Bonnie Sampson

With enough #compute, one could imagine a cloud-hosted UX research platforms like @UserTesting building specialized analytical models. But it's likely out of reach for most small UX research teams, and certainly for any #independent UXResearcher. https://lttr.ai/AR3uS #UXResearch #UXDesign #uxresearch #HundredThousandPounds #UXR #Freelance #LargeLanguageModel

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Had to share this thoughtful article about the conflicting feelings we have as designers with new AI tools.... made me consider the threat of too much standardization over innovation, or letting your own creative instincts atrophy. Check it out and lmk your thoughts

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This got me thinking. I hear a lot of leaders say they're looking for cultural transformation, and want to shift in a direction that values reactivity, challenge confrontation, and collaboration. What they're describing is a design-driven culture. Many of these attributes are vital when UX is at the center. If that resonates, then looking at design maturity is the better route. #DesignMaturity #DesignDriven #Culture

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I'm loving this article on how designers need to elevate their thinking on integrating AI at various stages of the user journey to tackle entire processes, not just one-off tricks. ✨ Enter the "Agentic era of UX". 🤖 https://lnkd.in/eWdHbeWv #ai #agentic #design #ux #ui

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"The strategic design gold rush is over." While this might sound like a scary sentiment at first, I'm choosing to see it as an opportunity for design leadership. It's a chance for reinvention of what role design led teams can play in corporate settings. Users are increasing their demand for simple and straightforward user experiences. Every company continues to need more user and customer advocacy and design leaders are perfectly positioned to be the fabric of that advocacy and stitch together the functions required to deliver it to market. Rather than being relegated to a subordinate capability in product-led companies, design leaders can now redefine their purpose, leveraging their skills in user empathy, strategic experiential planning and continue to tie together the often disparate agendas at play in organizations. #Design #Leadership #Reinvention #Innovation

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Friday fun... The last post in motion 1 of 2. From last post... "Sharing some detail 3D work highlighted in the FY24 Studio reel I recently shared. Utilizing the new color palette from the Microsoft Brand these metaphors created for the Microsoft Cloud visual identity celebrate fluidity, harmony, diversity, transformation, and imagination. Waveforms showcase the human element, expressing these ideas organically with texture, imperfection, and inherent optimism." ACD's Juliet Park Tierney Cunningham 3D Artists Steve Lee joseph andrade Handel Eugene #Microsoft #BrandStudio #CreativeTeam #BrandIdentity #VisualDesign #Teamwork #Grateful #Brand #C4D #MicrosoftCloud #creativedirector #creativedirection #visualidentity #promotion #motion #motiongraphics #motiondesign

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If we're not talking about design maturity, agile process, or craft, then us designers are probably talking about ✨quality.✨ I certainly see my interviewer's eyes light up when I mention this magical word. "Design is the one that has to hold the quality bar," I tell them. But what if that didn't have to be true? For a truly high-quality product, I don't think it should be design holding the line. It has to be something baked into the organization - everyone holds the quality bar. Even though "quality" is a slippery thing to define, if we can define it and hold ourselves to it, we can reduce the tension in the org and start to think less about the mere baseline quality for the product and more about raising that bar - delighting the user. I very much enjoyed Luke Anthony Firth's take on how they folded quality into their product building process. Have a read! https://lnkd.in/g4SenmYZ #designleadership #productprocess #productdesign #productquality #designquality #opentowork

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🌟The Power of Sketching in UX Design: Elevating Concepts to Solutions 🌟 Exciting read about the importance of sketching in the UX design process! Here are the key takeaways from the article "Real Designers Sketch" by Nate Schloesser: 🚀 Idea Exploration: Rapidly explore multiple concepts to reach innovative solutions. 📚 Communication: Use sketches as a universal language to convey complex ideas effectively. 💡 Concept Over Visuals: Focus on the concept, encouraging open discussions and reducing tension. 🔄 Agility: Enable quick iterations for rapid design evolution based on feedback. 🤝 Collaboration: Foster a collaborative environment by democratizing the design process. 🔍 Problem-Solving: Visualize pain points and solutions with powerful sketching tools. It's time to debunk the misconceptions around sketching and embrace it as a versatile and essential practice in UX design. Remember, sketching is not just for artists - it's a tool for all designers to transform initial ideas into clear and innovative solutions. Let's elevate our design work from pixel-pushing to true design thinking by incorporating sketching into our process! Share your thoughts on how sketching has impacted your design work and let's start a conversation on the power of sketching in UX design. Keep sketching, keep innovating! 💭💡 💬 Share your thoughts on how sketching has influenced your design process! #uxdesign #productdesign #sketching #designthinking --- Incorporate sketching into your design process today! 🎨💡 #designthinking #uxdesign #productdesign https://lnkd.in/eSVHDCJB

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Join me and my guest, Sarah Doody, for Episode 137 of the #DesignThinking 101 #Podcast: Designing Your Career + UX for Small Business. Listen to it here: https://bit.ly/45lUCgN #CareerPlanning #UX #UserExperience

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Most designers are trained to present work to our peers, but as your career matures, your audience expands to include many other departments who don’t speak “design”. This article resonated with me and offers some sage advice about the use of storytelling and a “business lens” to craft more compelling presentations. #ProductDesign #Storytelling #UserResearch #BusinessObjectives

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I've treated my entire career as a journey to get as many snaps as possible to make what was once unknown for me (making, doing, thinking, directing, delegating, etc.) into a highly developed muscle that situationally flexes as necessary. AND I continue to adapt to my surroundings, and sacrifice what I may have once considered to be core to my integrity as a design professional in order to meet the moment fully. It hasn't felt like a clear progression into the commodification wall that Ryan describes; more like bits and pieces, here and there, more or less in various domains. Operating today in an early stage startup within a speculative industry (tech) for a conservative problem space (pharma & healthcare) yet with intelligent leadership who are true SMEs creates a stew of interesting trade-offs and opportunities as a function leader. Generally speaking, I've experienced what Ryan describes, but as with analytics in basketball, there's a big difference between a generalized approach to manifest offensive efficiencies and the individual choices one must make in a game seven. Matchups dictate adaptive strategies.

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My availability just opened back up with the end of my latest contract role. I'm pursuing growth opportunities aligned to Product Design, Accessibility, Innovation and People Leadership. Are you aware of a role that needs a dynamic design leader that can build trust and consensus across roles? Reach out. Are you looking for ways to harness the internal creativity of your staff while increasing your innovative output? I specialize in idea generation, peer mentoring and making internal innovation processes more efficient and engaging. Are you struggling to understand or implement Accessibility throughout your organization? I have a proven track record of conducting Accessibility Audits, manual Accessibility Testing and remediating issues. I can also create Accessible designs for features or entire products. Do you have something else in mind? Reach out. I'm happy to discuss how my process and experience help you turn existing challenges into tangible opportunities. #opentowork #productdesign #accessibility #innovation #leadership

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📣 Design leaders and, more specifically, designers who manage. I've created an anonymous survey to learn more about your design leadership experience. Now that you've become a design leader... thoughts?? Let me know!

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If you are striving to set yourself apart from the herd of mediocre UX research and design practitioners, then you need to do something notably different from the rest of the herd. I’m not a renowned UXer because I did the same thing as everyone else. I’ve created a number of industry leading, market dominating designs by doing things a little differently. There are any number of books that offer the same User-Centered Design processes with new names, written by authors with only one or two examples. My book describes an updated version of the proven UCD principles that have evolved from the 250+ projects I’ve worked on over the past 35 years. Some topics in the book: To do better user research, look for things that are: 1. Manually intensive 2. Cognitively demanding 3. Error prone 4. Knowledge dependent These are opportunities to dramatically improve the product. Personas are too vague. Instead try user knowledge profiles. These identify the knowledge gap that your product must bridge to help the users succeed at their tasks. Speaking of tasks, the book dives deep into how to conduct a task analysis as a more useful method to capture research insights. Rather than just automating current frustrations, optimize and redefine the users’ task flow, finding ways for the system to do more of the work for the user. I provide real-world examples throughout the book to help illustrate the described principles. This is a how-to book and will take your UX practice to the next level, putting you ahead of the herd. Get your copy now and move ahead of the herd: Amazon: https://lnkd.in/gMHKMYqp Digital Pubs: https://deltacx.link/dr  International: Ingram Spark: https://lnkd.in/g_Mja2Mp

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Love this thoughtful and balanced argument for resetting expectations for what design (lowercase d intentional) and design leaders can and can't fix from Sarah Gallivan Mitchell. Andy Polaine, in his response (https://lnkd.in/eC959VEc) to the some of the same rhetoric Sarah responds to, has likened the growth of the design industry in the past 15-20 years to the Cambrian Explosion. It bears considering that the real Cambrian Explosion was followed in relatively short order by multiple mass extinction events. Some species that were less well adapted to the changing conditions for life on Earth didn't make it, but this allowed new forms of life to develop and flourish. My hope is that some evolutionary selection may take place over time in regards to which voices are anointed to speak for All of Design, so that voices like Sarah's may, too, be heard and flourish. #design #designleadership #futureofdesign https://lnkd.in/eQ-PGgBM

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Great reflection on how to leverage AI in a sensical manner. https://lnkd.in/gQ3tC9jK #design #designthinking #designbuild #designstrategy #product #producctdesign #productmanagement #productstrategy #designprinciples #innovation #designers #digitaltransformation #ux #uxdesign #uiux #uidesign #designinnovation #application #software #softwaredesign #usability #userresearch #research #usercentereddesign #productleadership #uxwriting #designsystems #empathy #interfacedesign #usabilitytesting #userexperience #productdesign #accessibility #ui

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Portfolio tip for design leaders: Unless your values/leadership style/‘how I lead’ slides are unique or clearly showing why they make you a good fit for this specific role, skip all that in your portfolio presentation. It’s a waste of time and if it sounds like what all the other candidates are also doing(which is true 90% of the time), it will make you blend in. Not good: Generic words like empathy, team building, servant leadership etc Good: Super specific values that apply to this role Better: Super specific values that are actually then evidenced in the work you will shortly present

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Andy McBride and I have talked a lot about AI and The Work, and his article linked below is the non-nerdy version - (spoiler: it's fine, and it's just another tool). The nerdy version is this: Language model-type AI can't do design because it's about meaning and LLMs aren't aiming for meaning. LLMs are a rejection of the idea that the system needs to create meaning. LLMs rely on us to create the meaning. For many things, that's fine. But design is about the relationships between people and signs, things, actions and systems. LLM's aren't aware of that. They aren't aware of anything. To paraphrase Dennis Yi Tenen: "meaning resides in the world and changes depending on context. For design to be meaningful, it has to play by the rules of physics and history". And psychology and sociology too.

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I'm thrilled to share that my latest product and design discovery article is live on Mind the Product! As a consultant, I've observed that the term 'Discovery' can have varying interpretations across different teams. It's not uncommon to encounter a team deeply immersed in a solution yet lacking a shared understanding of the customer opportunity they're addressing. At Lab Zero, we meet clients where they are and advocate for discovery while maintaining flexibility. We often employ lightweight methodologies to foster a shared understanding, even when work is already underway. Teresa Torres' book “Continuous Discovery Habits” is a guide to developing the mindset and practices that enable teams to discover and deliver value to their customers throughout the product development process. Her explanation of the 'Opportunity Solution Tree' helped me articulate a process for asking questions and bridging gaps when joining a new team. The first part of this two-part series looks at reversing the 'Opportunity Solution Tree' to establish a connection between the ongoing solution, customer opportunities, and business outcomes. The second part (coming soon!) will explore strategies for identifying gaps in your team's understanding of customer needs and the necessary measures to mitigate risks before launch. This series will help consultants, new team members, or a struggling team connect with that all-important why and launch valuable experiences for their customers and their orgs. Have you tried something like this with your team? Feedback is appreciated! If you haven't explored Mind The Product's extensive content library, I highly recommend it! In addition to articles about discovery and understanding customer needs, the community has shared insightful perspectives on product leadership, business, and teams. It's a great place to see perspectives on processes and theories informed by real-world use.  #ProductDiscovery #Design #Discovery #ContinuousDiscovery #Onboarding #Risk #CustomerOpportunity #Value #BusinessOutcomes

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