On the afternoon of Friday, August 22, 2008, I “left work” for the last time.
It was my last day at my full-time job and I was officially self-employed.
The last two years have been a whirlwind, and the benefits and repercussions of that single action have been far more significant than I ever could have predicted. As I’ve said 100 times — and will probably be repeating til the end of my days — that was the best decision I’ve ever made.
I had a great job at a great company and I loved my work, but I wasn’t satisfied with my career or my life. So I forwent the cushy routine and instead chose the unstable, insecure, unknown, unpredictable path. As a result, I have created a life for myself that is better than I ever dared to dream.
Independence is a word that holds a lot of weight with me. Freedom, autonomy, self-reliance, self-expression. And anxiety, discord, isolation, vulnerability.
I am completely alone in this. It’s the best possible best and the worst possible worst all wrapped up into one.
And yet somehow, someway, it fits me like a glove.
Last year I was feeling a huge mix of emotions as my first year of full-time independent consulting came to a close. Quite frankly I was a chicken with my head cut off, and I was feeling it at hard. I knew I needed to make a change. So I created a strategic plan for how I wanted to move my business forward and how I wanted to better live my life — and now, looking back at Year 2, I’m happy to say that I stuck to it.
From August 2008 to August 2009 (Year 1), I had contracts with 17 clients. I was juggling far too much work with an unsustainable schedule of meetings from 9am-6pm, a four-hour break for events and social life, and production work from 10pm-4am. I was a friggin’ zombie, double-booking, pushing deadlines, eating crap, losing touch with friends, and desperately searching for air.
I was told by a close friend and mentor to raise my rates, so I did, and continue to. As a result, from August 2009 to now (Year 2), I had contracts with only 8 clients, and I earned 30% more year-over-year. After crunching the numbers, I discovered that I made 270% more money per project in year two, meaning that on average my project rates were almost 3x the size year-over-year. That’s pretty damn cool.
There’s another stat that I’m particularly proud of: In Year 1, 7.3% of my invoices were unpaid; in Year 2, a staggering 0% unpaid. This feat doesn’t just tell me that I got better at collecting money, but that I got better at choosing clients.
Best of all, I worked less. I stopped most (though not all) of my late-night shifts, and spent a lot more time speaking at conferences, writing, and reconnecting with my friends and myself.
Some events of Year 2 are immeasurable: I gave the closing keynote at the conference where I had given my very first presentation just one year earlier; I did research and strategy for the Holocaust Museum; after waiting more than 4 years, a U.S. patent with my name on it was finally granted; after completely bombing a presentation, I went back to the drawing board and turned it into a hit; I was published by A List Apart; I was approached by multiple publishers to write a book for them; I was invited to Foo Camp. I mean, come on! My mind has been blown over and over and over again. I can’t believe this is my life.
I’ve faced a lot of negativity as well, and I’ve discovered even deeper, truer friends because of it. It certainly hasn’t all been a cakewalk, and I expect that things will just get harder as the years go on. But I take solace in the fact that I’m learning that independence doesn’t have to mean loneliness. I have an incredible support network of friends, family and fans (though I prefer to think of them as friends I just haven’t met yet). I’m constantly inspired by the community of members at New Work City, who have lent me their strength and taught me the value of co-independence. I’ve learned a lot about who I am, and who I want to be. And I’m learning how to get myself there.
I serendipitously got a link from my friend Will Sansbury today that couldn’t be more apropos. It’s on the “Paradoxical Commandments of Leadership” by Kent Keith. His rules:
1. People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered. Love them anyway.
2. If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives. Do good anyway.
3. If you are successful, you win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway.
4. The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.
5. Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable. Be honest and frank anyway.
6. The biggest men with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men with the smallest minds. Think big anyway.
7. People favor underdogs, but follow only top dogs. Fight for a few underdogs anyway.
8. What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway.
9. People really need help but may attack you if you do help them. Help people anyway.
10. Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you have anyway.
Today as I start Year 3, I will be keeping these principles in mind, skipping down my path, enjoying all the good fortune and important lessons life has to offer me, and sharing it all with you along the way.
I recently edited an article for UX Magazine (When You Startup with UX) in which I interviewed four startups on what User Experience means to them.
Of all the things that people said, the quote that stood out to me the most was from Mike Singleton, a developer at Foursquare:
“…when you only have three users, but the service doesn’t work, you should fix the service first. A coffee shop needs to serve good coffee before optimizing table layout.”
I remember when he said it. I was sitting across the table from him at Think Coffee, which for all intents and purposes is Foursquare’s cafeteria.
There I was trying to capture nuggets from big tech players to prove that all of their success rests on their user experience, and finally it hit me — it doesn’t.
* * *
Of all the products in my apartment (and there must be more than 500 not including media), there is one that I consider to be the single best product I’ve ever purchased: the Magic Eraser. It’s not even the Mr. Clean brand, it’s just the generic Duane Reade version.
Why is it the best product I’ve ever bought? Because it just works.
As I was cleaning the scratches off my walls just moments ago, I was reminded of what Mike said. If it doesn’t work, no amount of user experience is going to fix it. So then logic would tell us that the developer is more important than the user experience designer. There, I said it. We are NOT the center of the universe.
The Magic Eraser has almost no aesthetic to it. It’s just a squishy white block of melamine foam. It doesn’t have ergonomic indentations for your fingers, or the optimal wiping direction somehow indicated, or pretty flowers printed on it. You just pour some water on it, squeeze off the excess, and wipe. And it works! Every time.
When forcing myself to think about its user experience, I can only come up with the following:
It doesn’t flake off as you wipe
It doesn’t leave a residue on your hands
It dries quickly
It’s reusable
…None of which would matter if it didn’t remove stains as it promises!
If I were designing a product from scratch and had full control over its development, this is what I’d choose to do: 1) make it do what it’s supposed to do; 2) make it fun to use; 3) make it easy to use; 4) make it look good.
That means you need an engineer before you need a user experience designer, and you need a user experience designer before you need a visual designer.
That’s just what I was thinking about as I was cleaning my walls. I feel much better now that I got the dirt off.
Thank you so much to the ~29 people who showed up for the thirteenth week of Whit Hour — my weekly one-hour video chat to answer any and all of your questions about user experience, consulting, and whatever else you throw at me.
None! It was a rough day and I figured beer wasn’t a good idea.
Questions Asked and (Hopefully) Answered
how do you handle convincing backend developers that a ui change is beneficial when they argue that its not the case?
how do you find/attract your freelance work?
have you had to abadon any UX projects
how do you find the confidence to advice a team? just through all your research that you’ve done or purely thru believing in yourself?
Why did you choose to be an independent consultant as opposed to starting a business?
Do you learn from developers? How can developers help improve UX?
where do UX people hang out / discuss online
Have you ever had to work with any Interwoven/Autonomy products? If so what are your thoughts?
what type of projects do you work on for your own professional exercise, writing, desiging, playing spider solitaire?
what are your favourite tools? any prototyping tools?
do you do any UX outside of HCI?
How do you determine when to use traditional UX patterns vs. trying to create new ones?
what beer are you drinking tonight?
what’s the #1 book in your library, fiction or work related, doesn’t matter
Full Text Chat
Welcome to the ‘whithour’ room.
crashhelmet: :)
whitneyhess mod: So it appears that Livestream isn’t working for me
whitneyhess mod: Is anyone in here?
crashhelmet: i am
jonathan: Hi whitney!
Ian: :-(
shiawuen: showing offline
PML: all your bases are belong to us
crashhelmet: this is cursed
whitneyhess mod: Livestream Webcaster won’t launch
whitneyhess mod: this is the 4th platform i’ve tried in a year, it’s incredible
crashhelmet: you should just run go to meeting haha
jonathan: there you are
crashhelmet: you are on the air
gabimoore changed their nickname to gabimoore.
shanink: yup
jgilkey: yes, i can hear you
shanink: yay!
Ian: yup
PML: w00t!
justin_davis: gotcha now!
jgilkey: lots of echo though
jgilkey: yes
justin_davis: yup
Ian: yes
jonathan: I can hear you
shiawuen: no problem
pixelflips: yay! finally made it home from work at a decent hour. yup can hear you
Leon: I can hear you clearly over here in the Republic of Panama
stillpixels: yep
macdeke: yep
gabimoore: awesome of you to be doing this today, i know it’s been a rough day
pixelflips: how do you handle convincing backend developers that a ui change is beneficial when they argue that its not the case?
jonathan: whitney appears to have frozen
stillpixels: how do you find/attract your freelance work?
pixelflips: awesome – great answer!! thanks for the tip, that is very helpful and will def be used in my arsenal – thanks again!
jonathan: no you’re good now
crashhelmet: have you had to abadon any UX projects
shanink: how do you find the confidence to advice a team? just through all your research that you’ve done or purely thru believing in yourself?
shanink: advise…whoops
gabimoore: Why did you choose to be an independent consultant as opposed to starting a business?
justin_davis: sounds like @jmspool’s hands vs. brains article :)
stillpixels: great answer – cheers! “independant” over “freelancer” is a good distinction
GangstaCode: where do UX people hang out / discuss online
crashhelmet: ouch. sounds sucky. thanks for the honesty.
RodrigoSanchez: @GanstaCode look into IxDA and UPA groups in your local area
gabimoore: Do you learn from developers? How can developers help improve UX?
RodrigoSanchez: those are great places to meet great people in UX
crashhelmet: what are your favourite tools (sorry if this is a repeat question)
shanink: awesome :)
shanink: definitely
mango: hire an assistance
mango: like inception, assemble your own team
gabimoore: I hear you, I’m exactly the same, trusting is really hard
robertbanh: are those all your books behind you? wow
whitneyhess mod: http://www.elizabethbuie.com/resources/uxtweeps-p2.html
whitneyhess mod: http://www.elizabethbuie.com/resources/uxtweeps.html
GangstaCode: gangsta answer
GangstaCode: thanks!
orian: why aren’t those just two Twitter lists?
crashhelmet: do you do any UX outside of HCI
r: Have you ever had to work with any Interwoven/Autonomy products? If so what are your thoughts?
macdeke: So … what type of projects do you work on for your own professional exercise, writing, desiging, playing spider solitaire?
shanink: i was gonna just ask if you dedicate time to reading :) i have a problem with books myself. LOVE.
FallLine: Couldn’t agree more on your assessment (UX v HCI)
whitneyhess mod: Jan Chipchase
Ian: interwoven is a content management system
macdeke: yes
r: Interwoven/Autonomy make enterprise level Content Management Systems and Asset management tools.
zarzecks: driving range helps too :)
crashhelmet: • r.e. HCi sorry i meant ourside of web/software development
gabimoore: any prototyping tools?
crashhelmet: thanks for reply on tools – just wanted to know what you used not an endorsement
crashhelmet: and finally – i LOVE skitch
shanink: i have that same ‘issue’, not ‘problem’. fiction vs. work related books. i don’t feel so alone this evening…i’m glad i joined in this live chat.
jonathan: Yes I have that same issue, shanink!
robertbanh: +1 book problem here too :)
zarzecks: How do you determine when to use traditional UX patterns vs. trying to create new ones?
crashhelmet: oooh good question
zarzecks: ugly word :)
robertbanh: what are some UX patterns? just to name a few…
jonathan: Would these be considered UX patterns? http://patterns.endeca.com/content/library/en/home.html
zarzecks: skip intro?
whitneyhess mod: http://developer.yahoo.com/ypatterns/
whitneyhess mod: http://quince.infragistics.com/
jodyferry: http://www.flickr.com/photos/morville/collections/72157603785835882/
whitneyhess mod: http://www.designingsocialinterfaces.com/patterns.wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page
whitneyhess mod: http://www.flickr.com/photos/factoryjoe/collections/72157600001823120/
zarzecks: http://www.lukew.com/ff/archive.asp?tag&patterns
RodrigoSanchez: http://patterntap.com/
zarzecks: even: http://jqueryui.com/
robertbanh: thank you for talking about design patterns between developers and UI users
jodyferry: what’s your big idea for an iPhone app?
jonathan: that’s a very mysterious response :)
jodyferry: yes! thanks!
zarzecks: what beer are you drinking tonight?
zarzecks: boo
robertbanh: what’s the #1 book in your library, fiction or work related, doesn’t matter
shanink: thank you! :D
jonathan: that’s a tough question
robertbanh: favorite?
shanink: or one that you’d read again, no question
robertbanh: no, u can answer how u like
shanink: right, robertbanh
whitneyhess mod: Time and Again, Jack Finney
robertbanh: i’m buying that book tonight!
zarzecks: really great b!ook
zarzecks: *book!
robertbanh: like max tivoli and time traveler’s wife
RodrigoSanchez: thanks as always whitney. ps i got my copy of objectified :-) looking forward to watching it this weekend.
robertbanh: thank you!
whitneyhess mod: Sketching User Experiences, Bill Buxton
jonathan: Whitney’s Book Club ;)
shanink: thank you, thank you
jonathan: thank you
jodyferry: good night. See ya! :)
Pedro Belleza: Thanks!
jgilkey: thank you :)
jonathan: good night!
lwcavallucci: Hi Whitney, I’m listening in, but working at same time. Great Whithour tonight.
A few days ago, I received an amazing email from someone I have never before met, wanting to share some information. The purpose of the email is irrelevant, but the opening paragraph is SO classic, it’s worth reposting here.
You should know that somewhere in the depths of the UX world there are a bunch of people you have definitely never heard working on the remarkably unglamorous side of UX. That would be me and my colleagues…working for the government. Trying to bring large titanic-like agencies into the 21st century. While protecting data. And making everything VERY usable, because our user group is, well, America. Working to provide an excellent experience…while adhereing to a lot of regulations and red tape etc. etc. People who are trying really really hard to make the world a better place. Because we really care that you should be able to apply for a new Social Security card online, and that it should be less painful than going to a Social Security office. Who really want to find a way to make you not want to beat your head against a wall of nails when you have to fill out an IRS form. You get the picture.
My name is Whitney Hess. I'm an independent user experience designer, writer and consultant based in New York City. I make stuff easy and pleasurable to use.
