People Aren’t Things

“There’s no greys, only white that’s got grubby. I’m surprised you don’t know that. And sin, young man, is when you treat people as things. Including yourself. That’s what sin is.’ ‘It’s a lot more complicated than that -’ ‘No. It ain’t. When people say things are a lot more complicated than that, they means they’re getting worried that they won’t like the truth. People as things, that’s where it starts.” - Terry Pratchett, Carpe Jugulum

If you’re treating your team like Jira tickets with legs, you’re doing leadership wrong. This article (with a little help from Terry Pratchett, Mike Monteiro, Amy Santee, and Vivianne Castillo) is your loud, loving reminder: people aren’t things—and if you forget that, you’re the problem.

You are not your direct reports

You are not your direct report

Work in UX for longer than a minute, and you’ll hear “You are not your User”. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen or worked with a UXer who doesn’t hold this as the First Commandment of User Experience. As a manager, are you remembering that with your direct reports?

Design Thinking at Work – DX20 Innovation Lab

he Deluxe Exchange 2020 Innovation Lab Squad

There are a few occasions that I’ve had the opportunity to truly create something with a group of amazing people who believed by bringing together a cross-discipline team we could build something that would solve our customers’ problems as a balanced team.

Building an In-House Design System

Taking a grassroots Design System from a simple pattern library to a fully functional design system to help our product teams and tie together disparate products to brand cohesiveness.