072: Everyone’s a UX Designer with Jared Spool

User Defenders podcast
Land a Job in UX
072: Everyone's a UX Designer with Jared Spool
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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.

  • Jared’s Compelling UX Origin Story (5:56)
  • How Do You See the UX Job Landscape Evolving? (14:50)
  • UX’ers Have to Do What We Promised (17:31)
  • Is Everyone a UX Designer? (24:57)
  • If Design is a Team Sport, How Does the Team Win? (35:30)
  • What Makes a Great Design Leader? (38:40)
  • The Most Important Thing Designers Should be Learning (46:22)
  • Best Advice for Designers Trying to Break In and Getting Rejected? (52:10)
  • UX Superhero Name (1:09:23)

Continue reading 072: Everyone’s a UX Designer with Jared Spool

048: Pick Yourself with Cassie McDaniel

User Defenders podcast
Personal Growth
048: Pick Yourself with Cassie McDaniel
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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.

  • Secret Identity (8:27)
  • Origin Story (20:56)
  • Being Mozilla Foundation’s Design Director (24:09)
  • Biggest Failure (36:36)
  • Kill Your Darlings (40:24)
  • Design Superpower (52:54)
  • Habit of Success (62:59)
  • Invincible Resource (67:39)
  • Best Advice (70:33)

Continue reading 048: Pick Yourself with Cassie McDaniel

039: Good Designers are Good at Business with Joe Leech

User Defenders podcast
User Defenders podcast
Product Management
039: Good Designers are Good at Business with Joe Leech
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User Defenders "Mr. Joe" Joe Leech

Joe Leech shows us how psychology helps frame what we’re seeing in user research. He articulates why the superpower we need is understanding how business works. He inspires us get out of our seat and talk to executives in the organization more about the business. He also challenges us to not just always be shipping, but always be shipping the right things.

ABOUT JOE LEECH
Mr. Joe Leech, Joe to his friends is a user experience consultant based in Bristol, UK. He’s the author of “Psychology for Designers”. He’s a 13 year UX veteran who’s worked with organizations like MoMa, Raspberry Pi, Disney, eBay and Marriott. He’s a recovering neuroscientist who spent a spell as an elementary school teacher. He’s also the Series Editor of Aspects of UX, a book series on UX from SitePoint.com. He once had a sauna with Meatloaf (the rock star, not the food).

TIMESTAMPS

  • Secret Identity/Origin Story (4:39)
  • Biggest Superhero (14:50)
  • Biggest Failure (22:37)
  • Awkward Testing Story (30:03)
  • Design Superpower (32:03)
  • Design Kryptonite (33:34)
  • Design Superhero Name (36:52)
  • Fight For Users (42:03)
  • Psychology & Design (43:05)
  • Habit Of Success (49:48)
  • Invincible Resource (51:26)
  • Book Recommendation (54:40)
  • Best Advice (57:49)
  • Contact Info (59:46)

LINKS
Joe Leech’s Twitter
Joe Leech’s Website

[RESOURCE] Excel spreadsheet that shows the business case for what they’re doing.
Business Model Generation [BOOK]
Value Proposition Design [BOOK]
Gross Psychology [BOOK]


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Continue reading 039: Good Designers are Good at Business with Joe Leech

Cultivating a Creative Culture with Justin Dauer

User Defenders podcast
Special Episodes
Cultivating a Creative Culture with Justin Dauer
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Cultivating a Creative Culture with Justin Dauer

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“We create human-centered interactions and experiences in our field. Empathetic purpose drives our every decision. Mobile First? In reality, it’s humans first. This same mentality, turned inward, forms the cornerstone of something amazing: a creative culture.

Whether in a leadership role or as a member of the team, it’s a fact: a happy and well-supported employee is a fueled, charged, inspired creator.” – Excerpt from Cultivating a Creative Culture

Justin and I dive deep into the problems with creative cultures today. He answers important questions like:

  • What problems are you seeing in creative workplace cultures today?
  • What are the best questions you’ve found to ask to get a strong feel of the culture in an interview?
  • What are some clear indicators that it’s time to leave?
  • Can a creative not in senior leadership working in an awful culture actually affect change in their workplace?
  • Much more…

Where we hang our hat every day is one of the most important decisions in life. Unless we’re remote, we’ll spend more time at work than at home with our loved ones. If we find ourselves in a place that doesn’t trust, or value us or our contributions, and in fact may even be abusive in dealings with us–the stress could actually eventually kill us.

I’m very proud of this episode. If it helps even one of you Defenders avoid the pain of an unhealthy culture, and pushes you to as Justin says, “never settle” in your quest to find the culture that helps you thrive as a creative person–then whatever level of discomfort it may bring listening, was all worth it.

As Justin says in his essential book, “The passion for doing your best work is too precious to be extinguished by an unhealthy culture.”


LINKS
Justin’s Website
Justin’s Twitter
[ARTICLE] Resetting Agency Culture
[ARTICLE] Don’t Be Culture-Clubbed

BROUGHT TO YOU BY
Adobe XD
Design at the speed of thought with Adobe XD, the first all-in-one UX/UI solution for designing, sharing and prototyping experiences. Try the free beta today.

ABOUT JUSTIN
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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SUPER-CRED
Editing by Chris Combs

036: No Designer Left Behind with Nick Finck

User Defenders podcast
User Defenders podcast
Mentorship
036: No Designer Left Behind with Nick Finck
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User Defenders "UX-Toreador" Nick Finck

Nick Finck teaches us the value of being a connector, and mentoring other designers. He gives us a really compelling, dare I say accurate look into the future of UX. He inspires us to make sure we unplug every once in a while. He also motivates us to find the sweet spot between users, the business, and technology.

Nick Finck at the time of this interview was the Product Design Manager at Facebook. Now, he’s a User Experience Design Immersive Instructor at General Assembly. Prior to Facebook, he was Head of User Experience at Amazon Web Services. He’s been working on the web for two decades solving complex problems for Fortune 500 companies such as Adobe, Intel, REI, Boeing, Google, and Oprah.com. He spent one of those decades also running one of our community’s leading blogs in the early days called Digital Web Magazine. He’s been an active speaker since 2001, who’s spoken at many of our esteemed conferences. He recently started a really exciting project called “UX for Change” with a two-fold goal: to bridge the experience gap many designers have after graduation, and address the mentor deficiency. He also happens to be runner up for Seattle’s Sexiest Geek thwarted by none other than “The Oatmeal’s” Matthew Inman.

  • Secret Identity/Origin Story (4:13)
  • What Inspired Your Career? (6:12)
  • Biggest Superhero (11:20)
  • Second Career Choice (14:00)
  • Biggest Failure (15:33)
  • What Do You Look For When Hiring? (20:40)
  • Awkward Testing Story (26:44)
  • Design Superpower / Superhero Name (33:23)
  • Design Kryptonite (36:56)
  • Fight For Users (41:28)
  • Future Of UX Design (46:58)
  • Rise Against The Machines? (54:28)
  • Habit Of Success (58:22)
  • UX For Change (62:13)
  • Book Recommendation (70:54)
  • Invincible Resource (73:12)
  • Best Advice (74:40)
  • Contact Info (77:35)

LINKS
Nick’s Twitter
Nick’s Facebook
Nick’s Website
UX for Change
We Make Seattle
[RESOURCE] People
[BOOKS] Design Is a JobA Project Guide to UX Design

BROUGHT TO YOU BY
Adobe XD
Design at the speed of thought with Adobe XD, the first all-in-one UX/UI solution for designing, sharing and prototyping experiences. Try the free beta today.

RealtimeBoard
Whiteboard. Finally in your browser. The simplest visual collaboration platform for agile product teams, UX/UI designers, project leaders, marketers and creatives. Try it free!


SUBSCRIBE TO AUTOMATICALLY RECEIVE NEW EPISODES
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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.

Continue reading 036: No Designer Left Behind with Nick Finck