Becky Birch

Talk to your users, and if you don't have users... Do this: 1. Find out who your perfect user is 2. Reach out to them 3. Ask them for an interview, alpha test or prototyping session 4. Write down their comments 5. Promise them a discount once the software is out Not being live yet is no excuse to skip customer discovery. Pro Tip: Build a quick landing page to find even more test users. Any other tips to talk to potential users?

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Struggling to level up as a designer? Companies I work with have design teams eager to be heard and secure a spot at the 'grown-ups' table. BUT… 1. They don’t lead teams to success. 2. They neglect problem-solving and results. 3. They focus on delivering outputs. How do I build trust and get heard? I listen and diagnose problems. My best work comes from an 80% understanding of the problem and 20% uninterrupted work. How do I tap into the specifics? 1. Get the right people involved early. 2. Complete a detailed product spec. → Why are we doing this? → Who are we targeting? → What evidence or data do we have? → How will we measure success? → What are the key risks? → Are there any known limitations? 3. Focus on solving problems and delivering results. Without a deep understanding of what we are designing, I would waste company time, money and effort, not building the trust I need to get heard. It's 10x harder that way! --- 𝗪𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝗮 𝗰𝗼𝗽𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝗺𝘆 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰 𝘁𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲? ♻ Repost this post and comment "SPEC" (I'll send it to you)

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I'm running another cohort of my 'Getting into freelance service design' course 🙌🏽 This is a short, online course designed to fast-track you into working freelance. It's everything I wish I'd known before I jumped in feet first. It covers things like building a network, marketing, getting work, money and all the logical things you need to know/do to get set up. I keep the cohorts small to allow for questions and discussion throughout. I've also made the sessions slightly longer this time, based on feedback, so we have more time for this. There are 4 paid places and 1 free place remaining. If you'd like one of these places pop over to my website to find out more and sign up. Link in the comments. #servicedesign #freelance

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Designers are being exploited. I've become increasingly concerned with the state of design hiring processes since my first redundancy back in 2021, and I fear we've reached breaking point (at least I have). Today, we're talking about design tasks. It's now commonplace for potential employers to ask jobseekers to complete an unpaid "task" during the selection process. These so-called tasks usually require days of work, and often involve creating designs that the company genuinely needs and could potentially use without payment or permission. This leaves designers in an impossible position: should we leave our dignity at the door, comply, and get used (after all, we're #Desperate for work) - or say no and hope the next company, if there is one, has morals? It's also hard to spend limited time on a task, when you know you're up against other designers who may simply spend longer on it and therefore be selected to move forward, based solely on their "effort" rather than skills. The good news is (unless you sign something to the contrary) any work you create for these tasks belongs to you, even if you use their branding. If you have any legal concerns around IP, speak to Carrie Bradley! I've already made several posts documenting tasks I've been asked to produce in full, so if you're interested in seeing just how much we're being asked for, check out my older content. One company I was a huge fan of ghosted me after I completed a week's worth of work for them. I'm now saying no to tasks, full stop. If none of us comply with their unethical practices, they'll be forced to do something radical: judge us based on our portfolios and CVs that have taken years to curate. Wouldn't that be something?

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I messed up... Business has been booming. BUT - The unlimited design model just isn't the right fit a lot of the time. I quickly realised clients don't know what they need. They want to lean on our expertise and have back-and-forth conversations that help get the best out of the design and build of their product. That's why I made the decision to pivot the model and add two new models to Technically Creative's offering. We won't just blindly rely on your team to submit design briefs they 'think' the business needs. We integrate into your businesses channels and work like part of your in-house team. We have tweaked our branding and built our new website to reflect the changes. Take a look and let me know what you think 👇 https://lnkd.in/eDcZYCeh

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When giving design feedback, remember: it’s not going on your fridge. You likely aren’t the user or audience. It doesn’t matter if you don’t like the colour or your wife thinks it needs to be green. Stakeholders: help your designers out by asking what specifically they are looking for feedback on. Keep your feedback objective and in context of the objective and brief. Ask questions. Designers: give context, explain your designs and how they meet the brief or user story. Help your stakeholders to help you. Ask questions.

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Action needed: Each year DesignOps Assembly puts together THE benchmarking report for the DesignOps profession. The survey for the 2024 DesignOps Benchmarking Report is open and we need everyone in within the DesignOps world (including designers who help out with DesignOps) to participate. You’ll help DesignOps, Design, Product, and Business leaders and teams to better understand the landscape of our work. You'll also help everyone in the design industry understand trends, changes, come and the overall health of our industry (including salary info, team sizes, team impact etc..) Please take 10 minutes to fill this out. If you have ever referenced prior reports you know how important it is. 👉 bit.ly/DOA2024Survey 👈 Deadline for responses is July 31. #designops #ops #dpm #designprogrammanagement #design #designoperations #designleadership

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Design often has a low 'business maturity' perception C-suite care about: - efficiencies & profit - retention & acquisition - user expectations & reputation - conversion Here’s the thing Design cares about and can support all of these (or at least it should when leveraged correctly!) But we can't expect other to know that if it is not what they have experienced It’s on us to be more visible in the rooms we are in To show that we are not just a creative arm but a discipline that can have measurable impact Start by thinking about: - framing accountabilities based on what others actually care about - showing empathy for colleagues, other departments, execs and shareholders, not just users - dropping the Design jargon (or maybe even the word to start with) - pulling the right people into the process where it makes sense to demonstrate value We care about the same things at the end of the day We just need to make that clear in our conversations and actions! #Design #Leadership #DesignLeadership

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Design often has a low 'business maturity' perception C-suite care about: - efficiencies & profit - retention & acquisition - user expectations & reputation - conversion Here’s the thing Design cares about and can support all of these (or at least it should when leveraged correctly!) But we can't expect other to know that if it is not what they have experienced It’s on us to be more visible in the rooms we are in To show that we are not just a creative arm but a discipline that can have measurable impact Start by thinking about: - framing accountabilities based on what others actually care about - showing empathy for colleagues, other departments, execs and shareholders, not just users - dropping the Design jargon (or maybe even the word to start with) - pulling the right people into the process where it makes sense to demonstrate value We care about the same things at the end of the day We just need to make that clear in our conversations and actions! #Design

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I've been working on some service design patterns with Dave Skinner for his project Design Patterns for social housing - https://lnkd.in/eC9p5RRv A service design map is often inaccessible - the designers will have worked hard to capture all the stages but the map will be a PDF or a diagram which doesn't easily resize to fit your phone. Your audience can't resize the text. It can't be read by screen reader software, either. As a solution: try making the map into an HTML table with two columns. For a mobile view, make each row resemble a card. Sorted! 😎 Hire interaction designers to find ways of putting content online. 😇 Transcript: 1. A numbered service stage with a representative icon Describe the stage in detail. Capture any pain points and improvement ideas. "Include verbatim quotes from research." Optional: include an emoji for how the person is feeling at this stage. Backstage - a policy or legal factor (grey) Backstage - a technical factor, such as a database (green) Time-based process (blue) Pain point or blocker (pink)

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Boosting subscriptions with Headway's intrinsic motivators and free trials 💡 UX Design Tip #04 🪄 Know your user's goals. It's your key to transforming users into paying customers. Identify their needs, provide the solution, and they'll stick around. Motivators 👉 buyers Headway emphasises 'finish more books', using its paywall to guide readers. Pro UX tip: offer a free trial, precise payment dates and handy notifications. Is this useful? Let me know in the comments below or save it for later 👇 #ux #uxdesign #psychology #product

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What do Paul Scholes and Service Designers have in common? 🥁🥁 ….they are playmakers The best midfielders / Service Designers are those that: > spot the gaps and opportunities > predict how situations will play out > keep a wide view of the action > link up play, connecting the team from back to front > create moments of magic Though often both often unseen, they can be the game-changers in setting others / the org up for success What would you add to the above? P.S #GGMU 👹🔴🏆 #Design #ServiceDesign

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I’ve always wondered - does the term ‘design system’ create a bit of a misconception across the tech industry about who it’s for and the true potential and value it brings to a business? It’s easy to perceive it as just a ‘design’ asset by name, but what if we thought of it more as a User Experience System? One that highlights its huge strategic importance in driving product consistency, quality, usability, brand, UI, standards, efficiency, scalability and satisfaction etc. As we move into a world where there’s huge potential with AI driven systems are we framing these systems correctly to unlock their full potential? #UX #ProductDesign #DesignSystems #UserExperience #Strategy

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UX in everyday life: I've just noticed the other day at a DM store that the shopping trolleys have magnifying glasses. These allow the people with poor eyesight - typically older people - to read the tiny labels on the boxes about ingredients and other information which is a great help. Well done! A good example of why you should research your users' behaviour. 🔎

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So glad I managed to attend UX Brighton on Friday. Top notch speakers for an obvious but tricky theme: UX & AI. Some personal highlights: - Pablo Stanley's contagious energy, humour and eye-candy slides somehow managed to show really practical "why did I put this button here" advice. Proper Design class! >> check his Lummi app https://www.lummi.ai/ - Maggie Appleton perfectly encapsulated why AI is breaking the free Internet and what possible (mostly-depressing) futures await us. PS: it's all here >> https://lnkd.in/ek6wJ6V8 - Glenn Jones's text-to-functional-UI demo left some speechless. A glimpse into a future of use-once UIs generated on the fly. - Hannah Beresford's solid research work laid out why AI tools don't work yet and what to do about it. - Will Taylor's historical framework was the perfect conference intro and a useful tool to clarify "which AI for which situation". A few reflections: - There are identified ways make chatbot-style AI UIs more usable... but the single box to "ask anything" is far from the being the most useful interaction paradigm. - AIs are rubbish at context, societal norms and verbal cues. It's best to think of them as a smart alien rather than a human. - Data-led products, like AI-driven ones, need to be user tested in context, with real data. Smoke & mirrors prototypes or static mockups are pointless. - It did made me want to work on AI products and try more AI tools! - Also, not one mention of sustainability?? It feels like the elephant in the room. Overall, such an awesome day with Joanna Rusznica Laura Pison David Man Jess Judge Rachel Ward Kounnas Caroline Gardiner Andrew Wood Rosie FitzGerald Carolyn Letts #uxbri #uxbrighton #uxbrighton2024 #ai #ux #design

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OK I wrote another thing. It's called 'Make Product Design Great Again' It has graphs and ranting, also a mild apology to the design recruitment industry https://lnkd.in/eU9FvzvE Enjoy! #productdesign #UX #UI #product #design #designops #designthinking

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I recently ran my 'Getting into freelance service design' course for the third time 🙌 This morning I wrote about my experience of running the course as I thought there might be other freelancers or solo business owners out there thinking about developing their own course. Full disclosure, it's a paid for piece. In light of this, I wanted to share a few top line learnings here: 💰 I worry more about things people pay for out of their own pocket ✅ However, charging people ensures a commitment 💳 Taking payment can be more complicated than you think especially if people are based overseas ⚖ Getting the balance between number of participants, cost and length of time is tricky 💛 It feels good to help people directly 🏳️‍🌈 Catering for accessibility and inclusion is important (I didn't need to run the course to learn this but I've learned some things in this space specifically) I'm not going to run the course again this year but if you're interested there is a link to find out more in the comments where you can sign up to the waitlist. I'm currently pondering whether to pivot the format of the course, and if so how. I'd be interested to hear from other people working in this space and what you are pondering! Link to the full piece is also in the comments.

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Google releases their new feature to Google Meets: 'Whose watching me? 👀' - Now you can see who's looking at you on a Google Meet call - get HR involved if they stare too long! Satirical Screens | 07 #uxdesign #uidesign #productdesign #satiricalscreens #productdesigner #uxdesigner #uidesigner #productdesigner #Google #Googlemeets #Zoom #Slack #MicrosoftTeams

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DESIGNERS: There are a lot of designers out of work at the moment. If you are fortunate to be in employment or have a decent contract, why not spend your lunch break today and think "how can I be kind and helpful?' and try to help the reach of a job applicant, or recommend someone for something, or just re-post anyone who has the 'Open to Work' banner on their page. Just one 'like', re-post, recommendation, comment for reach, one phone call, one connection, can be the difference between a designer being in or out of work. Let all help each other fill those roles and spread the kindness.

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