersonal and even icky to just hear from somebody that you hadn’t again, talked to for decades possibly, and the first communication, the first point of contact is them asking you for something. That happens. That’s not the way to build your network. That’s not the way to foster your network. Dig the well before you’re thirsty, it’s far more natural and authentic, not to mention well-received, to hit that person up when you’re in need if and when you’ve kept the relational fire kindling. Now I’m going to raise my hand here and say, I am not great at this. So I’m kind of talking to myself too here. I have more of an introverted personality. So this does not come natural to me at all, but here’s an idea: Maybe once a day, go through your LinkedIn or your Twitter or whatever social network that you happen to use the most and have a lot of business connections to, especially, I’d say probably LinkedIn. Go through your connection list and look for somebody in there and just send them a note. Don’t ask for anything. Just send them a note and sincerely just say, Hey, I was thinking of you it’s been a while. How are you? How’s your family? Is there anything I can help you with? Even offer to help in some way. It does it makes a difference. And there’s the rule of reciprocity, right? I won’t get into that too much, but it’s a psychological principle. When you do something good for somebody, they naturally want to respond and do something good for you. So again, please let your motivation be sincere. Don’t try to give to get. We all have BS meters. I’ll get into that a little more in a little bit. But we know when somebody is trying to get something out of us for a lack of good motivation. So keep that in mind. Hollywood. Is famous for saying it’s all about who you know. And, I want to kind of disagree with that a little bit. It’s not all about who you know, it’s all about who knows you, and who will enthusiastically endorse you for an opportunity, and think of you even. We’re building our personal brands all the time. What are you known for? What do you want to be known for? Work on that. Work on your personal brand. Let people know who you are and what you’re really all about. When there is an opportunity, somebody will think of you. If you’re known for something, they’ll think of you. So keep that in mind. Just keep fostering your network. And I’ll just end this section with this: Most of my opportunities that came my way, especially the great ones have been through people who knew me and enthusiastically endorsed me. Always be networking. ApplylingWhen it comes to applying as if you didn’t already need thick skin being a designer, you definitely need it, and to grow it when you’re applying for jobs. I love what Brene Brown says, “Strong backs, soft fronts and wild hearts.” It’s not rejection, it’s redirection. Always keep that in mind. That’s something I learned from Ken Coleman. And it’s important to keep that framed. Because, you don’t want to end up forcing a door open that wasn’t meant to be opened for you in the first place. More on that later. One of the big questions in our industry that I’ve heard many times, it’s a very important question is, I can’t get a job without experience, and I don’t have experience because I don’t have a job. And the answer always seems to be something to the effect of, make your own experience. Find areas in your sphere of influence, in your local business arena that you can effect change on and build a case study. It’s not easy. But it’s possible. And if you can even get one case study, one project that you’ve made, if you’re not in bootcamp. I know that bootcamps will do that with you. You can make your own. Don’t depend on somebody else to do this. No one’s coming to save you. So really, I just want to encourage you. You can do this, you can make your own project and you can document your case study. And show that on a website and you can put that on your resume. It does count for something and it, to me, honestly, if I’m a recruiter, that shows initiative. If I look at your portfolio, if I look at your resume and I see that you actually came up with this project without being told, all on your own, to me that shows a lot of unction, a lot of initiative and a lot of growth mindset, and I’m attracted to you already. You can apply for what you already have experience in, or you could do something that’s the next logical step up. Now if you have enough runway, definitely apply for your dream job. I think about real estate. I’ve seen this house. Probably for the past four or five months show up at my Nextdoor feed. I think they are listing it for a million dollars and it’s a local property here. I don’t think it’s worth that much, and obviously neither does anybody else, because they can’t sell it. So they gave it a lower it down. I think it’s like 840 or $850,000 now. But it’s still there. So, there’s something to be said for that, right? If you have the luxury of time, like these people do, obviously to sell their house at a really high price, then I’d say, go for it, go for that dream job, honestly. And again, even if you don’t have the experience, you will gain experience on the job, and recruiters and anybody in a leadership role hiring for a job. Inside of design in UX. Please, please listen to me. If the people you’re interviewing, if the candidates that are in front of you, if they don’t have all that experience that the fluffed up job description is saying they need, can you please look beyond that, and think about the potential that this individual would have to come in and actually gain experience on the job. I think that’s so lost sadly, often in our industry and I understand the reasons for that. Obviously, there’s a lot of tight deadlines and it’s hard. I’m aware in a situation like that. Now we need more team members, but we don’t have the luxury. Of bringing on a junior at this time. We’ve we have done that and we actually have been able to bring I think three Juniors up, when we had more runway, more luxury, less really tight deadlines and less compounding projects that was more possible. It’s not always possible. I get it. But, I think the most important thing, and the thing that gets overlooked often is potential. Definitely try to keep the potential in mind, okay? So, all that to say I didn’t plan on saying that much about that, but I think that’s important and I do think that if you’re in a, an IC role now, an individual contributor role. And you want to move into management or even a director level role, I think you should. We need more great design leaders. We definitely do. And ones that care about their people and have a servant leader heart. Please step into a leadership role and try to do that. But if you don’t have the runway, if things are tight, if you like me have a lot of kids and/or a lot of responsibilities financially, you may not have that. So I say, apply for your area of expertise of experience where you are now, and then get your foot in the door and work your way up. That’s always possible. I’ll use my son as an example. He just got a job recently at Target, and the job he applied for, cashier, they didn’t need any. So, he actually got her an automated kind of an automated rejection email. And I love what he did, I love the initiative that he took. He went and took the time to call to talk to a manager about it and to see if there were any other areas of opportunity within Target, and sure enough there was. It was more of like stocking or gathering of carts kind of thing. And so he said, I’ll do that. I love the initiative that he took and they’re like, great, you’re hired, and he got the job, and. He’s going to get his foot in the door and he’s going to have more opportunity, he’s going to be the first to know when there’s a cashier opening, cause he’s already there and, it’s a lot easier to bring somebody who’s already inside, who’s already gone through the HR orientation, all that stuff, to get them into that next level than it is to go and find somebody and go through the entire HR process with them. So keep that in mind. Another thing I want to mention, and I remember this, like it was yesterday, even though it’s been awhile when I was applying. There’s just a lot of redundancy. And honestly, even applying for like three jobs in a day, that can be like 45 minutes, maybe even to an hour depending. On your energy levels and on all the questions that you’re being asked. And you will find, you get asked a lot of the same questions in this process, and it’s really tedious to go and copy even to find something that you had submitted before, try to find it, cause you’re drained at this time. You don’t feel like thinking a lot, cause it’s just exhausting. Instead of going and try to hunt and peck and find all of this information somewhere, so you don’t have to think of it every time, and use that glucose in your brain, what I found to be super helpful is to use a text expander, to have all of these answers pre-canned. And again, I’m not talking about a cover letter that should always be custom, that should always be personal toward the company you’re applying for. But I’m talking about work history. I’m talking about bio. I’m talking about those things that you are repeating over and over again. It is so helpful to have a text expander, to just type a few keys and then have this information populate in that field. It saves you a ton of energy. It saves you just a ton of stress, and, it’s really great. gets you through the process much quicker. Now a lot of folks would maybe immediately think of Text Expander, the app to use for this. I didn’t buy that software and I didn’t buy it because I feel like it’s a lot of money to use Text Expander. I just looked before I recorded this and I think it’s like eight bucks a month or something like that. It’s a recurring payment, to use the software that in my opinion is not that complex. I appreciate paying for software and I appreciate the engineers behind it, but, honestly, like if you’re looking for a job, you don’t have a recurring income and you can’t afford even $8 a month is a lot for a software to do this. So, I will tell you aText is the software I use, and I’m a Mac, I think they have a PC version as well. It’s a one-time. Time payment. I paid $5 for it I think. And you get updates, and it’s just really helpful. So check out aText, I’ll put that in the link. I don’t have an affiliate or anything. I’m just telling you it’s helped me a ton and it’s a one-time price versus a monthly price just for a text expander. I mean, how hard can that be? So definitely check that out. And then listen. Honestly, heart to heart Defender. Keep yourself refreshed. This is such a draining process, as I was just touching on. And some of you may have even been feeling the pain when I was telling you about just how draining this whole process can be trying to keep entering information, trying to convince people of how awesome you are, they should already know, right? It’s really, really deflating sometimes. And then getting told no, after you put so much effort and heart and thought into even one application. So keep yourself refreshed. Step away too from this, do something else in between before getting back to it. Here’s the other important thing: reward yourself at the end of the day or at the end of a really long application, with a favorite treat or relaxing hobby, whatever it might be, insert reward here. Go to a movie, or a TV show, or a special coffee beverage in my case, whatever it might be. Just treat yourself good. Be kind to yourself. Because you deserve it. And my empathy is with you. You got this! InterviewingAll right, let’s talk about interviewing. And one of the most important things I can tell you about this weird, super uncomfortable process known as interviewing, is simply be authentic. Just be who you are. Jordan Burke talked about this in the last episode, and that was one of my favorite takeaways from our conversation. And I believe that really was instrumental in helping her land, her first job in UX. We all have BS meters. I’ve been on the other side of the table, many times interviewing potential team members on the design side and it’s unattractive. There’s a lot of ego. There’s a lot of overcompensation. It’s evident and It’s not a good look. Just be yourself. And if you don’t know something, admit it, but be sure to add, but I can learn it. Let me tell you a bit of an embarrassing story about landing my first job in UX, which was then more Web/Interactive design 22 years ago now. I had a really awesome portfolio, but no real world client work. And that quickly became evident. But, before I even got the job, I was interviewing for an Interactive Art Director role. Which is pretty awesome. Like that’s a cool title for my first job and foot in the door. And, I thought it would make me look cooler and smarter, this is embarrassing, if I put that I knew PERL script on my resume. CGI/PERLscript. Do you know why I said that? It’s because I took some pre-written code and I created a web form that sent me an email. So, yeah, I felt really cool about that, until they asked me about it in the interview. I got called out on it. It was great. It was the humbling experience that I needed just getting started. They said, oh, so you know, PERL script? And I said, well, I’ve done web forms. So the truth came out, which was good. It just was a bit of an embarrassing journey getting there. So just be honest on the outset, then you don’t have to try to remember what you possibly fibbed about, and then try to make sure that you can overcompensate, whenever you are expected to do something that you gave the expectation, you already knew how to do. It’s not worth it. Don’t do it. Okay. I love what Sally Hogshead said, and that’s an awesome name. That’s really her last name. She said, don’t change who you are, become more of who you are. So I want to encourage you Defenders really take that to heart. Don’t change, who you are, become more of who you are. That’ll work out so much better for you in interviews. And here’s another great tip, too. Turn the tables. Have some prepared questions ready for when that door opens when they say, now do you have any questions for us? Most likely that will happen. And it’s usually at the end of the interview, after they’ve asked all their questions of you. So be ready. I’ll be honest with you. It’s. It’s almost as important as the questions they ask you. If not more. Because it shows that you’re thoughtful. It shows that you care, it shows that you’re curious. And it shows that you have a sincere interest in this role. I’m more concerned when I’m interviewing a designer and they don’t have any questions. Do they not care about this role as much? Because I would rather hire a designer who does, I’d probably end up passing on that person. Are they not curious? Are they not invested in this opportunity? Take that to heart, Defenders. That’s really important. Have some prepared questions. I’ll tell you about a couple that I have in a second here, but Andy Vitale, we talked a lot about these things in episode 57. That’s a part of the Land, a Job in UX Series. The title of the episode is Interviewing Like a Boss. So highly recommend checking that out. I’ll have links to all of these in the show notes Defenders, so you can check that out. But here’s one thing I want to really encourage you to do also is to vet the culture. Please vet the culture of the organization that you will be hanging your hat at whether literally or virtually. My buddy Justin Dauer and I talk a lot about this and his Land, a Job in UX episode 58, right after Andy’s. And we talk about finding the right cultural fit. I definitely recommend checking that out as well. You’ll likely be spending more time with these people than with your loved ones. Make it count. Also keep this in mind, how you’re treated during the interview process is a great indicator of how they’ll treat you once you accept an offer. Think about that and really strongly consider that. I think some of the most pain I felt in this process personally. Has been when I’ve spent so much time filling out an application, answering all the questions, really putting a lot of emotional labor into selling myself, we’re marketing, just like we talked about in Seth Godin’s episode. We’re always marketing all the time, whether we realize it or not. And especially in the interview process, you are marketing your personal brand that you have created for yourself, whether you realize it or not. That’s another thing that I hadn’t even planned on addressing, if you haven’t already start building your personal brand now. What do you want to be known for? What do you want people to think about when they think about you? Those are good things to consider now. Your personal brand will follow you. I’m going to share a couple of my favorite questions to ask when I’m trying to vet the culture at a potential opportunity. What do you love most about the leadership here? That’s really important. We don’t think about that maybe immediately when we’re looking for a job, we just think, hey, cool, a job, I need a job. I get to do design. Awesome. Yes, those are all great things. But, how’s the leadership? Because the leadership in any organization. Will determine the culture throughout the entire organization. Those things always trickle down. Always. And if the leadership is lacking, if they don’t really care about their people that much. If they abdicate a lot of their responsibilities of being a leader. I’m not just talking about from the very top, I’m talking about departmentally too. If they’re just not caring about you, that’s going to affect your experience. I guarantee it. And in fact it could just, it may not even be an apathy thing. It may be just like your leader is an ego-maniac, quite possibly sociopathic narcissist. That sounds extreme, but I’m not kidding, I’ve worked for people like that. I can think of two right now. And just within the past 10 years. That I’ve had. That are that way. And it’s toxic, it’s completely unhealthy, and they’re literally killing you, one day at a time. Consider that count the cost. Of where you land, where you accept an offer. I didn’t plan on talking about leadership that long, but honestly, it’s that important to make sure you know about the leadership as much as you can. And don’t just. Take the word for it of the people interviewing you, because of course they’re going to make it sound great. I would say, try your best to find someone on LinkedIn who works there, that you know, or have a network connection to, and thankfully LinkedIn has some pretty good algorithms that reveal that to you with your connections. Try to hit that person up, or get an intro to somebody over there and just ask them. Because who better than the people who are already there, right? Working in the trenches. Vet the leadership. People don’t leave companies, they leave leaders. Here’s another one I ask, what gets you most excited about coming to work here every day? You can get some good insight from a question like that, about what. Folks are really excited about, and I honestly like pay attention to the facial expressions. If you have the opportunity to pay attention to the facial expressions when you ask that, and also the hesitancy, if there’s a hesitancy, that might be a red flag, that they’re having to kind of scramble to come up with something to, to make it look good. So that’s important too. Here’s another one that’s really good to ask. And again, I’m giving you some questions that I ask. I’m not telling you you need to ask these questions. In fact, I would encourage you to try to use these as springboards and then come up with your own questions too. You may have some even better questions in this, but here’s another one: what’s the collaborative spirit like with design and engineering. That’s important, right? Defenders who’ve been in the industry for a little while. How many times has that been a challenge for you, when you’re trying to build software and design and engineering are just butting heads all the time? And there’s a lot of questions around who owns what, and there’s a lot of peeing matches if you will about this, there’s a lot of ego and that can happen in an unhealthy culture, in an unhealthy environment. And especially one where the UX team hasn’t earned the respect that they’ve been trying to gain, or in a low UX maturity organization too, that will happen. Engineering will generally be the final decision makers on a lot of the design stuff that you’re trying to fight for. That’s worth considering too. Gauge the UX maturity level of the organization as best you can. Try to find out how long the UX team has been in place, and how long the UX leader has been working in the industry. And that’s a tough one, without sounding a little bit pretentious or whatnot, but it’s important to try to find that out too. Here’s here’s one more. What’s the company philosophy on training and education? And is there a stipend or a budget for these things? That’s pretty important, right? This is a good indicator of how much the organization and the leadership values its people. If they’re willing to actually put skin in the game and fund your growth, knowing that you will likely eventually leave them and use that somewhere else. It’s a good indicator of the amount of trust they have in their people. And again, the amount of care they have for the people there. I’m always concerned if there’s no budget or no emphasis and strong philosophy on growth. And also allowance of time to continue to grow. We know this field is constantly evolving. It’s ever changing. So if we don’t have the opportunity to stay sharp and stay on our game by continuing to learn. We’re going to fall behind and it doesn’t take very long for that to happen. So important things to consider. And it’s easy to overlook, especially if you’re desperate for a role. Because like Monteiro said. “Staying alive is not a soft skill.” Just do your best with this. I know it’s tricky. There’s no real science to this. There’s a lot of subjectivity again, because every person you talk to is going to have their own bias. They’re going to have their own points of view and outlook, and so you’re just there. You’re being authentic, and you’re being honest. And you’re keeping your cool. And you’re being confident too. The best you can. I know it’s nerve wracking, but be confident the best you can, because they can also see and smell that. And we talk about that again, check on Andy’s episode 57. We talk about some tips on how to calm yourself down in the in the midst of this nerve wracking process. The last thing you want is to be doing what you love in a super toxic environment. Especially if it’s your first foot in the door. It can give you a real false sense of how great this field actually can be in the right culture, and with the right leadership in a mature UX- driven organization. NegotiatingNow let’s get into negotiating. This is one of those things that’s really tricky, and there really is no science to this either. Because again, subjectivity. Depending on where you live. Depending on what the role you’re applying for is. Depending on your experience. Those are all factors that will determine your salary for your role. If you struggle with confidence in your skill set, it’s going to be hard for you to ask even what you are deserving in this role. So I want to encourage you right now. Don’t be swayed by feelings, go after the facts. If you are lacking in some skills, you can learn that. And if the organization you’re applying for is worth its salt, they’re going to give they’re going to foster the ability for you to learn on the job. And if they don’t seem to do that, Pass, move on, find another organization that does understand that you’re going to learn on the job. I think it’s ridiculous. Some of these junior level job descriptions in UX. Five years experience for junior level? That’s completely unrealistic. So, definitely do your best to keep a pulse on the going rate for the role you’re applying for in the area you live. Now with virtual, this doesn’t matter as much. This mattered a lot more before virtual workforce was the new normal. So that’s one thing that’s really, really cool about where we’re at presently in UX and in technology, and being a knowledge worker. And I’ll be honest with you. The best thing, in my opinion, that I’ve seen come out of COVID is the move to virtual workforce. Trusting your people that they can actually get work done in their home. I think it’s so stupid that that was even an objection before. If you can’t trust your people, then why did you hire them? If you can’t trust that they’re professionals, and they’re going to get their crap done. Maybe the problem is you, you know, I’m getting a little fueled here, but it’s so true. Thankfully, this is becoming the norm. And I know a lot of folks are going back to work in the office, and that’s great. I know that many of you may be extreme extroverts where you’re just like can’t wait to get back in around other human beings. And I respect that too. But for the rest of us. It’s great that the playing field has completely been leveled. As a result of COVID and the opportunities that exist. If you’re a us citizen like myself, you could be working virtually in Ireland. Or Australia, like it’s kind of mind blowing, isn’t it? If you think about it, And you can be working if you, if you live in El Salvador or Uganda. You could. And you’re not used to making a very high wage because of the economy and the way things are. You could technically be. Somewhat of the equivalent of a millionaire, I would imagine. If you got a job in New York City or one of these high paying San Francisco. One of these high paying locations, you should be able to get what they’re paying their other people where you happen to be for the work you’re going to be doing. And if you’re not, that’s kinda messed up. You should look into that. We should talk about that. ’cause I I’d love to hear about it too. There may be many of you listening, who you’re just trying to get your first foot in the door and I respect you. I respect this journey. I know how hard it is. Keep going. You may be closer than you think. But for those of us who have been in the field for a while and we’re going onto our next job, always make sure you ask more than you made at your last job, you want to see a growth trajectory as much as possible. And I know the economy can sometimes play a role in this, but generally speaking, you should always ask for more than you made at your last job. That’s just how it should be cost of living increases we don’t get raises until we get a title change often. A lot of us IC’s, we don’t want a title change. We don’t want to be a director right now necessarily. We don’t want to be a manager. We want to design. And you just will not be designing the way you’re used to the way you like to design as a manager, you won’t. You’ll be doing a lot more administrative work, and as Bob Baxley said, I agree with him, and he would know. You’re designing still, it’s just in a different capacity. It’s in a different way. You’re designing the organization success as it relates to people. More than, as it relates to artifacts and digital outcomes. So that’s something to consider as well. One more thing that I want to leave you with on the negotiating side, and this is advice that came from a manager that I had. Every spring and every fall. Take a look at your resume, touch it up, update it. Same with your portfolio. Get some fresh work in there, if you need to. And put it out there. You have a lot less to lose because you’re employed, married, people are more attractive. That’s that’s the truth. You’re in a less desperate situation when you’re looking for work. When you already have a job, I know this to be true personally. So do that, and just see what happens. If anything, you’re just staying sharp in your interviewing skills, and you’re also keeping your confidence high. And I think most of all it’s giving you negotiating power for pay raises. Because think about this, like I just stated a bit ago, you will not likely be getting any raise other than possibly a cost of living increase, I hope you’re getting that, even if it’s 1 to 2% or even more would be awesome, which is not very much, honestly. You’re not getting a significant raise unless you get a title change, and that you’re not getting a title change, unless you want to generally go from being an IC to a manager or a director, or even as executive level. Right. So this gives you the negotiating power to ask for a raise where you are now and show the evidence that I got at an offer somewhere else, I want to stay here, I like this job, I like the people, but I need more money. Cost of living has gone up, my salary has not for the most part. And I I need to grow. I need to keep growing. So I’d like to do that here, but if not, then I have an offer for this X amount of dollars somewhere else. Can you, and will you compete with that? Boom. But again, always be confident. Always. Stay brushed up on your portfolio and resume. It’s just good practice anyway. And never settle. Never settle. There’s a lot of opportunities out there. Design thankfully is finally getting the recognition that it deserves within organizations. It took a while. We’re still not completely there yet, but we’ve come a long way, baby. So keep those things in mind and hope that is really helpful when it comes to negotiating. In ClosingSo as I start to wrap up here, I don’t know how long this has been. It’s probably longer than I thought it might be, but I really sincerely hope. That every bit of this. Has been super helpful to you and possibly even instrumental for you in either landing your first job in UX, or your next one. And this is here for you now. hope you’ll bookmark this and come back to it as often as you need. I hope you’ll tell others about it. Because I’m confident that the information in here is going to be really helpful to your friends or others that you may end up meeting along the way. in similar shoes as maybe you are. Uh, where again, I, like I say. Every single one of us. Unless we work for ourselves. We’re only one conversation away from meeting this content again. I really want you to know that I have empathy for you. I know firsthand having done this not too long ago, It’s exhausting in every way. Mentally physically, emotionally, spiritually. You really do have to have thick skin and steel resolve. But I know you Defender. I know you have a growth mindset. I know that you have a hunger and passion to learn and grow and to apply yourself with the ultimate goal of making a difference through this amazing, awesome, incredible field. Make landing a job in UX a UX project UX, this stuff, right. That’s what we should be doing anyway. We’re designers. Design, research, test, iterate, repeat. If you have the opportunity to ask why you were passed on. Ask it. If they can disclose it, the reason. You can learn from it and you can iterate again. Maybe you don’t need to know why. Just take the quote unquote rejection, which I like to reframe as redirection. And use it as empowerment. I did this and it really helped me frame this in a much healthier way than, I’m no good. I suck. I’m never going to get a job. It’s really easy, especially after multiple passes to start feeling that way and to start wondering what it is about you. That’s not the right way to frame this, that’s not the right way to approach this. Use the rejections as fuel. You’re going to regret passing on me because I’m about to change the world at your competitors organization. And I’m going to probably be invited and warmly welcomed to effect change there. Whatever you do, do not let yourself fall into a limiting belief. Because your brain is always eavesdropping on your self-talk. And you know what, after multiple times, your brain will start to believe it. And it’s not true. And this is where the imposter comes from. This is where a lot of that stuff comes from. I did an monologue on imposter syndrome. It might’ve been my first one, I think. I’ll link to that in the show notes as well, because that was a really good lesson too, because that voice, that unwelcomed voice will always try to rear its ugly head. And when you fall and you will. Get back up. Everyone falls, not everyone gets back up. In fact, I want to draw your attention. Those of you on the video, you can see. I have this tattooed on my forearm. Fall: 7. Rise: 8. It’s a constant reminder, that no matter how many times I fall, as long as I rise one more than I’ve fallen. I’m on the right track. And that’s taken from Proverbs 24:16 that says though the righteous fall seven times, they’ll rise again. And I just want to remind you, you can do this. It’s not out of reach. Use this information, use the content, build your network, all the things we talked about today. Actively work on this stuff. It will pay off. I’m confident in that. Reach out and let me know how it’s going. I really would love to hear, especially if this content helped you land your first or next job in UX. That would greatly encourage me, makes this all worthwhile this labor of love. So, that’s it. You got this. And keep fighting on. Never stop fighting on. Share your takeaways, Defenders. I’m @UserDefenders on Twitter. And I’m also on LinkedIn at Jason Ogle. I would love to hear from you and just hear how all this made a difference in your life. And in your career. I love to share that with others as well to encourage them. So definitely do that. I would really be honored if you would talk about the episode, if it’s made a difference for you. If it hasn’t, I don’t really want to hear about it? Now if it. I still would be interested in hearing about it, but less so. Definitely want to plug again the Land a Job in UX Series. userdefenders.com/uxjob. And I do want to give a couple Patreon shout outs really quickly here. I’ve got Adnan Puzek joined recently. Hey, Adnan! Thank you for coming aboard. And Ellen Bibb. Hey, Ellen! And Ellen, and I I’d mentioned this in the last episode, we did a one-on-one and it was really cool to get to know you Ellen, and kind of see where you’re at, and how you’re really using the content to break in with your first more UX focused role. So. I got high hopes for you. I know you’re going to do great. And I want to thank. Editor X for being with me on these last few episodes. and even before that. They’ve been a really great sponsor and, they’ve helped keep the lights on here on the show, because there’s a lot that goes into this. There’s a lot. A lot of various bills and things that are required to keep this thing going. So, I greatly appreciate Editor X, please help me thank them by checking out their offering. They’re making a really cool product to help you accelerate your website designs. Check it out, userdefenders.com/EditorX. Lastly. I’m going on a nice holiday break. Um, I’m definitely excited about that. I’m going to take several months off here and just be with my family, and just recoup from the year and just be present with them. Holidays are my favorite time of year. I just really love this season, even though it starts getting cold out here in the Rocky Mountains. Uh, it’s just a really neat time of year to be with family and loved ones. Just to remember all your blessings and just to remember all that you have to be thankful for. And I know that that’s different. I know we all have various challenges. I really like the quote, “Be kind to everyone you meet, they may be fighting the biggest battle of their lives.” We’re all human. None of us. He gets through this life unscathed. It’s impossible. But. I do believe that we’re better together. We’re stronger together. And we can do great things together. So don’t forget that I tend to be a loner. I tend to kind of stick to myself, but I need you too. All that to say, I really hope that you have some plans this season with your loved ones. I hope you maybe can get away even, take a vacay and just break away and just find a quiet place. Not the movie, although that was a really cool franchise, but just find some quiet places wherever you go. And just spend some time alone with your thoughts, with God. And just really meditate. And just be still and know that he’s God. It makes such a big difference in my life. There’s been so many stressful things, especially through the course of this year. And, so many things that are really anxiety inducing. We owe it to ourselves to just break away and just breathe, and just be. So, let me encourage you in that. I care about you and I definitely want you to succeed no matter what it is in life that you want to succeed at. Unless it’s like dealing meth or something, right. I remember my conversation with Laura Klein. I was asking her about success. And what’s her habit of success. And she said, Well, it depends on how you define success. And I thought that was great because it’s true. I mean, Heisenberg thought he was pretty successful dealing meth. So anyway, I hope your version of success is a positive one, and I’m confident that it is. So I wish you much success the remainder of this year of 2021. I’m kind of interested to say goodbye to 2021, but I’m going to still be in the moment. I’m not going to wish that this were all over. I’m going to stay positive. I hope you will too. But that’s it. Uh, honestly, I just I care about you and I appreciate you giving me your attention. You pay attention because it costs you something. And I know those of you who are even listening now who have gotten this far, it shows me that you care about this, about me, about the show, about this content, it’s making a difference. And that just pumps me up. So thank you, thank you, thank you. I probably don’t. Thank you enough. I wouldn’t do this if it weren’t for you. You’re why I do this. So, yeah. Take care of yourself. Take care of your loved ones. And until next time, next year. Fight on my friends.
Hide transcript SubscribeSUBSCRIBE TO AUTOMATICALLY RECEIVE NEW EPISODES Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Pandora | Amazon Music | RSS Feed USE YOUR SUPERPOWER OF SUPPORT Here’s your chance to use your superpower of support. Don’t rely on telepathy alone! If you’re enjoying the show, would you take two minutes and leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts? I’d also be willing to remove my cloak of invisibility from your inbox if you’d subscribe to the newsletter for superguest announcements and more, occasionally. Supported By
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| 079: Listener Spotlight – Landing My First UX Job | 16 Aug 2021 | 01:35:14 | |
Here’s a fun treat I’ve never done before. In this episode I shine the spotlight on listeners Jordan Burke + Joel Ryerson who recently landed their first job in UX! Hear them tell their inspiring stories of their journey getting here while gaining some valuable insights on how you can too! I was blown away at the depth, insight, authenticity and value they both added with their motivational and entertaining stories of struggle and ultimately triumph! | |||
| 078: There and Back (and Forward) Again with Bob Baxley | 12 Jul 2021 | 02:13:39 | |
Bob Baxley, a Silicon Valley pioneer, takes us back in time through the history of Silicon Valley and gives us a glimpse into the future of it. Spoiler alert: He’s got concerns. He reveals how every little interaction matters and motivates us to be proud enough of the work we do to want to show our friends and family…otherwise, we’ve got more work to do. He challenges us to challenge the status quo and constantly be looking for ways to improve our work by asking, ‘How could this be better?’. He also likens our work to building sandcastles on the beach, causing us to reflect on the brevity and temporal nature of it, and inspires us to make everything we make with our friends (for others) count. Bob Baxley is a design executive, advisor, mentor, and advocate that has built, managed, and led UX teams at some of Silicon Valley’s most respected companies. With a career spanning three decades, Bob’s work at Apple, Pinterest, Yahoo!, and elsewhere has touched hundreds of millions of users around the world. Currently, Bob serves as the Senior Vice-President of Design at ThoughtSpot, a business intelligence and data analytics platform. An advisor to Project Invent, Bob is committed to recruiting and inspiring the next generation of designers by mentoring individuals and advising organizations that are working to improve the profession and practice of digital product design. When he was a kid, he was attacked by a baby goat at a petting zoo and to this day he can’t stand goats.
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| 077: Conflict Resolution for People Who Hate Conflict with Josh Mauldin | 14 Jun 2021 | 01:04:16 | |
Josh Mauldin shows us how resolving conflict not only makes us better humans, but better designers. He challenges us to approach conflict with a growth mindset and the question, “What can I learn from this?” to help us become less anti-conflict and more pro-resolution. He articulates the difference between healthy and unhealthy conflict and teaches us why healthy conflict is good and even worth pursuing. He reminds us that it all comes back to empathy which does not mean agreeing with someone, but making an active effort to understand where they’re coming from. He also reveals how embracing conflict is the catalyst for building the best teams, the best products, and the best you. Joshua Mauldin is Director of Design at Artium and an expert who speaks all over the world on conflict resolution. He is currently writing a book on the subject. He’s also written and spoken extensively about design for Smashing Magazine, O’Reilly Media, and more. Joshua loves approaching design with as much curiosity and humanity as he can muster. Also, he’s a big fan of dogs. Cats, too. But mostly dogs. His nickname in high school was Gumby because he could tie himself into a pretzel and jump rope with his arms.
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| 076: User Research? Game On with Steve Bromley | 19 Mar 2021 | 01:12:14 | |
Steve Bromley shows us how to level up our user research skills. He illuminates the path to getting started as a Games User Researcher. He inspires us to use our user research superpower and insights to make things better for our users. He teaches us techniques he’s used to actually enjoy synthesizing data more. He reveals how many user’s is enough–spoiler alert…it depends. He challenges us ethically to be responsible for the consequences of what we’re designing. He also motivates us to document as we go, but also to be sure and stop to reflect every once in a while. Steve Bromley is an experienced user researcher. He works with organizations to help them start new user research teams. He writes all about this the book Building User Research Teams. He also works with game studios to help them use insight from players to make games better. Some titles he’s worked on include Horizon: Zero Dawn, No Man’s Sky, SingStar and the PlayStation VR launch lineup. Fun fact: As a child, he was once on the Disney Channel advertising Land Yachting.
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| 075: You Belong Here with Jessica Gaddis | 15 Feb 2021 | 01:33:30 | |
Jessica Gaddis motivates us to realize that we belong here. Not only in the field of design, but in this often painful and perplexing world we call home. Why? Because somewhere, sometime, somehow…someone needs us. She inspires us to find our community because they’re already out there, searching for us and waiting for us to connect with them and even lead them. She reveals how she was able to on a very limited budget go all in and learn UX and go on to get her foot in the door as a Product Designer. From 0 to Netflix, and now Twitter. She touches on the unwelcome voice in many of our heads known as imposter syndrome, and reveals how she’s been able to successfully combat it. She also shares with us how advocating for black women in design by opening up her calendar as a mentor has been one of the most rewarding and impactful design decisions she’s ever made. Jessica Gaddis is a Midwest transplant living in the Bay Area. Her mission is to create more thoughtful user experiences and to bridge the gap between usability and accessibility. She has a background in journalism and PR and her love for storytelling is at the heart of every experience she makes. She’s passionate about designing products that solve problems and creating moments that excite. Fun Fact: When she was a freshman in college she got an internship at a TV station back home in Detroit. Towards the end of her internship she had the opportunity to do an on-air spot about a museum exhibit. She was terrified and not very good but it was a great experience that taught her how much she did not want to be a reporter!
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| 074: Designers, Mind Your Business with Pek Pongpaet | 19 Oct 2020 | 00:53:07 | |
Pek Pongpaet teaches us how to be business-minded designers. He reveals how designers with business knowledge and more tools in their tool belt will get hired more often than ones without and with less. He shows us how to get a seat at the table while challenging us to count the costs of actually having one. He motivates us to measure and quantify our designs. He also inspires us to get out of our comfort zones and talk to other disciplines and become consumers of information in the area(s) we desire growth in. Pek Pongpaet is the Managing Partner at Chicago-based studio imPekable. He crafts outstanding mobile and web products for clients that include Google, HP, Motorola and Groupon to name a few. He’s quite the ninja…literally. He’s an actual motion capture model in the Mortal Kombat games. He’s one of the rare and coveted breeds we would call a unicorn, but he would call a Diviner (Developer/Designer). One of the things you may not see on his resume is his experience working as a stock photography model.
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| 073: The Unstoppable Designer with Jeff Gothelf | 28 Sep 2020 | 00:59:23 | |
Jeff Gothelf tells us how to be unstoppable designers. He debunks the mythical creature known as Phase 2. He shows us what a designer effectively working in Agile looks like, and enlightens us to how new UX teams can show immediate value. He articulates the need to differentiate between outputs and outcomes. He also motivates us to stay humble and curious since you can teach anyone technical skills, but you can’t teach someone humility and curiosity. Jeff helps organizations build better products and executives build the cultures that build better products. He is the co-author of the award-winning book Lean UX and the Harvard Business Review Press book Sense & Respond and just recently Forever Employable. Jeff works as a coach, consultant and keynote speaker helping companies bridge the gaps between business agility, digital transformation, product management and human-centered design. Most recently Jeff co-founded Sense & Respond Press, a publishing house for practical business books for busy executives. Fun fact: Jeff’s first job was in a traveling circus.
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| 072: Everyone’s a UX Designer with Jared Spool | 07 Sep 2020 | 01:10:04 | |
Jared Spool has been doing and defining UX long before many of us existed and/or even knew what it was. He invites us in to hear his fascinating yet seldom discussed UX origin story. He reveals how and why we’re all UX designers. He demystifies the arduous and often frustrating process of landing a job in UX. He articulates what it means to learn how to learn. He addresses the important, but oft-forgotten business part of the design business. He also inspires us to be great design leaders by illustrating what one actually looks like. Jared M. Spool is a Maker of Awesomeness at Center Centre – UIE. Center Centre is the school he started with Leslie Jensen-Inman to create industry-ready User Experience Designers. UIE is Center Centre’s professional development arm, dedicated to understanding what it takes for organizations to produce competitively great products and services. In the 43 years he’s been in the tech field, he’s worked with hundreds of organizations, written two books, published hundreds of articles and podcasts, and tours the world speaking to audiences everywhere. When he can, he does his laundry in Andover, Massachusetts. A little known fact about Jared is he didn’t graduate high school or go to college, yet now he runs one of the leading schools for UX designers. He’s also an amateur magician.
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| What the Next Season is Looking Like… | 21 Jun 2020 | 00:21:57 | |
This episode is me apologizing for the literal radio silence and filling you in on all the very valid reasons why I’ve been MIA with new content here in this feed, and what the new plan is going forward. I miss you, and I miss putting content out regularly, but there have been (and continue to be) some significant transitions in my own world, not to mention the world at large that have impacted me and this show… “For everything there is a season…” — Ecc 3:1 | |||
| 071: User Defenders Live – A Panel on Design Accessibility, Diversity & Ethics with Mina Markham, Derek Featherstone and Farai Madzima | 14 Feb 2020 | 01:01:21 | |
Prefer to watch the video from An Event Apart?
I had the great honor of being invited back to An Event Apart Denver (2019) to record a live podcast episode with Mina Markham, Farai Madzima, & Derek Featherstone on the important topics of Accessibility, Design Inclusion & Ethics, Hiring & Retaining Diverse Talent and Landing a Job in UX. Amazingly, we were able to cover all of this in just under an hour! Thanks to the co-founders of An Event Apart, Jeffrey Zeldman + Eric Meyer for letting me share a stage I’ve revered for over a decade now, thanks to Toby, Marci, Mike & company for the amazing work behind the scenes at every AEA event. Also, very special thanks to Todd Libby for capturing this amazing 4K video on his new iPhone he got just to do this for me. | |||
| 070: Harnessing Life Experiences in Design with Shaheena Attarwala | 25 Nov 2019 | 01:27:02 | |
Shaheena Attarwala defends a woman’s right to design her own future, especially in the face of fierce adversity and opposition. She champions living ruthlessly amid oppressive whims and societal precepts. She’s a magnet that brings the issues forward and carries the water for anyone who dreams of raising their standards and never settling for status quo expectations. She’ll persuade you to hunker down, prove your grit, and rattle some cages if you have to. This episode is not just about design. So make your way or step aside. It’s time to hear her metaphoric journey, examine your own life, and bring more awareness to poverty and oppression. In other words…sh*t’s about to get real! Shaheena is a UX Design Manager at Zoomcar, India’s first self-drive platform. At Zoomcar, Shaheena leads the UX team to build a definitive, hyper-local, multi-modal urban mobility transport solution for India and emerging economies, with close collaboration with cross-functional teams. Born to a conservative family in a village of Uttar Pradesh to growing up in the grimy slums of Mumbai, her repugnant experiences propelled her to reduce ‘bad’ human experiences by creating more impactful and empowering solutions through a seamless union of human-centred design, curiosity, intuition and logical reasoning. In this journey of adversity, Shaheena is the first generation in her clan to rebel her way towards educating herself and changing mindsets about a girl child. Shaheena harnesses her life experiences while building solutions. Living a frugal life has taught her empathy and compassion for fellow humans and the planet. She’s passionate about human behaviour and cross-cultural experiences and loves reaching out to people and sharing perspectives, for she believes that is a sincere way to learn and form sustainable communities! Apart from making the digital world a better place by building better experiences every day, she also endeavours to reshape the lives of the less fortunate by blending design, technology and her legal skills. Over the years, her initiatives to create a positive impact has received recognition from the United Nations. Fun fact: She loves children’s bedtime stories even now. She asks close friends, her mom or siblings to tell her stories. If that’s not possible, she puts some online to listen to, and falls fast asleep
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| 069: We Are All Pioneers with Sophia Prater | 11 Nov 2019 | 01:04:38 | |
Sophia Prater reminds us that we’re all pioneers in a field that is changing every minute. She encourages us to use forcing functions by getting the gig first, and then figuring it out. She introduces us to a design philosophy she pioneered called Object-Oriented UX which is all about taking really complex problems, and breaking them down into parts and organizing them. She also reminds us that in order to be successful in this field, we must become lifelong learners. Sophia Prater is the Chief Evangelist of Object-Oriented UX (OOUX), a methodology she started popularizing in 2013. She teaches OOUX methodologies at conferences, within companies, and through 1-on-1 coaching. She loves mentoring— She leads the Atlanta chapter of Ladies that UX and she created the UX Hustle Summit Conference and she hosts the UX Hustle Podcast. Before starting Rewired, she led UX efforts for clients such as AT&T, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Athena Healthcare, Coca-Cola, the IRS, and the Australian Tax Office. As a UX designer at CNN.com, she designed the responsive 2012 election night experience viewed by over 200 million. In 2016, she returned (as a consultant) to do it again. Today, she focuses on bringing the magic of OOUX to companies and teams around the world. Fun fact: She’s super into city planning and urban design for walkability and public transit (the UX of a city!) — she’s been car-free in Atlanta for about 10 years!
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| 068: People May be the Most Important Thing You Build as a Designer with Braden Kowitz | 28 Oct 2019 | 01:12:35 | |
Braden Kowitz reveals how human-centered design has everything to do with the humans we design and build with every day. He advocates for a genuinely supportive environment where it’s okay to be who you are, and where you’re encouraged to speak up, and openly share how you’re truly feeling. He reminds us to acknowledge that life isn’t perfect, and neither are we…and that’s also okay. He articulates the origin story and evolution of design patterns and explains why ‘ugly’ may sometimes appear to win. He also challenges us to consider how the metrics we typically depend on, may not be telling us the complete story. Braden is a Product Designer and Co-Founder at Range Labs, where he makes software that helps teams work better together. Prior to starting Range, Braden was a design partner at Google Ventures, where he founded the first design team at a venture capital fund and co-developed the Design Sprint process. Braden was also an early designer at Google and led the design of several products including Gmail, GSuite, Google Spreadsheets, and Google Trends. He’s really into bicycle advocacy lately.
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| 067: Design for How People Think with John Whalen | 14 Oct 2019 | 01:18:15 | |
Dr. John Whalen teaches us what it means to design for how people think. He reveals the powerful principals behind what he calls the six minds of user experience, and explains how anybody can harness them to build better products (no doctorate degree required!). He reminds us that it takes serious research to reveal the deep insights that genuinely make our products successful for the user and the business. He also encourages us to understand that no one is more qualified than anyone else in solving unique problems.
John Whalen is the founder and Lead of Psychological Insights & Innovation at Brilliant Experience. He is an international speaker, and author of the recently published book Design for How People Think: Using Brain Science to Build Better Products (O’Reilly). John helps businesses use psychological research to strategically position their products, services, and marketing. He has a PhD in Cognitive Science and 15+ years of experience working in user research and product design with Fortune 500 companies and design agencies including Google, PayPal, Bloomberg, eBay, Cisco, Capital One, and Johns Hopkins. Little known fun filled facts: He’s camped North of the Arctic Circle on 12 feet of ice and he’s a green-eyed, left-handed Psychology PhD, making him (statistically at least) 1-in-a-million.
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| 066: Is Web Design Dead? with Jeffrey Zeldman | 30 Sep 2019 | 01:06:08 | |
Jeffrey Zeldman answers the provocative question, “Is Web Design Dead?”. He enlightens us to what the Web was, where it’s at now, and where it could go in the future. He touches on the many short-sighted predictions that tend to prod our delicate psyches such as automation and new technologies poised to replace Web Designers. He encourages us to ignore the rhetoric and continue to learn as tools change how Web Design is done. He also emphasizes that the Web was built on sharing, and that we must continue to share if we want to not only protect its spirit, but keep it alive and thriving. Jeffrey Zeldman is the Godfather of Web Design, and unquestionably the greatest friend of the Web. He’s a guy behind highly esteemed Web Design content initiatives such as A List Apart, An Event Apart and A Book Apart. He’s a prolific speaker and heavily influential blogger. He’s the Author of the our industry’s staple: Designing with Web Standards. He’s the host of The Big Web Show. He’s also the founder of renown Web Design studio Happy Cog. Back in the day, he played synth and Casiotone with The Insect Surfers, a DC post-punk techno-surf band.
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| 065: Yes, AI Will Replace Designers with Jasmine Oh | 16 Sep 2019 | 00:59:03 | |
Jasmine Oh informs us that AI will one day replace our current jobs as designers. She challenges us to adapt to AI since no career field is exempt from its influences. She also reminds us not to fear AI but to harness it to our advantage instead. She reveals that AI shouldn’t be judged as a gloomy UX future but as a medium that supports our most meaningful work in new roles. She also encourages us to challenge stakeholders when shallow data is used to feed requirements into a product. Jasmine Oh is a UX Designer in the Windows Product Direction team at Microsoft which is an incubation team helping define future vision of computing. She named herself after Jasmine the Princess from Aladdin. (Woo Jung is her official name, which means “friendship” in Korean.)
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| 064: How to Become Indistractable with Nir Eyal | 10 Sep 2019 | 01:00:20 | |
Nir Eyal teaches us how to harness the skill of the century… becoming Indistractable. He reminds us that distraction is an action that starts from within. He motivates us to take command of our personal development in a world that is frequently competing for our attention. He encourages us to recognize the external triggers that don’t serve us and how to be more mindful of those that do. He also shares what it takes to be competitive in an increasingly automated job market.
Nir Eyal is the author of Hooked: How to build habit-forming products. His latest book, Indistractable shows us how to overcome distraction, and gain one of the most important skills of the 21st century. He runs a popular blog about the intersection of psychology, technology, and business. His primary focus is on what he calls “behavioral design” which encompasses user experience, behavioral economics, and a dash of neuroscience. He’s taught at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and Design. He has sold two technology companies and now help teams design more engaging products. For most of his career he’s worked in the video gaming and advertising industries where he learned, applied (and at times rejected) the techniques used to motivate and manipulate users. He writes to help companies create behaviors that benefit their users, while educating people on how to build healthful habits in their own lives. He received most of his education earning an advanced degree from the The School of Hard Knocks as well as an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He also wrestled for 4 years in high school and never won a match.
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| 063: Mindset & Learning How to Learn with Jessica Ivins | 02 Sep 2019 | 01:10:26 | |
Jessica Ivins schools us on the critical value of a growth mindset in UX Design. She teaches us how to learn how to learn. She enlightens us as to why it’s always better to generalize before specializing. She reminds us introverts that we can only truly succeed by extroverting. She also reveals how the best tool recommendations can only come when it’s clear what one is trying to learn. Jessica Ivins is a user experience (UX) designer and faculty member at Center Centre, the UX design school in Chattanooga, TN, where she prepares students to be industry-ready UX designers. Jessica dedicates much of her time to the UX community. She founded the Chattanooga UX Design Meetup, the first community organization for UX design in Chattanooga. She speaks internationally at conferences such as SXSW, Midwest UX, IA Summit, and UX Cambridge (UK). She publishes UX articles on her blog and on Medium. She’s also a voracious reader of design books, business books, and novels. Before joining Center Centre, Jessica worked in the Philadelphia area as a senior experience designer at Happy Cog and the lead UX designer at AWeber. While in Philadelphia, she spoke at dozens of meetups and local events. She taught classes for Girl Develop It, led UX Book Club, and served on the board of Philadelphia’s UX community, PhillyCHI. Fun fact: She’s loved unicorns since she was a small child, long before they were hipster cool.
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| 062: UX School of No B.S. with Joe Natoli | 24 Jun 2019 | 01:40:02 | |
Welcome to Joe Natoli’s UX School of No B.S. Class is now in session. Joe reveals that there’s no limit to how far any UX’er with a healthy dose of grit and resilience can go. He puts jargon in a choke-hold, then proceeds to drop-kick it in the privates! He inspires us to be like Tom Hanks in “Big”…never afraid to ask questions for the betterment of the people and project. He motivates us to apply for any job we truly want, especially when we feel unqualified for it. He also teaches us how leaving a legacy should never start with one foot in the grave, it starts right here…right now! Joe Natoli is a UX consultant, author and speaker. Everything he does is born from nearly three decades of consulting with and training the UX, design and product development teams of some of the world’s largest organizations. Every aspect of his training and consulting approach revolves around one single, critical idea: Great UX isn’t the result of what you do with your hands — it’s the result of how you use what’s between your ears. Change the way you THINK about the design and development decisions you make and you take the first step to infusing great UX into everything you do. Joe delivers practical advice delivered in clear, jargon-free language. Methods and advice that work in the messy reality of the real world, where we don’t always have the time, budget or approval we’d like. Fun-fact about Joe: He has nearly 2,000 hours of unreleased instrumental compositions, including classical music,that he still hasn’t worked up the courage to release into the world.
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| 061: Empathy as a Design Superpower with Jason Ogle | 10 Jun 2019 | 00:49:19 | |
Jason Ogle proves that empathic design is not only possible, but essential in creating life-changing products and services. He enlightens us to our seldom talked about mirror neurons and the critical role they play in user testing. He shines a spotlight on incredibly powerful and moving examples of empathy in design. He also teaches us how empathy can not only be taught and learned, but practiced, because being great designer begins and ends with being a great human. Jason Ogle is human, not dancer. He fails early and learns often. He’s a growth-minded, avid reader and listener whose vehicle is a rolling university, and a biz-minded, strategic designer who loves to make life better for his users. He’s a passionate user defender who fights for the users who are victims of bad design decisions. He’s an influential podcaster who uses the enchanting magic of audio to inspire and equip an audience of hungry and ambitious designers. He’s an evocative (often contrarian) writer who believeth in the power of the written word. He’s a self-aware and highly empathic servant-leader who believes that humans are so much more than resources. He’s also a loving husband, father of seven (one’s in heaven), and thankful believer who has a personal relationship with the Creator of the Universe. Fun fact: He once had to get a manicure to be a hand-model for a tech ad, and he has a rare essay titled “Altars of Satan” given to him and signed by Eldridge Cleaver.
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| 060: Improv & UX?! Yes, and… with Mike Gorgone | 27 May 2019 | 01:03:41 | |
Mike Gorgone unleashes his impromptu playbook to rescue us from our most unwelcome critic…ourselves. He teaches us how marrying the two seemingly disparate concepts of improv & UX, can help us break free from the crippling self-doubt that keeps us from our best collaborations. Yes, and he shows us how fun kills fear. He also reveals how even the “bad ideas” can lead us to great ones while building a fantastic UX punchline worthy of a standing ovation. Mike Gorgone is someone who loves being part of a creative, supportive and collaborative design team that builds engaging experiences for digital products at a company that fosters a culture that values design thinking and makes it a priority in how the company runs and solves problems. He currently gets to do all of the above in the Experience Design (XD) Group at EY. He discovered Improv when he lived in Chicago and started taking classes at Second City and iO (formerly improvOlympic). Improv taught him how to be present and more aware of the moment as well as how to listen and absorb information instead of just listening to respond. I also learned (and frequently witnessed) that a group can create more amazing and incredible work when collaborating together in a non-judgmental and supportive manner than any of those individuals could have created working alone.
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| 059: Writing for Designers with Scott Kubie | 13 May 2019 | 00:55:04 | |
Scott Kubie shows us how writing is designing with words. He reminds us that someone has to be the writer, and it’s our job to know who that person is. He calls on us to take up the task of writing when nobody else can, and warns of what leaving it till the end will do. He also shares some neat tricks to spur momentum and overcome those intimidating blank pages. Scott Kubie is the Lead Content Strategist at Brain Traffic, and the author of Writing for Designers from A Book Apart. He can be found online at kubie.co, and in person at various grungy rock clubs around the Twin Cities. Since 2010, Scott has delivered over sixty public talks and workshops on writing, content strategy, and user experience design to audiences of designers, developers, artists, makers, and more. His academic career was marked by several superlatives for “Best Hair”.
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| 058: Finding the Right Cultural Fit with Justin Dauer | 29 Apr 2019 | 00:55:34 | |
Justin Dauer implores us never settle in our important quest to find the right cultural fit. He reminds us that being human-centered doesn’t just affect our users, but especially the humans we interact with. He encourages us to think hard about where we choose to hang our hat, & understand what the ramifications of the wrong decision may be. He also reveals the maze of signals to watch out for in our search for the culture that will foster our creativity, & empower our passion to produce what could be our greatest work…yet. Justin Dauer is a passionate user advocate, designer, writer, and denim elitist from Chicago. Through bloodshot tunnel vision, he’s drawn from career experiences across agency side, client side, design studio, and pure tech to foster healthy, dynamic, supportive, creative cultures. Crafting as the Vice President of UX & Development for bswift by day, his personal creative outlet by night (and day) is pseudoroom which also happens to be his Twitter handle. He eats a bowl of cereal every night before bed. Every. Night.
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| 057: Interviewing Like a Boss with Andy Vitale | 15 Apr 2019 | 01:12:22 | |
Andy Vitale teaches us all about how to interview for our next UX job like a boss. He emphasizes the importance of avoiding jargon, and at all costs the temptation to conflate confidence with arrogance. He reminds us to be prepared to get way out of our comfort zones, and even offers smart techniques on how to cope with the discomfort in those critical moments. He also points out that pay isn’t everything, and that a fantastic work culture can make all the difference. Andy Vitale is the UX Director of Wholesale Banking at SunTrust Bank, one of the nation’s largest financial services companies, where his focus is on translating human insights into actionable experiences to improve the product and service ecosystem within the finance industry. Throughout his career, he has held multiple roles as a designer, entrepreneur, education department chair, and design leader. Aside from his primary role at SunTrust, Andy serves as Director of Design Impact for AIGA Minnesota and often speaks and writes about design. Not-so-fun fact: He was working at a company that suffered the first anthrax attack in the United States back in 2001.
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| 056: Building an Effective UX Portfolio with Sarah Doody | 01 Apr 2019 | 01:03:12 | |
Sarah Doody challenges us to think of our portfolio as one of the most important products we’ll ever create. She urges us to not only communicate our contributions, but to both show and tell the story of each project. In the end, she teaches us that using the right process is more than just about landing our next UX job–it will also make us better designers. Sarah Doody is a user experience designer and product strategist based in New York City. She helps product teams create products people need and love. She does this through smart and fast research, prototyping, and experience design. She produces a highly acclaimed weekly newsletter called the UX Notebook. She created and taught General Assembly’s first 12-week User Experience program back in 2011. She was originally going to be a neuroscientist.
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| 055: How to Get Your Foot in the Door with Andy Budd | 18 Mar 2019 | 01:15:33 | |
Andy Budd reveals what the hiring minds of companies are really thinking. He answers how to navigate the recruitment process and presents an invaluable insight that shows how to subvert it altogether. He urges us to be more of who we are and to recognize that each of us has unique talents that are fit for the right organizations at the right time. He also emphasizes that it’s up to each job seeker to communicate their personal value if they want to land the job of their dreams. Andy Budd is a user experience Designer and CEO of Clearleft. He’s a best-selling tech author, curates the dConstruct and UX London conferences and helped set-up The Brighton Digital Festival. He created Silverback, a low-cost usability testing application for the Mac, and co-founded Fontdeck, a web typography start-up. He’s a regular speaker at international conferences like SXSW, An Event Apart and The Next Web. He’s also a retired dive instructor, shark wrangler, trained cave diver, he used to juggle fire for money and did his first solo flight before he was legally allowed to drive.
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| Radical Empathy with Seth Godin | 13 Nov 2018 | 00:52:35 | |
Seth Godin shows us what radical empathy looks like. He reminds us to do work that matters, for people who care by focusing on serving a minimum viable audience. He teaches us that the way to stay indispensable in our work is to do work where you can’t write down the steps. He also reveals how faked empathy is just as good as real empathy for the true professional acting ‘as if’.
Seth Godin is the author of 18 books that have been bestsellers around the world and have been translated into more than 35 languages. He’s also the founder of the altMBA and The Marketing Seminar, online workshops that have transformed the work of thousands of people. He writes about the post-industrial revolution, the way ideas spread, marketing, quitting, leadership and most of all, changing everything. You might be familiar with his books Linchpin, Tribes, The Dip and Purple Cow. In addition to his writing and speaking, Seth has founded several companies, including Yoyodyne and Squidoo. His blog (which you can find by typing “seth” into Google) is one of the most popular in the world. In 2018, he was inducted into the Marketing Hall of Fame. His latest book, What To Do When It’s Your Turn is now in its fifth printing, and his new book, This Is Marketing, comes out this November. A fun fact about Seth is he did the first generation UX for educational computer games in 1983…when dinosaurs ruled the Earth.
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| 054: UX Research on a Budget with Becca Kennedy | 05 Nov 2018 | 01:16:11 | |
Becca Kennedy teaches us how to do UX research on a budget. She encourages newer designers to demonstrate their problem-solving superpowers by redesigning sub-par experiences they use regularly. She reminds us that users are human before they’re users. She also shows us how we can have anything in life we want, if we will just help others get what they want. Becca Kennedy is a Human Factors Psychologist and a UX Researcher/Designer. After an academic career designing and evaluating healthcare training technology, she turned independent and co-founded a UX consulting company called Kennason in 2015 out of Albany, NY. Currently, Becca is the UX Designer for Agrilyst, an agriculture-tech startup based in Brooklyn. She also keeps busy with consulting projects and volunteering with organizations like AIGA Upstate New York. She was recently recognized by the Albany Business Review as a 40 Under 40 awardee. Fun Fact: She has three tattoos, and all are kind of nerdy: a symbolic nod to getting through a PhD program, a subtle Star Wars X-Wing, and a piece of the original Epcot branding in Walt Disney World.
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| Imposter Syndrome: Why We Have it, and How to Kick it in the Privates! | 29 Oct 2018 | 00:26:26 | |
Imposter Syndrome is a very common and unwelcome condition especially among creative people. In Jason Ogle’s very first monologue episode, he…wait, it’s me writing this (and my voice matters, dog gonnit!)…I tackle the important, and very common condition among creative people known as imposter syndrome. I address what it is, why we have it, and how to kick it in the privates! | |||
| Banish Your Inner Critic with Denise Jacobs (Part II) | 22 Oct 2018 | 01:25:20 | |
Be sure to check out Part I Denise Jacobs teaches us how to banish our inner critic. She motivates us to realize what we’re capable of creatively. She encourages us to overcome the fear of the unknown by turning that fear into curiosity. She also guides us into how to ask for feedback in a way that’s healthy and beneficial to us.
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.
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| Banish Your Inner Critic with Denise Jacobs (Part I) | 15 Oct 2018 | 01:06:12 | |
Don’t miss Part II after this! Denise Jacobs teaches us how to banish our inner critic. She motivates us to realize what we’re capable of creatively. She encourages us to overcome the fear of the unknown by turning that fear into curiosity. She also guides us into how to ask for feedback in a way that’s healthy and beneficial to us.
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.
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| The State of UX in AI with Josh Clark | 01 Oct 2018 | 01:53:51 | |
Josh Clark enlightens us to everything we need to know about the current state of UX in AI. He takes us on an unsettling stroll through uncanny valley. He encourages us to let machines do what they’re really good at, and humans do what they’re really good at. He guides us into how to begin getting our hands dirty with AI/Machine-Learning. He also articulates how our software/machines are embedded with values, and inspires us (for future’s sake) to be intentional about the kinds of values we embed into them. Josh Clark spent nearly two hours with me talking all about the state of UX in AI. He answers important questions like:
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| 053: Be a Good Ancestor with Alan Cooper (Part II) | 17 Sep 2018 | 01:07:27 | |
Be sure to check out Part I Alan Cooper teaches us what it means to be a good ancestor. He enlightens us to why it’s so hard to build good software. He reveals how money trumps good UX and ethics far too often. He explains why UX is not about finding the best location for a hamburger menu, but about solving the big problems that exist for the user and the business. He also inspires us to consider (and potentially redirect) the footprints we’re leaving now, for the generations to come. Alan Cooper wants to be a good ancestor. That is why he is the co-creator of the “Ancestry Thinking Lab”. It’s an organization dedicated to finding and teaching practical methods for assuring that technology products behave in an ethical manner. This is just his latest effort in a long career as an inventor and thought leader in the world of software. In 2017, Alan and his wife, Sue, sold Cooper, the company they had founded 25 years earlier. It was the very first interaction design consulting firm. Early on, he established the basic design methods that are used across the industry today and helped to popularize the notion that digital technology shouldn’t terrorize its human users. In particular, his invention, design personas, is almost universally used in the field. He shared his tools, knowledge, and experience in two best-selling books, still in print and widely referenced. The company’s new owners are a European design firm, Designit, owned by Wipro, a tech company based in Bangalore, India. In 1988 Alan invented a dynamically extensible visual programming tool and sold it to Bill Gates, who released it to the world as Visual Basic, arguably the most successful programming language ever. This is how Alan earned the sobriquet, “The Father of Visual Basic.” He started his first software company in 1976 and produced what has been called “The first serious business software for microcomputers.” In 2017, Alan was named a Fellow of the Computer History Museum in Silicon Valley, California. In 1998 he was named a Visionary by the Silicon Valley Forum, and in 1995 Bill Gates named him the first Windows Pioneer. In 2011, Cooper left Silicon Valley to live on a 50-acre former dairy farm in the rolling hills north of San Francisco where he continues to advocate for more humane technology. Fun fact about Alan is he’s a former aircraft pilot, and a sheep and chicken farmer. TIMESTAMPS
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| 053: Be a Good Ancestor with Alan Cooper (Part I) | 10 Sep 2018 | 01:07:52 | |
Check out Part II after this. Alan Cooper teaches us what it means to be a good ancestor. He enlightens us to why it’s so hard to build good software. He reveals how money trumps good UX and ethics far too often. He explains why UX is not about finding the best location for a hamburger menu, but about solving the big problems that exist for the user and the business. He also inspires us to consider (and potentially redirect) the footprints we’re leaving now, for the generations to come. Alan Cooper wants to be a good ancestor. That is why he is the co-creator of the “Ancestry Thinking Lab”. It’s an organization dedicated to finding and teaching practical methods for assuring that technology products behave in an ethical manner. This is just his latest effort in a long career as an inventor and thought leader in the world of software. In 2017, Alan and his wife, Sue, sold Cooper, the company they had founded 25 years earlier. It was the very first interaction design consulting firm. Early on, he established the basic design methods that are used across the industry today and helped to popularize the notion that digital technology shouldn’t terrorize its human users. In particular, his invention, design personas, is almost universally used in the field. He shared his tools, knowledge, and experience in two best-selling books, still in print and widely referenced. The company’s new owners are a European design firm, Designit, owned by Wipro, a tech company based in Bangalore, India. In 1988 Alan invented a dynamically extensible visual programming tool and sold it to Bill Gates, who released it to the world as Visual Basic, arguably the most successful programming language ever. This is how Alan earned the sobriquet, “The Father of Visual Basic.” He started his first software company in 1976 and produced what has been called “The first serious business software for microcomputers.” In 2017, Alan was named a Fellow of the Computer History Museum in Silicon Valley, California. In 1998 he was named a Visionary by the Silicon Valley Forum, and in 1995 Bill Gates named him the first Windows Pioneer. In 2011, Cooper left Silicon Valley to live on a 50-acre former dairy farm in the rolling hills north of San Francisco where he continues to advocate for more humane technology. Fun fact about Alan is he’s a former aircraft pilot, and a sheep and chicken farmer. TIMESTAMPS
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| 052: Shining a Light on Black Designers with Tim Hykes | 27 Aug 2018 | 01:10:18 | |
Tim Hykes shines a light on black designers. He shows us how an inspiring idea, and a lot of hard work can make a huge impact. He inspires us to challenge everything, especially the status quo. He motivates us to not wait to be asked to solve a problem, but to be a self-starter and solve it. He also teaches us how being a great designer starts with being a great person. Timothy Hykes aka Tim Hykes is a User Experience designer and Illustrator working in Saint Louis, Missouri. He’s had the pleasure of seeing his work featured on FastCompany, Adobe, nationally with AIGA, InVision App, and socially with Behance and many other sites and publications. He is nationally known for his side projects which includes the 28 Days of Black Designers project, the Design + Diversity conference, and podcast, the #WeStandTogether project, and on YouTube on the Tim Hykes channel. A fun fact about Tim is that he’s really shy in a one on one situation.
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| Season 5 Teaser Reel | 16 Aug 2018 | 00:07:49 | |
Just a small taste of what’s to come in what could possibly be the best season yet. Season 5 of User Defenders podcast begins 08.27.17 Featuring in order Alan Cooper, Tim Hykes, Denise Jacobs, Jason Ogle, Josh Clark, Alan Cooper. Be sure to subscribe to automatically receive the incredible new episodes. The dope song playing in the background was written by my friend Alan Oakes from his incredible project, Let Em Riot. | |||
| Show Update: Days of Future & Past | 06 Jul 2018 | 00:17:02 | |
Here’s a bit about what’s been going on with me, and what’s to come with the show and the forthcoming/exciting Season 5. Bi-Weekly Bugle edition where I go into a lot more detail about my slip on ice/injury and immediate trip to SoCal for my wife’s Uncle’s Memorial service, and what it all made possible. | |||
| 051: Accessible Design = Better Design with Derek Featherstone | 23 Apr 2018 | 00:53:21 | |
Derek Featherstone teaches us how designing for people with disabilities is really just better design for everybody. He shows us how people with disabilities aren’t different from us, they just use different tools to accomplish the same things. He encourages us to apply empathy to grow our skills in learning how to design for accessibility. He also reveals how taking small steps to incorporate something new into our design process could change everything. Derek Featherstone is an internationally known speaker and authority on accessibility and inclusive design. He has been working on the web since 1999, starting as a web developer. He migrated to the field of accessibility and quickly discovered the need to move thinking about accessibility and inclusion into the design process. He founded and led an international team of accessibility and usability experts at Simply Accessible, which was recently acquired by Level Access, where Derek is now the Chief Experience Officer – focused on ensuring that accessibility and inclusion are seen as an integral part of user experience and service design, rather than as a simple checklist afterthought. Derek lives in Ottawa, Canada with his wife and their 4 children. He’s also a fitness instructor and 3 time Iron Man triathlon finisher.
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| Mindful Technology with Liza Kindred | 09 Apr 2018 | 01:24:42 | |
Liza Kindred challenges us to be more mindful in how we use and design technology. She offers us a value system on how to do just that. She encourages us to slow down and incorporate meditation and mindfulness practices into our daily lives. She reminds us to connect more with the real humans physically present with us. She also inspires us to design for the world we want to live in. Liza Kindred is an author, speaker, and the founder of Mindful Technology. She has spent twenty years working in fashion and in technology, eventually specializing in wearable tech. The more Liza helped develop technologies to be worn on our bodies, the more she became alarmed about the lack of attention being paid to whether these devices were serving us… or the other way around. As a meditation teacher, a student of Shambhala Buddhism, and a reiki practitioner, Liza has had a front row seat to to the realities of how drastic the difference is between how we want our lives to be shaped, and what kinds of technologies we continue to build. Liza has worked with some of the top companies in fashion and in tech, including VOGUE Magazine, Bergdorf Goodman, Bloomingdales, Hearst Media, Time Inc, Microsoft, Cisco, Vodafone, and Amazon. Liza has been written about by The New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Financial Times, Fast Company Magazine, InStyle Magazine, Entrepreneur Magazine, Wall Street Journal Market Watch and many more. Fun Fact: She’s been an ordained minister in the Universal Life Church for 15 years. She was internet-ordained to officiate at her friend’s wedding and it has built from there. All five couples she’s married are still together to this day!
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| 050: We Can Be Heroes with Jason Ogle | 26 Mar 2018 | 01:17:54 | |
Jason Ogle shows us how we can all be design superheroes with the right mindset. He reveals how grit trumps talent, every day. He reminds us of the peril that bad leadership and ego can have on a team and organization. He challenges us to never stop fighting for our users. He also inspires us to be a catalyst for our community. Jason Ogle is human, not dancer. He fails early, and learns often. He’s a growth-minded, avid reader and listener whose vehicle is a rolling university, and a biz-minded, strategic designer who loves to make life better for his users. He’s a passionate user defender who fights for the users who are victims of bad design decisions. He’s an influential podcaster who uses the enchanting magic of audio to inspire and equip an audience of hungry and ambitious designers. He’s an evocative (often contrarian) writer who believeth in the power of the written word. He’s a self-aware and highly empathic servant-leader who believes that humans are so much more than resources. He’s also a loving husband, father of seven (one’s in heaven), and thankful believer who has a personal relationship with the Creator of the Universe. Fun fact: He once had to get a manicure to be a hand-model for a tech ad, and he has a rare essay titled “Altars of Satan” given to him and signed by Eldridge Cleaver.
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| 049: User Research War Stories with Steve Portigal | 12 Mar 2018 | 01:33:52 | |
Steve Portigal challenges us to enjoy the silence when interviewing people. He teaches us the importance of rapport-building, and offers sage advice on how to do it. He shows us how sticking with an interview even when it’s not going well can sometimes bring forth the best data. He also reveals how a little empathy can go a long way in field research. Steve Portigal helps companies to think and act strategically when innovating with user insights. Based outside of San Francisco, he is principal of Portigal Consulting, and the author of two books: The classic Interviewing Users: How To Uncover Compelling Insights and the new, Doorbells, Danger, and Dead Batteries: User Research War Stories. He’s also the host of the Dollars to Donuts podcast, where he interviews people who lead user research in their organizations. Steve is an accomplished presenter who speaks about culture, innovation, and design at companies and conferences across the globe. Steve hated Cats (the musical) – he’s okay with cats the animal, and he’s never seen Forrest Gump.
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| 048: Pick Yourself with Cassie McDaniel | 26 Feb 2018 | 01:16:08 | |
Cassie McDaniel inspires us to get away from the ‘pick me’ mindset, and to pick ourselves. She challenges us to be willing to kill our darlings so that something better can emerge. She teaches us the importance of knowing our values, but also embracing the fact that they are going to change. She also encourages us to not just do what we’re good at, but do what we enjoy. Cassie McDaniel runs a small, ambitious, friendly design studio with her husband called Jane & Jury. As previous Design Director at the Mozilla Foundation, she led a team of designers on the organization’s advocacy and digital literacy fronts. She founded the interview series Women&&Tech and runs a creative event and workshop series called Paris Lectures. She grew up in Florida, jumped around in England, and is now based an hour outside Toronto in rural Ontario, where she is deeply invested in the roots she puts down into her community both locally and online. She’s both a national champion collegiate water polo player, and a published poet.
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| Live Recording at An Event Apart Denver (2017) with Luke Wroblewski, Cassie McDaniel and Chris Coyier | 19 Feb 2018 | 01:03:55 | |
Prefer to watch the video?
I was so delighted when at the beginning of 2017, Eric Meyer + Jeffrey Zeldman asked me if I wanted to record a live episode at my favorite design conference–An Event Apart. User Defenders Live! was perfect—hilarious, honest, unpretentious, direct, and filled with memorable insights from four very different, very smart, very experienced designers. — zeldman (@zeldman) December 12, 2017 Welcome to this very special episode where I felt like I needed to give a radio intro in front of a live audience! Lol, you’ll see what I mean. Thankful to my hero Chris Coyier for saving the day and pulling me out of broadcast mode, into live mode. First time for everything! I’m still in awe at my panel of bad design Avengers consisting of Cassie McDaniel, Chris Coyier, and Luke Wroblewski who each added so much value to the episode and attendees. Oh, did I mention this session took place right after “Happy Hour”? Please enjoy this very special, first-ever live broadcast of User Defender podcast! | |||
| 047: The Web is Neither Good or Bad…nor is it Neutral. It’s an Amplifier with Jeremy Keith | 12 Feb 2018 | 01:23:35 | |
Jeremy Keith reveals how the web is neither good or bad, nor neutral, but an amplifier. He inspires us to not let the future be just something that happens to us, but rather something we make with the small things we do today. He encourages us to build software ethically with our users’ psychological vulnerabilities in mind. He motivates us to not build on rented land, but to publish using the superpower of our own URLs. He also shows us how looking to the past is just as important as looking to the future. Jeremy Keith lives in Brighton, England where he makes websites with the splendid design agency Clearleft. You may know him from such books as DOM Scripting, Bulletproof Ajax, HTML5 For Web Designers, and most recently Resilient Web Design. He curated the dConstruct conference for a number of years as well as Brighton SF, and he organised the world’s first Science Hack Day. He also made the website Huffduffer to allow people to make podcasts of found sounds—it’s like Instapaper for audio files. Hailing from Erin’s green shores, Jeremy maintains his link to Irish traditional music running the community site The Session. He also indulges a darker side of his bouzouki-playing in the band Salter Cane. Jeremy spends most of his time goofing off on the internet, documenting his time-wasting on adactio.com, where he has been writing for over fifteen years. A photograph he took appears in the film Iron Man.
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| 046: Good Design Favors the Curious with Joe Johnston | 29 Jan 2018 | 01:08:12 | |
Joe Johnston inspires us to embrace the superpowers of curiosity and empathy for our users and business owners. He motivates us to always stay curious, and ask why to get to the heart of the problem faster. He encourages us to make sure we use the shiny objects available to us to actually solve a problem. Joe Johnston has over 18 years of digital experience with extensive knowledge creating digital and physical experiences. His skill set focuses on the user experience and the creation of these experiences to help clients quickly test & validate soultions. He’s adept at navigating the rapidly evolving and shifting technological landscape, making intuitive decisions amidst information-abundance, where sparse facts mingle loosely with data-drenched opinions. He’s completed a wide variety of projects, performing duties that include Experience Director/Advisor/Consultant, Digital Strategy, Experience Design,Service Design and front end development. He believes experience design is driven by moments of engagement, or touch points, between people, brands, ideas, emotions and memories that these moments create. My experience design philosophy is holistic in nature and takes into account all components required to create engaging and emotive experiences. Little known fact about Joe: He grew up on a farm, raising sheep during the day and hacking on a Commodore 64 at night.
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| Designing for Designers: Building InVision Studio with Tom Giannattasio | 19 Jan 2018 | 00:50:24 | |
“Designers are the architects of human behavior. With a consolidated tool like Studio, designers are going to be able to focus a lot more on designing…as they should.” — Tom Giannattasio In this very special episode, I had the great privilege of talking to Studio mastermind Tom Giannattasio all about what went into building what’s being touted as “the world’ most powerful screen design tool”. Tom has an interesting designer origin story. In this interview, you’ll hear how his past experiences have really shaped him into the toolmaker superhero that he’s become. In this compelling interview with Tom, you’ll hear him answer my questions such as:
TIMESTAMPS
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| 045: Criticize by Creating with Alexa Roman | 15 Jan 2018 | 01:20:36 | |
Alexa Roman motivates us to prove the value of design and contribute to it every single day. She encourages us to always be learning new things since designers work across many different fields. She inspires us to get more excited about analytics and measuring our designs. She also challenges us to think about what we want on our tombstones…while we’re still this side up. Alexa Roman is a Lead Product Designer at Burner, an app for creating on-demand, smart phone numbers. At Burner, she works on product and growth initiatives. Customer development, experiments and analytics are core to her design work. Previously, she was at Carbon Five where she worked on growth projects with teams at Nissan, Prosper and Joyable. In her spare time, Alexa volunteers with the League of Women Voters of Los Angeles, the Violence Intervention Program and resisterhoodLA. Fun fact about Alexa is that when she worked in the Art Department for the TV show The Office, she became the resident IT person and would often be called to set to show the actors how to use their on-screen UI. When you see UI in a TV show, it’s nearly always a file that’s been programmed and you have to know the shortcuts to operate it. I did not, however, design that UI and it was terribly out of date even for the time we shot that show.
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| Feet on the Ground, Eyes on the Stars: The True Story of a Real Rocket Man with Jim Ogle (8/3/37 – 8/15/20) | 21 Nov 2017 | 02:38:43 | |
Welcome to this very special, quite literally out of this world episode with my father, G.A. “Jim” Ogle. You know how they say ‘it doesn’t take a rocket scientist’? Well, my late, great Dad was one. I flew out to he and my mom’s beautiful river resort home on the Space Coast to celebrate his 80th birthday back in 2017. I’ll be forever grateful for the nearly three hours he spent letting me capture his super-compelling life and career story. Rest in His peace beyond the stars and atmosphere, Pop. BIOJim Ogle fell in love with airplanes at the early age of 8 years old. The circumstances that presented this initial passion were far from ideal. He was recovering in a hospital bed following a 7-hour surgery to essentially re-attach his badly mangled right leg from a horrible school bus wreck. He awoke from the operation to see a model airplane hanging down from a wooden structure over his bed that was to be used as a traction device to slowly pull his left leg back into place. It was broken at the hip and rammed almost three inches into his lower torso. His injuries would prevent him from being a pilot in the Air Force. But this reality would not deter him from being in the air with airplanes because 12 years later he became involved in space with missiles and rockets on his first job at Cape Canaveral, Florida in 1958. This was the beginning of his 51-year career of being associated with every manned moon mission and all 135 Space Shuttle missions. He finally got his layoff notice along with 8,000 other space workers following the final Shuttle mission, STS-135, in July 2011. He likes to tell folks questioning his unusual longevity in this field that he was fortunate to be “in the right place at the right time and the right age.” He considers himself blessed for having had the opportunity to be a part of this truly exciting time in America’s beginnings in space. Fun fact: He requires 10 lemons and multiple servings of tartar sauce with every seafood meal. The last lemon squeeze after the meal is used to clean his hands! TIMESTAMPS
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