User Defenders Archives - User Defenders® – UX Design & Personal Growth

073: The Unstoppable Designer with Jeff Gothelf

Product Management

073: The Unstoppable Designer with Jeff Gothelf

00:00 / 59:23

Artwork by Eli Jorgensen

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.

How do Designers Most Efficiently Integrate into Agile? (6:43)
Why is it Important to be a Facilitator? (16:32)
Phase 2: Reality or Myth? (20:45)
How Do You Convince ENGINEERS to Get Out of the Software is Done Mindset? (28:06)
How Do You Convince DESIGNERS to Get Out of the Software is Done Mindset? (31:15)
Why is MVP the Most Bastardized Phrase in Software Development? (33:49)
Why Designers are Scientists Long Before We’re Pixel-Pushers (37:34)
How Does a New UX Team Show Immediate Value? (41:17)
What’s Your Why? (46:40)
What’s Your UX Superpower? (48:23)
What’s Your UX Kryptonite? (48:52)
What’s Your UX Superhero Name? (49:34)
Invincible UX Tool or Resource? (50:52)
Recommended Books? (51:55)
Best Advice for Aspiring UX Superheroes? (52:45)
Best Way to Connect? (53:45)

Continue reading 073: The Unstoppable Designer with Jeff Gothelf

072: Everyone’s a UX Designer with Jared Spool

Land a Job in UX

072: Everyone's a UX Designer with Jared Spool

00:00 / 1:10:04

Artwork by Eli Jorgensen

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

071: User Defenders Live – A Panel on Design Accessibility, Diversity & Ethics with Mina Markham, Derek Featherstone and Farai Madzima

Accessibility

071: User Defenders Live – A Panel on Design Accessibility, Diversity & Ethics with Mina Markham, Derek Featherstone and Farai Madzima

00:00 / 1:01:21

An Event Apart - A Panel on Design Accessibility, Diversity & Ethics with Mina Markham, Derek Featherstone and Farai Madzima

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. 🤗

Continue reading 071: User Defenders Live – A Panel on Design Accessibility, Diversity & Ethics with Mina Markham, Derek Featherstone and Farai Madzima

070: Harnessing Life Experiences in Design with Shaheena Attarwala

Empathy

070: Harnessing Life Experiences in Design with Shaheena Attarwala

00:00 / 1:27:02

Artwork by Eli Jorgensen

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 🙂

Origin Story (3:56)
A Kid’s View (6:25)
Oppression In Cultures (8:42)
Ah-Ha Moments (11:38)
Family Relations (13:48)
How Did You Find Design? (16:52)
What’s Driving You? (20:53)
Design Influence (22:26)
Legal Skills and Design (33:04)
Gaining Empathy (35:29)
Don Norman (40:59)
Teaching Curiosity (45:45)
Harnessing Life Experiences (59:36)
Story Banks (1:02:49)
Design Superpower (1:06:46)
Design Kryptonite (1:07:20)
UX Superhero Name (1:08:32)
Habit of Success (1:08:58)
Recommended Book (1:10:15)
Taking Risks (1:12:24)
Best Advice (1:14:26)

Continue reading 070: Harnessing Life Experiences in Design with Shaheena Attarwala

069: We Are All Pioneers with Sophia Prater

Personal Growth

069: We Are All Pioneers with Sophia Prater

00:00 / 1:04:38

Artwork by Eli Jorgensen

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!

Origin Story (4:58)
Biggest Failure (10:46)
Design Superpower (25:57)
What is OOUX? (30:27)
Design Kryptonite (38:12)
UX Superhero Name (42:28)
Habit of Success (46:57)
Invincible Resource (51:05)
Recommended Book (52:52)
Best Advice (55:26)

Continue reading 069: We Are All Pioneers with Sophia Prater