Exactly four years ago today — Friday, August 22, 2008 — I “left work” for the last time. It was the last day of my last full-time job, and I’ve been independently employed ever since. I choose to say “independently employed” rather than self-employed because over these four years I’ve been forced to accept that [Keep Reading…]
How “When I…” Reasoning Poisons a Team
Earlier this year I had a client who hired me to redesign the first step in their 3-step process. The page was getting loads of customer complaints and the last three iterations on the design hadn’t helped. As always, I started the project by interviewing key stakeholders: the product manager, the product owner, the head [Keep Reading…]
Why Guess? A Familiar Screenplay
CUT TO: INT. SCREEN SHARING MEETING – DAY A client shows their consultant the progress they’ve made on a redesign. They want the consultant’s feedback before it’s too late. CLIENT Currently the user does A, then B, then C. Now the user will be able to do C, then A, then B. We don’t think [Keep Reading…]
You Are What You Ink
I just turned down a lucrative contract because in my heart I’m ethically opposed to the company’s corporate owners. When I was first contacted by their director of engineering, I had a negative gut feeling that it just “wasn’t me,” but I put off the concern in an effort to challenge my assumptions. I wanted [Keep Reading…]
Doing business as Vicarious Partners
It is with tremendous excitement and huge dreams for the future that I am finally ready to announce that I have formally changed the name of my company to Vicarious Partners™. This new name much better reflects my mission to help organizations build deeper connections amongst colleagues and customers in an effort to deliver the [Keep Reading…]
I’m off to SXSW 2012 to speak and play
Four years ago I had never even heard of South by Southwest, and now I’m on a plane heading to Austin for my 4th time attending and 3rd time speaking at the most raucous and depraved interactive technology festival on the planet. I mean that in the best way possible :) I’m trembling with excitement [Keep Reading…]
Design Principles: The Philosophy of UX
On Monday, I had the honor and privilege of presenting a new talk at An Event Apart Boston 2011, titled Design Principles: The Philosophy of UX. This is my third year speaking at AEA and it never gets less exhilarating — and terrifying! Design Principles: The Philosophy of UX View more presentations from Whitney Hess. [Keep Reading…]
Lifework — A philosophy, a lifestyle, a revolution
Around this time three years ago, I started considering the possibilities of being independently-employed for the first time. Quite honestly it had never even really occurred to me before I met people who were doing it — and were happy, successful and encouraging. It wasn’t until August of that year that I actually took the [Keep Reading…]
FONC and the Impostor Syndrome
Last week, Caterina Fake wrote about a social observation she made at SXSW which she called FOMO — Fear Of Missing Out: people checking their Twitter and Foursquare feeds to see who was where, doing what, to make sure that they were in the right place at the right time with the right people. And [Keep Reading…]
My SXSW Core Conversation: “Breaking Taboos: Pros Get Real About Money Matters”
Money is a topic that most people dance around because they don’t want to be rude, or tacky, or misunderstood. But if we avoid talking about it, we avoid learning a very essential part of our business and our industry. In order to thrive as a professional community, we need to have a strong handle [Keep Reading…]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- …
- 8
- Next Page »
