I'm Retiring from IBM

I've decided to retire from IBM after 36 amazing years because my job is finally done. Let me share how I got that job, the moments I’m the most proud of in carrying it out over the years, why I now consider that job to be finally done, and what I’m planning next.

Being Recruited

I was recruited out of my PhD program based on some design and research work I did on a new evidence-based design paradigm that I presented at a conference which struck a cord with the press and led to several interviews. Those interviews led to a call from IBM asking “have you ever considered working for IBM?” I answered honestly “no, but I’m willing to consider it”. The reason I was willing to consider IBM is a book that I had read a year earlier called “A business and its beliefs: The ideas that helped build IBM”. I was so impressed by the beliefs and values that the founders of IBM, TJ Watson Sr. and TJ Watson Jr., espoused and practiced like respect for the individual, the importance of community, etc. that it led me to agree to come in and then to take the job I was offered, thinking to myself that I would try it for a year. Still to this day, I have no idea what inspired me to read that book but I’m glad that I did because it inspired me to start my 36 year journey at IBM.

My Job

I was hired by IBM Canada to develop a world-class design and UX research program because IBM was going to split up and the Toronto lab would need to survive and thrive on its own as an independent software company. And to do that it would need to improve the design of its products.

IBM User-Centered Design

The company didn't break up but I continued the work on the new design and research program now for the benefit of IBM outside of the Toronto Lab as well. I had asked for six staff members and six months to ideate, develop, and pilot test my new program. I met with design and research leaders at all the top companies in our industry, read widely (including Don Norman’s book User-Centered Systems Design), and innovated on what I learned to develop an approach for IBM. I included several innovations, such as:

1. Involving users and decision-makers in studies together throughout the discovery to delivery phases given that both roles are important to the use and purchase-decision of enterprise software and then asking satisfaction of the former and purchase-intent questions to the latter,

2. Having users of competitor products provide input to and evaluation of our evolving products (that’s the way you learn how to win over a competitor) and carrying out direct head-to-head competitor benchmark studies of the user experience of both products,

3. Focusing on the total user experience, from discovery to upgrade,

4. Working together as a multidisciplinary team led by a Total User Experience Leader and including UX design, visual design, content design, UX research, PM, and dev,

5. Setting business goals with metrics, being rigorous with data, carrying out statistical analyses, and meticulously tracking impact with an executive dashboard.

All of that work led to the development of the IBM User-Centered Design (UCD) program. Well before the six months were up, the results of the pilots were so promising that I was asked to present them to the head of the Software unit, Steve Mills.

Steve was so impressed that he asked me to lead the deployment of UCD across all of Software. Shortly after that, CEO Lou Gerstner wanted to have IBM UCD imbedded into the Integrated Product Development (IPD) process he had asked to be created so that every part of IBM would use the same process to develop their products. I did the work to integrate it. Before a team could have the money to develop a product with the UCD integrated into IPD, they had to exit a “Concept Checkpoint” which involved showing the results of generative research with users and specifying how the insights from that research were incorporated into the product’s conceptual design.

My team and I developed a three day education/activation bootcamp for product teams and a half-day version for executives. We also developed a UCD Toolkit for recruiting users, doing surveys, running user studies, testing accessibility, etc.

UCD had many successes, like taking the IBM Thinkpad to number one in customer satisfaction, making dramatic improvements to products like Websphere and DB2 making them industry-leading. We redesigned the systems IBM provided to run the Olympics too with great success. I also wrote a book together with two colleagues entitled “User-Centered Design: An Integrated Approach” which described the program, our experience with it at IBM, and what we advised everyone to do. Some years later, I learned the book was used as a textbook in design schools and universities.

IBM One UI

Beyond UCD integrated into IPD, the company needed a visual signature, a set of design patterns, and a toolkit for developers to use in order to implement them. After the acquired company Lotus had some success with a system they called One UI (developed by Charlie Hill), I led a new IBM One UI project for all of IBM which was the predecessor to IBM Carbon. I hired and led a design and research team in North America and the UK as well as a development team in Shanghai, China. IBM One UI included a full set of design patterns, a distinctive IBM brand visual signature, and a developer toolkit.

My project was the first to provide a unified and consistent user experience across all of our products and the toolkit ensured that every product was fully globalized and accessible, a first in the industry. The IBM Carbon system continues this tradition.

Becoming a Design Director

My boss at the time, Bob Biamonte, said that he wanted to promote me to the position of Design Director. However, there was no such title or code in the IBM HR system. So, I worked with HR and created one. I filled out the requisite forms, had them approved, and then my manager promoted me into the position I created. So, I have the distinction of being the first IBM Design Director.

I also led the company-wide design and research team for many years, hosting design community calls, heading up the company’s design managers, and putting on major internal conferences.

Naming IBM Design

My organization over the years had titles like Ease of Use, Consumability, UCD, and UX Design. I thought it was time to realize that design was mature enough to be called “design” without any descriptors or qualifiers. Against objections that developers also do design and that we should therefore preface the term, I persisted and called our organization IBM Design. And, that name stuck for the past 20 years.

Rebooting IBM Design

When Ginni Rometty became IBM’s CEO, she came to Toronto on her second day. I was in the front row during her presentation that day and was thrilled to hear that she intended to make the client experience the North Star during her tenure. I immediately worked with my team of IBM Design Managers to assess our staffing numbers, our product coverage, and our various design systems. I presented the results of that research together with my colleague VP Sal Vella to Robert LeBlanc (SVP, IBM Software) which showed that we had only 230 designers and researchers with 56% of them working on more than one product (with an average of three). I recommended that we hire many more designers and researchers, that we adopt design thinking, and that Phil Gilbert should lead IBM Design instead of me. Robert called Ginni Rometty after that meeting as he was already also talking with Phil and that launched our big IBM Design reboot. Our current 3,000 designers and researchers and design practices now have significant impact on IBM’s success.

Enterprise Design Thinking

Products

When I started working with Phil, he mentioned that he’d only been with the company for about three years and he knew that I had been leading design, knew the company so well, and had a pretty significant network due to my long tenure. He therefore asked me to evangelize our new IBM Design system including EDT by flying to each of our product labs all around the world giving town hall talks, having meetings with local design teams, and the location executive teams (see the picture below of my “New Era of IBM Design” town hall presentations in Littleton, Massachusetts, USA and in Boëblingen, Germany). I also talked separately with leaders, typically senior architects or senior dev managers, who had questions about our program. To even my surprise, I didn’t run into any resistance to the “New Era of IBM Design” that I was ushering in.

My introduction of EDT to the product business units together with the activation work the rest of our amazing Design Program Office team did led to significant improvements in our products and in the case of IBM Z, a 70% increase in sales (see the Harvard Business Review case IBM: Design Thinking). 

Consulting Services

During my performance review the next year, Phil and I only spent about five minutes on the assessment when I said, “we should be using EDT in our consulting practice with clients”. Phil said, “I agree, do you want to do it?” to which I answered, “yes'‘. I immediately sent an email to Paul Pappas who was the head of IBM Consulting’s iX design practice. I got his reply in minutes, saying “YES! HOW SOON CAN YOU GET TO NEW YORK?” That led to another world tour starting the first few months in Europe given Matt Candy’s enthusiastic support. I would teach the consulting staff EDT for four days in a location and then on the fifth day I would work with the Partners and Associate Parters, to teach them and to focus on how to sell EDT for Consulting. I would have two to three apprentices with me learning how to teach or what we preferred to call it, activate EDT (see the picture above of my co-facilitators and one of the first sessions held in the rather unusual design studio in Groningen, The Netherlands with artificial grass and two tree houses). In time I also ran large train-the-trainer sessions to further scale my activation of the whole organization.

My introduction and activation of teams in IBM Consulting resulted in IBM being able to help clients bring products to market twice as fast, with a 300% return on investment, and with a 50% reduction in design defects according to Forrester.

Technology Services

As was now customary, I next suggested to Phil that our Global Technology Services organization could hugely benefit from using EDT especially for our outsourcing business which involves us taking over and running a client’s IT systems. Communication, collaboration, and trust are key in this business. The interdependency between the client and our teams is like what is required of a successful marriage. I believed that I could use EDT during the crucially important negotiations to renew these multi-year, multi-million dollar contracts. I ran my education and activation play again but this time I also personally facilitated strategy workshops with our most important clients (the picture above was taken in what was one of my favorite locations, our old Spadina Design Studio in Toronto). I was told that the deals I provided EDT workshopping to support yielded an increase of $5B in revenue compared with the deals that we didn’t use EDT to support. That business unit was later spun off from IBM and is now Kyndryl. I’m absolutely delighted that they are still continuing with the program and in fact have further enhanced it.

Sales

The success of working directly with clients during a sales cycle led to another conversation with Phil about using EDT with the sales teams on our largest and most important accounts. This time I had a co-lead in the person of Nigel Prentice and six or so dedicated staff on our own team. Everything I’d done thus far with the product, consulting, and technology services teams I did solo and had to rely entirely on my leadership and persuasion skills. We chose four of our top accounts and used EDT on their sales pursuits. Our work led to a 76% increase in sales opportunities, a 54% higher NPS, and a 40% higher win rate. These results were outstanding but we subsequently wanted to see if we could run a version of the approach without dedicated staff and simply teaching the sales teams but that was far less successful. The success with dedicated staff was one of the inspirations for the establishment of IBM Client Engineering, an organization that hired a couple of hundred designers and researchers (the picture below shows our facilitation team in the top left and working with European sales teams in Madrid, Spain in the top right and the bottom picture is of an activation session I ran with 500 or so of our technical sellers in a hotel ballroom in Dallas, Texas).

Clients

During this time, I personally ran EDT workshops with the senior team at hundreds of our clients, often with members of the c-suite, in virtually every industry and in many countries around the world (the picture is of a session I ran in our Austin studio with a large healthcare organization). I absolutely loved working with our clients and it developed in me a laser-focus on how IBM could better serve clients with everything I subsequently did. My lens was on helping to make the customer successful in what they did and in doing so, also make money for IBM as opposed to simply trying to sell customers whatever “we had on the truck” so to speak.

Design Schools & Universities

I met with our design team early on in our IBM Design reboot at our Hursley, UK studio and they told me that they had been interviewing candidates all day before I met with them. They said that none of the eight candidates that they had interviewed managed to meet our stringent hiring criteria and they asked me what should they do. They were worried that they would lose the hiring tickets so they were considering making an exception and lowering our bar. I said that they should keep the bar high and I would ensure that they could keep their hiring tickets until they found candidates that that met or exceeded the bar.

After that conversation in Hursley, I traveled to London to meet with the President of the UK Design Council. I discussed my concerns about designer education with him, not just about UK schools but more generally. He shared my view and said that he would follow up with the UK schools. He and I were then interviewed by the press. I shared my concerns with the journalist interviewing me and the resulting article (see below) embellished what I said somewhat but the headline read, “IBM’s design director: UK universities need to create better designers and more of them”. I was also quoted as saying that our IBM Design three month bootcamp was the missing semester of design school and university. The article led to several requests from education institutions mostly in the UK for me to share with them what I believed their curricula were missing.

I was also approached by McMaster, a university local to me, and asked to meet for lunch with the Dean, Len Waverman, and Associate Dean, Michael Hartmann, at a prestigious exclusive club in downtown Toronto. They said that they had a large amount of money from a benefactor and asked whether I would help them develop a design-based curriculum for the business school, the medical school, and for a pan-university program. I agreed and after a review of my academic credentials, I was appointed Industry Professor and I continue to teach variations of those programs today.

During one of my many visits to our Austin studio, Phil said that he knew that I’d been creating curricula and teaching for a few years on weekends and he asked me to share what I’d been doing. After that conversation, he asked me to work with the top design schools and design programs within universities and develop an IBM Design Academic Programs initiative. We were still needing to hire many more designers and researchers and we wanted to hire them from the top schools. So I assigned each of our most senior designers and executives to a particular school, often to their alma matter. They and I then visited with the presidents of design schools and university deans to introduce my program which included a variety of things we could do with and for them, including workshopping with the faculty to improve their curricula, doing guest lectures, giving a campus-wide talk, hosting an IBM Day, having our designers who graduated from the school provide a career panel discussion, and running capstone projects with IBM product teams working with the students (see picture above of our IBM Day at the University of Pennsylvania).

During one of those capstone projects at the University of California, San Diego I met with the then head of the program, Don Norman. He and I had met previously a few years prior to that when we were keynote speakers together at a design conference in Nanjing, China. We discovered that we both felt that design education needed to be significantly improved. Don then asked me, “do you want to do something about it?” I said, “yeah, let’s do it”. That’s how the Future of Design Education initiative started and after a vegan dinner together in Toronto during which we selected whom we wanted to form the Steering Committee with, the initiative was launched. Working groups were formed from the more than 700 volunteers and thanks to the final heroic editorial efforts of Meredith Davis, the curricular guidance was published in a special issue of the She Ji Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation. My IBM volunteer team of designers and researchers also contributed to the initiative in many ways including the building of the Future of Design Education website.

My work with the top design schools globally doubled our hiring from those schools and many of IBM's 3,000 highly talented designers were hired from them. My co-founding and leading with Don Norman of the Future of Design Education initiative has led to curricular guidance for design schools globally and recognition for IBM as well.

Outreach

Keynotes, Panels, & Workshops

I’ve been asked to give keynote presentations, panel sessions, and workshops at professional conferences over the entire time I’ve been with IBM. I particularly enjoyed introducing novel ideas and approaches.

Its interesting to reflect back on the maturity of our discipline over the course of my career presenting at these conferences. I used to ask “raise your hand if you’re the only designer in your company” and most of the hands would go up. Today of course that’s totally different. More recently, I’ve asked the same question regarding researchers. While IBM has had researchers from Day 1, after all I was one, many other companies are still maturing and developing their research capability.

I continue to get asked to give guest lectures at design schools and universities and I’ve done those throughout my IBM tenure too. While I do virtual sessions, I particularly enjoy being on campus and lecturing in person. There’s something about university campuses that I find invigorating.

Websites & Socials

I hand-coded our first design websites, secured the www.ibm.com/design and w3.ibm.com/design domains, created the /ibmdesign Twitter and Facebook accounts, personally grew followers to 60K, and provided guidance to the team that was first developing the fledgling IBM social media accounts.

TV Shows

After George Floyd’s murder, Phil brought our team together to ideate on what we could and should do. That resulted in the formation of our amazing Racial Equity in Design initiative led by Nigel Prentice. Check out the awesome work this team has done.

When we were ideating on ways that we could make a difference in the world outside IBM, we came up with the idea of doing a TV segment about our racial equity work. I had the honor of starting and guiding that project to fruition, a segment on the TV show America by Design. It prominently featured Shani Sandy and Nigel Prentice as well as many members of our Racial Equity in Design leaders. It was broadcast at prime time on all the major networks in the US. Our goal was to inspire young Black kids who have an interest in design by seeing successful IBM designers on TV talking about how they’re helping to make the company more diverse and inclusive. The show was viewed by more than 4.5 million people. I was proud to play my part as what Nigel calls a “second pillar” otherwise known as an ally in producing this TV segment.

I led the production of another TV segment the following year showcasing the work our IBM Consulting iX team had done on an app for the US Open tennis tournament.

Design Challenge

I had presented a keynote at the Design for America conference in Chicago toward the end of 2019 at which I made the case for designers and researchers to not only use their skills for improving their companies but also to make a positive impact on the world. Little did I know that just a few months later the world was immersed in the Covid 19 pandemic. I decided to make real the proposal I was making at the conference by contacting the Rebecca Breuer, the Executive Director of Design for America (DFA) and through a call with Bertrand Jerome, the Managing Director of the World Design Organization (WDO), learning that WDO’s President, Srini Srinivasan, had been wanting to do something similar. Rebecca also confirmed that DFA’s co-founder, Liz Gerber, was all in too. We brought together our communities with a total of 225 people, half of whom were from IBM, to workshop what designers and researchers could do to make a positive difference in dealing with the pandemic. We formulated 7 challenges, formed 21 teams from 33 countries across 17 timezones, and in three weeks, led by IBM EDT Coaches came up with practical and impactful projects. Check out the website the team of volunteers put together after the event.

One of the IBMers who took part in the event, Felix Portnoy, was so moved by the experience and how it brought people together working on a common cause that he said to me afterwards, “we should do this with the design community at IBM”. I agreed and helped Felix found the IBM Spark Design Festival.

Leadership, Careers, & Community

Phil next asked me to take on design careers and community as well as leading the Design Leadership Review Board which has the responsibility for reviewing and appointing Design Principals and Distinguished Designers. I teamed up on this with Lauren Swanson whom I’ve worked closely with ever since. We workshopped improvements to the board, its processes, and forms.

I also thought that we needed a board to govern everything else beyond careers, given that IBM doesn’t have a Chief Design Officer, so I created the Design Executive Team with representation from all business units of the company. Lauren helped me run that board too. We created dedicated workstreams including one that focused on tooling. We did a competitive evaluation of design tools and chose Figma as the winner and that’s what all designers at IBM still work with today.

We also put on monthly leadership calls to provide updates to everyone, workshopped solutions to problems, and simply provided a forum for leaders from across the company to connect. Once a year, we put on a Design Leadership Conference which was hugely popular.

We also hired Renee Albert onto the team and she handled our events. We regularly innovated together and came up with programs like the Design Mavens series where we interviewed top designers at IBM, like visual and typeface designer Mike Abbink, had them share nuggets of insights from their careers and to come up with one actionable idea that everyone listening to the show could do differently the next day to be more effective and successful as designers (the picture above shows Renee, Lauren, and me recently when we were in California together).

IBM Toronto Studio

During almost all of my tenure at IBM, I’ve had responsibility for the executive leadership of the IBM Canada Design Studios and more recently just our consolidated IBM Design studio in Toronto/Markham along with head of studio Gord Davison. While my core role has always been global and cross business unit, it is my local studio and the designers and researchers in it who have kept me grounded.

We’ve had a lot of fun together and learned a lot too. We put on an annual conference with largely local keynote speakers and panelists, studio meetups where new hires provide an introduction to themselves and their prior work, studio members share vacation pictures, we celebrated studio members who had a birthday that month, workshopped ways to improve the studio, held Halloween parties where everyone got dressed up, held potluck lunches, hosted presentations by visiting executives, had meetings and tours with key clients and government dignitaries, and much more.

UX Research    

During the last two years as Vice President of Global UX Research, I've established and grown a user experience research specialization across the company as a distinct discipline that provides the crucially important client and user insights to develop winning products, ensured that the importance and use of UX research is understood by PMs and product teams, that my researchers have a laser-focus on ensuring that the insights they derive from clients get into product roadmaps and then into the products that clients then use, that the discover, learn, try, and buy funnel prospect experience is optimized to enable the acquisition of new logo clients, and that tools are available to provide access to users and ready access to user insights (the picture below shows some of my Austin staff on the top left, some of our Red Hat colleagues on the top right, my direct report leadership team on the bottom left, and some of my Dublin staff on the bottom right). 

My taking the role was conditional on Lauren Swanson moving with me and we later arranged for Renee Albert to join us as well. The programming for staff that we put together included workshopping to understand the staff and their concerns and desires, a weekly video update from me to my staff, regular VP Office Hours with the IBM research community, town hall calls, studio visits, regular blog posts, quarterly mental health days, and much more.

Being Headhunted

I’ve been headhunted numerous times over my career and while I’m flattered by the companies, the jobs, and the salaries, I’ve said each time, that my job at IBM isn’t done. My job that is to do my part in the various roles that I’ve had to make design, research, and design thinking activated and practiced in all parts of the company. While further improvements can always be made and are as I write this, I believe that my job is truly done now.

Post IBM

It's time for me to step down and take retirement from IBM to pursue my many other interests outside of the company. Those who follow me on LinkedIn know that I have a passion for going beyond feeding my wallet and making IBM successful to feeding my soul through my board director roles with animal and climate non-profits, my Life Habits podcast, my teaching as an Industry Professor in a business and medical school, and my keynoting, workshopping, and documentary projects focused on improving the world. I'm also have a UXR Leadership Council of research leaders from the top companies across the industry initially working on the Future of UX Research Education and generative AI for UX Research initiatives. I’ll be naming an IBM UXR representative for the council when I leave. I’ll continue to mentor individuals and consult with companies. I’m also working on a documentary and my second book. While I've been doing all these things in my spare time, I'll now be able to devote myself fully to them as well as to my music, health, family, and friends.

Thank You!

I'd like to thank IBM for 36 amazing years and all of you for the part you played. I particularly want to acknowledge the special role that Lauren Swanson and Renee Albert have played in closely collaborating with me during my last two roles and the amazing work they’ve done. Phil Gilbert and Katrina Alcorn played pivotal roles in enabling much of what I’ve accomplished over the past eleven years. I’ve appreciated Justin Youngblood, my current and last manager, for his support of my retirement planning and ways I’d like to wrap up my IBM tenure. My fellow VP of Product Design colleagues are special for the collaborations we’ve had and the fact that they will now lead my UX research staff. I appreciate Ellen Kolsto, my now UX Research DD, for her technical leadership to further hone our UXR craft and impact metrics.

I appreciate and want to acknowledge the members of the Design Executive Team and Research Leadership Team for what we’ve accomplished together and Gord Davison and the members of the Toronto Studio for my wonderful home studio. And it goes without saying, but let me say it explicitly, that I’ve absolutely loved working with my global UX research staff and community, the IBM Design organization, and all the thousands of other IBMers I’ve had the opportunity to connect with over the years.

It's often said that the term "family" shouldn't be used when talking about a company. While a company is rarely a family, I believe particular teams can be and I consider all the teams I’ve had over the years to be my work family. I will dearly miss you all, though I hope that many of you will stay in touch outside of work (please connect with me on LinkedIn). I’m also planning to do a version of my VP Office Hours, essentially an external AMA-style Zoom call, on particular topics chosen by LinkedIn followers. So look out for more details in time on LinkedIn.

Unlike when someone resigns and wants to quickly leave for their next company, I care deeply about IBM and the design and research organization, so I'm planning to spend the time necessary to ensure all the details of the new organization are all set, that the transition goes smoothly, and that I leave some time to visit some of the key studios one last time to share my career insights and to say goodbye in person before I leave which will likely be sometime before the middle of the year.

2023: A Year of Transformation, Engagement, & Impact

As 2023 comes to a close and 2024 has almost loaded, I’d like to reflect on the year.

Many people have a tradition of sending letters or emails outlining what they and their family accomplished. I departed from that tradition last year and instead focussed a blog post on the people who made a significant difference in my life. I’d like to do that again this year focusing on what we achieved together.

I’m so fortunate to work with so many amazing people in my job at IBM and also in my various other interest areas, including the Future of Design Education, McMaster University, and the vegan non-profit VegTO.

I continue to consider myself fortunate to have the honor of working with people I truly enjoy spending time with. I’ve always felt that we spend so much of our lives at work that we should spend that time with people we choose to work with both because they have the best skills and experience but also because they’re amazing people in their own right. It’s a benefit of being a senior executive that I often get to choose and I have chosen. Of course, whether they want to continue to work for (I prefer with) me is their choice. And I’m truly grateful that they do continue to want to work with me.

Leading

I continue to be deeply grateful to Lauren Swanson for our almost daily working together on everything from key strategic projects to blog posts to being a sounding board for each others’ ideas. Lauren’s work on our Experience Zone booth at IBM’s inaugural TechXchange Conference in Las Vegas was particularly noteworthy.

IBM Techxchange Conference

I was also fortunate to be able to have Renee Albert, who Lauren and I worked with in our previous organization, join us again. And Renee hit the ground running handling our events and now leading our UX Research Transformation team. Ellen Kolstø and her team delivered some amazing UXR education for PMs and Carlos Rosemberg delivered our first Generative AI tool, AskUXR.

AskUXR Generative AI Tool built on watsonx

Gord Davison’s team delivered our external website for the User Engagement Hub, used for recruiting users for our studies and enhanced our User Insights Hub too which is used for sharing the insights from our research.

Last but of course not least, I deeply appreciated the awesome research work of my researchers from across the company and the leaders like John Bailey and the other managers who work with them.

Co-Leading

I truly appreciate the Vice Presidents of Design I have the honor of working with — Ana Manrique, Sandra Tipton, Craig Moser, and Haidy Francis (plus Joan Haggarty, my Research DP who’s also in the pic with us; and Joni Saylor and Charlie Hill who aren’t in the pic). I also loved working with Katrina Alcorn earlier in the year and now with Justin Youngblood. Also in the pic are the members of my Toronto design studio who I also get to hang out with in my home studio.

Meeting

I thoroughly enjoyed meeting more of the researchers around IBM, including Red Hat, during my visits to our Dublin, Ireland studio (with Katrina Alcorn), Raleigh studio and Red Hat offices (with Lauren Swanson and Renee Albert), and our Austin studio.

Dublin with Katrina

Raleigh with Lauren and Renee

Austin during halloween

Teaching

I continue to enjoy teaching my EMBA, Directors College, National Health Fellows programs typically on Saturdays both in person and remotely. Given the talent and experience of these students, I learn as much from them as they do from me. Thanks Michael Hartmann for our continued collaboration on this.

Sharing

I’m so fortunate to be asked to share my perspectives, insights, and experience at industry conferences. I love the interactions I’ve had this year especially at the Blend Conference in Stratford, the Change Leaders Conference in Toronto and the Co-Lab Conference in Chicago. The latter involved working with other leaders of UX research organizations at other companies. Thanks Markus Grupp, Yvonne Ruke Akpoveta, and Michael Winnick for inviting me.

Collaborating

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed collaborating with Don Norman and Meredith Davis on the Future of Design Education project that Don and I founded some four years ago. We worked with a Steering Committee of leaders in design education and practice. Thanks largely to the masterful work of Meredith Davis, we published the final curricular guidance as a special issue of the She Ji Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation this year. Thanks Don and Meredith, plus everyone else who was involved in this amazing project!

Inspiring

The VegTO vegan non-profit that I’m VP Board of Directors for had an awesome year having brought back our VegTO Fest held in a new location in the heart of Toronto with more than 100 vendors and 35K visitors. Thanks Kimberly D’Oliveira, Nital Jethalal, and the rest of my fellow board members.

Recharging

Last but certainly not least is my family. I’m so grateful for each and every one of my family members and the fact that they still love having all of us get together for vacations. They’re all around me here in a lake house on Shawnigan Lake on Vancouver Island as I write this blog post. Thanks Elliot, Val, Emma, Ares, Rowan, Xeena, Noah, Erin, and Bambi.

While I’m saddened by the horrible state of the world and wish it wasn’t so but I’m so appreciative of the wonderful people I get to hang out with in my world. Thanks to all of you!

Applying for a Job: An Employer's Recommendations

I’ve written several LinkedIn posts this year telling my followers about the positions that I’m hiring for in my organization at IBM. I acknowledge how tough it is right now for so many people, especially in tech, who are out of a job. In fact, it deeply saddens me to see so many of the people reacting to my posts and DMing me who have the “Open to Work” tag on their profile pic.

In addition to doing my part in hiring a good number of UX researchers and designers, I’d also like to provide some advice to job seekers and job changers from an employer’s perspective.

Number of Applications & DMs

We’ve received hundreds of applications for each position and into the thousands of applications in total. I regularly get 25-30 DMs per day, mostly about the job openings and I take the time to answer each one thoughtfully because I know how much many of you are struggling to find work.

Reflections & Observations

My hiring managers and I have noticed excellent approaches and ways of communicating about the openings plus some outstanding applications. In fact, the successful candidates in proceeding to interview and beyond let their resumes and portfolios speak for them.

However, we’ve also observed many anti-patterns too. Many of the anti-patterns are often identical from one person to the next which leads me to suspect that people may have received or misinterpreted advice that they have been given.

As well, given that we’ve received thousands of applications making it difficult to provide detailed feedback on each individual application, I would also like to provide generally observed patterns of unsuccessful applications.

I’d like to provide my perspective as one senior executive to share my recommendations and those of my hiring managers regarding best practices when applying for a job. I would assume that these would be generally applicable too but they’re at least directly applicable to applying for jobs in my organization.

Recommendations

Here are my recommendations:

1. Read the LinkedIn post and job requirements carefully — When it says that the job requires that you need to be physically in the city specified and be able to work in that country, don’t apply if you’re looking for a remote position. You’re wasting your time and ours. Similarly, when it says that the only way to apply is to use the links to submit your application, just do that and don’t send your resume and portfolio in a DM. It’s worth noting that the type of person we’re looking for, a UX researcher, should have an attention to detail and not having read the details of the job posting is an automatic red flag.

2. Make sure you satisfy the basic requirements of the job — Most of the jobs I post are for UX researchers and I explicitly point out, “Please note that a lot of designers have applied for the UX research roles. If you've read any of my posts, you know that we consider UX research to be a distinct discipline separate from design so we only hire researchers who have the requisite UX research dedicated skills and experience.” And yet, we continue to receive many applications from designers.

3. Make sure your application clearly demonstrates your suitability — If you actually have the education, skills, and experience specified, make sure that your application clearly communicates and demonstrates that you do. That may require making changes to be specific to the particular role that you’re applying for.

4. Take the perspective of the hiring manager and organization executive — Read the job posting extremely carefully, think about what the organization is looking for, and even do some additional reading about the company and, if possible, the people posting the job. I’m sure you’re all aware that there are a lot of people looking for work right now and that it is likely that we would receive hundreds of applications and that I would likely get many DMs per day. What you write to us should be carefully thought out, succinct, and to the point. I get DMs, for example, that have many paragraphs of text when one short sentence would have sufficed. People often ask for a 20 minute call with me to learn more about the job. During normal times, that may have been appropriate or at least with a hiring manager. However, given the volume of requests, if I spent 20 minutes talking with everyone who asked, I would be doing nothing else and wouldn’t have time to do the rest of my job.

5. Don’t unquestioningly follow advice being given (including this advice) — Much of the communication I see follows a familiar pattern and I suspect that its due to many people having read some advice on how to increase your chances of getting a job. However, at least for me and my organization, most of that advice is exactly wrong or more likely, the advice has been misunderstood. For example, many people DM me and ask me to be a reference for them and to refer them for the job. They’ve heard that having someone inside the company refer them increases their likelihood of getting the job. However, that person referring you needs to personally know you and your work before they’re able to be a reference. Asking me, the hiring senior executive, to refer you is also somewhat strange because it’s my jobs that you’re applying for.

6. Continue to improve your skills and experience — The most effective way to improve your chances of getting a job is to focus on what the company is actually looking for. The pieces of advice in 1-5 above are table stakes. The way to truly differentiate yourself is to focus on what you’ll contribute to the company and the ways that you’ll be able to further develop your career as well. If you don’t have that today for the particular job you’re looking at, then focus on the ways you may be able to get additional education and/or experience so that you will be ideally suited to jobs like that.

Having written all of that, I still want to come back to the reality that many of you are struggling to find work. I get the sense that many of you are so frustrated with not finding work and when you see a job opportunity, that you just immediately apply to give it a shot and to do whatever you can to get the attention of anyone at that company. The fact that I’m posting about these open positions in my organization personally is perceived by many as providing that human connection. I do hope that you will consider the advice I’ve provided in this blog post and that you find an appropriate position in my organization or with another company. I wish you all the best!

Generalists vs Specialists

I love the professional collaborations I have on LinkedIn. There was a healthy debate in the comment section in response to my "UX Researchers are not Designers" post from a few weeks ago. Many of the comments were insightful and thought-provoking and one particularly stood out for me. It was a comment by Noah Ratzan, championing the generalist rather than the specialist. He highly recommended the book “Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World” by David Epstein. I immediately bought the book and read it. I totally agree that its an awesome book.

A Case for Research within Design?

Noah was using the lessons in the book to make the case for UX research to be considered to be part of the design discipline. While I agree that designers should have a broader perspective, and that they should learn about other disciplines like UX research, I don’t see anything special about UX research being the only other discipline that designers should learn about. They should probably also learn about product management, development, and so on. And, designers broadening their skills, in my view, isn’t relevant to UX researcher being a member of their own discipline.

Relevance to UX Research

I found it fascinating that the book actually validates the more generalist typical circuitous route people who end up doing UX research go through in education and often in their early career as well. They are therefore more generalists than designers typically are simply due to there being very few dedicated programs in university for UX research.

Relevance to Design

In contrast, visual designers, for example, can and often do take education in a design school or a university design department directly applicable to a job as a visual designer. So, Noah is likely right that designers in particular should venture to broaden their skill and experience base to be more of a generalist.

Broadening the Vertical Stroke of the T

Although I’m not entirely aligned with Noah’s central assertion, I’m hugely thankful to him for recommending David Epstein’s book. What I took away from the book is that every team that wants to be innovative should look to include people who are different from the rest of the team and that every professional should strive for more generalist qualities.

This brings me back to the concept of the T-shaped person where the horizontal stroke of the T represents knowledge and skills like presentation skills, negotiation skills, and something I often add, design thinking skills that everyone should have. The vertical stroke of the T represents specialist knowledge and skills, often what we call superpower skills, like being a designer, being a developer, being a product manager, being a UX researcher, etc.

I think Epstein would advocate for everyone to broaden the width of the vertical stroke of the T. I would suggest that you can still have your superpower as a designer but also know enough about development too in order to know what is possible in code. I think UX researchers in addition to their primary superpower as researchers, may consider adding knowledge of data science to improve their research with broadened quantitative skills or product management to know how to better tailor their research recommendations in the form that a product manager could use in building their outcome-focused roadmap. And in additional to these very specific benefits of broadening the skill base, these professionals will also just bring an entirely new focus or lens to a problem, something that is at the heart of Epstein’s thesis and research.

And everyone would benefit from opening their skills aperture in order to see a problem from entirely different perspectives. The book does an excellent job of providing many examples of the benefits of having people completely different on a team as well as people broadening their own skillset.

Thank You!

I’d like to thank Noah for his engagement on my LinkedIn post and recommending this awesome book. I’d also like to thank all of you who I engage with regularly professionally on LinkedIn. You broaden my perspective and I appreciate you!

UX Researchers are not Designers

I published a poll on LinkedIn that asked, “Is a UX researcher a type of designer or a member of their own UX research discipline?” The results indicated that 65% of respondents believed UX research to be it’s own discipline but fully 35% still consider UX research to be a sub-discipline of design. A total of 921 people voted so it’s a reasonable enough sample.

Several people commented on the survey outcome suggesting that most of the people indicating that they believe UX researchers are a type of designer may be designers themselves and that the alternative that UX research is its own discipline likely mostly came from UX researchers. LinkedIn does give the poll author the ability to see who voted for which alternative but it doesn’t provide any further analytical tools. I did a random spot sampling of 60 responses (checking their response and their LinkedIn profile role identification) and found that the suspicion was largely confirmed, that designers believe that researchers are designers whereas researchers considered themselves to be a member of the UX research discipline separate from design.

Why would designers think that UX research should be a sub-discipline of design you might ask? I think a quick look at design school curricula shows that while most don’t cover research methods at all or barely, some schools do touch on them typically in one course, albeit superficially. Designers may think that the brief introduction they were given to research in their programs is sufficient to be considered a UX researcher when carrying out research activities. However, that level of knowledge is insufficient given the sophistication of today’s UX research methods and analyses.

I was talking to a designer the other day who had this view and used to assume that doing what she understood to be research as a designer was equivalent to what a UX researcher would do. However, she then started working with a dedicated UX research team and was absolutely blown away by the wide range and rigor of research methods when practiced by trained researchers. This may be similar to the education of physicians who typically get one class on nutrition and then confidently provide what is often uninformed and quite frankly bad nutritional advice.

Design as a sub-discipline of computer science

It’s interesting to look into the history of Human-Computer Interaction as a discipline. It started as a sub-discipline of computer science in the 1980s. When I started my career some 35 years go, design was considered to be something that developers did in addition to coding a product. However, few today would think that design is a sub-discipline of computer science and the purview of developers. Design has come into its own as a discipline. We now commonly refer to “three-in-a-box” when thinking about the disciplines key to product development—that is design, product management, and development. So times have changed.

UX Research as its own discipline

I’d like to posit that it is time that UX research be recognized as a distinct discipline separate from design and that we should be referring to “four-in-a-box” when referring to the core disciplines.

Let’s explore how UX research is different from design.

Designers are creators, UX Researchers are not

People often say that UX Researchers are just like the other sub-disciplines of design such as visual design, UX design, content design, motion design, etc. However, all of those sub-disciplines of design are creators, they create part of the solution that users end up seeing and using. That’s why they’re designers. UX Researchers though aren’t creators nor designers because nothing that they do is seen or used by the user directly.

Researchers use a toolkit of rigorous methods more similar to what you would see in a scientific research lab at a university than anything you’ll see in a design school. Researchers typically have a degree, often a PhD, in UX Research from one of the iSchools or they have a high level degree in an adjacent discipline like Psychology, Anthropology, or Sociology. Those disciplines have virtually nothing to do with design and have everything to do with structured observation, conducting experiments, collecting data, synthesizing data, statistically analyzing data, visualizing data, and making recommendations on the basis of data.

Dangers of UX Researchers being seen as Designers

An example which may seem frivolous but is quite real is the situation where a UX researcher is asked to make a presentation look good because they’re considered to be a designer. There is nothing in a typical UX researcher’s education that would provide them with the skills to make a beautiful presentation deck. They’re not creators of visuals, user experience flow, or content or words. Requesters are often sadly disappointed.

Another more serious example involves a team that I’m aware of which was formed to create a new product. The product managers organized a strategy workshopping meeting and invited representatives from design, product management, and development, essentially the 3-in-a-box set of disciplines. The researchers weren’t invited. When the product managers realized that UX research wasn’t the same as design and in fact that UX researchers were the discipline that they most needed to carry out the generative research critical to and a prerequisite of even conceptualizing the product, the whole situation changed. But it was an erroneous assumption that research was part of the design discipline that caused the misstep that could have been disastrous if it wasn’t corrected.

Other dangers of researchers being considered to be designers include that they likely won’t be in their own organization, won’t have discipline specific managers, and/or won’t have a career path respecting their unique skills and career development needs. The outcome of this could be researchers leaving an organization in search of ones who acknowledge the distinction of UX research as it’s own discipline.

The lack of recognition of UX research as it’s own discipline has also resulted in very few degree programs in universities devoted to it. There are programs in what are called iSchools which came about during the .com boom out of Library Science programs (the “i” in iSchool is information). The heavy lifting is left to companies to hire graduates of Psychology, Anthropology, and Sociology programs and then provide the additional requisite education to level up the knowledge and skills required to develop exemplary UX researchers. Compare that to companies hiring visual designers. They typically have virtually all of the knowledge and skills they need directly from their design school education.

Should UX Research be the sole purview of researchers?

Emphatically no. All disciplines on a team have to have a UX research mindset and know the basics of UX research so that they don’t do things like asking leading questions during conversations with clients/users, not be aware of needing to guard against biases especially when talking about their product or project, and they don’t only work with one client/user and think that is sufficient. Those are a bit extreme but I’ve witnessed non-researchers making those errors.

So, everyone should have a basic grounding in a research mindset and some knowledge of basic practices but a team needs a sufficient number of trained researchers as well to do the well-planned, rigorous, and impactful research. It’s like when we talk about design thinking. Everyone on the team should know how to do the basics of design thinking but that doesn’t make them a designer. You need designers to do the design and researchers to do the core research. Everyone on the team needs to have an appreciation and some skills that other members of the team have (the horizontal stroke of the T) but every team member needs to have a deep specialization or superpower too (the vertical stroke of the T).

I was talking to a product manager the other day who thought that UX research was simply doing usability studies. However, when he saw the work of some real researchers who had done a Kano study, a Conjoint analysis, and all the histograms in their presentation indicated which bars were statistically significant, he was taken aback with what this discipline can do and what impact researchers can have that nobody else on the team has the expertise to do.

The assumption of UX research being a sub-discipline of design often leads people to assume that research equates to doing usability studies which do require a close collaboration with design but are often the least powerful types of research. Generative research is often the most powerful, valuable, and impactful type of research which also requires close collaboration with product management and less so design but people don’t think of it being within the purview of UX research because they make the erroneous assumption that UX researchers are just a type of designer.

Where do we go from here?

I don’t think we researchers should just shout “UX researchers are not designers” from the roof tops. A little of that will help, like I hope that this blog post will. However, the real change will happen by educating teams on the contribution of research, how to work with researchers, and then doing awesome, rigorous, and impactful UX research and sharing it widely. In other words, I think researchers should set the context and then earn the right to have our discipline be recognized as a distinct discipline.

Am I annoyed when only design and designers are referred to and the assumption is, “oh, but we mean researchers too”? I sure am. It’s like being annoyed when only male pronouns are used and being told, “oh, but we mean women too”. But the exclusion of mentioning UX research and UX researchers strengthens my resolve to make UX research the most central and essential discipline to make products, services, and companies successful. And, to not be quiet about the contributions we make.

Unlocking your Influence in a Hybrid World

Most companies have adopted a hybrid approach to work where employees work in the office some of the time and at home some of the time. Many companies, like the one I work for, also have staff all around the world so even if everyone is in an office, or studio in our case, video conferencing is still a reality.

At the beginning of the pandemic, everyone was forced to work from home, at least those who’s jobs permitted it. Leaders tried to be sensitive to and understanding of employees who didn’t want to be on video for whatever reason, including sheer video conference fatigue.

Things have changed since then. Working from home is now a choice for most employees, typically for a couple of days a week at most companies. And for global companies like the one I work for, it is often impossible to exclusively work with others in-person colocated in an office without also having to work with peers at other locations using video calls.

I wrote a blog post at the beginning of the pandemic entitled Video Calls: Amping up How you Show Up which has received an incredible number of views. Everything I said in that post still applies, especially for the days you’re working from home. However, the fact that working from home is now an option rather than a mandate makes several of the things I mentioned even more important. That’s what I want to focus on here.

A Thought Exercise

Have a look at this video clip of a clearly staged video conference call. Almost everyone is talking at the same time which is also something that happens on video calls but that’s not the reason I’m using the clip here.

Notice the friendly wave to set the tone, notice the man in the middle right and how expressive he is with his face and gestures, notice the woman on the top right who doesn’t say anything yet it’s clear what her reaction is to the call, and note that the man in the bottom center also doesn’t say anything but you can clearly see his facial expressions change in response to what is being said. Now imagine that one or more of these people didn’t have their video camera turned on.

Non-Verbal Communication

The words you say typically represent only about 7% of the communication. So if your camera is off, you’re unable to fully communicate and people are missing 93% of what you’re communicating. They’re missing your facial expression, body language, and in fact whether you’re even really there. You don’t count. People can’t see when you’re wanting to say something by looking at your facial expression so they just talk over you. When I record a podcast interview with a guest, I insist that we have our cameras on even though I don’t record the video because it makes communication more natural, fluent, and we don’t talk over each other.

How you Show Up

Notice too that everyone on the call is properly lit, shows up clearly in the frame, and that they’re looking at the camera. They appear much like they would if you were physically together. That’s the objective and the way you’ll unlock your influence in a hybrid world. I give specific guidance on how to achieve those in my previous blog post.

If you don’t have sufficient bandwidth to turn your camera on and you’re working from home by choice, either go into the office or get more bandwidth. You’re career success depends on it. If you have your camera off because you didn’t do your morning routine to get ready for work, do that morning routine. Your career success depends on it. Everything I’ve said regarding video calls from home also applies to the all too frequent need to be on video calls while at work to communicate with colleagues at other locations.

In-Person Part of Hybrid

I just spent a week in Austin, Texas at our studio there, entirely in meetings that were in person. It was awesome! While optimizing your video on conference calls will make a huge difference when you need to have those calls, let’s also acknowledge that it’s still not as good as physically being there and serendipitously bumping into a colleague who may have the answer to a question you’re working through, having coffee or meals together and getting to know each other outside of our work lives, and spontaneously gathering colleagues together to workshop an idea.

Modes of Work

I wrote a blog post entitled Hybrid Work and Mental Health: Let’s Design Modes of Work Right. As I point out in that post, I think hybrid work requires teams and individuals to intentionally design what modes of work they should do in-person and what modes are most appropriate for the work from home days. You should attempt to maximize in-person interaction during the days you’re in the office and reserve video calls with colleagues at other locations for your work from home days. Of course, you should also try to reserve heads-down uninterrupted work for your work from home days too.

The main points I’ve made in this post regarding video calls holds equally for your in-person and work from home days. Let’s all amp up how we show up and unlock our influence in this hybrid world.

Use — Experience Excellence

I previously blogged about the importance of the end-to-end user experience with products (e.g., the discover, learn, try, buy, etc. experience). I gave examples from Tesla and Apple. I’d now like to do a deep dive into the use experience, that is the experience of using a product, with a focus on comparing my Tesla to that of a traditional vehicle like the Ford Bronco that I rented this week.

I spent the week in Austin, Texas at our awesome design studio there with my fellow design and research senior executives and my own amazing staff.

I mostly drive a rental car when I travel. As I mentioned before here, I drive a Tesla Model 3 Dual Motor when I’m home in Toronto. I tried to rent a Tesla through my company’s online system but apparently you need to be an American employee to do that. Being Canadian, I was out of luck!

Hertz does permit it’s customers in the 5-Star category to choose from a selection of models and makes of cars. Lately, I’ve been choosing the most environmental cars but this time I decided to try a vehicle in the broad category that my eldest son is considering buying.

I got a Ford Bronco Sport. It looked pretty good but I wanted to compare its use experience with that of Tesla. You may say, but they’re not in the same category and you’d be right. However, I suspect that the use experience of any of this class of traditional internal combustion vehicles may well have been similar. In fact, I’ve validated that the rental cars I’ve driven for the past number of years. And my Tesla isn’t in the luxury category and in fact is the best selling electric vehicle in the world so it’s not that exclusive

Unlocking & Starting

In my Tesla, I’m used to walking up to my car and it automatically unlocking the doors and turning on sufficient lights to see what I’m doing to get in the car. I also don’t need to carry a key, in fact, there isn’t one. There’s only a credit car piece of plastic that I keep permanently in my wallet in case my iPhone is stolen because my phone is the key.

The Bronco required me to carry a bulky key and press a button on it to unlock the vehicle. The physical key needed to be in the car in order to press the start button to start the engine. It then require me to turn a knob on the console from park to drive. You don’t have to start the Tesla and you just need to indicate by moving a stalk on the steering column whether you want to go forward or backward.

Driving & Braking

The Bronco required me to press on the accelerator pedal to get the vehicle moving and then press the brake pedal to slow or stop it. I found it cumbersome and at times quite dangerous to constantly have to hover over the two pedals in the Bronco when a single pedal, the accelerator one, handles most of the acceleration and deceleration and stopping in the Tesla. There is a brake pedal in the Tesla but I very rarely use it, and then occasionally just to clean the brakes given they get so little use.

Windshield Wipers

When it started raining in Austin, I had to fumble around to find and then figure out the windshield wiper controls which was extremely frustrating and at times dangerous. The windshield wipers on the Tesla just come on automatically when required and at the requisite speed. I realize that many traditional vehicles now also have automatic windshield wipers.

Power

Of course, there was a massive difference in the two vehicles when comes to power and acceleration. I often felt unsafe not having sufficient speed in the Bronco and it was a comparatively horrible driving experience.

Self-Driving

It probably goes without saying but let me mention it nonetheless that I often don’t actually have to drive the Tesla. It drives itself and does a pretty good job of it, especially on the highway.

Locking & Walking Away

When I get to my destination with the Tesla, I just stop the car and get out and walk away. The Bronco by comparison required me to stop the vehicle, turn off the engine, get out remembering to take the key and then pressing a button to lock the vehicle. I kept forgetting to take the key and when I did, I’d forget to turn off the vehicle.

Final Thoughts

I know that many of you reading this will say, but the Bronco is the way that vehicles work. You’d be right but the point I’m making is that we can do better! And Tesla has. It has created an absolutely stellar driving use experience.

As I mentioned in my previous post, your mileage may vary and you may have a different experience from mine but for me, everything pales in comparison to my Tesla Model 3 Dual Motor.

Cagan: The Missing Core Discipline

I recently read a book that is considered to be highly influential in the field of product management and product development, Marty Cagan’s “Inspired: How to create tech products customers love”. It has more than 4,000 global ratings on Amazon with an average of 4.6 out 5 and many of my friends and colleagues are talking about it. I absolutely love almost all aspects of this incredibly helpful book and think it also aligns well with IBM’s Enterprise Design Thinking too. The problem I have with the book is it’s depiction of UX research and UX researchers. Interestingly, Cagan’s more recent interviews tell a different story. Let me explain.

Historical Context

Some 20 to 30 years ago, people acknowledged the importance of design but thought that developers should do the design. The general consensus was that if you could find a designer that would be great but that would be a luxury. And when a designer did create a design, it was often treated as a suggestion by developers. That resulted largely in badly designed products.

Today you’ll be hard-pressed to find anyone who doesn’t think that designers should do the designing, that you should have sufficient numbers of them, and that their designs should be implemented.

Cagan’s Perspective

Cagan acknowledges the importance of UX research but thinks that researchers are one of the “supporting roles” that are not assigned to a particular product but support multiple products. He lumps researchers with data scientists and test automation engineers. He thinks research should be done by others, like the product manager. He believes that if you can find a researcher that would be great, they’re hugely valuable, but according to Cagan they’re not essential.

Do you see the similarity to the way design was characterized decades ago, that it was important but not recognized as being the purview of actual designers. Design is now appropriately characterized as a core role, in fact, it is now considered to be one of the three-in-box along with product management and development.

What I find is intriguing is that Cagan used companies like Google as examples, yet Google has a UX research organization with some 1,400 researchers in it who have been key to the company’s success. Hardly a supporting role. His widely read and influential book unfortunately mischaracterizes UX research. And Cagan could have simply looked at the literature, some of which is captured in the some of the books underneath his on the table in my office, including a book I wrote which was published 22 years ago. UX research and UX researchers are not new.

What I find concerning is the fact that this book is so popular and I know many people consider it to be gospel. I’ve read more books from other authors who are associated with Cagan, like Martina Lauchengco’s “Loved: How to rethink marketing for tech products” and Teresa Torres’s “Continuous Discovery Habits: Discover products that create customer value and business value”. And, these authors do recognize the critical importance of UX research and UX researchers.

Cagan’s Updated Perspective

The first edition of his book was published in 2008 and while he said that the second edition was a significant rewrite, I suspect that the sections about UX research may be left over from the first edition, an edition that almost exclusively focused on startups who typically have very few staff to begin with.

So, I explored his more recent work including a relatively recent article, entitled “Marty Cagan Shares 6 Important User Research Trends”. Here’s another recent article, entitled “Getting in front of the customer with Marty Cagan”. So Cagan does understand UX research? Absolutely! Does he think it’s central to the success of a product? Emphatically, yes! However, he says that, “my belief is that user research is most often extremely valuable, yet usually wasted. It’s wasted in the sense that it is not acted on.” He argues that UX research is so important that product managers, designers, and engineers should be involved together with UX researchers in doing the research so that they experience the insights themselves and don’t just read them in a report. I entirely concur with his guidance on this. While the rest of the team can’t be at every session with users, especially if the team is doing a sufficient amount of research, they should be present and experience first-hand some of the sessions themselves.

Concluding Thoughts

Cagan’s seminal work is having a significant impact on the field. I do hope though that the centrality of UX research and UX researchers along with a more nuanced understanding of the various rigorous methods UX researchers have the unique skills to carry out will find its way into the third edition of his book. I acknowledge that his main audience is product managers but they too should know what they should expect from a properly trained UX researcher beyond free-form interviews and usability testing.

Examples of Product Excellence

I've been doing a lot of thinking about what makes products excellent throughout the entire user journey. I reflected on some products that I personally thoroughly enjoy every day and have enjoyed throughout my user journey with them. The currently popular term for this is Product Led Growth (PLG), essentially products that sell themselves because they have a superior discover, learn, try, buy, get started, use, get help, and expand experience.

This won’t be a through research-based assessment with appropriate sample sizes, controls for bias, etc. This is simply a sample size of one, me, reflecting on three products that I love to use and have loved the entire journey of getting to use them. I honestly regularly take a moment out of my day to appreciate the true excellence in all aspects of these products.

Are there things I would improve upon? Sure. But on balance, these three products have achieved a level of excellence that would be extremely difficult to even match. I do encourage other companies to try to match this level of excellence because we would all benefit from that. And, other companies may already have matched these but I’m not aware of them because I’m so loyal to these product given their excellence that I’m not even looking around for others.

The three products that I’ll be describing my experience with are my Tesla Model 3 Dual Motor, my iPhone 12 Pro Max, and my M1 MacBook Pro.

Tesla Model 3

Discover

I was initially intrigued by electric cars and loved that Tesla’s first vehicle was a great looking sports car, the initial Tesla Roadster. I first saw it in person at the Toronto Auto show. All the other electric cars on the market were ugly and seemingly made for the diehard environmentalist who was willing to forfeit design for doing the right thing for the planet. Tesla’s choice of starting with a sports car got my interest and the interest of the press giving the company free advertising. A smart move. Lead with design.

Learn

The huge buzz about anything Tesla led me to check out their website and loved what I saw. I also checked out one of their first showrooms together with a colleague in Austin, Texas, not far from our design studio and lab there. She and I were extremely impressed and we didn’t even experience driving one yet. I first experienced a moving Tesla as a passenger in an Uber in Madrid when my team and I were running workshops in the city. My excitement for the car was building stronger and stronger as I got closer to the experience with the car.

Try

I then took one for a test drive myself back in Toronto and first experienced the absolutely incredible instant acceleration and amazing handling. The salesperson sitting beside me had me turn on the self-driving feature and joked that he was reaching into the glove compartment for a deck of cards that we could play because the car would take care of the driving. We didn’t play cards but the self-driving feature worked really well on the highway. There was also no need to unlock the car, start it, and no need to turn it off or lock it. No need for a key, just your own cellphone.

Buy

I decided to buy one and that too was super easy. I selected the model on the website and ordered it right there on the website. It was the first purchase of that size and of course the first car I had ever bought on a website. I also DMed a message to request the vegan steering wheel when that became available and got a quick reply saying that they would ensure the vegan steering wheel would be installed. The rest of the car is already vegan. When the car was built, I got the message to come pick it up, which I did. Unlike every other car I’ve ever bought, there were no problems whatsoever with the car. Previous cars I had purchased would require me to make a list of the problems that would then need to be fixed by the service part of the dealer.

Getting Started & Use

Driving my Tesla is sheer enjoyment every time I take it out. The incredible instant acceleration is thrilling. It does 0-60 mph (roughly 0-100 k/hr) in 3.1 seconds!. I only ever get close to that kind of acceleration when I’m driving by myself because passengers feel uncomfortable or even sick if I drive like that with them. You can even buy an upgrade on the Tesla app to increase the acceleration even further but I absolutely don’t need that.

I just need to walk up to the car which unlocks it by accessing an app on my phone. You don’t have to turn on the car; you just have to indicate whether you’d like to forward or in reverse. The navigation system usually already has the destination I’m going to be driving to, either based on my previous driving history or by finding an address in a calendar entry.

I either drive the car myself, simply by depressing or releasing the acceleration pedal. While there is a brake pedal, I virtually never use it. The car has regenerative braking which recharges the battery when braking and that also slows the car. It’s called single pedal driving. Some of the time I don’t want to drive myself which is typically on a long trip on the highway or stop and go traffic in the city. In both of those situations, full self-driving works very well. I occasionally use full self-driving more generally within the city and now it’s pretty good but not good enough yet for me to use it routinely.

Getting Help & Service

After three years of owning it, I haven’t had to do any maintenance on it, no oil and grease jobs, not even having to replenish the fuel. All I do is plug it in the charger overnight at home and the odd time I need to get a charge when I’m driving farther than a single charge can take me, I just charge up at a SuperCharger and I’m on my way. The small handle to control the passenger seat movement broke so I indicated that in a message on the Tesla app and the came out to my house and replaced it.

I live in Canada so have to have winter tires on seasonally. Tesla used to come out to my home to do that but I now use a 3rd party service that I just schedule online and they come to my house and make the seasonal wheel swap.

Expand

I did purchase the onboard WiFi service that enhances the navigation and other experiences. I also bought their cellphone charging pad but that’s about it for any additional products or services that I purchased. I bought the full self-driving package when I got the car.

MacBook Pro

Discover

I was of course aware of Apple for years but I wasn’t an early adopter of the Apple IIe, iBook, or PowerBook but I did use them somewhat. However, it was the MacBook line that got my interest. Like the Tesla, word of mouth generated the buzz.

Learn

I learned more about the product from friends and the Apple website. The design of Apple’s website is exemplary with it’s beautiful pictures and videos of the products. That alone makes them so desirable.

Buy, Getting Started, & Use

I made the case for getting a MacBook Pro at my work and then I got one so I didn’t purchase my first one. Subsequently, I’ve bought MacBook Pros for each of my family members. I typically either just order them online and have them shipped or I pick them up in the store.

Getting started is straightforward with everything on your old computer being easily moved automatically to your new computer.

Everything I do at work, at home, and at the university is done on my MacBook Pro. Having moved from Microsoft PowerPoint to Apple Keynote was a game changer. I’m still sometimes forced to use PowerPoint but Keynote is so far superior. Keynote is my primary application in addition to mail, calendar, etc.

Expand & Service

I absolutely love the integration of products in Apple’s ecosystem. I don’t have to sign into my MacBook Pro. My Apple Watch does that. I don’t have to sign in to approve purchases or other authentications. My Apple Watch does that too. It’s also straightforward to move assets between my MacBook Pro and iPhone. I often take pictures with my iPhone and then include them in blog posts or presentations.

I’ve never had the need to service my MacBook Pro. I do appreciate the automatic operating system and app refreshes and the fact that they don’t interrupt me. I particularly appreciate the [command] [spacebar] key combination to find anything on my computer.

iPhone 12

Discover

The Steve Jobs announcement of iPhone hooked me immediately. His mantra of “an iPod with touch controls, a phone, and a breakthrough internet communications device” all in one product and the way he generated excitement around it made it a must-have product.

Learn

I watched the video of that announcement many times and also the material on the website. I was aware of the gestural interfaces and multi-touch technologies during my graduate school days and seeing demos of data gloves with multiple wires all over the place. Seeing all of that capability in one device captivated me.

Buy

I immediately ordered the iPhone on the website but then had to wait about six months before it was available. I’ve bought every version of iPhone since then up until the iPhone 12 Pro Max. I think the iPhone has achieved a level of perfection that I don’t have a desire to buy a new one. The only draw is always an even better camera.

Getting Started & Use

The first experience with the first iPhone has been pretty similar to my experience with every version since: super straightforward to get working with. The skeuomorphism in the early iPhones I think helped to get familiar with the interface.

The recent versions with facial recognition, voice recognition, and blazingly fast performance make it a joy to use. Not having to key in passwords, the ability of the iPhone to unlock the Apple Watch, and the amazing wealth of apps in the App Store make it my main technology device. I marvel at what all I can do with it when I’m aware from my computer. I used to use standalone cameras but I would often forget to take them with me. I now have an amazingly high quality camera right in my pocket at all times and I use the camera several times a day.

Getting Help & Expand

The iPhone is so prevalent that if I ever have any question, I can usually just Google it and get the answer immediately. I haven’t had any need for service but my family’s iPhones have and I then just book an appointment using the app on the phone and take the phone into the Genius Bar.

Getting more apps is of course dead simple just using the App Store. I also appreciate the family sharing and the ability of apps to automatically update. That’s magical.

Conclusion

This blog post may sound to you as being too positive and enthusiastic. I know that other people have had different experiences with these three products and I also don’t think that they are perfect.

However, I truly believe that these products improve my life and that they’re exemplars of the concept of product led growth. What makes them so great, talented designers, researchers, product managers, and engineers working closely together with a laser-focus on creating an amazing user experience.

We also take the excellence in these products for granted and some even think that getting to this level of excellence is easy. It’s not. Think about the complexities involved in creating everything that’s in a Tesla today, or the MacBook, or the iPhone. There are competitors that are copying these products and gleaning the benefits of Tesla and Apple’s pioneering work. However, I for one am loyal to companies that create an amazing user experience and the competition generally still doesn’t stack up in my experience. And I think we should be encouraging all companies to look for opportunities to innovate greatness by creating awesome user experiences including the experience in discovering, learning about, buying, getting started, using, getting help, and having the opportunity to further expand with more capabilities from the company.

How to read 2+ books a week

That sounds like quite the click-bait headline. But, it does express my enthusiasm for the number of books I’m reading lately. And let me not bury the lead. I’m actually not reading more books — I’m listening to them.

Some of the books I’ve been listening to lately

Time for listening but not reading

I have very little time to exclusively devote to reading. However, when I think about the times that I need to use my eyes for some activity but my ears and much of my brain are still available, I then have much more time to listen to books while doing something else.

I can easily listen to books while I’m driving, making and cleaning up after dinner, running on the treadmill, doing weights, going grocery shopping, getting things at the mall, standing in line at Starbucks, traveling on a plane, taking an Uber, etc. To be clear, I still occasionally talk to people and don’t just block everything out in order to listen to books.

Availability

It used to be rare for a book to also have an audiobook available. However, Audible changed all that. It’s now rare for a book to not have an accompanying audiobook. I tend to buy them on the Apple iOS Books app and occasionally on Amazon-Audible. If you don’t want to buy them, you can also get audiobooks at most public libraries using an app like Libby.

The experience

I find that it’s a more authentic and even intimate experience. Most authors now read their own books so it’s like you’re getting one-on-one dedicated time with the author and having them read you their book. And if the author isn’t a great speaker, the companies making these audiobooks then bring in a professional actor to do the reading. Some non-fiction books even have multiple actors playing the different voice parts. It’s like having a play between your ears.

Apple also recently introduced new AI generated voices to narrate the books that don’t currently have an audiobook so that any book can have one. And the voices are incredibly good.

I find that I can concentrate on an audiobook and it keeps my attention. I always only use one Airpod so that I can attend to my surroundings. And if I do get an interrupt, like someone cutting in front of me on the road, my attention then goes 100% to dealing with the situation. Afterwards, I just rewind the audiobook to listen to the section that was interrupted.

Someone on Instagram the other day suggested that I should read a particular book that she recommended. I ordered it and finished listening to it within a day and then discussed it with her. I could never have done that by reading a physical book or an ebook.

For books that I need to frequently reference, I also buy either the physical book or the ebook. You do have to pay separately for each form of the book but that’s still worth it to me.

The speed

I took speed-reading courses years ago and they helped somewhat with reading books faster. However, with audiobooks, you can select the speed. Depending on the speed the author reads at, I typically set the speed at anywhere from 1.2x to even 2.0x. If I’m re-reading a book, I’ll absolutely set it at 2.0x. The brain can comprehend text at about 210 words per minute which is about twice the speed that the text can be naturally spoken. However, if you artificially speed up the recording, you can comprehend at full speed.

I should point out that I don’t always turn up the speed. I mostly do that for books that I’d like to simply ingest into my brain. I’m not looking for a wonderful experience of listening to the book. However, there are other books, typically fiction, that I like to listen to at the speed the author is actually reading it.

What to call it

One issue about consuming books in this way hasn’t been resolved: What to call it. Purists take issue with saying that you read a book when you actually listened to it. But saying that you listened to a book also sounds weird and draws too much attention away from the content and toward to the way you consumed it. I generally default to saying that I read a book. I consider it to be like other modes of communication like having a video call using FaceTime and referring to it simply as a call or OTP. Video calls are for many people the way of having phone calls, the same may happen with the increasing popularity of audiobooks. And audio phone calls won’t go away because you sometimes prefer not to be seen just like physical books and ebooks won’t go away. I do at times still prefer to read a physical book, holding it and smelling it, and enjoying the feeling of turning the pages.

Your mileage may vary

Listening to books is an acquired taste and isn’t for everyone. A listener to my podcast in response to an episode during which I advocated for audiobooks said that he simply couldn’t concentrate when listening to a book. Clearly, there are individual differences in the preference for and ability to listen to audiobooks. People also differ in how much time they have available for books. I used to have much more time than I do now so audiobooks have now become my go-to way of consuming the content in books.

I’d appreciate hearing from any of you regarding your experience with audiobooks.

I only planned to stay a year

I’ve never celebrated any of the work anniversaries during my career at IBM, until this one.

I reasoned that I work in the tech industry where moving from company to company is celebrated and staying at a company isn’t. In fact, people proudly put x-Company A, x-Company B after their name on LinkedIn, it would appear as a badge of honor. I also work in design and research in the tech field which is largely a younger person’s game. You don’t see a lot of people with grey hair in my business. Those who know me well know that I’m a champion of diversity and working against discrimination of all sorts. However, I’m also acutely aware of the fact that ageism still appears to be the last ism to be addressed and is sadly still practiced seemingly unabated in parts of society.

So what changed my mind about celebrating a career anniversary this time? Well, two things. First, I recently read former IBM CEO Ginni Rometty’s book Good Power in which she tells her life story openly and shares her recommendations for leaders. I found her book incredibly inspiring and I so appreciated how open she was about her life as well as her long and successful career.

I also recently delivered a keynote at the BLEND conference during which I shared my life story and my recommendations for a rewarding career and life. Ginni’s book and the feedback from the audience at the BLEND conference both reinforced the interest in and the value of sharing information like this. And that is what inspired this blog post. So here goes!

This week I'm celebrating 35 years with IBM! I can hardly believe that myself. And to think that I was only planning to stay a year, more on that later. And I’m not done. I plan to continue my IBM career for many years to come.

I wrote a blog post a few weeks ago on the topic of Career Paths are Circuitous. I talked about that many of the students I've taught and mentored over the years have had the mistaken notion that people choose a profession and move directly into it. That hadn't been my experience. In fact, I recently posted a poll on LinkedIn asking whether people had had a career pivot and fully 78 percent of them said they had. That blog post inspired Markus Grupp to invite me to present the closing keynote on this theme at the recent BLEND Conference a couple of weeks ago. Sharing my life story and life lesson inspired recommendations struck a chord with the audience and led to a long lineup after my talk of people with lots of questions and requests for advice. And many follow ups in LinkedIn DMs.

Everything you do in life contributes to who you become as a person.

Let me walk you through the phases of my life and what I learned from each one.

Lessons from my early life

I am a first generation immigrant who didn’t know a word of English when my family moved from The Netherlands to Canada. As an eight year old immigrant boy, I knew that nobody could understand me and I couldn’t understand them so I said nothing. That led to me being diagnosed as having a learning disability and I was sent off to a special school. That was rough because I was bullied while waiting to take the bus each morning to what the other kids referred insensitively to as the “retard school”. I’m thankful to my older brother who helped me through that period by defending me.

And I’m thankful to a teacher at that school, an elderly bowtie wearing British gentleman, for noticing that I didn’t have a learning disability but rather simply didn’t know the English language. They didn’t have English as a second language classes back then. He taught me English and I was soon returned to my regular school where I did very well. Even when I was back in the regular school system where my brother and I spoke perfect English, my parents were still aware of the prejudice against immigrants at the time so they didn’t go to parent-teacher interviews for fear of revealing their less than perfect English, spoken with a strong accent. Those early experiences taught me to never assume that you know what someone else is going through and how damaging bullying can me. I also learned to have empathy for people who are learning to speak another language and may not yet speak it perfectly.

I had part-time jobs while at high school that had an impact on me too. Many of them involved physical labor, like bailing hay on a farm. While they inspired me to pursue additional education so that I wouldn’t have to do that kind of work for the rest of my life, they also engendered in me a healthy respect for physical labor and the contribution it makes to society. Similarly, I did most jobs in a hospital other than surgeon and nurse. I particularly enjoyed being a janitor because I could clean the floors in the operating rooms and other restricted parts of the hospital after hours and be all by myself. I prided myself in being able to polish floors to a beautiful shine that you could see yourself in. I would also practice my singing at full volume. I learned though that when I emptied the trash in offices or cleaned the front glass doors of the hospital when other people were around, that a janitor is essentially invisible with nobody taking notice of someone in that role, nor the job they’re doing. That experience taught me to go out of my way to acknowledge and thank the janitor that empties the trash in my office and to praise the work of another janitor who cleans the hallway floors each evening as I leave for home. I do the same for others in similar roles like grocery store staff, airport staff, and support staff.

A career in music

While I played hockey, volleyball, and squash, music was my true love during all of high school. I took classical lessons at the Conservatory of Music in theory, various instruments, but mainly voice. I acted and sang in high school musicals, jazz bands, and choirs. I also played professionally in a band every Saturday night at a club and recorded an album. It had always been my plan to continue in music as a career and to pursue a Bachelor in Music degree.

However, when I checked out University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music before applying, I saw students spending full days in tiny practice booths during the parts of the day when they weren’t in classes. I also consulted my high school music teacher who had been much of my inspiration and encouragement. He said that even though I wanted to go into musical performance, most people who take a music degree end up teaching music and then they spend the rest of their lives listening to bad music. I guess he was speaking from personal experience. He encouraged me to make music my avocation and to pursue another subject as my major, which I did.

Becoming a clinical psychologist

I decided to enter the University of Toronto majoring in psychology and cognitive science. Subsequently, in graduate school, I specialized in clinical psychology focussing on both practice and research. I also taught research methods, ran the fourth year undergraduate thesis program, and pursued a minor in statistics and market research in the business school. I did clinical internships at a correctional institute and research assistantships at a psychiatric hospital. My specialization was clinical depression and I carried out and published many studies into various aspects of the disorder.

Pivoting to design and research

I was responsible for running a lab during my PhD program that required me to recruit and hire research assistants. I posted a job opening and was shocked to discover that only men applied for it. The university was about 60% women so I found it strange that no women applied for the job. When I explored further I discovered that women didn’t apply because the job involved working with computers. The experiments were programmed by me into the computer and the job actually involved simply turning on the program and advancing it to particular experimental tasks.

Being a good social scientist, I determined that this observation needed further investigation. I created a Computer Anxiety Scale which validated that observation that women more so than men back then had anxiety about and were fearful of computers. I did a content analysis of computer advertising which not surprisingly showed a significant male bias. I also looked at the design of computer user interfaces for clues and determined that users were given very little if any positive experiences while working with a computer and in fact would experience significant negative feedback when they did anything wrong that caused an error.

I then immersed myself into the field of design and explored ways of enhancing the design of user interfaces focusing on a positive experience and positive feedback. I then carried out a study with women who were anxious about computers and those who weren’t (using my Computer Anxiety Scale) and had them experience the usual design of user interfaces compared with my new design. I analyzed self-report and also heart rate and galvanic skin response as psychophysiological measures of anxiety. The results surprised even me. The new design completely eliminated the anxiety that the women felt. I presented this series of studies at a scientific conference and my findings were picked up by the press resulting in radio and TV interviews.

This is Paul from IBM calling

Paul Smith, a UX designer at IBM had seen the press reports about my design and research work. He gave me a call saying that he was impressed with my work and asked, “have you ever considered working for IBM?”. I answered truthfully, “no, but I’m willing to consider it.” I was intending to be a clinician, a researcher, and a prof. However, I had actually read a book about the founders of IBM the previous year and I was fascinated by the culture of the company. I agreed to go for an interview and was immediately impressed by what I saw and heard. They were also impressed that I had also programmed an intuitive user interface for students and researchers in what we now call data science to know which statistics software package to use and which statistical analysis method to use given the structure and characteristics of their data.

When we started talking salary, I said that I would give it a go for a year. I also met with the lab director and with the VP of M&D. They told me that IBM was planning to break up into smaller units and that the IBM Toronto Lab would become it’s own independent software company. They wanted me to take on the role of elevating the design and research practice so that the lab’s products would be able to compete on a world stage in new markets. The company didn’t end up being broken up but the potential of that happening was the inspiration for them hiring me. And, that was 35 years ago.

My years at IBM

I was an individual contributor for about a year or two. I remember during those early years that I was asked to do a statistical analysis on a survey they had conducted. It had about 150 responses so I asked how the sampling was done and was told that all current customers of that large and specialized product had responded. So, it wasn’t a sample; it was the population. I pointed out that they didn’t need to do any statistical analyses on the data because any differences observed were in fact real. I realized that research rigor wasn’t very high at the company.

My first manager, Dave Pinkham, was an old-school IBM manager and he had quite the impact on me. For example, he was a stickler for punctuality and to this day, I am too. I start my meetings right on time, to the second. A colleague some years later who had a similar passion for punctuality used to calculate the cost of every minute a meeting started late based on an estimate of everyone’s salary that was in the meeting.

In my early years at IBM, employees were required to dress in formal business clothes which for men meant wearing suits with a shirt and tie. That’s so bizarre when I think about it now. I made the case to my manager Dave for us not to have to wear our shirt collars done up and with a tie, based on cerebral blood flow studies that showed that increasing the blood flow to the brain was associated with greater creativity. Dave thanked me for the analysis but still required us to wear our ties.

Employees were also required to share an office and my officemate, Brian Yee, while being a great guy was running a homebuilding business on the side so was on the phone constantly. He wanted to be a millionaire by the time he turned 30. I made the case for Dave to allow me to set up a small desk in the broom closet so that I could concentrate. He appreciated my suggestion but said I needed to stay in the office with Brian. The only way out of that was to get promoted and be a manager. So, I worked hard and got that promotion and office.

My pushing of boundaries at IBM with my first IBM manager about the dress-code and the work environment was an early sign of the changes I would make at IBM throughout my 35 years and still do today.

Just a few years into my IBM tenure, I developed the IBM User-Centered Design approach, ran some pilot studies using it, and then was given responsibility for leading it’s deployment and lead the design community across Software Group and shortly after that, for all of IBM. And ten years ago I helped lead the design reboot of the company with Phil Gilbert’s leadership.

When I was headhunted a year and a half ago and decided to stay at IBM, I wrote an extensive post about my career at IBM and what I most valued about the company. When Phil left the company, I also wrote a tribute to him which also detailed our work together at IBM. Please check out those posts for more details of my IBM career.

Oh, and I did get back to music by inspiring my kids to go into it and to occasionally have us play together. And, I got back to psychology and cognitive science by hosting my Life Habits mentoring podcast series for the past 15 years.

My 21 Recommendations

In my keynote at the BLEND conference, I also reflected on my career and provided the following 21 recommendations for a fulfilling career and life. Please note that I’ve discussed a number of these recommendations in individual podcast episodes of my Life Habits Mentoring podcast series and also in previous posts on this website. Do check them out.

1. Focus on your passions to decide on a career or career pivot— not necessarily what your parents or friends advise.
   
   Parents, especially immigrants and members of minority communities, often have very strong ideas about what a worthwhile career to pursue is. While they are important to you, ultimately, it is you who will have to live with your choices of career. I know of many people who had to pivot several times to get away from a discipline and career their parents wanted for them to one that they have a real passion for.

2. Practice foresight to imagine what that career might look like in 5-10 years.
   
   People often jump on the latest hot discipline or career not realizing that it may not be around in 5-10 years. Use the Strategic Foresight techniques of horizon scanning to think about the trends you’re seeing and the demographic and technological signals too in order to see the importance of the discipline and career you’re considering and even if it will still be around in the future.

3. Talk to someone who is in that career to ensure you understand what it’s like.
   
   Many people I know pivoted their discipline and career because it wasn’t what they thought it would be. After you graduate with a degree in a discipline is unfortunately the wrong time to learn about what it’s like to work in that discipline. For your first career or when you’re looking to pivot careers, find someone who is in that career and ask to have a conversation with them about what it’s like to work in that profession.

4. Authentically listen to that person, and listen more that you talk.
   
   That conversation is an incredibly important one so listen authentically and listen more than you talk. The only talking you should be doing is prompting them with questions like what’s the best thing about it, what’s the worst thing about it, can you give me a sense of a day-in-the-life of what you do? And, use authentic listening is all aspects of your life too.

5. Take courses in adjacent disciplines — business, design, engineering, etc.
   
   During your initial education or if you’re getting more education, don’t just focus on one discipline. Having knowledge of adjacent disciplines will make you more employable, make you more effective in your role, and ultimately more fulfilled in your career. For example, I also took courses in programming, business, and ethics.

6. It’s a team sport — go to multidisciplinary workshops and hackathons.
   
   Don’t just learn about other disciplines, hang out with them and do productive things with them. Multidisciplinary workshops and hackathons are a great way to do this.

7. Seek out mentors and sponsors to gain insight, leverage experience, and to have someone rooting and providing support for you.
   
   People often have the mistaken notion that you should have one mentor. In fact, you should have as many as you have needs to learn specific things. And they don’t have to be long-term relationships and sometimes you don’t even have to meet with them. I was mentored by Barack Obama regarding his speaking style but I didn’t ever meet with him, I just watched and listened to many of his speeches. And sponsors are important too. A sponsor is typically a more senior person who can actually open doors for you.

8. Get some experience yourself through internships and/or jobs.
   
   Venture capitalist Joe Kraus of Google Ventures says, “Want to be a founder? Go get a job.” Many people want to create startups but even they should get some experience first working for a company initially as an intern or even as a first job. And it’s also important to note that large companies like IBM have startup incubators inside their company so you can be an intrapreneurial founder. You get the benefit of working for a stable company while still getting to do new things.

9. Be a T-shaped person with deep skills in one area but also knowledge of other adjacent skill areas including design thinking.
   
   The vertical stroke of the T is your discipline superpower while the horizontal stroke of the T represents your general skills. While specialization is important, so is knowledge of other areas. And everyone should have design thinking as an important horizontal skill. In fact, use design thinking to design your life.

10. Personally champion diversity and inclusion.
    
    Realize that it hasn’t been a level playing field especially for disadvantaged parts of our society due to gender, race, sexual orientation, disability, etc. Lean in and celebrate differences. And serve as an ally or second pillar ensuring everyone’s voice is heard. Do what the female staffers during US President Obama administration did with a meeting strategy they called “amplification”. When a woman made a key point, other women would repeat it, giving credit to the author and forcing all in the room to recognize the contribution and deny anyone else the chance to claim the idea as their own. The only change I would make and I try to practice myself, is to ask a person from any disadvantaged group to repeat what they said themselves in order to amplify their voice and give them credit. Do the same for that quiet person in the room who often can’t get their voice heard above those who regularly and loudly speak. Remember too that white men usually do the interrupting in meetings so don’t be that white man.

11. Understand the business you’re going into or are in — the flow of money.
    
    Know how the organization you’re going to work for or are working for actually works. How does it make money? What is its purpose? What are its competitors? What is its strategy? Figure out the flow of money and try to align what you do with that knowledge. And if you’re working for a not-for-profit, try to figure out what will make it successful in its mission.

12. Don’t only be about money — do something for your soul.
    
    While you should focus on money with regard to how an organization works and it’s good to make good money too, don’t only be about money yourself. A sure way to an unhappy and unfulfilled life is one that only focuses on money. You need to do something for your soul as well. In my case, I’m passionate about reducing the suffering and death of animals, addressing climate change, and optimizing health so I lean in and spend some of my non-work time on those topics on social media, my family website, and even serving as the Vice President of VegTO which as the mission “to inspire people to choose vegan living – for the animals, our health and the planet”.

13. Make a change every few years whether between organizations or within.
    
    You can get stagnant if you stay in the same job for a long time so I recommend that people change every few years. Many people interpret this to mean that they should change companies but I don’t subscribe to the idea that that’s the only way to change. I’m a strong advocate of changing roles in the same company, like I have many times. Larger companies have great opportunities to explore different career directions by moving between divisions or business units and also between disciplines.

14. Develop your eminence and digital brand.
    
    I think you should share your ideas openly inside your own organization as well as publicly external to your organization as well. Make sure you have something to say that is valuable but then share it freely and engage in the feedback on it in order to further improve it. Do the same for what others share. Be known for something and gain a reputation for it digitally. Accept requests to speak at conferences and to university classes, etc. Get and stay engaged digitally. It not only will improve your work, you’ll also enjoy the professional engagement you get on your work to further improve it.

15. Write an aspirational resume/portfolio and then make it a reality.
    
    Most people just use the resume/portfolio as the way to summarize what they’ve done. I think that’s missing a huge additional value that you can get from it. I believe you should also write what you’d like to have in your resume/portfolio, using a different typeface, and then work to make it a reality. Write it as if it was completed and put in the future date that it will come true and then use that as your inspiration and plan to get it done.

16. Try to improve every place you’re at.
    
    Take pride in the organization you’re at and try to make it better. Take it on yourself to propose doing monthly staff birthday celebrations or suggest ways of improving the look and/or operation of the place. It’ll make you feel better and others that you work with will appreciate you for it.

17. Develop an in-person and digital network of professional contacts.
    
    Learn and remember people’s names and seek out getting to know new people in your organization and in your discipline. The more people you know and who know you, the more effective you can be in your job and discipline. People often attribute my knowing so many people and they knowing me to the number of years I’ve been at IBM and in the industry. That’s partly true but it’s also because I make this a priority and think it is important.

18. Keep up with the news and developments in your field. Stay current and be a lifelong learner.
    
    I think it’s incredibly important to be aware of what’s going on in the world more generally as well as regarding developments in your field. Be curious. And be a lifelong learner. I listen to a global news podcast twice a day about world events, design and technology podcasts too, and I read about two books a week in my field. I think we’re living in an incredibly exciting yet also challenging time. I try to focus on the positive and making a difference to make the word a better place.

19. Be resilient. Stay focused. Strive for mastery.
    
    Everyone will experience challenges and setbacks. It’s how you respond to those that is key. Have a resilient mindset, learn from the negative experience, and stay focused on how to improve in the future. And, never get complacent. Strive for excellence and even mastery in your field.

20. Do career workouts regularly.
    
    Most people either go to the gym or workout regularly or if they don’t, they know that they should. However, we don’t do the same regarding our career fitness and health. I think we should borrow from the physical health field and use those same techniques to strengthen our careers.

21. Unplug!

    We’re now so wedded to our digital devices and much of that is great in my view. However, I believe that it’s also important to find times during the day or at least the week when you totally unplug from technology. Engage in mindfulness and meditation, long walks or runs, or other ways of recharging your body and mind. My recommendation is to schedule these breaks and then actually take them. Your body and mind will thank you.

My Appreciation

As I reflect on my 35 year career at IBM, there’s a good reason I stayed beyond that first year. I’ve had new, fascinating, and different experiences practically even year I’ve been at IBM. I’m passionate about making IBM successful and in working with my staff and colleagues to make that a reality. I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunities IBM has given me and continues to give me to explore, grow, and have impact on the company. I’ve also thoroughly enjoyed and continue to enjoy my day-to-day interactions with my colleagues and staff.

I’d also like to acknowledge that while I’ve had some difficult times in my life, I have benefitted from being a white man living through reasonably stable economic times. I have throughout my career tried to level the playing field for diverse colleagues and staff but there is still so much more to do. And, as I discussed with the many students at the BLEND conference who are about to graduate, today’s economic environment is so much more challenging than during most of the time during my career. My recommendations still hold, albeit nuanced by the current economic environment, as we discussed after my talk.

Here’s to another 35 years! Well, maybe not quite 35 but certainly many more glorious years of working for this amazing company.

Ginni's Good Power: The Leader & Book

I just finished former IBM CEO Ginni Rometti’s new book, Good Power, that came out Wednesday on International Women's Day. It's an absolute must read for any leader. I also found it a fascinating read because I’ve been involved in several initiatives she’s led during her tenure at the helm of IBM.

Ginni’s Vision

I first encountered Ginni when she visited our Toronto team on the second day on the job as CEO in January 2012. I was so impressed with her vision for the company on many fronts but including her focus on improving the world with artificial intelligence. I was leading design for Watson at the time, in addition to my companywide role. I was particularly delighted with the importance she placed on client experience and design. A key message in her talk was that the client experience would be a major focus of her tenure as CEO. I was thrilled.

Right after the talk, I sent an email to the then software SVP Robert LeBlanc saying that this was our opportunity to rightsize and integrate design into the company. Further meetings with him and my colleague Sal Vella fleshed out our recommendations regarding staffing and adopting Phil Gilbert’s design approach. Robert then had meetings with Ginni and Phil and that launched our design transformation of the company. Phil and Ginni are both big picture visionaries and their collaboration was magical in driving our design transformation. We have them to thank for the design and research population we now have at IBM and the impact that they’re having on our products and services. (See my Personal Tribute to Phil Gilbert for further details).

Our Studio

My next interaction with Ginni was on the day we officially opened our new design studio in Austin, Texas, in November, 2013. While walking with her on a tour of the studio on that day she commented that she thought all of IBM's workspaces should be like our studio to encourage collaboration. I enthusiastically agreed.

And then I noticed that she was looking at what I was wearing and she asked me, "do designers get dressed up by simply putting on a jacket while still just wearing their jeans?" I said yes, and explained that designers were in fact different in many ways and that the other disciplines could benefit from adopting a designerly way of thinking and working. That of course was a reference to our design thinking framework that she was already well aware of and which I was evangelizing that year by visiting each of our development labs globally and holding town halls, executive meetings, and roundtables ushering in the new era of design at IBM.

Her Leadership

The title of Ginni’s book, “Good Power: Leading Positive Change in our Lives, Work, and World” couldn’t be a better way of capturing her leadership style, what she’s accomplished, and what change she’s continuing to make in the world.

I was invigorated every time I listened to one of her all employee broadcasts. She was always upbeat, engaging, authentic, speaking from the heart, without slides, and no matter what the substance of the call, I always felt inspired, empowered, and proud of the company I worked for.

Ginni reluctantly accepted the fact that she is a role model, initially insisting that she was a leader who happened to be a woman too. I think she’s an awesome role model for women, but also for men to learn to work with powerful women. We have such a long way to go in this regard but Ginni is a phenomenal example to lead the way.

She also never put on airs as the CEO. I observed her touring our design demos in the building our team designed for the SXSW conference in March of 2017. She spoke to each of our designers as an equal, sincerely interested in the demo they were showing and in them as a person. She exuded positivity, curiosity, and trust.

The Book

The book is a very personal account of her early years and how the challenges she and her family faced influenced her to become the amazing leader that she is. I was honestly shocked at what she had to endure so early in her life but it also explains her drive, her work ethic, her focus on skills, her intellect, and her approach to doing good in the world.

The book is divided into three parts: The Power of Me, dealing with changing a life, The Power of We, dealing with changing work, and The Power of Us, focused on changing the world. I have tried to cultivate and hone my own leadership style and attributes along similar lines to what Ginni outlines. Her key themes of being in service of, building belief, knowing what needs to change and what must endure, being a good steward of good tech, being resilient, envisioning a better future, and creating a movement all spoke to me personally.

I love that she acknowledged the individuals who influenced her, taught her lessons, and with whom she collaborated. It was great that she called out Phil for his contributions to changing the way IBM works led by design and design thinking.

Every CEO brings their own style, perspective, and priorities to the role. I believe that Ginni was the perfect CEO for IBM during the period she led the company.

I believe the world needs more leaders like Ginni, using their power for good in companies, academia, and governments. Of course the world still needs Ginni herself too doing everything she’s doing today.

It’s also just like Ginni to make a PDF or ePub version of her book available for free to all managers at IBM.

Thank you, Ginni. We appreciate you! Keep changing the world.

Career Paths are Circuitous

Many of the students I've mentored over the years have had the mistaken notion that people choose a profession and move directly into it. In my experience, most people take a more circuitous route and learn valuable things on the way, especially in their first few part-time jobs. That was certainly my experience.

My beloved fender Telecaster delux with stratocaster neck and gibson humbucker pickups

I was a farmhand in my early teens, a hospital janitor in my mid-teens, and a professional musician in my later teens and early twenties planning to have a career in music

As a farmhand, I learned to appreciate the importance of manual labor to society and in particular being the first part of the supply chain in getting food to people’s tables. It also felt good to be so physical all day which resulted in my being in the best shape of my life during that period. The job also afforded me the freedom to practice my singing and music. The guys I worked with would often join in. I also learned to work a manual transmission while driving a truck filled with bales of hay. I needed to pick up all the hay bales if I popped the clutch and slid them off the back of the truck. I became pretty proficient at driving stick very early as a result.

I really enjoyed being a janitor because I could do my own thing, including practicing my singing while working and nobody cared because the role is strangely largely invisible to people. Having polished a huge floor with a industrial buffer so that you could see your reflection in the floor was hugely satisfying to me. Particularly meaningful was the fact that I met the smartest person I’ve ever encountered in my entire life in that job, a fellow janitor. I learned then to never judge a person by what they do. Since that job, I’ve always made a point to thank the janitor that comes to empty the trash bin in my office no matter how busy I am. I also acknowledge and greet the janitors elsewhere in the building when a see them and make sure to not mess up what they’ve just cleaned.

Music was going to be my chosen profession. While I enjoyed singing and playing in a house band every Saturday night and studying classical music at the Royal Conservatory of Music, it was my high school music teacher who said that most people who take music at university end up teaching music and then listening to bad music all day. I appreciated music teachers but I wanted to be a performer. I also visited the university music department I was considering attending and I saw students spending all day in tiny practice rooms. That wasn’t for me. I decided to make music my avocation.

I then pivoted and did undergraduate, masters, and doctoral studies initially in cognitive science and clinical psychology which later led to another pivot to research, specialization, and my life-long passion for, practice in, and leadership of design and research.

My early experiences made a huge impression on me and have made me a better person. I believe that every role we have is additive in terms of skill building. As an example, my early experience regularly being on stage in front of large crowds as a singer and musician made it a lot easier for me to feel comfortable speaking to large audiences in my role today.

So, my career path was circuitous and I’m glad that it was.

The Ethics of Blogging with Generative AI, According to Generative AI

All the talk right now is about ChatGPT. I too have been playing with it and considering its considerable uses and especially its dangers. I’ve particularly been thinking about the ethics involved. And then it occurred to me to ask ChatGPT.

I submitted the request “write a blog post on the topic of the ethics of using generative ai in writing blog posts.” The part of this blog post below the line is the post that ChatGPT generated. I’m honestly quite impressed, as I have been with many of the uses I’ve put ChatGPT to.

I’ve heard this particular use case of generating a blog post mentioned many times. However, I can’t imagine using it myself for writing a blog post because I write blog posts to express my own very specific ideas and I would think that most people who write blog posts would be the same. I guess the worry is that companies that simply want to make money from advertising on blog posts may be able to do that without involving actual bloggers at all. That’s scary, as are many of the abuses of this technology.

Have a read though through ChatGPT’s blog post below. It’s spot on in my view and makes the points I’ve just made too. And, this is the one time I’m using Generative AI to write my blog posts.

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ChatGPT Generated Text

Generative AI, or AI that can generate text, has the potential to revolutionize the way we create and consume content. However, as with any new technology, it is important to consider the ethical implications of its use. In this blog post, we will explore some of the ethical concerns surrounding the use of generative AI in writing blog posts.

One of the main concerns is that generative AI could be used to create fake or misleading content. For example, a malicious actor could use generative AI to create fake news stories or impersonate real people on social media. This could have serious consequences for individuals and society as a whole. To mitigate this risk, it is important to have mechanisms in place to detect and flag fake or misleading content generated by AI.

Another concern is that generative AI could be used to automate the writing of blog posts, potentially replacing human writers. This could lead to job loss and a reduction in the diversity of voices in the media. To address this issue, it is important to ensure that AI-generated content is clearly labeled and that the use of AI does not lead to a reduction in the number of human writers.

A third concern is that generative AI could perpetuate biases that are present in the data it is trained on. For example, if an AI model is trained on a dataset of predominantly male authors, it may generate text that is biased towards men. To avoid this, it is important to use diverse and inclusive training data, and to regularly evaluate the output of AI models for biases.

Finally, it is important to consider the implications of AI-generated content on intellectual property rights. If an AI model generates text that is similar to existing copyrighted works, it could raise legal issues. It is important to have clear guidelines and regulations in place to address these issues.

In conclusion, generative AI has the potential to revolutionize the way we create and consume content, but it is important to consider the ethical implications of its use. By being aware of the potential risks and taking steps to mitigate them, we can ensure that the use of generative AI leads to a more informed and equitable society.

Staying Resilient as a UX Researcher

There is a lot of talk of an economic downturn and companies are readying themselves for it. At times like these, I think UX researchers are key to companies being resilient if those researchers have a laser focus on what should be our focus at all times—targeted, well-crafted, and impactful research.

Organizations hire researchers to make their products, services, and overall operation more effective and successful at achieving the objectives of the organization. For-profit organizations have objectives such as client satisfaction, revenue, and profit. Not-for-profit organizations have objectives like achieving the mission of the organization, satisfying the needs of the members, etc. A resilient researcher will focus on doing their work to optimize the organization’s objectives while fulfilling their purpose to improve the lives of the users that they serve.

What I’m discussing here should make the organization you work for more successful and more effective at weathering an economic downturn. In fact, I believe that research is critically important for organizations to rely on especially during difficult times. It’s the way of drawing a direct line between the users and the organization’s success. However, great research has its limits in terms of what it can do for an organization. For example, it can’t correct structural and fundamentals problems in an organization and we’re seeing those factors leading some companies laying off staff including researchers. I so feel for the researchers being let go from those companies.

Targeted Research

Most organizations don’t have all the researchers they need to do everything they’d like to do. Even if they did, they’d still need to provide focus and prioritizations for the work.

How should you decide what to do research on in an organization? Researchers at many of the companies I’m aware of don’t have a systematic way of determining the focus and priority of the work of their researchers. Some just do the research that their design team needs to be done which is usually just evaluative research. But solely doing evaluative research may not be the most effective use of a researcher’s time.

I believe that researchers and their research managers, should they have them, should use their research skills to determine what to work on. They should do structured interviews with the leadership stakeholders in their company or organization, using questions like “what keeps you up at night regarding your product/service portfolio and its relation to the success of the organization?” Once you hone in on a part of the portfolio that requires attention, dig into what aspects of the product/service that needs the most attention. Should design be the focus? Is there a greater need to identify unmet needs? Or, is the experience of discovering, learning about, trying, and buying what needs attention? Asking questions like these will ensure that you have an understanding of what the organization most needs help with to drive greater financial and organizational success.

Well-Crafted Research

Once you have that organization prioritization perspective, you can now decide what UX method or methods would be best to address the needs of the organization and who might be best to carry out the research. You should stay up-to-date on the field too in order to make sure that your work can benefit from the latest thinking and approaches. And don’t necessarily use the UX methods the way they were first designed. Feel free to innovate so that you can have a laser-focus on what you need to learn with the research.

Impactful Research

If you’ve done your work to determine what research to carry out that’s aligned with the organization’s priorities and you’ve chosen well-crafted methods, you’re well on your way to impact. In order to be truly impactful, you also need to address a series of “yeah-buts” that make those you’ll be providing the results to lack confidence in your research unless they’re dealt with. The yeah-buts could take the form of the following:

• Sample

  • You used internal users

  • You used a very small sample

  • Your sample isn’t representative of the target population

• Rigor

  • You seem to have used leading questions

  • How do I know that your results should be followed?

  • That bar in the bar-chart looks different from the others to me

• Communication

  • Do you really expect me to read a 50 page document?

  • This all looks like expert mumbo jumbo to me

  • What should I do with this?

Not addressing these potential yeah-buts could compromise how impactful your results will be. How do you address these yeah-buts? Well, let’s consider each category in turn.

Sample

Make sure that you’re using a sample that is representative of population that you’re intending to understand with your research, meaning age, gender, race, social economic status, culture, country, etc. Also, ensure that you’re getting a large enough sample for what type of study you’re doing.

Rigor

Anyone can ask a question and get an answer. However, if you’re doing UX research right, you’re going to be making sure that you’re not asking leading questions and that you’re making sure to guard against biases and even to evaluate them. You should also be balancing qualitative and quantitative analyses of results and using statistics where appropriate. And indicate which differences are significant and which aren’t without getting into details like p-values. Those are for you and your UX research colleagues to discuss but will only confuse the non-experts you’ll be presenting to.

Communication

Empathize with the recipient of your UX research results. They’re typically busy people and don’t have the patience to read a 50-page document or listen to a two-hour presentation. Net it out! Do the hard work of determining which insights are the most important and then communicate those in a succinct manner using the vocabulary of the recipient of your work. Give them the assurance that you’ve done rigorous work by briefly describing your methods of collecting the data and how you analyzed them. But don’t overdo it! Don’t nerd out in the way that you might when presenting to your discipline colleagues. Also, make sure that you clearly state what implications of your research has and what change needs to happen to address the findings.

Tracking Impact

In addition to the yeah-buts, many researchers think they’re done when they’ve presented their results. Your research is only done when the results have had their impact. The organization didn’t hire you to carry out studies, they hired you to make a difference in the organization’s success. It’s part of your responsibility to track impact, along with your manager. Some findings may not have their impact for some time, like a release from now if it’s a software product or app. You should still track your recommendations, even it they are in a status like having been added to the product roadmap but not yet implemented.

Sharing Your Knowledge

Share anything you learned when recruiting participants, any innovations in methods, any analysis approaches that were novel, or methods of sharing and/or tracking your results. You should share what you learned with your discipline colleagues at your current company as well as with the wider community of UX researchers outside your own organization.

Increasing your impact and sharing your knowledge both should contribute to your personal internal and external eminence which is often also related to career advancement inside and outside your current organization.

Using the guidance I’ve provided in this post should make you more resilient as a UX researcher but should also help the organization you work for more successful and resilient during uncertain economic times.

2022: A Personal Reflection & Thank You

As 2022 comes to a close and 2023 has almost completed loading, I’d like to reflect on the year.

Many people have a tradition of sending letters or emails outlining what they and their family have accomplished in the year. I’d like to depart from that tradition and instead focus this blog post on the people, largely professionally, who made a significant difference in my life this year and thank them for doing so.

I’m so fortunate to work with so many amazing people in my job at IBM and also in my various other interest areas, including the Future of Design Education, McMaster University, and the vegan non-profit VegTO. While I would love to thank everyone individually, there are just too many of you so instead I’ll acknowledge the people who were particularly extra special to me this year.

IBM

Katrina Alcorn

I’d like to begin with my work colleagues at IBM, starting with our awesome GM of Design, Katrina Alcorn. This was Katrina’s first full year of heading up design for the company and what an amazing year she and we have had. For the first four months of the year, I was responsible for IBM’s design leadership, education, culture, and eminence. Katrina keynoted the IBM Leadership Summit that my team and I hosted. She kicked off the event with an inspiring keynote, detailing the organization’s strategic intent of driving pervasive excellence in design through a laser focus on customer insights, cross-discipline teaming, and intentional continuous learning. These are the core themes of the next chapter of IBM Design that we executed the remainder of the year.

Katrina Alcorn

GM of Design

She also announced around that time that she would be creating a new position at IBM and seeking to hire a Vice President of Client Insights to drive the first pillar of the new strategy. After having the executive recruiters launch an internal and external search for the candidate to fill this position, Katrina asked me to apply. I did what is called a “panel presentation” to Katrina and a group of peers in March. I didn’t think more about it because I knew that an extensive multi-month executive search was being carried out.

I was naturally blown away when Katrina offered me the role in April, with a May 1st start date. I immediately accepted the job offer but I did make one condition, that Lauren Swanson move with me to the new organization. I look forward to every one of my weekly one-on-one meetings with Katrina and to our deep and authentic collaborations.

Lauren Swanson

I’d been a director for the past ten years in the Design Program Office up until that point, mostly activating each of the divisions of the company with Enterprise Design Thinking and, most recently, having a small team responsible for IBM’s design leadership, education, culture, and eminence.

Lauren Swanson was on that team and was responsible for our Design Principal (DP) and Distinguished Designer (DD) programs, working with the Design Leadership Board (DLB). The two of us significantly redesigned the overall DP program, creating three sub-boards which were closer to the divisions’ staff and also substantially enhancing the nomination form and process. We were also partners in running the Design Executive Team (DET), made up of the company’s design executives, and responsible for the profession of design, adding four new sub-disciplines this year, and hosting the design leadership community calls every other month.

Lauren Swanson

Strategy, Comms, & Impact

I was so pleased that Lauren agreed to move to the new organization with me and to take on a new role as my Chief of Staff. We immediately got to work to learn more about the new organization’s staff by doing a listening tour. We visited our teams in Austin, San Jose, and Toronto and also connected remotely to each of the other global teams in their time zone. I shared information about my background in research and my vision for research at IBM during these sessions with the staff and Lauren facilitated workshops asking questions like, “what’s the first thing you would change if you were VP of Client Insights for a day?”, “If you found a magic lamp, what would your ONE wish be that would improve your job?”, and “What do you do that provides the greatest value to IBM and what do you do that provides the least value?”

Lauren and I synthesized the results of these workshopping sessions and came up with three categories of actions to address the issues raised. They were Integration, Management, and Practices. We then created the Client Insights Team (CIT), made up of global cross-company experts in each area. These sub-teams have been working on the challenges and making progress on them. Lauren heads up one of the sub-teams.

Lauren served as my Chief of Staff when we were getting started in the organization but subsequently took on a new and expanded role working with me on strategy, comms, and impact. She is indispensable to our organization and to me.

Renee Albert

Renee Albert, who was on my team at the beginning of the year, worked with Lauren on the IBM Design Leadership Summit and made significant contributions including serving as the engaging, talented, and professional MC for the event. We also collaborated on IBM Design’s external eminence and internal education. I was sad to not be working as closely with Renee in my new role but I’m so pleased that she is now Head of Education within our Design Program Office, continuing the work we started together on the Client-Driven Executive course initiative.

Renee Albert

DPO Head of Education

I’d like to acknowledge the others who made the IBM Design Leadership Summit a huge success: The Summit co-chairs, Kim Bartkowski, Sadek Bazaraa, Olivia Davis, Ryan Mellody, Oduor, Erick (Eno), Scott Robinson, and Dan Silveira and the other members Summit Team, of David Vox Avila and Gord Davison, in addition to Lauren and Renee.

Felix Portnoy

Another major event that we ran this year was the second annual IBM Spark Design Festival. I had the honor of providing executive sponsorship and guidance for the event the last two years working with the awesome Felix Portnoy, who conceptualized and founded Spark. Among other influences, he was a participant in the Covid 19 Design Challenge that I arranged in 2020, together with the World Design Organization, Design for America, and some 100 IBM designers and researchers. He wanted to capture the collaboration, connectedness, skill building, and overall common purpose attributes of the Covid 19 Design Challenge inside IBM with all of our 3,000 designers and researchers.

Felix and his amazing group of volunteer leaders outdid themselves this year by making the conference truly hybrid with remote global sessions as well as local ones in Germany, India, and the US. They also made other major enhancements that were greatly appreciated by our IBM design and research staff and leadership. Felix’s energy and passion and that of his volunteer leaders is palatable and infectious. Felix has passed the baton, as good leaders do, to his co-leader this year, Jon Temple, to take over the Spark festival next year. I’m so looking forward to it.

Felix Portnoy

Design Principal, Power

When I took on the new VP role, I was thrilled to be heading up a team of amazing researchers. However, I had a big challenge to address, the fact that the organization had lost three up-line Program Directors, one first-line Program Director, and one Band 9 manager. That meant that the organization had no second line managers, no third-line manager, and lacking two first-line managers. I had to get creative in filling those positions with no ability to hire and to make other changes to optimize the organization.

Liz Pratt

I made two moves inside the organization, the first being the promotion of first-line manager Liz Pratt to a second-line Program Director manager position. I’d like to thank her for taking on the additional responsibility and leading several of my new initiative projects.

Liz Pratt

Program Director, Data & AI

Malc Couldwell

The second internal move involved promoting a highly talented individual contributor, Malc Couldwell, to a first-line manager role leading the team that he was already a member in. I very much appreciate Malc’s willingness to make that move into management.

Malc Couldwell

Manager, Automation

Gord Davison

Gord Davison has been with me for some years leading my Toronto design studio but I was delighted that he agreed to take on the additional role of handling research and design for IBM’s startup incubators, within which we create new products.

Gord Davison

Startup Incubator Research

Andrea Barbarin

However, that left some open positions that I couldn’t fill from within my team. One of those was a first-line manager role for my client insights and enablement department. This role required just the right candidate given the unique and important responsibilities that department has.

That right candidate ended up being Andrea Barbarin, a deep expert in quant and qual analysis and having a great handle on the bigger picture view of research at IBM. I was absolutely thrilled when she accepted the role. I so enjoy my partnership with Andrea to build a central client insights hub that integrates, synthesizes, and visualizes insights from across all IBM client touch-points.

Andrea Barbarin

Insights & Enablement

Ashwini Kamath

Research Design Principal is a technical appointment made by the Design Leadership Board and GM Katrina Alcorn. It involves being nominated, having to submit a very detailed nomination form and portfolio, and going through a rigorous review process. I was delighted that Ashwini Kamath received this appointment this year on my team. She now joins our other amazing Research Design Principals at IBM, Joan Haggarty, Eleanor Bartosh, Ellen Kolstø, Jennifer Hatfield, Sarah Miller, Felix Portnoy, Kirsten Brunner MacDonald, Brenton Elmore, and Herman Colquhoun.

Ashwini Kamath

Research Design Principal

Joan Haggarty

I’ve known Joan for years and deeply respected her talent, skills, and perspective. I’m now so appreciative that she now reports to me and we’re able to do work together on innovative new initiatives.

Joan Haggarty

Research Design Principal

John Bailey

The toughest position to fill on my management team was that of the third-line manager responsible for the IBM Software and Public Cloud research teams. I was absolutely delighted that a colleague that I had worked with at IBM some years ago, John Bailey, expressed interest in joining my organization. He had left IBM for some 10 years, leading design and research teams at other companies, before coming back 4 years ago. He and I are so aligned on all the important things so he’s now my Head of IBM Software and Public Cloud Research.

John Bailey

Head of Software & Public Cloud Research

Marianne Flahaut

I thought I’d completed building out my new management team when I had the chance bring Marianne Flahaut to my organization. I jumped at the chance. She had been heading up our Sponsor User Program and Portal for some years in another business unit. We have multiple different user engagement programs and tools at IBM but Marianne now has the exciting mission to integrate them all together with her team that she is now managing.

Marianne Flahaut

User Engagement

Ellen Kolstø

Last but not least, I was very recently able to appoint Ellen Kolstø to the position of Director of Strategic UX Research. Ellen was a Research Design Principal working with our IBM Fellow, Charlie Hill, on strategic design projects. While she continues to have responsibility for those projects, she is now responsible for defining the innovative strategies, approaches, and methods to understand prospective new logo clients while still maintaining a focus on existing clients. This an exciting new role that Ellen is perfect for and I’m already enjoying our collaborations in this new space.

Ellen Kolstø

Director of UX Strategic Research

Leadership Teams

I’ve mentioned only a few of my IBM colleagues and staff thus far, mostly leaders whom I recruited to the organization or promoted into new roles and I am eternally grateful for their decision to join my team and/or take on new responsibilities.

However, I feel honored every day to work with my colleagues from across the company whether on my Research Leadership Team (RLT), my direct report leadership team, or any one of the amazing individual contributor researchers at IBM. I consider myself extremely lucky to get to hang out with these amazing people every day.

Future of Design Education

Don Norman

Three years ago, I headed up IBM’s Global Design Academic Programs which involved working with the top design schools and universities around the world. One of those schools was the Design Lab at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). The then head of that school was Don Norman. I had worked with Don some years ago when we were both keynote speakers at a design conference in Nanjing, China. One of his seminal books, User Centered Systems Design, had also inspired me to create IBM User-Centered Design in the early 1990s. His other books were similarly inspirational to me.

Don Norman

Founding Director, UCSD Design Lab
(emeritus—retired)

He and I collaborated on a capstone project at UCSD that had multidisciplinary students working on ways to improve the lives of people with Parkinson’s. After the students had left the building one particular day, Don and I started a discussion about the state of design education, pointing out its various shortcomings. We discussed the need to design a new future of design education. We decided to take that on together and we founded the Future of Design Education initiative. Over a dinner in Toronto a few weeks later, we selected the steering committee for the initiative, made up of academics and practitioners. We worked with the steering committee members to create a mission, a set of key topics areas to address, and formed working groups to address them.

Meredith Davis

To oversee, guide, and support the overall effort, we reached out to one of the steering committee members, Meredith Davis, to join us on a three-person executive committee. Meredith was the perfect choice as an eminent design educator, accomplished author, and professional who is passionate about improving design education.

Meredith was instrumental in coming up with various materials like the Big Ideas structure for formulating the curricular guidance that the working groups used to focus and document their work.

Meredith Davis

Professor Emerita of Graphic & Experience Design

Don, Meredith, and I met weekly for 1 1/2 to 2 hours and met with the Steering Committee every few months. I thoroughly enjoyed our collaborations.

When we decided to wrap up the project this year and get the curricular recommendations published, it was Meredith who offered to handle that final stage serving as the special issue editor for the She Ji journal.

Don and I continued to meet weekly to write a final future-looking, big-picture article and Meredith and I continued to collaborate on the publication.

Meredith is a force of nature when it comes to working with the authors and getting their work into shape for publication, even if it means that she does a lot of the writing herself. She’s absolutely amazing.

I had a professionally stimulating time writing the article with Don with our many wide-ranging discussions. The two of us also got to know each other really well. It turns out that we have many similar perspectives on life.

FDE Steering Committee

I loved my interactions with the members of the Steering Committee and the working group leaders too, together as well as in the multiple one-on-one interactions I’ve had with them. I now have so many new and fascinating professional friends and colleagues that I continue to be in contact with, doing guest lectures for their classes, mentoring their students, speaking at the conferences they host, etc.

Check out more about the project on our website, which, by the way, was designed and built by a group of volunteers from IBM, which I’m incredibly grateful for (their names are listed on the website).

The journal article manuscripts will all soon all be submitted to the journal, will go through peer review by the journal, and the special issue is expected to be published in the first half of next year.

McMaster

Michael Hartmann

In a press interview some eight years ago, I was quoted as referring to IBM Design’s three-month bootcamps for all new hires as “the missing semester of university”. I had calls from and worked with numerous universities globally during that time focused on new curricular programs. Those collaborations required travel. I was therefore particularly fascinated to get a lunch invitation at an exclusive club from McMaster University, which is local to me.

I had lunch with and was in turn recruited by the Dean of the Business School, Len Waverman and the Associate Dean, Michael Hartmann. I was asked whether I could come up with design inspired creative problem-solving curricula for business and medical students. I said that I would give it a go.

After the appropriate committees reviewed my credentials, I was appointed to the position of Industry Professor. I’m so thankful to Len and Michael for giving me this opportunity and to Michael for our continued partnership in teaching cohort after cohort, including four programs this year.

Michael Hartmann

Professor & Director
Directors College
EMBA in Digital Transformation,
Health Leadership Academy

I created curricula for and taught in several programs, a pan-university design program, an EMBA one, a Directors College program, a Health Leadership Academy, and most recently a Health Governance one.

I’ve always enjoyed teaching and find it a great way to integrate and synthesize my own perspectives in order to teach them and to be challenged to broaden my thinking too in working with talented, experienced, and super smart students. I’m thankful to Michael and McMaster University for continuing to give me the opportunity to work with amazing groups of students.

VegTO

I adopted an ethical vegetarian lifestyle 40 years ago and a vegan one for the past 8 years. I use my social media accounts to inspire others to transition to veganism for ethical, environmental, and health reasons, and I support those who have already have done so. My family and I also created a website during a Christmas vacation together to capture and share key information.

Nital Jethalal

Last year I joined the board of directors of what was then called the Toronto Vegetarian Association as their Vice President. I worked closely with the President Nital Jethalal, Executive Director Kimberly D’Oliveira, and the rest of the board and staff.

Nital Jethalal

President, VegTO

Kimberly D’Oliveira

Kimberly D’Oliveira

Executive Director, VegTO

I feel honored to work with Nital and Kimberly and we’ve accomplished so much together. We launched a poll of food choices and awareness with Angus Reid Institute and presented the results in a Webinar. The results of the poll and numerous other research studies inspired our name change to VegTO. We also created a new web presence for the organization with features like “vegan near me” with lists of local restaurants and services, and we’re about to launch a vegan social network. Check out our website for these and other initiatives.

Family

Last but certainly not least, I’d like to thank my entire family, Noah, Rowan, Emma, Elliot, Xeena, and my wife, Erin, for another amazing year together. I love them dearly. We’re a close-knit family and enjoy taking vacations together.

This pic is of our vacation to Tuscany, Italy to be part of niece Jessica’s amazing wedding. Jessica’s father, my brother Harrie, is another person I so value, having come to this country together as immigrants with our parents and having stayed close all through those years.

It was an outstanding year. I love my job and the colleagues I get to hang out with everyday. I’m also so thankful to have had a chance to work with non-IBM colleagues on my passion projects.

And I’m writing this with my family all around me during our Christmas vacation at a cottage in Northern Ontario, with family members having traveled from New York, Vancouver, and Toronto during an amazing winter storm.

Life is good, and I’m grateful for that every day. Now it’s time to put my computer away, enjoy the vacation with my family, and then launch into the almost completely loaded year of 2023. Let’s make it the best year yet!

De-Risking Product Development

About 90 percent of startups fail and even venture-backed ones still fail at between 60-70 percent. These percentages have been pretty consistent over the past ten years. The percentage of product failures in established companies is generally a well-kept secret, unless those failures were out in the open in public. However, they likely fail for the same reasons that startups do.

The number one reason for these product failures is what is typically referred to as product—market fit. Or, in other words, they were solving a problem that no humans had or not a sufficient number of them.

How does this happen, you may ask, and what can be done to increase the odds of being successful. In other words, how can we de-risk product development?

The Problem

A startup typically involves founders having an idea to solve a problem that they themselves have. Scratching their own itch is how its often described. They’re often developers so they just go ahead and start coding arguing that they can fail fast and pivot. That’s an incredibly risky and wasteful approach. Established companies often similarly develop products based on an idea from a leader themselves or that leader having had a conversation with an important or particularly persuasive client or perhaps based on a market analysis by an industry analyst.

The Solution

Science and medicine don’t do this. Only pseudo-science and pseudo-medicine create things out of the imagination of individuals and nothing else. Real science and real medicine are evidence-based and rely on research.

Startups and established companies are similarly using a pseudo approach when they should be evidence based to de-risk their investments. They similarly need research, and more specifically user experience research.

Interestingly the number three reason for startup failure is not having the right skills on the team. The solution is right under their noses, professionals trained in UX research. Those professionals have the skills to conduct generative research to understand the users in the market the product is intended to serve to determine whether the idea being considered is viable or better yet, what unmet needs the research uncovered that could be addressed with a new product idea. After that, research professionals could conduct evaluative research to provide feedback on the evolving product concept, design, and implementation. Lastly, they could do research on the optimal discover, learn, try, and buy experience. Out of interest, the second reason for startup failure is taking too long and running out of cash. But, doing product development the way I’m proposing can get a product to market twice as fast.

It makes way more sense to invest in getting UX researchers onto your team to de-risk your overall investment in product development than to not invest in UX research only to have wasted your entire investment in product development.

Of course, some companies and teams do this well but a surprising number don’t do it at all or if they do, they don’t do it on all products due to having insufficient numbers of UX researchers or not leveraging them or their work.

UX Research vs Research

I’ve led design for decades. I initially prefaced my design title and the company-wide name of the organization at IBM that I led with “user experience” or the abbreviation “UX” for most of my career. Until I didn’t. In 2008 I took stock of where the industry was going and the ascendance of user experience design and how it was becoming what most people thought of as “design”. I therefore changed my title and the name of IBM’s program and organization to simply “IBM Design” with no qualifiers. We still had specializations within design, such as visual, user experience, content, service, etc., but the entire discipline was called simply design. I had some pushback with people saying that developers design too but they design code and are generally referred to as developers or coders. I still felt that most people in our industry at least understood that design meant was we did. We’ve used the term ever since on our websites, Twitter handle, and internally across the company. We’ve also hired a huge number of designers and elevated the importance of design in the company using that term. The name has served us well.

With the ascendance of user experience research, I’ve been pondering whether it is time to claim a new name for the discipline. Let’s first consider another names often given to our profession.

Design Research

Many in the community use the term “Design Research”. I did too, until recently. And in fact the IBM HR system’s job classification system still uses “Design Researcher” as a sub-discipline of design. However, when I took on my new role as the Vice President of Client Insights, colleague Lauren Swanson and I conducted a listening tour to get to know the members of my new organization. We visited key locations and reached out remotely to other locations around the world with our workshopping. We learned pretty quickly that the staff didn’t want to be called design researchers. Nothing in their education prepared them for being a form of designer they argued and that they simply didn’t do design. They adamantly wanted to change the name of the discipline.

UX Research

I decided that we should conduct a poll in our organization’s Slack channel to see what alternative name my team wanted us to use. The results of the poll indicated that the most frequently preferred term was “UX Research” which of course is the abbreviation of User Experience Research. That’s what we’re using now.

I enthusiastically agreed with my staff members that we’re not designers. And upon reflection, I’ve always been uncomfortable with the design part of design research. It’s also important to point out that we also have a separate organization of members of this discipline with me as the vice president. My VP of Design colleagues and I report to our General Manager of Design. I encourage people to say Design and Research when referring to our collective organization.

However, that got me thinking about what the discipline should be actually called. Should we continue to use the UX or user experience qualifier or is our discipline now mature enough and recognized enough as research to use that term without a qualifier?

Research

Let’s consider the use of “research” as the term for our discipline. It’s simpler and more authoritative. You have design and designers and equivalently you have research and researchers. Some will say but that our use of the term will be confusing because other people do research. In fact, IBM has a whole division called IBM Research and they’ve received Nobel prizes for their research. I consider this similar to the situation regarding the argument that developers also design. Of course, as I pointed out above, they’re still called developers or coders even though they may design code. Research is a little different in that staff who work in IBM Research do call themselves researchers. However, I believe that the context is important. If you’re talking with a researcher on a product team, you’re likely talking about one in our discipline. But then, are our researchers all that different from others who now carry the name researcher? Many of my staff have PhDs and if they weren’t working on my team, they may well be doing work at a university and doing research.

What do you think?

I’d love to hear from you about what you think. Is the UX Research discipline and community sufficiently mature now that we can claim the term “research” without any qualifiers? Yes, no, why or why not? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below or on my LinkedIn post. Thanks!

Research Thinking

I served on the closing panel at the People Nerds 2022 Conference this week which had as its theme, “to shift our perspectives and processes to suit a new world of research”. The day-long conference had some great presentations and panels with innovative new ideas for UX Research. Several people have followed up with me saying that the things I presented especially around “Research Thinking” really resonated with them so I thought it would be helpful for me to expand on those ideas here.

Design Thinking

I’ve spent much of the past ten years teaching and activating teams on design thinking, or more accurately IBM’s Enterprise Design Thinking. I’ve taught executive MBA students, design students, engineering students, medical students and physicians, pan-university undergraduate students, board directors, and I’ve activated each of the parts of IBM (product, consulting, and sales) as well as hundreds of startups and enterprise companies.

It’s a powerful framework for getting all members of a team and their executives to think like designers. However, that isn’t enough. Despite my attempts to introduce some form of research into my teaching and activations, its often too little and doesn’t stick. Of course, others who teach and activate people with design thinking don’t even pay lip service to doing user experience research. They’ll start by having a group of people start filling up an empathy map off the tops of their head. I at least get someone in the group who is a targeted user to be interviewed.

Even if students or employees have some form of rudimentary research when they are introduced to design thinking, they rarely follow the guidance to insist on informing their work when doing it afterwards based on user experience research.

Innovation Theater & Pseudo-Design

I’ve used the phrase “Innovation Theater” to describe doing design thinking without research and I referred to doing design without research as “Pseudo-Design”. Whether or not teams are using design thinking or using agile development without design thinking, much design and development work today across all industries is done without having done research. As I mention in my classes, the lack of research accounts for much of the 90% of startups that fail and many of the failures in enterprise companies too.

Importance of Research

User experience research should be the foundation for product and services development. Why? In order to understand the people you’re trying to improve the lives of sufficiently to know how whatever you’re planning to create will optimally serve them. If you don’t do research, you’re flying blind. Some people also consider having talked with one or two people as user experience research. It isn’t. In fact, that’s often what startup founders do and that’s why some 90 percent of them fail.

You have to carry out research with the rigor that is commensurate with the importance of your project. If you’re trying to improve the communication on your team, a problem I often get board directors to work on, you yourself without a lot of training could interview the members of your team to identify the core issues to address. However, if your goal is to create or improve a product or service, you need someone with the appropriate education and training in user experience research to do it. Research done properly as part of a product or services team also trumps other team member’s casual conversations with clients leading to anecdotal observations.

Types of Research

Evaluative Research

The field of user experience research started with evaluative methods, most notably usability assessments. These were adaptations of academic research and emphasized rigor. The problem with solely using usability assessments often toward the end of a development cycle that was typically waterfall was that very few of the findings could be implemented. The other problem was that the research only focused on improving something that already existed.

Generative Research

The field then moved left in the development process to focus on informing what should be designed and developed. The field borrowed from anthropology and ethnography to ensure we had rigorous methods for what is now called generative research. This type of research is critically important to use in order to inform what products or services to conceptualize as well as to inform important enhancements that are needed for existing products or services. These methods discover the all-important unmet needs.

Go to Market Research

You can have the best product or service in the world but if nobody knows about it or is able to discover it, learn about it, try it out, and then buy it, you’re still nowhere. This is where go-to-market research comes in. This type of research uses generative and evaluative methods but focuses on the discover, learn, try, and buy experience. It’s important to differentiate this type of research from market research. Market research focuses on the size of the potential market, price-points, which types of clients should be targeted, go-to-market research in contrast focuses on the human experience of discovering, learning, trying, and then buying the offering. The experience includes both the digital experience of going through websites but also the experience of working with sales personnel.

Research Stakeholders

Largely due to the history of research having started with usability testing of existing designs, most researchers considered that their major stakeholder was the design team. While it is still important for researchers to collaborate with designers, there are other important stakeholders that need to equally be in the picture. Product management is a key stakeholder especially when carrying out generative research. And, marketing and sales are key stakeholders when carrying out go-to-market research. Development and engineering of course are also key stakeholders. Senior executives for each of these disciplines are key stakeholders as are the top executives of the company.

Infusing Research Thinking

All of the stakeholders and in fact the whole company or organization needs to be infused with and adopt a “research thinking” mindset. This should be accomplished through informal and formal education. All leaders and employees need a “research thinking” mindset so that they understand the need for and use of user experience research as a core practice in their organization. Just like you wouldn’t start your day without having brushed your teeth, equally you shouldn’t start a development or services project without user experience research.

Prioritizing Research

Research needs to be foundational to everything an organization does. As such, it needs to be staffed with professionally trained user experience researchers and sufficient numbers of them.

The types of research to use at any point in time needs to be determined. I advocate for doing research on this by interviewing the key stakeholders, sales, product management, and design (and others if appropriate to your business). Determine where the greatest need is and then plan the appropriate type of research to address that need.

Communicating Research Findings

The best research in the world won’t have the requisite impact if the findings from it aren’t communicated effectively. The communication of research findings needs to be designed for each of the key stakeholders who need to take action on that research.

Tracking Research Impact

The best research in the world even after it is effectively communicated won’t have the desired outcome unless the actions from it as tracked and managed to ensure impact. Individual findings and issues identified in research need to be tracked to implementation in the product or service. The ultimate impact of research should also be measured with outcome metrics like customer satisfaction and revenue. That’s not always easy but needs to be part of the research team’s work.

Research+Insights+Impact

An effective research practice should interview key stakeholders to determine what to focus on, then carry out the optimal research methods, then glean the appropriate insights and communicate them in a way that is tailored to the key stakeholders, and then track the implementation of those insights including in-process and outcome measures of impact. All of this of course requires close collaboration with other researchers and with other disciplines on the team including importantly sales, product management, and design.

Footnote

While I’ve championed and spoken about the need for research as a foundational requirement for design thinking, I’d like to acknowledge that I first heard the term “research thinking” while conducting my listening tour at our Silicon Valley Lab in San Jose during a roundtable discussion with design managers. I’d like to attribute the term “research thinking” to design manager Jessica Gore. Our conversation led to a synthesis of my own thinking that also resulted in this blog post. Thanks so much Jessica!

Hybrid Work & Mental Health: Let's Design Modes of Work Right

The pandemic looks to be turning into an endemic, as I write this. It’s about two and a half years since I left my studio to head home to work remotely for a couple of years and I’ve now been regularly going back into my work studio again for the past six months. As most companies are contemplating post-pandemic work arrangements, the most common term that’s being used is hybrid work. I’d like to share my thoughts on the signals I’m seeing and hearing and the observations I’ve made that I think should factor into thoughtfully designing hybrid work, especially as it relates to mental health.

We’ve all just spent two and a half years in a huge experiment that we should learn from. You can think of it as a prototype of ways of working that we should seek feedback on and use strategic foresight methods to detect and factor in the signals we’re experiencing of what an emerging future may be telling us. And let’s use these to inform what the benefits are of each form of work in order to design the optimal mix for our hybrid work.

Let me just acknowledge that this post is relevant to people for whom the location of their work is a choice and this naturally doesn’t apply to people for whom the nature of their jobs requires them to be in-person all the time.

I’ve been asking my friends and colleagues about their experiences, ran some polls with the designers in my Canadian studios, held open-ended video conference calls with studio members and staff to talk about their experiences. I’ve also spoken at length with colleagues at other companies. I’d like to share what I’ve learned from those interactions as well as from my own experience with these different modes of work.

Let’s consider in-person work first because most of us have spent our lives working that way prior to the pandemic.

The In-Person Work Experience

Most of my friends and colleagues worked in studios prior to the pandemic, as I did. Studios are characterized by open spaces, flexible work areas, and places to get together with colleagues for meetings as well as for informal gatherings. The real positives of in-person work include meeting face-to-face with people in three dimensions, having engaging serendipitous interactions, being able to have multi-hour meetings because you can move around the room and stay engaged in what’s going on and not be glued to a screen, and being freely accessible to everyone and everyone else being freely accessible to each other. You can also go to have a coffee, lunch, or dinner with your colleagues and experience a special kind of closer connection. Being face-to-face can enhance mental health and also fosters a sense of belonging which is especially important for people new to the team. Of course, you only experience these benefits of in-person work with people you work with in the same geographic location.

The negatives of in-person work are often the same as the positives but as they relate to different modes of work. While being accessible to everyone in a studio may be a positive when you’re catching up on email, it may be a negative when trying to do some involved heads-down work that requires undivided attention. There are also individual differences with regard to this with people who are more introverted having a harder time working in a studio environment. All of this has an impact on people’s mental heath. Working toward a deadline in the open environment of a studio when you have to do heads-down work that requires concentration can be extremely stressful, especially for introverts.

The Remote Work from Home Experience

Almost all of us have been experiencing remote work from home during the pandemic, spending many hours on video-mediated communication using Webex, Zoom, or Microsoft Teams. Everyone’s home situation is a little different with varying degrees of appropriate support for working this way. I optimized my setup right at the beginning of the pandemic. I described my setup in a blogpost and shared my advice for amping up the way we show up while working remotely. The real positives of remotely working from home include saving the time spent commuting to and from a work location, being able to focus uninterrupted on work that requires it (assuming that you have a home environment that is conducive), being able to communicate with staff, colleagues, clients, and friends equivalently when all are using video regardless of whether they’re local or anywhere else in the world. You’re also able to be more connected with your family and pets if you have them with you at home. Surprisingly, you can also get to know others you work with better and getting to know their family, human and animal when you’re both at your homes on video. People also report fewer sicknesses due to being around fewer other people, more flexibility to be a caregiver, and a lessoned need to be “on” all the time and truly spend some time working solo.

The negatives of working remotely are again similar to the positives except for particular modes of work involved and depending on your home situation. While being able to join meetings using video conferencing has its positives, having every meeting so technology mediated and having to be on video camera all day can be taxing and a real negative to mental health. Some people also don’t have a home situation that is conducive to remote work and having interruptions or even the worry about interruptions can be stressful too. Many people also report not having a clear boundary between work and home life with a tendency to also keep working thereby cutting into non-work time to recharge.

The Hybrid Work Experience & Challenge

We’ve all talked a lot about hybrid work but few of us have had deep experience with it. We’ve likely all experienced working with people in other locations who were remote from the local team and previous to the pandemic, we likely experienced working from home the odd day. Very few of us though have worked with part of our local teams being remote while also working with people who have always been remote in distant locations. Very few of the people I know work with only people who are local to their place of work.

For the seven years prior to the pandemic, I was a remote member of a leadership team on which typically only two or three of us were remote, while the rest of the team was in one location together. That experience wasn’t great. A lot of the conversation would happen in the room in the main location and the remote members wouldn’t have optimal audio or video into that room and we therefore didn’t feel like we were truly equal peers. That of course changed during the pandemic when everyone on the team was equal all in a video screen and with balanced audio on our Webex calls.

My staff is currently spread out all in groups from a few team members to 50-60 in a location over the world. We can’t just “go back to the office” because there is no single co-located office for us to go to. In addition to my global role, I also have responsibility for our design studios in Canada. However, each of the people who work in those studios work with some others in the same studio but they also work with people all over the globe on their teams. So, “going back to the office or studio to work with all their teammates isn’t possible”, in fact, it never has been. We’ve done hybrid work before even if we were based in physical studios because we worked remotely with people all over the globe.

Designing the Hybrid Work Experience

Before the pandemic, we all knew how to work in-person, appreciated the positives of doing that, whether we acknowledged it or not, because we simply assumed that it was the default work arrangement. It was also pretty easy to do. However, we typically had remote members of our teams whose experiences typically weren’t great. During the pandemic, we all learned how to work remotely and we also appreciated the positives of doing that. And, on reflection, remote work was pretty easy to do too when done with everyone being remote.

However, truly hybrid work has been and will continue to be hard to get right. That’s why we need to understand the benefits of in-person work and remote work while also acknowledging the challenges of doing both together and then intentionally designing hybrid work right. Doing this with mental health in mind is critically important. Many companies are encouraging their staff to spend some days in the office and some days working remotely at home. So, we definitely need to design hybrid work intentionally and optimally for different modes of work.

Top 10 Tips for Designing Hybrid Work

1. Get input from the members of the team who you work with to determine their personal work styles and preferences. This is best done using a shared electronic whiteboard like Mural. The findings could be put into a team social contract, e.g., we all agree to go on camera to increase our engagement with one another but also agree to give grace if someone needs an off-camera day every now and then.

2. Get input too on those whiteboards from your team to determine what sorts of things they believe will be best done together in-person. If you have multiple work locations around the world, you may also want to determine what the co-located team members may find optimal to do together in person.

3. Managers should synthesize all of that input and work out which days may be the most optimal for the co-located team members to come into the office or studio. This might not even be a set day of the week, e.g., we all come in on Wednesdays. it might be certain days in a sprint cycle when it makes the most sense to be working together collaboratively.

4. Once the days are selected and communicated, it would also be wise to schedule one-on-one in-person meetings during the in-the-office/studio days with co-located staff. It’s also good to schedule team meetings with co-located staff members on those days. The team should plan to do something special on some of the in-the-office/studio days like going out to lunch together. Refer to my post on fostering an awesome studio culture for more ideas.

5. Try to not schedule meetings with remote team members on the in-person days so that you can maximize the time with co-located team members.

6. Leave time blocks during the in-person days for spending some time walking around having impromptu discussions with colleagues at the coffee machine or snack area.

7. Plan your heads-down work time for your remote work-at-home days.

8. Schedule your calls with team members who are in separate offices/studios far away from yours on your work-from-home days so that everyone can have the benefit of all being equally remote.

9. Make sure that you have an appropriate setup at work for the times when you will need to do hybrid videos calls with some team members co-located and others remote. Everyone locally should have good audio and each person should appear on video the same as remote members do rather than having one camera on the entire local group which shows that there are people in the room but it doesn’t provide equal facial video presence to everyone in the meeting.

10. Develop a wellness commitment that’s appropriate for the team to ensure that mental health, including a healthy work-life balance, is valued and focussed on while pursuing whatever form of hybrid work the team pursues. It could include wellness days off work, guidance on not contacting other team members outside of their working hours (especially for people in different timezones), and an acknowledgement there are days you shouldn’t be expected to go on as business as usual, and that’s ok.

Individual Differences

Some team members will prefer to work in the office/studio most of the time while others will prefer to work most of their team’s not-in-person days working remotely from home. People’s preferences may also change over time. They did for me. During the pandemic, I thought that I would definitely want to work remotely from home most of the time in the future. However, after going back to the studio about six months ago, I now prefer to spend more of my work days in the studio.

Other Parts of Life

Not only has our experience of working through the pandemic changed primary work experiences, it has also changed conferences, education, and even interactions with friends.

I used to be asked to give keynote and other presentations at conferences prior to the pandemic and the decision to accept those was predicated on where the conference would be held in the world and whether the conference organization or I would be required to pay for the travel to the conference city. The pandemic changed all of that. Conferences during the pandemic were all remote and I could easily present at whatever conference wanted me to. As a result, I presented at about ten times the number of conferences. Now that things are opening up, some conferences are in-person again while others are still fully remote while still others are hybrid. The benefits of the latter are that attendees can enjoy the positives of networking and serendipitously meeting others with similar interests but having keynote speakers from all over the world being streamed in through technology.

University education has been similarly transformed. I teach in university EMBA, Health Leadership, and Director’s College programs and I give guest lectures at universities all around the world. These of course went completely remote during the pandemic but are now, similar to conferences, either remote or hybrid with similar benefits.

Boards of directors have changed. I serve on two boards and they are mostly remote but hybrid when we need to workshop and interact with each other in person. And remote meetings are now incredibly well organized with everyone with their video on, organizing the discussion with a digital raise of the hand, and sharing relevant links in the chat. In-person meetings are more effective because they are intentional and designed to take advance of being in the same place together.

Even interactions with friends went through a similar transition with interactions being entirely technology mediated during the pandemic but now either being in-person but also at times still remote. I sometimes now have FaceTime calls with friends local to me but I’ve also significantly broadened the number of friends I have all over the world that I interact with almost entirely through technology mediated means.

The pandemic has transformed our lives I think permanently and we should work to amplify the positives of what we’ve learned.

Our Attitude to Mental Health has Changed

The beginning of the pandemic was scary for most of us and devastating for those directly impacted by it. Most people and I believe most organizations (certainly the one that I work in) paid way more attention to checking in on each other and supporting each other. I scheduled regular video conference calls with no agenda other than to check in on each other and compare notes on coping strategies. The episodes of my podcast during that period had the same theme.

Talking about mental health has been normalized and largely de-stigmatized. We should embrace that and keep a focus on checking in on each other and being sensitive to the mental health of those around us. I think that’s another positive of the pandemic.

Technology and Our Use of it has Changed

Video conferencing technology has significantly improved because of the pandemic. Background noise cancellation is now amazing on most platforms for example. We also now use that technology better by mostly being on camera and only occasionally still hearing “you’re on mute” during calls.

Streaming conference technology is amazing now and we more affordable. We’re also better at using the chat features of it as well.

I’ve even noticed a transition in people out and about no longer speaking on audio only phone calls with their smartphones up to their ears to now being on video calls and involving the friends they’re with in-person.

The pandemic has changed the way we live.

Continue to Evaluate Over Time

I mentioned above that it was like we were living through an experiment during the pandemic with our forced work from home model. However, we’re still living in the experiment of the new reality of hybrid work. We need to continue to collect data and insights during this period and make changes as necessary going forward.