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One of the workplace activities we rarely notice—bumping into people in the hall on our way to and from other places—turns out to be an unsung hero of innovation. As we find ourselves coming back to the office, many of us are rediscovering the delightful serendipity of this seemingly insignificant interaction. But don’t be fooled by its apparent lack of importance. Random collisions are anything but minor players in driving innovation across the enterprise. They are one of several antidotes to address remote-only workplaces (which, if left unattended devolve into siloed organizations). I was reminded of their importance in a…

this second article on the UX Playbook (published on productcraft.com), I highlight each of the four Mega-plays and decompose one into its constituent micro-plays. 

COVID and the global pandemic’s impact on working norms continue to raise questions about the nature of work and the “new normal.” How much time should employees be “in the office?” What is the impact of a fully remote workforce on an organization’s productivity, innovation and culture? By shifting work to our homes, how do organizations address employee safety, equity, access and privilege? These are just some of the questions athenahealth (the second largest electronic health records company in the US) raised in its “Future of Work” strategic initiative.

Design Operations - the optimization of people, processes and tools in service of design benefits from applying Design Thinking frameworks.

How can UX, Product and Engineering work together better if our frameworks aren't aligned?

In a series of articles I've written for UXMatters, I describe an approach to writing proposals for services that distinguish your value proposition from your competition by leveraging three key principles: 1. Bill by "piece work" 2. Be transparent 3. Put your customer in control of the scope of effort

Finally, after almost a dozen articles, I'm prepared to discuss a framework for a UX architecture, what I've called the PQRS Model, or Puzzle-piece Framework. To review, I've been mining Architecture (as in bricks-and-mortar) in the hopes of discovering ways to discuss UX architecture. Architecture has historically been strategic, no doubt because of its expense, but also because it encompasses so many life-safety and fundamental human needs. Until UX architecture crosses a similar threshold in its enterprises, it will remain a tactical player. That day is coming, for the same reasons Architecture crossed the threshold: enterprises can't accept the costs of…

In this installment I propose a need for, and an example of, a model for UX architecture. Models allow us to discuss a system without specifying particularities about the system. This is important if we want to understand how the system can be put to good (or better) use. Models also allow us to look at the relationships among various systems, again to improve their operational efficiency, or to determine allocation of resources. Throughout this series, I've looked to Architecture to inform UX architecture. Architecture's political and strategic positioning, its established processes and shared understanding among professionals provide a rich history…

Throughout this series, I've been using Architecture (bricks-and-mortar Architecture, capitalized) as an analogy for UX architecture (lower-case). Because Architecture has "had a seat at the table" for hundreds of years, perhaps we can learn from its success and apply those lessons to UX architecture, thereby increasing UX architecture's strategic value. In the next installments, I turn to more tactical concerns: the deliverables and processes required to execute on a UX architecture. In this piece, I discuss how different stakeholders require very different deliverables. I also discuss how Architecture and UX architecture differ in terms of stakeholder understanding about the desired outcome. Awhile…

I argue, in the initial articles of this series, that a UX architecture exists. I argue that it is akin to Architecture itself even if UX architecture doesn't share the strategic position of its older and more established relation. I've also suggested that UX architecture will eventually get a seat at the strategy table because otherwise the costs will be prohibitive. Enterprises will either be replaced by competitors that leverage UX in their strategies, or they eventually evolve to leverage UX themselves. With the business and operational contexts sketched out in the prior set of articles, I turn your attention to…