Phil Pham

I’m noticing a peculiar design related anti-pattern of sorts in the post ZIRP economic environment. It’s where companies have the budget to staff design talent, albeit in lower numbers, but the development budget is so limited that teams are unable to implement the work designers produce. This is the third economic downturn I’ve experienced and we always get pendulum swings. In this one, there seems to be a bias toward austerity and implementing the least expensive solution.

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✨ 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

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Here are 4 reasons why anyone struggling with communicating their vision should start collaborating with designers: 1. Clear expectations lead to better results. 2. Visual aids help convey ideas. 3. Regular feedback ensures alignment. 4. Trust fosters creativity. I firmly believe this. Join our Ultimate Design Team! 🤝✨ #DesignTips #Collaborate #creativity #scenicdesign #scenicartists #fabricators #wildimagination # Made with mymarky.ai

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🎨 Attention Design Leaders in Transition! 🎨 Recently, several design leaders have reached out to me seeking coaching but found 1-to-1 sessions hard to justify while between jobs. This sparked an idea: why not offer small group coaching sessions tailored specifically for design leaders on the job hunt? These sessions would provide: - Affordable Expertise: Access to high-quality coaching without the full cost of individual sessions. - Community Support: Connect with peers in similar situations, sharing insights and encouragement. - Focused Growth: Develop your leadership skills and prepare for your next opportunity. I'd love to hear your thoughts! Would you be interested in joining a group like this? #DesignLeadership #GroupCoaching #CareerTransition #ProfessionalDevelopment #JobHunt #DesignCommunity

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How would you like to be a Senior UX Researcher at Estée Lauder? Or a Senior UX Researcher at Microsoft? Maybe SurveyMonkey's next VP of Design & Research? Or a Senior UX Researcher for D&D Beyond at Hasbro? There are 39 freshly-reviewed, up-to-date, legitimately-available, hand-selected, Senior, Remote, UX Research positions on the List, including more from Google, Adobe, Figma, Gametime, Meta and Stripe As of today (May 31st, 2024), all of them are still open and accepting applications. A few things I've noticed over the past few months: 👉 More senior positions are opening at a faster rate 👉 Positions seem to stay open and accepting applications for about 30 days, so check the list often (or sign up for instant updates) 👉 About 15 positions have closed in the last month or so 👉 Remote work at a *senior* level is alive and well Go get 'em! https://lnkd.in/eJkpDx7J

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Excited to dive deeper into design systems! 🌟 This article breaks down the “parent-child” relationship between design systems and style guides, showing how they work together to keep designs consistent and efficient. A great read for anyone passionate about design! #designsystem #styleguides #uxdesign https://lnkd.in/eUamsNTH

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Really looking forward to Product Design Week this year. I'm doing a talk - Why Talent & Culture Are Still Your Greatest Asset - on Day 1 of Design Leaders + (12:30-1:00 on November 11th). https://lnkd.in/gH_YVJR8 Anyone working in customer experience, design, product or strategy right now will know that we are living in - ahem - interesting times. The challenges facing leaders within brands, agencies and consultancies are more complex and fast-evolving than ever before. The experience design road has never been a smooth one, but it feels particularly rocky, potholed and full of hidden hairpins at the moment! Watching the conversations play out on LinkedIn you might safely assume that many are currently feeling pretty doom and gloom. But look at any disruptive cycle of technology-led adjustment in history and you will always see growth and positive progress right in there with the painful stuff. Personally I think that real opportunity can be found in the intersection between innovative, enabling technologies and the design of human-centred experiences - and after 30 years in the digital experience business I'm still convinced that's right where it's always lived. Teams who can combine the ability to deliver compelling customer experiences with the competencies to harness data, AI and genuine insight are going to be the real unlockers of value. And organisations that are able to access and attract those people - and provide the right environment and culture to empower and retain them - will achieve true competitive advantage and return on investment. My talk on the 11th is going to focus on those factors. Ultimately, technology comes and goes. It arrives all shiny and shouty, then it gets all habitual and legacy on you. What doesn't change is the importance of the skilled talent that can build magic from base metals - and making sure that that talent is supported by an environment in which it can create and deliver that magic. Hope to see you there! #PDW24 #Talent #Culture #Experience #Design #Leadership #Technology

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I talk to senior designers and design leaders every day and there is one thing that became evident to me: In the current market there is no clarity about the career paths and what would be the right step for them. Choosing your future role requires a clear understanding of your aspirations, motivations, and chances for success. For this reason, Dilara Cumhur Neutze, Kate Syuma, and I will be hosting a session to discuss the nonlinear design careers and how these two incredibly successful design leaders have found their path. Join us for this discussion on November 26th. We will cover: - Embracing Non-Traditional Design Careers - Creating Space for Reflection and Vision - Choosing What's Right for You: IC vs. Manager - The Power of Execution in Achieving Success Sign up and share your questions in the comments! We will cover some of them in the session!

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10 sources I follow to stay on top of things in health, part 2 ⭐ Product design in health: 💎 Alex Bilstein and his useful resources: Design with care portal (product design roles), newsletter, and a community. Must follow if you are a designer and work in health. Bonus point: you may find a job in the health domain faster 😉 💎 Gary Monk with frequent interesting updates about health tech innovation 💎 Bertalan Meskó, MD, PhD about exciting new products in healthcare Behavior design: 💎 Samuel Salzer, the first behavior design specialist whom I met live (almost!), and Aline Holzwarth: both posts and a podcast 💎 The Big Behavioral Bias Miro Board, by Robert Meza: https://lnkd.in/ei-Xs-tD Must read for everybody designing for humans 💎 Posts and Behavioural Insights Cookbook, by Jerome Ribot. Guide: https://lnkd.in/epGNUd9j and Figma kit: https://lnkd.in/eruxMGWT Can be used when presenting design! Useful for explaining your design rationale 💎 Kristen Berman with useful simple and entertaining materials about behavior design including video teardowns 💎 Eden Brownell 👩🏼‍🏫: fun and lightweight read about behavior science in healthcare 💎 Sophie Attwood PhD about behavior design in health, materials often supported by quant data and nice infographics 💎 Elina Halonen for those who prefer deep materials about behavior design 💎 And my newsletter from Tech Matters Studio: https://lnkd.in/eU49Qbsc Useful? Share with your colleagues!

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My colleague Anthony Sanchez and I had a conversation about good design vs. beautiful design on the latest episode of Currents on the Funsize Show Podcast by Funsize. I'm interested to hear your personal thoughts on the topic. #design

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Key stakeholders are questioning your design decisions? 😳 Maybe you've focused your energy on making it sexy and have missed the real goal. To communicate. There are three criteria that every design decision must meet. (In this order) 1. Rooted in a strategic goal 2. Story-based 3. Sexy Good design unpacks strategic goals through clear storytelling and compelling aesthetics. Sexy design always gets eyeballs, but it rarely gets engagement. Pun intended 😋 #strategy #branding

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The greater the specificity introduced into the component the less sharable the component becomes. When a component is not sharable, it's not valuable for the Design System.

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After reading Kara Swisher's "Burn Book," (which I HIGHLY recommend for anyone working in tech), I started thinking more about how digital designers can actualize responsible design techniques in their day-to-day practice. John Payne's lecture, "How to Work Responsibly with Emerging Technologies" (on EPIC People's website) is really an outstanding and inspiring resource. He reminds us of the unintended consequences of launching MVPs at scale, and how we might shift our thinking and practices to mitigate unintended effects. One method, creating a Narrative Map, was an especially fun exercise that John shared. My team and I thought about that in relation to transportation -- the Jetsons and Mad Max as examples of fictional utopian and dystopian vehicles. Both the vehicles and their environments tell very different stories about humanity. Designers -- how are you thinking differently about your practice than you did 5 years ago? What methods and tools are you using to practice responsible design?

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The UX adage “Design like you’re right, test like you’re wrong” captures the balance between confident strategic design decisions and the humility required for iterative testing, user feedback, and applying what you’ve learned. Orginal AI image created with Midjouney #userexperience #productdesign #uxresearch

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“Free-range” design work where practitioners can use their perceived authority to propose futures and ignore unintended consequences is no longer possible when designers engage in complex situations. A new breed of designers is needed to take responsibility for longer-term future making.

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Figma’s ConFig ’24 released several new features that caused many to continue to sing their praises. However, there is a trend their business model that is problematic. New features are initially available to all in beta. Once the feature goes into production, there will be a charge to use the new feature. Figma seems to be building an a la cart feature menu creating a nickel and dime growth strategy. The problem is that Figma has already surpassed the exorbitant pricing of Adobe products. Has Figma considered the full spectrum of their user base? While some enterprises may be able to float that price tag (For managers, it still can be a hard sell for budget approval), small businesses and independent designers will find the cost to be challenging or prohibitive. While Figma may generate some initial profit, it may not work in the long-term once the romance is gone.

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Design leadership is more than strategies, offices, or titles. Design leadership is about inspiring change by showing what's possible. Check out the latest from the adaptitude blog for more.

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I started designing in 2016. It took time to get noticed, but now I’ve worked with countless clients and built a strong portfolio. Here are 7 principles that helped me grow as a designer: ▪️ Be intentional with your design choices ▪️ Focus on function, then form ▪️ Sketch ideas first, refine later ▪️ Simplicity wins over complexity ▪️ Design for one, but think for many ▪️ Create flow through consistency ▪️ Only work on projects you're passionate about And the most important: Don’t stop creating. It might not feel like it right away, but every project builds your craft.

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Principle 11: Cool people want to be rich, and rich people want to be cool. Offer each what they want, and you’ll always be in demand. View all of my work principles here: https://lnkd.in/gKmi2ZDB