Sarah Doody
Congrats on making it through the first month of the year. I find it’s always challenging getting back into the rhythm of work. Everyone is so ambitious at the beginning of the year. The risk with this ambition is that everyone gets excited by the big picture, but fails to execute on the things that actually matter.
Last week I gave you a two month wake up call. What did you decide to tackle before the end of the year? What projects or tasks have you been putting off? Don’t try and do everything you hoped to do in 2016. Start small. This week, choose just one thing you could focus on for the rest of November and try to make it happen.
I have a challenge for you this week. We have two months left in the year. Now, think back to the beginning of the year and try to remember all the things you said you were going to do, whether for work or pleasure. The purpose of this isn’t to depress you as you think about everything you didn’t do!! Instead, consider this your two-month wake up call.
This week I had a great conversation with a friend from elementary school. We’re both named Sarah. Both of our careers have led us down creative and design related paths. Not surprising given that we were the creators and editors of our elementary school newsletter – which also got us out of going to recess in the winter!
Last week I told you about how I’m not really into resolutions and how I much prefer setting a focus or theme for each month (read more in this blog post). My January theme is “productivity” and so far it’s going really well.
I’ve been working for myself for a little over a year two. A lot of my friends and family tend to ask one of two questions.
First, they ask if I’m going to stay in New York City. Given that I’m not tied to an office or an employer, many people assume that I’d choose to live somewhere more economical. The answer to that is a post for another day … but after being in New York City for nearly 7 years, it’s home for now.
The second and more common question people ask is concerning why I haven’t launched my own product yet. Most people think that I have an idea in the back of my mind that I’m working on. The truth is, I have a lot of ideas. But, none that I want to dedicate myself to right now. Continue reading
It’s no secret, the field of user experience is quite popular and demand for UX professionals is increasing as so many companies recognize the value of a good experience — and more importantly, the expectation that people have for a great experience.
But, before you decide that you want to get started in UX, you should consider your intentions.
Do you want to get into user experience because it’s popular? Or, are you considering a career in user experience because you think it’s a good match for you — your passions, interests, and strengths?Continue reading
If you’ve been following my blog and tweets for a while, you know that I’m a big fan of Shark Tank. The most interesting part about Shark Tank is watching how well (or poorly) the entrepreneurs pitch their products. Some people nail it, while others are so terrible you almost wonder if they were just hired as actors to play entrepreneurs on television!
A great example of this is the doctors who pitched RoloDoc which I wrote about a few weeks ago. Marc Cuban said that RoloDoc was the worst pitch he’d ever seen on the show, and all the Sharks agreed!
So, what makes the perfect pitch? What are the traits necessary for a great entrepreneur? Barbara Corcoran, a Shark Tank judge and NYC real estate mogul, was recently interviewed by Henry Blodget of Business Insider.
When I first started my career, I didn’t even know there was a field called user experience. Once I discovered it, I did read a lot of books on user experience. However, there are already tons of reading lists for user experience professionals. So instead of creating another one of those lists, I wanted to create a reading list of my top non user experience books for user experience designers.
As I’ve said before, I think it’s really important to draw insight, inspiration, and ideas from other disciplines. If you are going to design solutions holistically, your mind must be curious and able to connect the dots between seemingly unrelated things.Continue reading
One of the top questions people ask my is how they can get a job in the user experience design field when they don’t have any experience? It’s a classic problem that most people early in their industry face. To be honest, I think this question is lazy talk.
By asking this question, you’re missing the point of what “experience” in a field really is. People think that having experience in a field equals having a job to demonstrate experience. This approach is completely wrong!Continue reading