Understanding how social media companies use our data — Los Angeles nonprofit, Data 4 Good, hosted a panel discussion around social media in their ongoing series How Data Impacts My Life. It was a thought provoking evening that explored how social media platforms impact our lives, how we all can better protect our data, and how we might move…

Three tools to help you effectively advocate for yourself and your work — Whether you’re angling for a raise, a promotion, or an entirely new job, it’s important to advocate for yourself and be able to talk to the impact of your work. In order to build a compelling and detailed narrative, it’s crucial to record, reflect, and advocate for your efforts. …

Understanding Product’s mindset and reality can help you influence roadmaps more effectively — As researchers, we want our research (and the hard work we put into it) to ultimately shape the product roadmap and improve the lives of end users. In order to achieve this, we need Product to be engaged in our research, understand our findings, and take action on our insights…

Exploring the UX of UX tools and how we can do better — We live in an incredibly information-dense world. At the beginning of 2020, the digital universe had 40 times more bytes than the number of stars in the observable universe. Every day we create roughly 2.5 quintillion bytes of data — that’s 2,500,000,000,000,000,000. Yet somehow we need to keep up! …

Understanding the shift from an industrial economy to an information economy and what it means for you — The internet-based economy is transforming the wider economy, creating new markets and driving job growth for large and small businesses alike. A new study led by a Harvard Business School researcher and commissioned by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) announced that over the last four years the internet economy grew…

An underused tool for buy-in, alignment, and impact — Each quarter Product develops (or refines) a roadmap and then shares it with the team to provide focus and direction. A good product owner will reflect on the past quarter and highlight the team’s commitments, strategy, and accomplishments. Then they’ll share where the team is headed in the quarter ahead…

Articles that will make you think more deeply — UX is a dynamic and evolving field. In order to stay abreast of changing trends, new methodologies, and boundary pushing thinking, I regularly read articles by members of the UX community. These pieces are generally informative, illuminating, and practical, however, every so often an article really stands out and changes…

Save yourself some time and learn from my mistakes. — As troublesome as they can be, mistakes are prime opportunities for reflection, learning, and development. I’ve made countless mistakes at work over the years, but the following ones stand out as key learning opportunities that have made me a better researcher, team member, and partner. …

And why should we care about it? — In the wake of racial unrest in the last year and a half, there have been renewed conversations around race, bias, and equity in all facets of society. As companies roll out new technology around facial recognition, policing, housing, immigration, healthcare, and education, we often hide behind their proprietary algorithms…