Recap & explainer video (what is this book?)

Summary from a great conversation about this book idea

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This book project is underway and moving fast (quick summary of book goals here).

We hosted a small live session last night to share ideas from the book and discuss it with you. It was a lot of fun!

Thanks to everyone who came: Patrick Neeman, David Conrad, Fran C, Ken Kubiak, Stephany Mak, Josh Chuzi, Tamara Adlin, Ada Yuen and Spencer Oscarson. And kudos to Jen Zug for producing. We plan on doing these regularly so stay tuned.

WATCH: our very first attempt at a 10-minute explainer about the book, We did this live before opening the floor for suggestions and questions.

This kicked off almost an hour of discussion that was exactly what we were hoping for. Here are some of the comments we heard:

• Neeman and Adlin both offered that “the way designers are hired (heavy emphasis on portfolios) reinforces the hero myth, since it’s all about solitary work and what you as an individual did. Rather than how design as a social process would be interviewed for (more like a PM).”

• Most design heroes are known purely for their reputation: we never talk about how well they’d do in a typical corporation instead of working as a “famous designer.” We need to popularize better models for how a truly successful designer, or design hero, actually behaves and practices.

• The overlapping roles of PMs and designers came up several times. Two leaders mentioned they push their designers to study and act more like PMs (e.g. investing in relationships). But some design purists don’t think it’s their job to lead the social process of making decisions.

• Various folks reflected how team dynamics are the real landscape UX folks have to learn to work on. “People call me for personas. Within five minutes we are talking about how the VP of marketing can’t be in the same room as the CTO.”

• We talked about doing user research on coworkers - being curious instead of judgemental. Tamara Adlin shared that “Internal stakeholders are our users. Possibly our most important ones. But we don’t use our superpowers to make OURSELVES and our process and tools usable.”

Please take a minute and watch the video. It’s the fastest way for you to get up to speed on what this project is about.

Let us know what suggestions or questions you have. We want you involved. Thanks.