Bubbles of Belief: Dave Gray Talks Liminal Thinking & Current Events

Technology is unintentionally conspiring against you: making sure you only see more of what you like and agree with. How do we as a people expand our point of view when arguments are no longer productive? Dave Gray’s returns to talk with Lou Rosenfeld about how his latest book, Liminal Thinking, applies to Brexit and the recent U.S. election.

AccessibilityOps for All

The Cigna Digital Design Operations stood up a new Digital Accessibility and AccessbilityOps team. Digital accessibility as a general term is the inclusive practice of ensuring that digital products (websites, apps, PDFs, etc.) can be used by everyone — including those with a disability or physical impairment — while retaining functionality and usability. Our team ran into many roadblocks including establishing processes, team structure, organizational support, and human resource issues, including onboarding a new team member who was blind. This case study showcases the steps, challenges, and lessons learned standing up a Digital Accessibility Ops team at a Fortune 100 Health Insurance company.

Ask Me Anything with Leah Buley and Joe Natoli, co-authors of The User Experience Team of One (2nd edition)

Leah Buley and Joe Natoli, co-authors of The User Experience Team of One (2nd Edition): A Research and Design Survival Guide, gather for a special Ask Me Anything (AMA). This interactive session dives headfirst into the insights and updated methods presented in their latest book, which serves as a vital resource for both newcomers and seasoned professionals in user experience and product design. Attendees got the chance to ask questions about the book’s practical advice, the real-world situations it applies to, and the evolving landscape of UX work—and learn what’s changed since the first edition.

Reflection in Action with Jodi Forlizzi

Jodi Forlizzi has taken an unusual path to get where she is today. With an art degree from the University of Arts in Philadelphia, she began working as a technical illustrator at the University of Pennsylvania. Transitioning into UX design as the internet expanded, she pursued a Master’s in Interaction Design at Carnegie Mellon University where she is now a professor. Jodi’s work focuses on responsible AI and diversity in computer science. Her talk at the upcoming Designing with AI 2024 conference will explore the evolving role of AI in design processes and products.

Jodi distinguishes between “designing with AI” and “designing AI,” arguing the importance of designers’ involvement in the entire product development lifecycle. She highlights the challenges of AI innovation, such as data availability, value generation, customer adoption, and ethical considerations and emphasizes that designers have a place in all realms of AI development.

Jodi’s interview offers a glimpse into the evolving landscape of AI-driven design and the pivotal role of designers in shaping its future. With a blend of historical context, personal anecdotes, and insights, she inspires designers of all stripes to embrace the challenges and opportunities presented by AI innovation.

What You’ll Learn from this Episode

How Jodi went from a Master of Fine Arts degree to working on responsible AI at Carnegie Mellon
Why designers are needed in all phases of AI development
How careers morph as technologies develop and become obsolete
Lessons from history and the “friendly vending machine”
Why solving for “Drunk Island” problems is usually more helpful than chasing a loftier issue

Quick Reference Guide
0:25 – Introducing Jodi
2:59 – On boundaries around innovating with AI
6:40 – 4 reasons AI models fail
8:07 – The role of designers and the challenge of starting the design process from the middle of the double diamond
11:49 – The role of bridge builders
14:48 – The morphing of careers due to the emergence and prevalence of AI
17:19 – Commercial break – Managing Priorities: How to Create Better Plans and Make Smarter Decisions by Harry Max
18:26 – AI as a design material
21:08 – Constraints and structure on AI as a design material
24:39 – Jodi’s gift for the audience

Rewriting the Rules through Organizational Development with Amanda Woolley

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“I’ve been asking myself the question, ‘Why are you doing that?’ since I was about four,” says Amanda Woolley. As an organizational development (OD) consultant and facilitator, she seems to have found the right profession. Amanda began her career with NHS England, eventually becoming the System Leadership Development Senior Manager before working as a consultant. Ironically, she initially rejected the notion that she was an “OD person,” not being entirely sure what the requirements were.

In Lou and Amanda’s discussion, she reflects on her journey into OD. She explains that OD focuses on helping teams step back and evaluate how they work together, addressing the complexities and “weirdness” that can emerge in workplace dynamics. They discuss the ideal environment for creating effective change in an organization, emphasizing the importance of neutrality, creativity, and ownership.

Amanda shares a personal story about being a caregiver at a young age for her ill mother. She reflects, “My best experiences in healthcare are when people have broken the rules.” Today, she brings stakeholders together so that procedures can be rewritten to make protocols efficient and effective for all involved—and she’ll bring her experience and OD perspective to her panel at Advancing Service Design 2024 (virtual, December 3-4).

What You’ll Learn from this Episode:

The purpose of Organizational Development and who typically does it
Common “weird” challenges organizations face
When and why organizations should bring in consultants, like OD specialists, to provide a neutral perspective and facilitate better communication and problem-solving
Amanda’s career path and the rich experiences that inform her work today

Quick Reference Guide:
0:14 – Meet Amanda
1:50 – Systems and organizational development share a focus on frameworks and language
5:08 – What is organizational development, and who does it?
6:24 – Being aware of what’s weird and doing something about it
9:43 – The triggers that expose the need for an organizational development specialist
14:21 – Creating space that invites change and creativity
17:15 – 5 things about the Rosenverse
19:53 – How Amanda’s experience with the National Health Services in the UK has influenced her work today
27:27 – Amanda’s gift for listeners

Data-Driven Design with John Paul de Guzman

Being simultaneously data-driven and creative seems paradoxical. So does building statistics into the creative process. John Paul de Guzman has managed to do both. As the founder and chief creative of Frost Design and Consulting Group, and speaker at the upcoming DesignOps Summit, millions of Filipinos have been impacted by their work with major FinTech and telecom projects.

Much of the UX/UI talent in the Philippines is self-taught, often struggling with the gap between academic training and industry expectations. To address this, JP developed a systematic approach to training and design processes.

John Paul and Lou discuss how Frost has embraced data-driven design, which, contrary to the creative chaos one might expect, has led to more efficient workflows and better client outcomes. By integrating tools like Trello and Figma, and leveraging AI for task management, John Paul has significantly reduced administrative overhead. This approach allows designers to focus on their work rather than getting bogged down in busy work. They can track work in real time, eliminating the need for status meetings and improving overall productivity—a win-win for both the team and their clients.

What You’ll Learn from this Episode:

How John Paul and his team at Frost systematically integrated data into their creative processes
How John Paul addressed the talent gap in his company
The tools he uses to track workflows and achieve always-current status on projects
How probabilistic analysis helps predict project timelines and manage client expectations more accurately
How John Paul is integrating AP in the project-tracking process

Quick Reference Guide:
0:13 – Introduction of John Paul
2:16 – The path that got John Paul where he is today
5:18 – What it means to be data-driven
8:39 – Systematizing the data-driven design process by tracking workflows
11:58 – Mapping the workflow
16:01 – Break
18:45 – Tools for probabilistic analysis and managing time
24:11 – The level of granularity John Paul’s team tracks
25:56 – Handling aspects of work that are more conceptual and difficult to atomize
30:46 – John Paul’s gift for listeners

Greg Petroff and Lou Rosenfeld discuss how GE woke up and got serious about UX

Four years ago GE discovered it was one of the largest software companies in the world–but not building software very well. Hear how Greg Petroff, as GE’s Chief Experience Officer, slowly built a community inside the company to evangelize the importance of design in a developer-focused culture. Greg will give the opening keynote at the Enterprise UX 2015 conference in San Antonio this May 13-15.

Principles of Team Wireframing

Wireframing is not just making sketches; it’s about team communication. Make handoffs clear, know why you’re wireframing, and annotate your work. Roles like Product Managers, Designers, and Developers all benefit from wireframing for different reasons. PMs can clarify requirements and sketch ideas, designers can generate multiple options, and developers can understand what’s easy or hard to code. So yeah, wireframing is great for teams, not just designers.

A Design Ops Girl in a Dev Ops World

DevOps has spent a decade focused on tooling that allows developers to code, deploy, monitor, and optimize quickly and efficiently. Along the way, many within that community forget that the people within that community and the developers that they serve are, first and foremost, people. Hear what happens when a Design Ops professional finds herself embedded in a DevOps team, helps them see each other as people, and applies a bit of design thinking, tools and techniques to help them learn the skills necessary as the people they serve move from the information age to the conceptual age.

Panel: Design Systems and Documentation

Designers need to work with developers. One of the core ways they have learned to do this is by taking something from the designer’s playbook—pattern languages—and mapping that against one of the chief learnings from contemporary engineering: componentization. By using design systems and associated object based documentation systems, design leaders have helped to reshape the designer/developer universe and improve operations within the software development lifecycle. Facilitated by Dave Malouf.