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UXers, we need to stop bashing ‘assumptions’ and start aligning them.
Rapid Personas, Alignment Personas, and the art of wrangling stakeholders.
TL;DR — Tamara’s Axiom: Any tool that helps to promote alignment around measurable goals, user needs, and priorities — even if that alignment is not based on data — is a good thing.
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Why blockchain and Web 3 user interfaces will suck for a while
How Web 2.0 grumpiness + Web 3.0 hubris are contributing to terrible user experiences on the cutting edge of tech.
My point in a nutshell: Web 3 people are generally not interested in lessons from the past, and experienced tech people don’t need Web 3 (at least not yet).
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Ready to bring your UX expertise to a startup? Ten tips from a startup-UX veteran.
Startup job searches are special. You’re going to find a lot of job descriptions that seem boilerplate, many that are looking for purple squirrels (“you must have 15 years of UX experience AND be an ace front-end coder!”).
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Executive Alignment is the solution to a problem you don’t think you have.
You started a company and assembled an executive team for a reason: to solve a particular set of problems for a particular set of people in a particular way. You’ve had countless hours of conversations, drafted hundreds of documents, and collaborated on every detail.
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Why UXers are — and shouldn’t be — intimidated by blockchain.
I’ll admit it. I’m intimidated by blockchain. I started working in the space a couple of years ago and I’m still at advanced-beginner status. It’s an unfamiliar feeling: I’ve faced dozens of new technologies and domains over my 20+-year UX career, but it’s never felt like this.
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Elation/Deflation: The Responsibility of Being an Experienced Woman in Tech (or any business)
I give pep talks to women to help them get through a job change and/or negotiation. I tell them to be brave for 10 seconds, say it, and shut up.
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Personas need a purpose: why you shouldn’t try to make personas that cover the whole company
My friend Benjamin asked a great question when I published my recent article on personas. In that article one reason an existing set of personas might not have worked: “They were probably created for the entire company, a big bunch of products or services, or a big division in the company…”
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What to do when you are asked to “refresh the personas”
I got a call today from yet another person in yet another large company (a super-big one this time) who has been tasked to ‘refresh the personas’ that were created several years ago by collecting new data and creating new posters. Let’s unpack the ‘reasons‘ to refresh them.
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Back by popular demand: Let Them Pee
Hey there! I was mentioned in this fun article by Greg Nudelman, who shows extraordinary taste when it comes to “UX People.” And just ‘cause, I figured I’d repost the original, now-famous “Let them pee” blurb!