10:00AM Get Unstuck: Moving From 1.0 to 2.0
Moderator: Liz Danzico Director, experience strategy, Daylife
Liz Danzico Director, experience strategy, Daylife
Kristian Bengtsson Creative Dir, FutureLab
Chris Messina Co-founder, Citizen Agency
Luke Wroblewski Principal Designer, Yahoo!
Jeffrey Zeldman Founder, Happy Cog
Rough Panel Notes:
How to get out of the rut – avoid the same thing over and over – repetition
Inspired at the right time
adaption to new ways
work together with developers
Perspective – traffic photo looks different to New Yorkers and pennsylvanians
you as a person might be stuck, or it might be your team or your company.
Inspiration as an individual
Getting Unstuck is about:
doing good work
being productive
feeling fulfilled on a team
Luke – corporate monkey – yahoo social media
Chris – open source
zeldman – creative director
Christian – integrator
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zeldman – try to listen closely to client, but do what the users need, not what the client’s process dictates….
create an open feedback loop – information in/information out process. Being open to new ideas. Getting over being negative about the ideas of others. “Yes, and: instead of “but…”
keeping up with what’s happening with trends
write things down so you can think it through – refining message
things are in constant change – better to be a flamboyant failure than a mediochre success.
Ability to fail is important – absence of trust. Afraid to show where your weak and where you fail. Build shared trust.
five disfunctions of a team
Publishing stuff is important – if your boss doesn’t get what you do, write about it… and point to what colleagues write and do – change the conversation, and you ideas gain traction. If you have the power to change words you change trends. Hear what other groups are doing.
get ideas out even if they’re unbaked, because other people can see your blind spots – see the negative space of an idea, hear the critiques and eventually it will sink in.
If you have a good idea and people aren’t listening to you, getting it out there means you start to generate a conversation.
Soundbites are important – if you can articulate a simple goal and use it over and over, it becomes what everybody is trying to achieve, even if it sounds like hypnotism.
write ideas down over and over, 1% of it is good enough to get out to the publish. discard the 99% and take that 1% to work with.
design is a key tool to getting unstuck – gap between the designer and developer – all of it should be design – so if everyone works with design toward a common goal – focus on common factors between design and development. Stop talking about the groups as separate entities. Add value via design processes and principles.
building software is a political process – think about what everyone has at stake – listen to why they’re championing certain things.
zeldman – small teams are important. small groups with editors/content people/ designers/ia/ and developers. Even if dev guys are board, they’re part of the solution.
Importance of listening to both clients and their users. Getting large organziations to get unstuck – find common factors. Selling design to counterparts – or at least add value without them knowing you’re “doing a design thing.”
Look up: design process/principles.
Connections on a personal level – go out with client and connect.
explore create think act
Provide before and after for each client.
Here’s what we think your problems might be; let us get to know you so we can find out more, and see if this really is your problem.
In the contract for design – build process into contract to prevent 18 rounds of wireframing and prototyping.
HIre your clients – find some places where you can see a companies problem – make a difference and approach them to tell them you have a solution.
When speaking to someone – it’s not about what you’re saying – it’s about what you make the people you’re talking to feel.
always have someone on the team that is supposed to focus completely and only on the solution, so the solution is never forgotten or lost.
think about going out for beers with the client once the project is successful – what is it you’ll be celebrating?
LIghtning round: Questions
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Business vs. users
acknowledge business goals, and identify user goals as well.
if there’s no money for research and new technologies – volunteer some extra time to get the new and innovative stuff in.
selling web standards to a boss that doesn’t get it – tap outside resources; zeldman’s book, find online resources, and show the real needs for it, and show examples of how it can be made better.