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ITX Product Momentum Podcast – Episode 19: The Significance of Contributive Design

Illustration of people contributing to a single website using gears metaphor

As organizations move inexorably to a team-based, agile methodology, how do individual contributors effectively demonstrate what they’re working on or what they’ve accomplished? If performance is measured based solely on the team’s deliverables, how do team leaders appropriately acknowledge each member’s contribution or target their professional development? Enter the concept of contributive design, in which involvement of the individual is made clear. Contributive design fosters an environment in which team members collaborate as one, but also where they’re not necessarily dependent on others for their own outcomes.
In this episode of ITX’s Product Momentum Podcast, hosts Sean and Paul welcome Miguel Cardona, professor of design, artist, and keynote speaker at ITX’s 2nd annual ITX UX 2019: Beyond the Pixels design conference. Miguel introduces us to contributive design and its far-reaching impact – not only in the classroom, where contributive tools help him evaluate the performance of project teams and isolate the contributions of each student. Contributive design applies with equal significance in the workplace as we consider the modular nature of teams, design systems, and the user experience.

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Illustration of people contributing to a single website using gears metaphor

19 / The Significance of Contributive Design

Headshot of Miguel Cardona
Miguel Cardona
Professor, Designer, Artist

As organizations move inexorably to a team-based, agile methodology, how do individual contributors effectively demonstrate what they’re working on or what they’ve accomplished? If performance is measured based solely on the team’s deliverables, how do team leaders appropriately acknowledge each member’s contribution or target their professional development? Enter the notion of contributive design, as explained …

Headshot of Miguel Cardona
Miguel Cardona
Professor, Designer, Artist

People Skills: The Foundation of Effective Software Development

Illustration of software development with a site in the center and contributing factors

The culture of the software development world has sometimes valued technical know-how above all else. Developers may see cultivating the “soft” skills of social interaction, teamwork, and communication as a distraction from the work of writing beautiful code. In reality, we need these skills in order to do our jobs properly.

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Illustration of software development with a site in the center and contributing factors

IT Incident Response: Avoiding the New Normal

Illustration of site issues and ideas and gears fixing issues

Imagine being audited by the IRS. Every minute, every day, 365 days a year. Stress builds and anxiety deepens, relieved (but only momentarily) when daily reports come back free of incident. For now.

That’s what it is like to work in Production Support. Audits of one sort or another (formal and otherwise) and the incident reports that sprout from them have become the new normal in the age of “everything tech.” In our world, incidents mean smart phone apps that don’t work, super-slow websites, social media platforms that are down, and more. And our “auditors” number in the thousands, maybe even millions (if we’re “lucky”).

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Illustration of site issues and ideas and gears fixing issues

18 / Simple Steps to Achieve High Performance

Headshot of Christina Wodtke
Christina Wodtke
Author, Professor, Speaker

We’ve been working together in teams forever, right? After all, humans are social creatures. So it only makes sense that we would come together, organize around common objectives, and apply our energies and intellect to solve problems and deliver outcomes that move our world forward. If that is so, why do so many organizations simultaneously …

Headshot of Christina Wodtke
Christina Wodtke
Author, Professor, Speaker

Human-Centered Design

Product momentum graphic human centered with factors on the outside

Product people get excited about solving problems that make people’s lives better. On that we can all agree. It’s the approach we choose to achieve that goal where differences arise. Sometimes the differences are significant and obvious – Agile vs. Waterfall, for example. Sometimes, they seem much less so. Take user-centered design vs. human-centered design. Aren’t users of our products human? Of course they are, but there’s more to the difference than a mere distinction.

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Product momentum graphic human centered with factors on the outside

3 Positive Steps That Address Tomorrow’s Design Challenges

Mountain climbing to successful website illustration

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.

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Mountain climbing to successful website illustration

17 / Human-Centered Design

Headshot of Kim Goodwin
Kim Goodwin
Leadership Consultant, Author

Product people get excited about solving problems that make users’ lives better. On that we can all agree. It’s the approach through which we choose to achieve that goal where differences arise. Sometimes the differences are more clear – Agile vs. Waterfall, for example. On other occasions, the difference is less obvious. Take user-centered vs. …

Headshot of Kim Goodwin
Kim Goodwin
Leadership Consultant, Author

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