Michael Margolis

Portfolio tip for design leaders: Unless your values/leadership style/‘how I lead’ slides are unique or clearly showing why they make you a good fit for this specific role, skip all that in your portfolio presentation. It’s a waste of time and if it sounds like what all the other candidates are also doing(which is true 90% of the time), it will make you blend in. Not good: Generic words like empathy, team building, servant leadership etc Good: Super specific values that apply to this role Better: Super specific values that are actually then evidenced in the work you will shortly present

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My top 3 project selection tips for design leaders doing portfolio presentations: 1. Pick projects that have a good mix of what you did directly plus what the team did. Very rarely is anyone looking for a pure people manager while hiring a design leader. Your personal contributions need to stand out in your work. It doesn’t have to be IC work (but if you do that, show it). It could be a doc you wrote, an insight you uncovered, a strategy you formulated etc. Differentiate between what you did yourself, what you directed the team to do, and things the team might have driven independently. Make this distinction clear as you present your portfolio. People want to see you can do smart stuff yourself, can direct a team well, but will also build a high functioning team that does good work. Also, if you would like I can do a separate post in these 3 modes of operation for any design leader. 2. Pick projects based on the role you’re applying for. It doesn’t have to be and most certainly won’t be a 100% match. But for example, if what the team needs is scaling a successful product, pick examples where you enabled scale. This needs to be deeper than “I’m applying for fintech so here’s another fintech project”. Your project selection should show you understand the challenges for the company and have transferrable skills. 3. Pick projects where you can show both macro and micro user insights. Scale the macro according to your seniority and level. For example, if you’re applying for a Director role, you better have projects that show you driving user insights at Director scale (for instance something that drove resourcing decisions). At the same time, the project should also show micro insights appropriate to role. For example, key interaction design flows redone by your team for the goal. Or even things like font/color selection and how that drove impact. Use these guidelines and apply the filter for what fits with your past experience and this new role. If you have the same portfolio presentation for completely different roles, something is off somewhere. You only need to present 2-3 projects in a presentation, pick the most appropriate ones. If this sounds complicated and like a lot of work, it is. Project selection is THE foundation for how your presentation will play out.

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One of the most interesting UX research projects a #uxdesign er can do is presenting his/her own case studies. I've given a Walmart Health telehealth case study now, three times. Each time the presentation gets shorter, punchier and more compelling. The more you tell the story, the better it gets. The more fun it gets. The more exciting the story feels. Over time you anticipate where the punch lines are. The a-ha moments. And you quickly learn where they aren't. The best way to learn how to tell your case study stories is to practice. Wanna help me? If you're in health in any capacity—especially in enterprise digital engagement—and you'd like to hear my pitch, I'd love to practice. Hit me up on DMs. (If you're a designer at a related health tech company, like Hinge Health, Pair Team, Amazon Health, 25madison, CVS Health, Google Health, One Med, etc, even better.)

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Just attended a UXR session where we discussed the state of UX Research. While it's been around for a few years, it's still in its infancy. Early adopters of the practice are already seeing a significant competitive advantage. In fact, in the next 10 years, it's likely that every company will have a UX Research team. Don't be left behind - invest in UX Research now to stay ahead of the game! #UXResearch #UserExperience #CompetitiveAdvantage

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Over the years I've tried many approaches to design critiques with the teams I've managed. Without fail these 4 simple principles impact the effectiveness of design critiques greater than anything else when established as ground rules. For presenters: ✦ Describe the problem you're solving ✦ State the target audience* ✦ Specify the feedback you're seeking All of the above can be done in less than a minute, either verbally or in written format. For participants: ✦ Ask questions before comments "I think you should go with blue instead of red" is less effective than first asking "Why did you choose red for this?" The additional context that comes from asking questions will lead to more effective feedback. Design critiques are the easiest and most important thing design teams can do to improve design quality. Alone they are not a silver bullet. But they are the foundation for all other improvements to design quality. If you're not holding regular design critiques (usually weekly), this is step 1 for improving design quality. If you're already holding regular design critiques but not doing the 4 principles above well, this is step 1 for improving your design critiques. Better critiques. Better quality. * "Everyone" is rarely acceptable as the target audience. Even if the feature being presented is intended for everyone, 99% of the time there's a specific segment or archetype you're aiming for. #design #critiques #quality

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Check out the 4 step exercise at the end of the article. Excellent advice.

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It’s Thursday! Let’s talk about DESIGN DISCOVERY and how to make it PRACTICAL. Discovery is an essential part of the design process. In discovery, designers build a shared understanding of the problem and the design direction, establishing a foundation for all future design decisions. What does that foundation look like? In PRACTICAL DESIGN DISCOVERY, I describe three kinds of things to put into this foundation: → Principles: Enablers that help you make decisions → Concepts: Ideas that establish a big picture or north star → Models: Representations of the user experience When you draw a conclusion from user research, that’s a principle. When you say “our product is like a concierge for kids activities,” that’s a concept. And when you sketch out a flow chart or wireframe an important screen, that’s a model. Each of these contributes to the foundation that informs further design decisions. You’re not just creating these for yourself. The other people on your team – product managers and business stakeholders and developers – need to contribute to this foundation. These things – principles, concepts, and models – are the way you draw others into the discovery process. Sometimes managers tell designers to cut principles and concepts out of their process. I get it: Models are accessible because they are tangible representations of the final product. Even a flow chart is easier to react to than an unmoored design principle or a big idea. In discovery, however, you can’t model every aspect of a product. The point of discovery is to set the direction. Models provide enough of a view into the final product to get buy-in on that direction. But they’re not the whole picture. Principles provide guidelines for making decisions that the models do not cover. They establish constraints on the design process. Concepts align everyone around the product’s purpose or essence. They paint a picture of what the world looks like with the product in it. Both are helpful for decision-making. You don’t need to break the bank creating principles or concepts, or even models. Use a text file to capture statements as they jump out during the design process, like “never show a data visualization without context or explanation [a principle]” or “this is a mash-up between a to-do list and a calendar [a concept]”. Use models to illustrate principles and concepts. When folks provide feedback on the models, ask them about the concepts and the principles. “You said you were worried about the fields on this screen, but it aligns with our principle of ‘only ask for information when needed.’ Are there circumstances when the principle doesn’t apply?” Every part of the foundation – principles, concepts, and models – is a hook for a conversation with the entire team about the direction of your product. Looking for more ways to refine your discovery practice? Grab a copy of PRACTICAL DESIGN DISCOVERY! https://lnkd.in/dtar-e2

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I've been exploring AI moderated user studies & interviews lately, and I genuinely see a role for this approach in our UX research toolkit. Many folks I've discussed this with question what the participant experience is like - whether they'd be comfortable "talking to a computer instead of a person." There are definitely times when a human moderator is appropriate to build rapport and connection, or to bring specific subject matter expertise to the dialog. However, there are things AI moderators can do that I cannot, such as consistently run 50+ qualitative interviews around the globe in participant's native languages in under 24 hours. Here's an interesting study exploring respondents comfort with AI moderators. https://lnkd.in/ga_2A-sJ PS: Note this study was sponsored by a company who runs an AI moderation platform, but I believe the findings are still valuable & informative.

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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

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Don't underestimate the power of community. In the design community, sharing isn't just caring (although, there's a lot of that 💚). From driving initial interest and attracting beta users to motivating your team and validating your ideas, tapping into this passionate and creative network can have a significant impact on your product's success. In my latest post for Plain Sight Ventures, I dig into how engaging with the design community can help you propel your product and brand forward and earn its place in your marketing strategy. https://lnkd.in/gHsgrDS9

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For your viewing pleasure! Here’s my talk introducing Sentient Design. If you and your design team are trying to figure out how to create actually meaningful applications of AI in your product work, I hope this helps. I’d love to hear what you think. Sentient Design is what I call the already-here future of intelligent interfaces: experiences that feel almost self-aware in their response to user needs. Sentient Design moves past static info and presentation to embrace UX as a radically adaptive story. These experiences are conceived and compiled in real time based on your intent in the moment—AI-mediated experiences that adapt to people, instead of forcing the reverse. I think it’s a fun talk! It’s clear-eyed about what AI is crummy at, along with its special strengths and curious characteristics. Turns out that what most of us THINK generative AI is good at is actually what it's worst at. There are other, better opportunities. This is so much more (and in exciting ways, so much less) than chatbots, text prompts, and systems that can write, speak, or draw. In a nutshell, Sentient Design is all about the new opportunities to add intelligence to our interfaces (sometimes just a dash, other times a heaping spoonful). Some of this is so familiar that you might consider it just plain dull (content recommendations or prediction), but there’s a lot of surprising new possibility here, too. It’s all part of our kit as designers now—and especially powerful in combination. Sentient Design describes the form of this new user experience, but it’s also a framework and a philosophy for working with machine learning and AI as design material. And! It’s ALSO a book—or will be soon. More details to come, but I’m writing the Sentient Design book with Veronika Kindred for Rosenfeld Media. But first, the talk. It’s available at the link below in video, audio, text, and slides. (And hey: big, big thanks to Friends of Figma, Miami for hosting the talk and for providing and sharing the video.) https://lnkd.in/ecgWrG5J

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Join me and my guest, Sarah Doody, for Episode 137 of the #DesignThinking 101 #Podcast: Designing Your Career + UX for Small Business. Listen to it here: https://bit.ly/45lUCgN #CareerPlanning #UX #UserExperience

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The second part of my article on the value of explicit design rules is here. In it I dive head first into example in layout, position, ordering padding and margins with examples from various design tools. In the end of this part there's also a treasure trove of links to other insightful people writing on adjacent subjects. Hope you find it interesting and be swayed to try tools that allow for more expressive explicit design rules. https://lnkd.in/dmGpUHU6

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I’m going through an iterative design process with a XFN team right now. We know we’re solving the right problem because we get repeadted validation that the value prop aligns to user needs, but the experience doesn’t provide that outcome in an easy/intuitive way. So we iterate and iterate some more, each time finding ways to better achieve the outcomes we’re targeting. This process is messy. You learn that your initial assumption were off so you lean on failure to improve incrementally. It means as a designer you need to be vulnerable…that it’s not about you providing all “the answers” to your team in a beautifully packaged deck/speck. You need to show what’s “behind the curtain” and bring them along during your process. Show your thinking and learn to interpret feedback. Approach everything as a hypothesis, remain curious, explore and share.

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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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This is likely why your product sucks. You are cramming way too many features into one interface. I have a rule. It’s called the “Rule of Two”. You are only allowed two OBVIOUS features per interface. Obvious features dominate visual and mental space. They’re pricey. They’re pricey in terms of real estate. They’re pricey in terms of cognitive load. They’re pricey in terms of attention span. You’ve used products with more than two “obvious features. How did they make you feel? Anxious? Frustrated? Lost? For example, take a look at the remote control on the left. Overwhelming anxiety. Don't be the brand that gives your customers overwhelming anxiety. Don’t be the brand that makes "SB-IR Remote-HH." Master the subtle art of feature prioritization. You'll destroy competitors. And, you will make your customers fall in love with you. sinpl rlly 🥂

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When doing user research - I love Airtable for organizing content. It allows you to do so across multiple dimensions and slice/dice your analysis how you want to. So you could in theory, mark each person/quote on a problem dimension, usability, existing tools, etc. and then see patterns and filter in lots of ways. So the organization (in whatever tool) largely comes down to what you are trying to uncover. I think unless you are doing a very coarse analysis, in airtable I would have each "row" be a response (or even a individual quote). Then there would be a column for the person, a column for the question (maybe a new columns as to what the question was trying to illicit - your intent), then successive columns for the multiple dimensions you would annotate on. This then becomes your master table. From there, you can slice and dice but you are always building on raw data that cuts nicely

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As I refine my hiring process I have question. What would you guys prefer? 1) In person/remote 30min white board session 2) Challenging design assignment done over a week 3) Mock podcast recording where we have a conversation about design.

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#conversational #design is the path forward. DM to get your product started and on the road to revenue. Reach out for help with #Aivoiceagents or #AIproductdesign implemention and strategy🔥 #Triggers #userfirst

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