Gray Boxes

I draw gray boxes and arrows for a living... at scale. Head of Product Evaluation and Purchasing Experiences at @Amazon. Web since the mid-nineties

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@sarahdoody I have this conversation with many people thinking about transitioning from IC to manager. You must really love designing through others, focusing on people vs deliverables and build mechanisms to help others succeed. It’s not about your personal career progression.

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@sarahdoody Spending too much time on the final result. UX managers are very interested in “how” you arrived at the final. The design thinking. This becomes more and more important the more senior the role.

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@cooltechtipz 36

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@ScienceGuys_ 4

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@itspatmorgan Please reach out to me for ux

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@michalmalewicz Nope… loud is not the answer. Influence through your design and others will be loud for you.

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@ormanclark What is the absolute simplest step forward… start there.

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@itspatmorgan I’ve honestly never heard this term. I completely understand it from a technical design perspective, but design as a discipline? You would have to convince me this is real.

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@designershumor Corel paint… Draw was to intimidating

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@itspatmorgan I’m stuck in less meetings trying to repair bad design 😵‍💫 😆

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@sarahdoody *in (voice to text got me again)

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@sarahdoody Learn to incorporate the business perspective into your designs and don’t get caught up and whether or not people understand UX. If you get 75% of what you intended for your users, that’s a great start. Understand trade-offs have to be made.

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@sarahdoody It’s not about the designs

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@sarahdoody I cannot agree more. As a hiring manager, we know the final details, fit, finish, etc. are signals towards how a candidate might handle presentations in a job setting. Make the extra effort. People notice.

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@maReeyah_ilo @fungi_dube @IamsooSkinny @busolaflorence @designpreneurr @alley_design @HumanisticD @thequeendare @Daviowhite @AJ_Ayanbisi @ismaruizcrespo You are viewing UX through one lens here (steps) and also making the assumption that the user needs to step through every option. Presenting the desired and expected (by the user) action first presents the opportunity for only one step.

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@sarahdoody Establishing a customer problem (so we know what problem is being solved in your portfolio) and then showing the design thinking behind the proposed solution. I’m really interested in “why”.

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@femkesvs Also, know going in that management is about having tough conversations. Performance, life issues, supports, growth, etc. That is what you are really signing up for. To support a designer in any way so they can achieve their goals.

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@femkesvs I found I enjoyed growing careers more than designing products. As an IC the challenge is to design a great product, as a manager the challenge is to design a great team. I enjoy the puzzle pieces of ICs to create an amazing team.

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@DesireeWhite42 @DougCollinsUX Is this a wrong answer… feels 100% correct ;)

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@jmspool CX can be viewed as an output of UX ( and other ingredients )