Interdisciplinary teams

Studied design in school

Worked at a creative agency

Worked at thoughtbot

Now working at Segment

Favorite website right now:

It’s hard to change our perceptions and our

understanding.

segment blog

There are user needs and there are business needs.

You want them to be like this:

Now the blog can reach its potential.

We found a similar situation when we rebuilt our setup

flow.

Again, we want this:

We had something more like this:

segment setup flow

Sometimes the business needs and the user needs fight

against each other.

My job is to help our business and our users complement each

other.

What do I do now? UNCLEAR

This is why we work on teams!

Because there’s too much information. And it feels like this:

– Christopher AlexanderNotes on the Synthesis of Form

“The technical difficulties of grasping all the information needed for such a form are out of hand – and well beyond the

fingers of a single individual.”

Be comfortable with being confused.

Remember what you didn’t know.

Remember what you found confusing.

Don’t be the smartest person in the room.

– Matthew Frederick101 Things I Learned in Architecture School

“An architect knows something about everything. An engineer knows everything

about one thing.”

Invite yourself to meetings.

Develop relationships with people outside of your team.

– Christopher AlexanderNotes on the Synthesis of Form

“…not only is the quantity of information itself by now beyond the reach of single

designers, but the various specialists who retail [the information] are narrow and

unfamiliar with the form-makers’ peculiar problems, so that it is never quite clear how the designer should best consult

them.”

Learn how to facilitate conversations.

Be clear about who gets the final decision-making power.

Stick to your process-oriented training.

– Matthew Frederick101 Things I Learned in Architecture School

“Being process-oriented, not product driven, is the most important and difficult

skill for a designer to develop.”

Be inclusive!

– Max EhrmannDesiderata

“Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be

in silence. As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all

persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even the dull and ignorant; they too have their

story.”