San Francisco UX Designer & Mentor Sarah Harrison
Have you ever felt like you waste a lot of time in meetings, talking but never making a decision?
Or maybe you keep hearing people say they’ll do things but they never remember to follow through on their promises?
After quite a few years as a full time startup UX designer and manager, I’m excited to announce I’m now available for consulting. I hope to help many small companies with their design strategy, process, product vision, and roadmap. I’m particularly interested in companies working on eco-friendly projects, sustainability, social or urban art, or solving big, hairy, save-the-world problems.
These two posts appeared in my newsfeed, one after the other.
A. Is Facebook’s algorithm so detailed as to curate my newsfeed for content about Vincent Van Gogh? If so, why?
B. Is it just a coincidence?
C. Is the universe trying to tell me something? If so, what?
"Research shows that we make sounder decisions when we analyze less and empower our subconscious minds to do the heavy lifting."
"My job doesn’t exist so that I can know more, or so that I can tell others what to do. My job exists to cultivate a healthy and safe environment for amazing people to do the best work of their lives. My job is to make sure that people feel supported and have a clear path to success and growth. And when things get murky or confusing, it’s my job to assist in finding clarity again, to reframe the conversation"
— Great thoughts for those of us transitioning to a manager role, from my friend Cap Watkins | Sr. Product Design Manager at Etsy.
Like a good user-centered designer, founder Scot Herbst started the project by observing customers in their natural habitats and recording their difficulties using similar products. … With this insight in hand, Herbst rearranged the elements of the bucket to create an asymmetrical, yet better balanced product. “The best part about these little innovations is they didn’t add any cost to the product,” he says. “They’re cost-neutral features that are achieved without adding material or complex tooling.” You can’t argue with free, but the importance of this design rests less in its features and more why it was developed in the first place.