Updated Profiles
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Emilie Verbeek updated |
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Chuck Hermes new comment |
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Roland Smart updated |
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Henning Fischer new comment |
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Kim Lenox updated |
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john hopkins new post |
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Chris Ozanian updated |
Activity
@Chuck Hermes: Thanks again for pointing me to Brain Traffic. I've reached out to them - hopefully we'll be able get them to help us!
@Henning Fischer: Henning, thanks again for the plug during the conference - I thought I'd post what I learned from the discussion on org design.
Part of my interest in coming to the MX conference was to learn how UX teams operate in other companies. I’m building out a UX function at my company and wanted to get after 3 key questions:
1) How is the team funded?
2) Where does it fit within the organization?
3) How do you measure the team’s success?
I spoke with folks from eBay, Phizer, Misys, Cisco, Univision, and Nokia. Not a huge sample size, but I did find some patterns emerge:
1) UX teams are funded centrally. In some cases, individual product lines will pay the central team for services. The key ingredient to start a UX team seemed to be having an Executive Sponsor and getting them passionate about it. Funding and enforcement of UX best practices then follow.
2) UX teams generally report to product lines. This may have been obvious for some, but I had questioned whether a UX function might report into a central Marketing or IT function. As I move forward with in selling this concept within my company, I’ll target General Managers – less focus on the CMO or CIO.
3) The question on measuring success brought a variety of answers, but the two common ones were Usability Metrics and Design Patterns. Usability Metrics – great quantifiable way to show improvements over existing products. Design Patterns – building out a library of reusable design (and hopefully reusable code). Other items discussed but perhaps not as quantifiable – avoiding rework, redirecting poor product concepts, or outright killing them.
Thanks again for helping to coordinate the discussion.
Design Method posters on Flickr
Check out the Design Method posters created during the pre-con workshop on Sunday: http://www.flickr.com/photos/maile/sets/72157604842453755/
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Videos?
I heard from a few sources that the videos from the conference will be made available. I do video, so I know it takes time to produce. I'm just wondering if there is an idea of when and how it is expected to be maid available.
Thanks!
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@Curt Odar: Curt - Good meeting you at the show....let me know how you start working into your organization....
Programmers are also Cooks?
Apparently Ryan isn't the only one seeing correlations between the digital world and cooking. Here's a short post comparing software developers to line cooks.
http://www.deadprogrammer.com/developer-life-yo
"Restaurants are a lot like develo...
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I owe everyone a thank you
I'm at the airport. On my iPhone. Listening to tunes, registering in dopplr, reading my notes (14 pages) and thinking about Brandon's challenge... To do one thing, at the office, with what I've learned. One thing!!! So. Nice. I am now sifting thro...
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Thanks!
The conference was great! A lot of great minds both on stage and sitting around me. I'm looking forward to talking my employers into funding trips to more of the AP gatherings.
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@Angela Rutherford: Very nice meeting you last night. Small world, with Khoi at the center!
@Cordell Ratzlaff: I really enjoyed your talk today. The notion of driving from culture is really powerful, and I like very much the thinking about how to influence culture. Thanks for sharing.
Does anyone have one of those USB2-to-digital camera cables I could borrow for 15 minutes? Mine walked away. Sitting toward the front. -- Steven
what UX ideas are Made To Stick?
One of my favorite products “Wii”.
Motion (gestural ui) stick.
I love Nintendo’s approach for focusing on the audience’s feeling rather than product features.
Will aims at play and fun.
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About those books...
Hi John,
Yours are waiting for you at the MX registration table.
Pick them up whenever you like.
Cheers,
Pam
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@Curt Odar: Hey Curt - very similar position at my company. I'd love to chat about what we are doing and what has (or hasn't worked for you).
--Art
Lessons learned; the Fidelity of Design
Thanks for choosing this way to use your "free" time Thomas. A good gut check for us all as we think about what to make.
One of my favorite rules of thumb for deciding fidelity is, "prototype what you don't know." So often we choose to comfortably design the parts of the solution that we know --- maybe the look and feel or the obvious parts of a user flow --- ignoring the messy unknowns. By articulating up front what you want to learn from drawing/prototyping/making, you can much quicker figure out the appropriate level of fidelity.
Good points, Thomas.
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Out and about today, anyone else?
The links seem to break, you'll have to copy & paste the whole link
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tadich grill, SF's oldest place to eat
Tadich is among my favorite restaurants in the city. If we could make reservations there, we'd have set it up for Monday night!
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@Tony Stubblebine: Nice little system you have here Tony. I'm looking forward to meeting everyone in the coming days.
I'm here early, anyone want to do anything?
I'm in on Sat evening. I'm not doing the Sunday workshop... So between Sat night and Mon morning I'm going to be aimlessly wandering.
If you want to join me or give me some direction, call me 804.402.9311, or email me johnhopkins at gmail dot com
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Networking Tips
A great conference happens when everyone is having fantastic hallway conversations. We setup CrowdVine networks to make it easier for you to find people in the hallway. If you've never used a social network at a conference (or even if you have) he...
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Being Creative in a Mad Mad World
Having your attention constantly usurped by fighting today's fires is a common but ugly problem that I think many UX managers have. MX speaker Stephen Anderson recently shared some ideas on a blueprint for managing your time in terms of your work for today and your work for the future. You should certainly catch up with him and chat about it, because it's been something non-UX managers in his organization have picked up and started to use as well.
This issue also brings to mind an Havard Business School article titled "Process-Based Capabilities: A Principal Focus of Operations Management," from way back in November, 1995. In it, the author Clayton Christensen talks about two kind of mangers. One is the "command-and-control" manager that is required to be around for all the operational decisions --- it's required that she has her hands in the details. The second manager is described a someone who not only puts out a fire, but then changes processes (or skills, or know-how) so that the second time the problem erupts she doesn't have to get involved. In a sense, some of the daily demands can be handled by her team.
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@Sheila Mackenzie: We are on for dinner - there will be Mallory and Cat from Habanero, Ryan from Intrawest, Kris from The Bock Magazine and my sister! Yay :)
@Ben Skelton: We better book that dinner Saturday night...I'll do a little research tonight.
See ya soon.
@Scott Confer: You wrote:
is this Matt Anderson from STL and MMDB?
Sorry, no - I'm Matt Anderson from Capilano College in North Vancouver.