Top designers are often thrust into leadership roles, and it’s easy to forget that these two roles do not require the same skillset. In this episode, design managers and Liftoff! co-authors Chris Avore and Russ Unger discuss the mistakes and lessons they—and MANY others—have made in their new book, four years in the works. Liftoff! is a guide for new leaders looking for guidance about managing design teams effectively, and established managers who want to level up their expertise. Order Liftoff! before July 7 and save 15%; for free shipping in the U.S., enter code FREESHIPLIFTOFF at checkout. https://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/ux-leadership/ Influencers mentioned: Meet the diverse variety of contributors to the book: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/ux-leadership/liftoff-opening-credits-contributors-guests-and-reviewers/ Jacqui Frey: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacquifrey/ Kara DeFrias: https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/blog/2013/03/01/meet-pif-kara-defrias Emileigh Barnes: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emileighbarnes/ Lou Adler: https://louadlergroup.com/about-us/team-bios/lou-adler/ Noah Bushnell, Finding the Next Steve Jobs: https://www.amazon.com/Finding-Next-Steve-Jobs-Nurture-ebook/dp/B00DF58I56/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr= Laura Hogan, Resilient Design Management: https://larahogan.me/blog/coming-soon-resilient-management Amy Edmonson on Psychological Safety: https://hbr.org/podcast/2019/01/creating-psychological-safety-in-the-workplace Maggie Hsu Wagner: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mkhsu/

Authors Stephen P. Anderson and Karl Fast discuss the complex world of information (think incomprehensible tax policies to confusing medical explanations) we are faced with, and the ways in which information can be transformed into better presentations, better meetings, better software, and better decisions. Stephen also shares a personal anecdote about part of the inspiration for the book. Get your copy: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/figure-it-out/ Mentioned in the episode… Stephen’s latest project: The Mighty Minds Club. Learn more and subscribe: https://www.producthunt.com/upcoming/the-mighty-minds-club Karl’s recommended reads: Smarter Than You Think by Clive Thompson https://www.amazon.com/Smarter-Than-You-Think-Technology/dp/1594204454 and Messy: The Power of Disorder to Transform Our Lives by Tim Hartford https://www.amazon.com/Messy-Power-Disorder-Transform-Lives-ebook/dp/B01BD1SU2E/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1587498076&sr=1-1 Stephen’s interesting people to check out: Nicky Case and her “explorable explanations” https://ncase.me/; Bret Victor and real time feedback loops https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bret_Victor

Amy Bucher is Chief Behavioral Officer at Lirio at Mad*Pow and author of our newest book, Engaged: Designing for Behavior Change. Amy has a PhD. in Psychology, so you’d be forgiven for assuming that she works in academia. Instead, she ended up at an agency where she focuses on healthcare and the many different motivational factors that are at play in the way people live their lives. In this episode, Amy and Lou Rosenfeld discuss the ethics of data collection, self-determination theory, fitness apps, her new book, and more. Get Amy’s book: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/engaged-designing-for-behavior-change/ About Mad*Pow: https://madpow.com Amy’s recommended reading: Whisper Network by Chandler Baker https://www.amazon.com/Whisper-Network-Novel-Chandler-Baker/dp/1250205360 More about Amy: amybucher.com Follow Amy: twitter.com/amybphd

Lada Gorlenko, Director of UX Research at Smartsheet in Seattle, is the lead curator of this year’s Enterprise Experience conference (August 31-September 3, virtual, rosenfeldmedia.com/enterprise2020). Lada began her career in prison, spending lots of time with murderers and drug dealers! Not what you think, though: she was a psychologist researching the personality changes caused by long-term imprisonment. The experience led her to a better understanding of how universally transferable the principles of research and design are, whether in a prison or at an enterprise. In this episode of the Rosenfeld Review, Lada shares her career path and the story of how she ended up in UX, and the themes she’s developed for the upcoming Enterprise Experience conference. Lada recommends: "Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping" by Paco Underhill, an urban anthropologist. https://www.amazon.com/Why-We-Buy-Science-Shopping/dp/0739341928 See the themes, theme leaders, and program here: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/enterprise2020/enterprise-experience-program/ Register here: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/enterprise2020/register/

Mariano Suarez-Battan is the co-founder and CEO of MURAL https://mural.co/, a tool for remote collaboration—and longtime partner/sponsor of Rosenfeld Media’s conferences. MURAL was founded in 2011 after Mariano experienced first-hand the struggle of working remotely with a large, distributed team while designing video games. In this episode of the Rosenfeld Review, Mariano and Lou discuss the challenges of collaboration among remote teams and how platforms like MURAL can level the playing field between coworkers, often flattening hierarchies and changing culture in the process. Mariano also shares his predictions about how workplaces will operate five years in the future. Learn more: mural.co/ebook Mariano’s shoutout - IBM’s Phil Gilbert, one of MURAL’s early adopters, and Tim Brown, former CEO at Ideo who introduced Mariano to Phil. Follow Mariano on Twitter: https://twitter.com/batmelon MURAL is sponsoring all three of Rosenfeld Media conferences this year: Advancing Research https://rosenfeldmedia.com/advancing-research-2020/, Enterprise Experience https://rosenfeldmedia.com/enterprise2020/, and DesignOps Summit https://rosenfeldmedia.com/designopssummit2020/. Be sure to stop by their booth!

Brianna Sylver, founder of Sylver Consulting and speaker at the upcoming Advancing Research conference (March 30-April 1, NYC), joins Lou to break down the importance of insight. At its core, insight is about shifts in perspective and can come from anywhere—user research, market research, psychology, mining big data; according to Brianna, it doesn’t really matter. Rather, she emphasizes the importance of capturing all the threads in one container. Lou and Brianna dive into what an insights container can look like, and best practices for making insights actionable. Brianna’s shoutouts: Heather Dominick, her business mentor, and the impact of her work with “highly sensitive entrepreneurs” (https://www.businessmiracles.com/), and Dr. Elaine Aron’s work on “the highly sensitive person.” https://hsperson.com/ Learn more about Brianna’s upcoming talk at Advancing Research, then get your tickets: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/advancing-research-2020/sessions/the-intent-to-effect-pathway-how-design-and-designers-can-deliver-the-greatest-value-to-organizations/

Order Writing Is Designing: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/writing-is-designing/ Michael Metts and Andy Welfle, authors of the new Rosenfeld Media book Writing Is Designing, get meta and discuss writing about UX writing with Lou Rosenfeld. They also stress the importance of looking through the “lens of language,” when solving problems – reworking your existing language to make things clear from the outset, rather than fixing problems by adding more copy later. Their book will help those responsible for digital copy communicate more effectively—from designers to marketers who might never have considered themselves “UX people.” Andy Welfle and Michael J. Metts are the co-authors of the upcoming Rosenfeld Media title, Writing Is Designing, available January 14, 2020. Order Writing Is Designing: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/writing-is-designing/ What Andy’s reading: Strategic Writing for UX https://www.amazon.com/Strategic-Writing-Engagement-Conversion-Retention/dp/1492049395 What Michael’s reading: Content Strategy is Boring (and that’s okay) https://www.braintraffic.com/blog/content-strategy-is-boring-and-thats-ok

Christian Madsbjerg, Cofounder of ReD Associates and author, discusses the challenges of aligning social sciences research with data science. He delves into academic chauvinism, the shortcomings of anthropology, and the importance of viewing 'people as people'. The podcast explores the integration of diverse practices for problem-solving, bridging research challenges with AI, and the hurdles faced in merging data science and social science for organizational success.

Four members of our Advancing Research curation team join Lou to discuss the research they did to help shape our inaugural Advancing Research conference (New York City; March 30-April 1, 2020). The team analyzed over 700 survey responses (including about 10,000 answers to open-ended questions!) to learn about user and customer researchers, their learning behaviors, and what they want from conference experiences. Read their summary of the results here: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/advancing-research-community/archive/who-does-research-and-how-do-they-learn/ ; you can also explore the study’s quantitative data yourself via Tableau: https://public.tableau.com/profile/lou.rosenfeld.rosenfeld.media#!/vizhome/WhoDoesResearchandHowDoTheyLearn/StoryDraft1 Podcast guests: Abby Covert (principal investigator), Staff Information Architect at Etsy Sean Oslin, Consultant at Aventine Hill Partners Rocio Werner, Senior User Experience Researcher at ZS Patricia Thommi, User Experience Researcher at ZS The rest of the team: Johan Sarmiento, Steve Portigal, Natalie Hanson, Lou Rosenfeld

Current Design and Research Operations practices face three huge, overarching challenges: •Proving value and measuring outcomes •Partnering outside design •Change management In this episode of Rosenfeld Review, four DesignOps and ResearchOps leaders—Jose Coronado, Crystal Yan, Guneet Singh, and Rachel Posman—tackle these challenges from a rich set of perspectives, ranging from heading up DesignOps at a large, long-established corporation like JP Morgan Chase, to launching a whole new department at a young company. Panel Members: •Jose Coronado, VP Design Operations | Head of DesignOps at JPMorgan Chase & Co. •Rachel Posman, Head of Design Operations, UberEats •Crystal Yan, Product Lead, New Initiatives, Remitly •Guneet Singh, Director of Customer Experience Programs, Docusign