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Over the course of my career, I've been fortunate enough to have interacted with end-users, visionary entrepreneurs, wicked smart executives, caring clinicians, innovative designers, precise programmers, usability gurus, staunch defenders of the bottom line, and literally dozens of other types of professionals.
Naturally, not all of these folks see the world in the same way.
As people, our values are shaped by our experiences. In addition, our values often represent different priorities overtime, and are influenced by our conscious or unconscious bias. Without an understanding of how a person's values shape their worldview, it is not only very challenging to make a meaningful connection with them; it's also extraordinarily difficult to understand how their values influence their behaviour. Technology without knowledge around the people and the activities they hope to benefit from, is worthless.
I'm happy to share my values because they have defined my personal and professional outlook, informed my approaches, and I believe produce an accurate representation of who I am.
"To effectively communicate, we must realise that we are all different in the way we perceive the world and use this understanding as a guide to our communication with others."
I've given some thought to how these values have shaped my life and produced a list. Take a moment to have a look at them, maybe we will have some in common!
Beyond simply improving my interpersonal savvy and making me a gentler person, empathy has sharpened my understanding of the human impact of information technologies. Understanding how a person's concerns, frustrations, goals and lifestyle choices relate to the products they use, and how this links to business objectives, has been a key ingredient in my professional life.
Using an empathetic approach also has enabled me to serve as a more effective facilitator, shift seamlessly back and forth between teacher to learner, better promote user-centered design principles and advocate for the views of others.
Accountability is intertwined with collaboration and initiative. Connecting the work of an individual with the contributions of others to produce a team victory is an incredibly rewarding experience. I enjoy finding out what inspires and motivates people to produce their best work, enable them to do so, and then get out of their way.
My personality could be described as even-keeled. Instead of impassioned subjective arguments, I use data to steer my clients' through choppy waters of change. I use a wide variety of techniques and sources to identify actionable insights from data. Used effectively, data presented in a story format is more persuasive than personality.
I use qualitative research methods such as contextual inquiry, card sorting, interviews, surveys and others to determine the "how and why" questions about user behaviour. Whereas, I utilise quantitative methods to address questions about "how many and how much" for things like website analytics, industry growth changes, sales team or project management performance, for example. I've earned a couple graduate degrees that required more than a passing familiarity in empirical research. If the data exists, I'll find a meaningful way to use it.
In business, change is constant. Products and services are often required to evolve as market needs and priorities change. The reality, of course is that every organisation handles change differently, and some organisations are better equipped to meet the new demands change places upon them than others.
My goal is to lead clients confidently into change that works for them. Succeeding in times of change requires commitment, flexibility, and focus to ensure a thorough understanding of the drivers of change, their impacts, and the opportunities they present. Flexibility both embraces and enables change.
My ability to work effectively across different disciplines, knowledge domains, and teams to productively engage a wide range of stakeholders has thus far hinged upon one thing.
Trust.
Without trust, organisations become increasingly more dysfunctional and reactive, as communication begins to breaks down. Transparency, openness and a willingness to share information proactively goes a long way in building trust.
Today, most businesses remain functionally siloed, but this is changing. As businesses seek to grow more agile, the cross pollination of skills has become a priority to reduce functional bias and improve overall business performance when developing products and services.
My fluency in the languages of business, experience design and technology can help mitigate the risks that come from these silos, enhance knowledge sharing and ensure customer-centeric approaches prevail.
Ordering meaning, creating clarity, and persuasion are the hallmarks of any strong communicator. These communication skills are necessary for discussions around strategy, project goals, customer requirements and other business imperatives to arrive at a balanced solution.
Every business has different goals and needs. While solving problems is a passion of mine, I’ve never done so in isolation; it’s very much a team effort. Remaining flexible and developing an understanding of customer needs through iterative approaches and leveraging the talents of others is what I aim for.