Martina Fugazzotto

Diversity in design isn't just a buzzword—it's a business imperative. 🌈 As a hiring manager, I've seen firsthand how diverse teams boost creativity, product quality, and profitability. I believe in building teams that reflect our users and bring fresh perspectives to every project. How do you ensure fairness during the hiring process when you have to look at portfolios? Here is my perspective on the challenges of inclusive hiring. #DiversityInDesign #InclusiveHiring #TeamBuilding

31

3 Comments

The Jobs to Be Done framework is crucial for product designers, especially as the line between product managers and designers continues to blur. This article can revolutionize how we approach problem discovery and opportunity identification, offering deeper insights during the design phase. It's a must-read for anyone looking to elevate their design process and deliver exceptional results.

5

#FridayFindings from #UserResearch: #insurance #policyholders will not memorize or even remember significant details of their policy, however, they expect #quickaccess to and #digestibledetails of their policy in moments of need. #uxresearch #uxfinding #researchinsight #userinformeddesign #design #designandresearch #insurancecustomers #insurancepolicies #customerinsight #customerbehavior

2

✨ It's not about the artifact, it's about the insight. ✨ Heidi Trost shares her experience with personas that made an impact. 📝 Instead of complex deliverables, she focused on capturing core insights in a few simple phrases in an infographic. These insights tied behaviors to business goals – and that’s what resonated. 📊 It wasn’t about how it looked, but how well it communicated across the team. 🌟 #UXResearch #BusinessGoals #EffectiveCommunication

4

Heading home for the holidays? How do you explain to your non-tech family what you do for a living? And if it's helpful, here's a little thing I wrote a few years ago about applying UXR methodologies to help your family (and not do a murder) https://lnkd.in/gEst_PvA

22

6 Comments

Still relying on accessibility overlays? You might want to reconsider! 🚨 Find out why legal cases show they're not enough and how human audits can save the day. 🌐 Read more in “The Truth About Accessibility Overlays” 🔗 https://drp.li/uYnax

3

Research is a function of strategy.  "According to CB Insights, over 90% of all products fail, most commonly due to no market need." Leave yourself time to ask big questions about whether any actually needs your product or service before you decide to launch it. #UXstrategy #UXresearch #Marketresearch

3

1 Comment

If you're a Designer or Design Leader, you should sign up to receive the upcoming Ecosystem Leadership Report: Design 2024 from friend and colleague Diego Núñez. I had the opportunity to sit down with Diego a few weeks ago to provide insights and views on what the future holds and why it is important for Designers to live life creatively. The report delivers an in-depth exploration of the transformative trends in design leadership from top industry leaders and voices sharing actionable strategies on innovation, team dynamics, and leadership in the digital age. Link to sign up to receive this report is in the comments section below! #design #designleadership #trends #creative #ux #product #business #impact #insights #ai #ethicaldesign #collaboration #ecosystems #report

32

6 Comments

Five brilliant articles for designers I found while doing research for my upcoming book: 1. Being right vs. being effective https://lnkd.in/e8tTj3Pf by Cate Huston 2. The three questions I ask every designer I interview https://lnkd.in/e7ndapwk by Michael McWatters 3. On Quality — A practical framework for evaluating design work https://lnkd.in/eu6ZBmBB by Darrin Henein 4. The Perfect Company — what to do when you feel not valued https://lnkd.in/emhucFhf by Cap Watkins 5. Bottom Line Up Front: write to make decisions faster https://lnkd.in/e5HUJ_ih by Matthew Ström-Awn

208

7 Comments

Some really thoughtful questions by my dear friend Bob Baxley and really solid debate in the comments. My thoughts: If Design is not driving what the product experience becomes—or at least co-piloting with Product and/or Engineering—then yes it has no need for C-level representation. On the contrary when Design is driving or co-piloting, not only is a C-level seat warranted but also it facilitates Design being held accountable to measurable, specific outcomes. Part of the issue here is that SaaS companies, B2B especially, have conditioned us to believe every company must have a CPO. And in many cases Design reports into this CPO. But there are still a significant number of companies in the industry where Design is a strong contributor to the roadmap and product experience, and even influences technology decisions heavily in some cases, and in extreme cases has Product reporting into it. And often these companies understand Design needn't be measured with same scrutiny as Technology or Product to warrant C-level representation—or Design's metrics are the metrics that other Product org-led companies typically assign to Product. There is no clear consensus on this topic, but it's a worthwhile debate.

16

3 Comments

UX Design for Specialized Domains is something we at Boston UX know a lot about. Check out this great article from my co-worker Dorothy Shamonsky!

13

For an organization committed to the practice of user experience design, the Interaction Design Foundation doesn’t seem to value their own ideology. I’ve been a member for years and recently served as a local leader (of which I resigned a year ago and they have yet to remove me from the role). I’m finding their billing processes to be on the verge of questionable UX practices: ·     My membership increased 31% with no notification before billing. I was told that a single notification had been sent a year ago buried in an email with a subject line of “We have updated our Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, and Pricing Structure.” Do they not realize that subject lines such as this are white noise in people’s inboxes and begs to be deleted without reading? ·     To prevent the upcoming charge, the user must contact the main office and have them remove the store payment details. There is no ability for the user to do this themselves. ·     There is also no option to opt out of recurring charges. This is akin the dark practice of subscription services that lure users with trial period in hopes the user will forget to cancel before the period expires.   ·     The user can cancel their membership. However, the user loses access to all materials, content, and account details even though the user has prepaid for the upcoming year. This entices the user to delay cancelling only to encounter the same pain points the following year. ·     User is sent an invoice AFTER the charge has been applied. No notification of upcoming billings. ·     When asked to refund the membership charge, the admin basically responded with “The reason we’re unable to offer a refund guarantee on the renewal of memberships is that we already have a money-back guarantee after sign-up . . . we’d have to charge higher prices if we offered unlimited refunds and that’s why we make our policies crystal-clear, doing everything in our power to ensure members understand our fair terms.” This statement basically has the overtone of: It’s not that our communication and user experience is insufficient, it’s the user’s fault. IDF needs to reassess their membership and billing practices if they want to maintain any integrity in the field. As a hiring manager, I do not look at organizational memberships as having any influence in hiring decisions.  My advice for those wanting to increase their knowledge and break into design, rather than pay a yearly $264 membership fee, there are many free resources, podcasts, and articles that will help you achieve the same results. Image Credits: Bryce Durbin / TechCrunch

6

POST 3 OF 3: Last chance for established design leaders impacted by a recent layoff or job separation to take advantage of this offer! 3 sponsored seats are available for my next DESIGN LEADERSHIP AT SCALE Director+ (DLSD) online course coming up November 11-21. Here are the deets: I'm partnering with Silke Bochat and Wix Studio, the end-to-end web platform for agencies and enterprises, to #payforward by sponsoring* ➔ 3 SEATS ➔ DESIGN LEADERSHIP AT SCALE Director+ (DLSD) online course ➔ For whom: Design Director, Sr Design Manager or Design Program Manager who have been recently impacted by a Layoff This is Post 2 of a series of 3 ➔ For each post we'll draw one beneficiary to receive a sponsored seat Interested? Before midnight US CDT today... → Repost this post → Add a comment under this post with "I am interested" DESIGN LEADERSHIP AT SCALE Director+ is an online course for established design leaders positioning themselves for future executive roles and career advancement: → Dates: Nov 11-21, 2024 → 2-week session, roughly 18-20 hour total time commitment → All sessions are recorded → including: live zoom discussions, breakout sessions, activities, asynchronous readings, video lectures, lightweight projects What you will learn: • Identify core leadership qualities & superpowers • Map your org & key cross-functional relationships • Learn the signals of mature design orgs • Measure & articulate the value of design • Increase your impact & influence across the enterprise One of the highlights? Fireside Chats with top executive design leaders. In the Q4 Cohort our guests will be Kristin Skinner, Bob Baxley, Kevin Bethune, and Jenna Date! More information about the DLSD course: https://bit.ly/3wqqt32 We are so excited about this news and hope you will join us and help us spread the word! *2 seats sponsored by Silke Bochat in collaboration with Wix Studio, 1 seat sponsored by Doug Powell #payfwd #wixstudiopartner

30

14 Comments

🎙️ New Episode Alert: The Future of UX Research: AI, Advanced Methods & Jobs 🚀 Today, I’m chatting with Lawton Pybus and Thomas Stokes, UX Research veterans and founders of Drill Bit Labs, a research strategy consultancy. They have also researched and authored several UX industry meta-reports and educational articles that can help UX researchers, designers, and UCD leaders stand out from the crowd. In this riveting episode, we explore: 💼 The evolving UX industry job market: insights into the skills, roles, and opportunities defining the next generation of UX researchers. 🤖 AI's growing role in UX Research: how artificial intelligence is reshaping our methodologies and deliverables. 🔬 Essential and more advanced research methods: tried and tested, and innovative techniques that are pushing the boundaries of marrying user needs with tech advancements. And much more. You can find this conversation on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, any other major podcasting platform (search “experience designed”) and of course via this link on YouTube: https://lnkd.in/gbcxwTKh If you’ve enjoyed this conversation, don't forget to share this episode with your friends and colleagues—it's a conversation worth spreading! #ux #uxresearch #userresearch #podcast #uxstrategy #designresearch #productdesign

28

5 Comments

Really annoyed at Figma's price gouging here. There is no reason other than greed: https://lnkd.in/gfdrEiWH Oh, and I emailed them about it and this line from their reply was particularly poignant: "Additionally the minimum for enterprise is a $5k invoice minimum. 6 enterprise seats or made up with other products." To put that in context... our monthly Adobe bill (for 8 CC, 7 PS, 6 Acrobat licenses) is ~NZ$2k... Amazing how quickly enshittification sets in... #Figma #Design #SoftwareLicensing

8

3 Comments

Skipping strategy in UX design isn’t just missing a step—it’s missing the chance to lead. My latest post explains why UX strategy is essential to project success and how it transforms designers into strategic partners. https://lnkd.in/gtmnFA7a #userexperience #uxstrategy #businessalignment #productdesign #leadership #designleadership

3

How solid is your client process? When Kate and I first started The Shed, we didn’t have much structure in place. No contracts, no deposits, and revision requests ran wild. Things felt chaotic. Clients were constantly checking in, feeling out of the loop, and honestly, we were just burning out. Then we had a moment of clarity. One project ended with a client telling us they felt disconnected and wished they’d been more involved. That was a turning point for us. We knew we needed to rethink how we approached client relationships. That’s when we developed what we call Creative Mutualism —a collaborative process where clients are part of the creative journey from the very start. At The Shed, we don’t just work for clients, we work *with* them. It’s a friction-free approach that keeps everyone on the same page and creates stronger, more successful outcomes. Kate, as Studio Manager, ensures every project runs smoothly, while I handle the creative direction. Together, we’ve built a process that protects our energy, keeps clients informed, and leads to better work without the stress. So, what’s one way you can improve your client process today? #CreativeMutualism #ClientCollaboration #TheShedCreative #WorkSmarter #DesignWithBoundaries (Shoutout to my partner in crime, Kate Nash—couldn’t do this without you!)

5

3 Comments

Most designers are trained to present work to our peers, but as your career matures, your audience expands to include many other departments who don’t speak “design”. This article resonated with me and offers some sage advice about the use of storytelling and a “business lens” to craft more compelling presentations. #ProductDesign #Storytelling #UserResearch #BusinessObjectives

9

I've seen multiple folks here claim that design is failing because #UX designers don't deserve to be at the big table, they don't "Think Business". I could not disagree more. There are naive designers out there of course and we can always do more but shipping is a team sport and requires a culture where multiple teams cooperate well. My point is that it's absurd to imply the problem with UX design today is 100% our problem. Of course there are things we can do better! But it's not one-sided. Design can't succeed if it's not in a company's culture. Put it this way, if a CEO says something horrific and gets bad press, is it the PR team's fault? If they were telling the CEO over and over to not do it and the CEO did it anyway, were they just "saying it wrong"? This video from Peter Merholz does a good job framing this problem in a more nuanced way.

45

10 Comments