Process: Teamwork

This article was inspired by a discussion at last week’s Silicon Valley IxDA meeting, where Daniel Szuc and Josephine Wong spoke on the topic “Sleepwalking + Designing for a Healthy Future,” which got me thinking about what qualities one must have to be an effective UX professional. So much of success derives from mindset rather than skillsets, and mindset takes a lifetime to develop—or, for those of us who believe in reincarnation, multiple lifetimes. Your mindset derives from your life experiences and the way you respond to them, as well as what you learn from those who influence you greatly—such as your parents, mentors, and spiritual teachers. Read More

Let’s imagine this scenario: A product team has gathered for a design review and the UX design lead on the team enthusiastically proclaims, “We need to make the user interface easier to use and more engaging!” Heads nod around the table. The product manager thinks in terms of simplifying the feature set, while from the visual designer’s perspective, this could mean adding modern visuals that are inspired by Framer templates. A developer might think about optimizing performance. Everyone leaves the meeting confident that they’re on the same page, only to discover weeks later that they’ve all conceived of different solutions, resulting in a product hodgepodge that misses the mark entirely.

Such misalignment happens far too often on product teams—more because of misalignment in understanding rather than because of over- or undercommunicating. We toss around fuzzy UX terms and grand design adjectives, assuming that everyone shares a common understanding. And they might to a certain extent. However, in reality, vague communication is the perfect breeding ground for misunderstanding. As George Bernard Shaw famously quipped, “The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” UX and product design professionals are quite familiar with this illusion. We might think we’ve clearly communicated our vision while each teammate has heard something different. Thus, in the everyday hustle of product development, vague language can undermine both team alignment and project success. Read More

Shifting trends are forcing technology companies to reimagine their value proposition. IBM has chosen to create disruption through design. In embracing the future, the company is essentially invoking its past. Back in 1956, IBM was the first large company to establish a corporate-wide design program. But this time, the company’s goals are more ambitious.

Recently, we interviewed Karel Vredenburg, Director of IBM Design’s worldwide client program and head of IBM Studios in Canada, who told us, “We’ve put everything into this transformation.” The company is investing more than $100 million in becoming design centered. Read More