GENERAL ASSEMBLYUX DESIGN IMMERSIVE.

STUFF YOU MIGHT WANT TO KNOW…

Designer & Business Consultant. Startup Founder

BEN PECOTICH

20 AUGUST 2015

A bit about me… I’m a designer, business consultant and startup founder – including two social enterprises. 22 years of business, design, technology and management consulting in Australia, NZ, UK and Europe. 19 years in financial services and over 14 years working on startups and small businesses.

My focus is on working with people to create ideas and make them real for positive change.

My team and I at Dynamic4 design and build business, brand, product and service ideas.

I’m a big fan of social enterprise, collaborative consumption, collective impact and the sharing economy.

Let’s chat about some ;stuff I and many other designers wish we knew when we were starting out…

INTROBEN PECOTICH

EMPATHYCreate great experiences for users,

clients & your team

PROBLEM SOLVINGWork with people to create solutions

they want for their problems

MORE THAN DIGITALDesign experiences across a variety of

contexts and touchpoints

DO GOODUse design for positive change. Don’t get mixed

up in dark patterns and unethical businesses

• Get specific. UX can mean different things to different people. What are the specific areas of the design process you love and are focussing on?

• Articulate your own design process. Know it deeply and know why. If you understand the principles you’ll be able to adapt to an agency's or client's.

• Ability to deal with stakeholders is just as important as your design skills.

• Always be learning. Expose yourself to different contexts and cultures.

• There are always trade-offs.

• Be part of the design community – not just when you’re job hunting.

• Job hunting can be tough. Budget and hiring approvals take time. Time passes quicker for the person hiring than the person looking.

OTHER STUFF YOU MIGHT WANT TO KNOW

To collect some wisdom from a few friends who are some of the most experienced designers and design leaders in Australia… I posed this question on Facebook:

SOME WISE WORDS

Hire or work with new UX designers? What do you wish they knew or did differently? Designers, what do you wish you knew when you were starting out?

A great discussion with plenty of wise words followed. Here are some key quotes.

Thanks to Katja Forbes, Anthony Quinn, James Breeze, Ash Donaldson, Matt Gardan, Stephen Cox, Lisa Railey, Dave Mallam, Joe Ortenzi, Steve Baty, Morgane Borzee, Erin McIlroy, Rache Jayne and Vince Ryan for their input!

Important they value their previous experience and bring it into play in their new role.

Katja Forbes@luckykat

Get to know your work style preferences and how to work with the different workstyles others may have.

Anthony Quinn@AnthonyQuinnArt

Having travelled a whole lot really helps build a staff member's empathy for other cultures. This is also important for the diversity of culture we have in Australia.

James Breeze@jamesbreeze

Article: Beyond your resume -What I look for in a great recruit

Take the time and effort to understand the theory behind the tools before they're used. Understand what tools and methods are available –there are thousands.

Ash Donaldson@ashdonaldson

Design is a process, trust in it and you'll always get great results, force it and you get frustrated.

Matt Gardan@mattigee

Every design decision we make is a judgement on what we think people could / should / can be doing. As UX'ers we have responsibility to not only creating what is possible but also how people might feel during those interactions.

Stephen Cox@S_Cox

Founder & Managing Director, Dynamic4

ben@dynamic4.com. www.dynamic4.com

www.linkedin.com/in/benpecotich

@benpecotich

BEN PECOTICH

Good luck kicking off your UX design careers!