Craft a product strategy and design framework using the principles and techniques of user experience…in two days. Are you being told what to build, but you don’t agree it’s what your customers need? Is your feature list out of control, but you can’t figure out how to pare it down? Are members of your team [Keep Reading…]
Archives for 2013
Beginning to experiment with Medium
You may have heard of Medium, the latest venture by Ev Williams, creator of Twitter and Blogger. If tweets are short-form and blog posts are long-form, Medium is somewhere in the middle (hence the name). When I was first invited to test the service, it just seemed to be a place where the Internet elite [Keep Reading…]
Living a Compassionate Life
Despite the fact that I make my living helping people build their capacity for empathy, I still feel I could do a much better job of living a compassionate life. For me, empathy is easy; I can’t turn it off. But in order to feel compassion for another person, I have to want it. While [Keep Reading…]
Embodying Empathy
The funny thing about empathy is that everyone thinks they have it, and yet so few people show it. Empathy is defined as the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. But it’s not enough to understand, we have to act. Understanding happens in the mind. Action happens in the body. To care [Keep Reading…]
My Natural Next Step: Becoming a Coach
My life’s mission is to put humanity back into business. As a user experience consultant, guiding technology companies on how to make their products easier and more pleasurable to use, I get to work towards this every day. But I’ve come to realize that user experience is not enough. Designing the product is all for [Keep Reading…]
How We Pose Shapes How We Feel
In all the research I’ve done on empathy, the biggest driver I’ve found of someone’s ability to empathize with others is their own self-awareness. We all know the saying: you can’t love anyone else until you love yourself. Well, it’s true. Empathy starts with self-love. And the road to self-love starts with self-awareness. The funny [Keep Reading…]
The one thing you can do today to make the world a more peaceful place
Whether you work in an organization of 10 or 10,000, there is probably at least one person you’re particularly not fond of. You think they’re loud and opinionated, or lazy and irresponsible, melodramatic or insensitive, too silly or too serious. You avoid them in the hallways and elevators. You cringe when they comment in meetings. [Keep Reading…]
Building Self-Awareness Through Another Person’s Eyes
How well do you see yourself? And how does it compare to how others see you? Skin care company Dove wants you to know that you are more beautiful than you think. According to their research, only 4% of women around the world consider themselves beautiful. The other 96% spend so much time focused on [Keep Reading…]
To Those Who Aim to Cause Pain
Today you chose hate instead of hope. You chose to hurt instead of heal. You chose power over patience. You chose judgment over justice. You chose enslavement over enlightenment. You made a choice today. A choice that will forever alter the course of your life and the lives of those around you. The lives of [Keep Reading…]
I’m Going Home
Home. The last year of my life has been an exploration of that word. I came to a point where I finally had to admit that I no longer felt at home, in my home, in my city. And in a search for a new home, I had to admit that I no longer felt [Keep Reading…]
