Kat K. Richards 劉緯嘉

All things to all people or selective, aspirational and cool? Running brands can’t seem to decide…. You can't be all things to all people, but that doesn't stop running brands from trying. Exclusive or Accessible. Pick one. Read the insight - https://lnkd.in/gEHaXtHH --- I’m the owner of The Directive Collective footwear design consultancy. We make great footwear, not just great sketches. #design #footwear #footweardesign

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❓ How might we expand the {{Program}} to provide {{Our Audience}} with a more engaging experience? ❓ How might we work collaboratively to serve our audiences authentically and creatively? ❓ How might we design a compelling {{Offer}} for the {{Organization}} that reaches multiple and diverse audiences and achieves {{Company}} goals? ❓ How might we effectively articulate the {{Organization’s}} messaging around {{Practice}} and {{Pedagogy}}? ❓ How might we refine existing processes and programming while maintaining our department’s unique spirit and identity? ❓ How might we lead tension-free and productive conversations among our team that generate innovative solutions to our problems? ❓ How might we redesign our onboarding, scheduling, and managing of new {{Museum Educators}}? 🙋🏽‍♀️ These are a few problem areas that registered workshop participants will explore during my Design Thinking Essentials retreat on Friday, June 7. 💡 What problem would you bring to explore? 🪑 There are still a few seats left! Come alone or bring your team, build rapport, and create new solutions. 🔗 Link in comments. #DesignThinking #OffsiteWorkshop #CreativeRetreat #LearnAndSolve

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I don’t have a college degree. I’m a design school drop out. This is something that most people probably don’t know about me. And something I usually don’t go out of my way to bring up. Because many of our clients in the social impact space are MBA’s, PhD’s, and generally very accomplished and credentialed. But structured, lecture-style learning has never worked for me. Course-style learning either. I learn best by hands on, real-world experience. Trial and error. Market feedback. And this type of learning has served me really well. I’ve had a creative impulse since I was a young child. And my ability to channel that creativity into a viable, thriving business is something that I’m thankful for every single day. I’m not staying it comes easily. I’ve put a ton of effort and thought and intention into building Cosmic. My path is just not necessarily traditional. Although I think this is true for many creative people. P.S. — guess how many clients have asked about my formal education? Exactly 0.

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This. I mostly do strategic facilitation these days, which evolved out of my team’s research and discovery practice. The gap was so stark in effective strategy development that as a facilitator, more and more clients would ask us to facilitate the strategy setting phase as a way to ensure the research findings were put to meaningful use. Strategic planning is difficult and requires effective stakeholder engagement and thoughtful interpretation and deliberation on discovery findings. Most leaders and teams do not have this capability or capacity, and UX or other research teams should learn to guide them through this process, but it requires us to develop those skills in effective strategic planning facilitation and leadership advising. Design research insights by nature will have broader business relevance. If a leadership team is open to it, building this capability can profoundly improve their product market fit, value proposition, and impact. But it does require developing competence in strategy development, not just research. #strategy #leadership #research #servicedesign

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So cool to see one of my articles was generously linked in an article on Smashing Magazine! Thanks for the shoutout Vitaly Friedman! You can read the whole thing here: https://lnkd.in/ggChud5U

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Popular, but not often discussed opinion: It is significantly more fulfilling to support Product Managers/ Owners who "get" the value of User Research and data than those who don't. So this series, at least for now, is dedicated to them. After you watch it, let me know what else we should discuss.

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The “LinkedIn Effect” is an observed phenomenon where everyday lived experiences are distorted into social media content, ultimately intended to project business prowess and authoritative insight. (See Fig. 1) For example: - I went on vacation to Cancun: here’s how I would change the “Mexican experience” to make a more frictionless omnichannel journey - I called my 95-year-old grandmother last night—here are my top 15 takeaways about building empathy for aging boomers at your workplace - What navigating my divorce and alimony settlement taught me about building effective pitch decks that convince and influence—but stop short of the legal definition of “manipulation” - Steely Dan had mainstream success creating complex pop music influenced by jazz fusion; they’re also a case study in how to build rockstar products - How watching 5 year olds play soccer (Go Bryant!) made me rethink the structure of effective teams - It’s Pride Month! Taking a page from the struggles of the LGBTQIA+ community, here’s why being an underdog can be a strategic advantage in your org. - What my husband’s general inability to hold down a job (and his debilitating depression) has helped me understand about creating effective internal communications that both inform and inspire - Instead of having a birthday party this year, I decided to get all my friends together for a “celebration sprint”! I facilitated a deep dive into my personality, ran a short ideation session about ways I could improve myself, and even kicked off a “kitchen-hackathon” where I challenged two teams to compete to create a birthday dinner tailored for my tastes. - Thrilled to announce that I have accepted the role as a juror on a negligent manslaughter case in criminal court! Optimistic for the opportunity to bring disruptive thinking to a stale space like the court room!

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When was the last time you experienced your company's values in action? I'm noticing that so many companies have a list of values that employees and customers never experience. Would love to hear a few stories of where these core pieces of your brand strategy are showing up in great ways. >>> What is your favorite expression of a company value come to life? We were just part of a great example with #cliffamily as they updated all their packaging to be more sustainable as part of their #BCorp value set. This company really lives its value set throughout the brand experience. #valueofvalues #companyculture

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Last night I attended "You in UX/UI," put on by Out in Tech at Dovetail. Jeremie Gluckman moderated a panel featuring Ricki Munoz, Andrew Tolentino and Nicholas Bochud. A great conversation including points on how design choices that might be less obvious to some (allowing "special characters" in input fields, name length minimums and maximums) can have a big impact on inclusivity. The point was emphasized that this is why actually hiring people from diverse backgrounds and experiences (instead of just showing images of aspirational diversity on the company website) leads to products that better serve a diverse user base. Thanks to Alex Solis and the rest of the Out in Tech organizers. I met many cool folks after the panel. Oh yeah, and I didn't capture this but the Dovetail space is full of cool illustrations. Excited to learn more (and draw more panels!) as I go deeper into exploring UX/UI. 🌈 #ux #ui #graphicrecording #uxdesign #userexperience #userinterface #hci

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Today's L(ai)tte newsletter gives subscribers exclusive access to 6 years worth of tried web strategy and planning wisdom, coupled with the help AI tools. We dive deep into crafting a user-centric homepage strategy, including: ✅ Developing a strategy using 1 AI tool ✅ Designing your money-making navigation ✅ Structuring strategic homepage sections that captivate visitors With users deciding whether to stay or leave your website within 0.05 seconds, this is to help them stay longer. Read it below.

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When brands skimp on the process, it shows. Whether it’s due to piecing together multiple agencies, picking and choosing deliverables a la carte from an otherwise solid process, or neglecting foundational brand necessities and barreling straight towards a website design– you could be doing your brand a disservice. Just starting out your branding journey? Consider taking our Tactical Assessment -> https://lnkd.in/evrBxQyW Spend 2 min and get some actionable insights on where you are and where you could be, and of course, learn some ways to improve.

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A sober, important piece by John Voss. So many powerful quotes here. I think it’s a must-read for designers this week. “The blank canvas is intimidating for sure; but it’s also an opportunity to consider what you are about to make, where you should start, and what belongs on the canvas at all. To skip ahead to decisions in reaction to an AI’s output is to sacrifice all of the possible insights, ideas, and small decisions the process of “getting started” engenders.” https://lnkd.in/dYXneWNi

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On this week's episode of What is Wrong with Hiring, I chat with Senior Product Design Manager and generous UX community contributor Mitchell Clements! Mitch shares how he created an attentive, fair, and effective hiring process to scale his 26-person (and counting!) design team at nCino, Inc. UX hiring managers and job seekers will appreciate Mitch's reflections on: - Lessons learned on screening and interviewing candidates in a crowded market, from entry level to advanced practitioners - The necessity of implementing a career architecture framework and standardized assessment rubrics to streamline the process and set expectations - The importance of empathy, communication, transparency, and respect in creating a high quality candidate experience - What Mitch looks for when hiring senior designers/IC’s and design managers - Why portfolios should NOT be a requirement for applications! - How posting on LinkedIn can help hiring managers attract design candidates - Optimistic predictions for a resurgence of UX hiring… sometime down the road Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts.

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Nothing makes me happier than helping others, and there are few things that would make me question someone before jumping in to help. I want to follow Simon Squibb's #givewithouttake idea, so I'm offering one business a FREE UX audit! I personally received advice with Guidesight from Jonathan, where I first saw this 'dare'. This year, I've audited brands like the USA's National Library of Medicine (NLM), Vintage Cash Cow, Foster Manufacturing, LYMA, and many more. If you want a free UX audit for your business, feel free to comment here or send me a DM. I will select the one where I believe I can add the most value. #ux #userexperience #usability #community #startup #business

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To all my HR and OD network - please come along, 'like' to pass it on. Our MD, Alison Sharp talking about pay transparency. Meld Studios The recent WGEA gender pay gap reports have been sobering. We're taking the conversation further and will hear from trailblazing business leaders who have implemented full pay transparency. Come prepared for a spicy conversation on what a brave new world of work could look like. https://lnkd.in/eFsUy_2A

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Recently, my team has gotten a lot of questions about designing offices for specific generations. Simply put, there's a better way. I wrote this piece for Forbes explaining how evaluating office improvements based on life and career stages is the better approach. Shoutout to Adrienne Rowe and Nigel Oseland, whose contributions to the topic have helped inform this POV. As Adrienne put it on S1/E3 of our podcast, generational labels are "great for a Buzzfeed quiz, but not so much for planning people's experiences." Check out the piece and please share with others who might find this beneficial. #workplace #millennials #genz #genx #officedesign #workplacestrategy #rto #generations

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Restrained, heritage, simplistic ≠ boring. I made a post yesterday about the necessity of differentiation in the strategy phase (referencing Graza), which will make or break the execution of a visual and verbal brand identity. A lot of folks mentioned that if everyone is "disrupting" they will all begin to look the same and some will have to revert to "boring" to stand out. If everyone goes bright and illustrative in the category, then yes, that would be a problem, but that's also not differentiation. The thing about differentiation is that you can't be different for the sake of being different. You need to be differentiated in a way that is true to your ethos, and with respect and intentionality to the community you seek to build. Otherwise it's just fluff. Differentiation can mean your entire package design is white, with embossed white lettering, because you believe as a brand that there is too much noise in the world, so you refuse to add to it. It can mean selling oatmeal with dried fruit out of a cereal box because you want parents and kids to make healthier breakfast choices, while playing into the nostalgia of their childhood. It can mean your wellness brand packaging is a mirror, wrapped around the entire bottle to encourage people to look within themselves. Brand choices are so much deeper than having to choose between either being bright or boring/traditional. You can be heritage and deeply emotional. It's about your brand story and how you choose to communicate it. Expert brand builders take the founders vision/story and communicate it to those who will care most, and a major part of the strategic process is aligning that vision with untapped opportunities within the category. That's differentiation, and that's why Graza is seeing the success it is seeing within their niche. It's not going the brightest and wackiest you can go in hopes of standing out. That's a short-lived approach, unless that's part of the story you want to tell. Brands should NOT be for everyone. They should be for your audience, always. If others trickle in, great. But you should never try to be a brand for the masses, especially in the early days. When you cater to the masses, you're automatically in the "safe zone" in attempts to not ruffle any feathers. Competition is fierce. Happy creating, I love this stuff. 😊

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More UX and Product leaders need to hear Diana DeMarco Brown (she/her)'s wisdom. Diana is a pioneer in the UX field who takes a thoughtful and nuanced approach to assessing the current state of the tech industry. In our recent conversation, Diana shared many insights, including: - How to evaluate a company's culture during the hiring process - Why private equity ownership can result in design divestment - How Product and UX leaders can effectively influence business decisions - Why we don't need to panic with the rise of AI, but we need to think critically and prioritize regulation during this early stage Link to our full conversation: https://lnkd.in/eemDimVb

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Doing my favorite thing at work today: Analyzing user testing results! I know it's a tired refrain, but nothing replaces listening to and observing real users. 💬 #UXResearch #UXStrategy #UXDesign #UserTesting #UserResearch

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