As product people, we pursue mastery in an evasive world that bobs and weaves all around us. As markets shift and our users react, we’re required to learn and adapt and to perceive our circumstances in different ways. Just as our clients and their customers do. And as we question whether yesterday’s answers will solve tomorrow’s problems, we realize the need to seek new learning.
Earlier this winter (summer in the northern hemisphere), I enjoyed facilitating the first-ever Gender Jam in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The event was organized by Buenos Aires Service Jams, the local chapter of the Global Service Jams – a non-profit and volunteer-based network of service design aficionados – and MásMujeresUXar, the local chapter of Mas Mujeres Ux, a community of women from Latin America who work in user experience and try to empower women in technology and enhance their visibility through workshops and access to educational courses.
Imagine a world in which we drop the labels that segregate us as Lean. As Agile. As waterfall. As design thinkers. Imagine a world where instead we build the kinds of organizations and cultures that encourage and reward learning and customer centricity, that incentivize teams to deeply understand their customers and to ensure that we’re always delivering value on their behalf. Let that sink in.
In this episode, hosts Sean and Joe chat with Jeff Gothelf, author, coach, consultant, and a featured keynote speaker at ITX’s 2nd annual ITX UX 2019: Beyond the Pixels design conference. The world Jeff hopes for is not necessarily the one he predicts, but it is a world that allows us to freely pick and choose the components and methodologies that work best within our respective domains.
The momentum is building! ITX is in full growth mode; we’re designing our snazzy new digs in downtown Rochester’s Innovation Zone; and soon we’ll be celebrating all the excitement and more during our 2nd annual ITXUX2019: Beyond the Pixels design conference, Oct. 3-5. We’re psyched for you to join us and our amazing guest speakers for three awesome days of intimate workshops, dynamic keynotes, and plenty of networking with your colleagues and newfound friends.
Are you ready to pull the trigger and reserve your seat? Or are you still wondering whether ITXUX2019 is right for you? Fair question. But once you check out our line-up of guest speakers and their many accomplishments, you’ll realize we designed this UX conference with specifically you in mind.
Still not convinced and looking for more? Well look no further than this post. Cuz we’ve asked the experts – our fellow ITXers – what they love to do when they’re not creating great software. As you’ll see, just like UX design the options are limitless!
As a woman in tech, I rarely discuss my work with other women in my social spheres. This is by choice, as I grow weary of hearing the same phrase over and over: “I could never do what you do.”
The common understanding is that to be successful in today’s digital environment designers need to solve problems while building products that people want and need to use. While that may be the core of it, it’s only the core. There’s so much more to it. When we talk about interaction design, designing software products, and today’s rapidly emerging next-gen experiences, designers now need to think about what it means to learn, to adapt, and to change.
In this episode, Sean and Joe chat with Tim Wood. Tim wears a couple hats these days, one as Professor of Industrial Design and Interactive Design at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), the other as Design and User Experience Innovation Lead at Corning Inc. Playing in both sandboxes gives Tim the opportunity to engage in the private sector while peering beyond the horizon through the lens of higher education.
As markets shift with end user needs and preferences, product people respond. The pace at which problems are solved is exceeded only by the next round of challenges that rush in to replace them. This unrelenting cycle generates two kinds of momentum: first, at the micro level, product teams generate momentum by aligning around a Vision and Roadmap that are brought to life by Motivated teams who have the Capability to solve complex technology problems.
According to a recent McKinsey study, highly skilled workers spend an average of 28 percent of their work week reading and responding to e-mails, but give very little time to thinking about how to make their e-mail communications more effective.
This is a waste.
Why? Clear e-mail communication saves time and energy that could be better used elsewhere. Instead of wasting time drafting and decoding confusing, lackluster e-mails, colleagues can focus on serving their organization’s mission.
Product people possess the creative and ethical wherewithal to persuade users to behave in ways that materially improve their lives – using our powers for good. The secret is to understand that, if we want to connect our product’s use to a repetitive consumer habit, we must identify the internal trigger that drives consumer behavior. Understanding this crucial piece can explain how software products become so habit forming.
In this episode, Sean and Joe chat with Nir Eyal, keynote speaker at ITX’s Product Momentum: Beyond the Features product conference (June 19-21), whose work on Behavioral Design has brought him and us to the intersection of psychology, technology, and business. The goal of his work is to help product people design the products and services that consumers want to use and that drive positive, habit-forming behaviors. Nir combines a gift for observation with an uncanny awareness to convert life experiences into problem statements that ultimately lead to research, learning, and discovery.
Success is the most highly valued commodity in the business world, though it can mean different things to different people depending on circumstance. Regardless of how you define it, where does success come from without goals? Working hard toward an unclear target is like fishing in a puddle – trying to make a catch where there’s nothing to be caught. A business without well-articulated goals won’t be a business for long.