Singular XQ

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Meta isn’t just a company led by a soon-to-be cage-fighter tech maven. Among other things, it means beyond a thing. Urban slang also means stepping out of something and talking about the “thing in itself,” as they say in Kantian philosophy.

That’s why we thought this title would be fun since we talked about all of the above with the founder and president of Mauro Usability Science, Charles Mauro. Charles has spent his career focusing on man-machine system optimization, usability, and human factors engineering science. We recently had the pleasure of having him on the air for a vibrant discussion about the relationship between usability science and what was once known as human factors engineering and how it relates to UX research. The roots of HFE go back to World War II in response to the creation of weapon systems that exceeded human capabilities, and Charles deftly narrates the history and evolution until today. It is the grandfather of UX and UX design — and yet, I heard a UX leader leading a portfolio of products in a multi-trillion dollar company the other day ask what “HFE” is.

Given the complexity of today’s security and data landscape and the automation of front-end design, it raises the question: 

Should we return to the more sophisticated and thorough training of product design professionals? 

Lack of understanding in these product endeavors leads to multiple regulatory risks and wasted revenue—food for thought from Mr. Mauro.

We discuss everything else: AI, anthropometry, biomechanics, study design, experimental study design, statistics, and diversity research. The term usability science is intended to separate it from traditional UX research. Mauro pointed out that hundreds of thousands of UX researchers and around 13,000 human factors research scientists are active today. 

My favorite nugget is where we talk about the most persistent challenges at SXQ: the challenges of cross-functional and cross-disciplinary efforts in software design. Software design is a team sport; when any player takes control, things quickly grow out of balance. Research, he argues, as we do, is the glue that keeps it all together.

Lastly, he addressed the issue of using data scraped from the internet to teach large language models (LLMs).

We say this all the time, but, indeed, you’re not going to want to miss this one.

JP

Scrappy is a great word to describe Maggie Zheng.

Working as a UX team of one inside a start-up requires a certain degree of bootstrap strategy to form a go-to-market system. Unsurprisingly, start-ups underestimate the need for strong UX research and strategy and think of “UX” as UI design only. So the UX designer who knows better must have a little grit and a lot of strategy to deliver in such Spartan circumstances.

Fortunately, Maggie’s journey in the tech industry began in strategy consulting, so this intersection of strategy and design formed the foundation of her approach to user experience (UX) design. Today, she is a full-time product designer at Gig Wage, a start-up focusing on building a robust infrastructure for the rapidly growing gig economy. [Note: since this recording, Maggie has accepted a new role as a Product Designer at One Signal; congratulations, Maggie!]

Maggie highlights the importance of being ‘scrappy’ — building everything from scratch, from research practices to design systems. Wearing many hats is necessary, as is the ability to learn on the go. This scrappiness extends to conducting ‘scrappy’ research: utilizing existing processes to conduct research and gather insights.

Maggie also teaches us that embedding research within other functions is essential to start-up culture. For example, at Gig Wage, the sales team plays a significant role in product discovery and understanding product needs. Maggie spends much time in sales, gleaning valuable insights from customer conversations. This collaborative approach, coupled with a strong understanding of the business strategy, enables her to design a product that truly meets the needs of its users.

Maggie’s unique approach to design involves integrating design principles into every aspect of the product. It’s not just about the usability or where to put the button but about creating a differentiated experience specific to Gig Wage. The design decisions are guided by the underlying strategy that differentiates the product.

Maggie advises junior designers to be part of the design strategy, understand their user’s problems, and connect these pain points to business problems. She also emphasizes the importance of building strong visual design skills and developing a robust design system.

Finally, Maggie encourages designers to learn the language of all their collaborative partners. Understanding the business strategy, empathizing with all stakeholders, and aligning the design process with these insights is the key to effective design.

As HBR and other publications have exposed multiple times, most digital transformations fail, cost money, and destroy employee experience. We love a good framework at SXQ and build some of our own, but we know this: no framework can replace the wisdom individuals get from putting the time in with boots firmly on the ground. The Humans of Digital Transformation, the people closest to the work, are the ones who will pull us out of our current system of waste and mismanagement. Leverage knowledge capital and watch your business goals move within reach.

Laura Massa knows her way around change.

And what more important knowledge domain can there be right now at this time of unprecedented, accelerating change?

A highly valued advisory consultant at Singular XQ, Laura talks with JP about how Change Resistance is natural and normal and something that you must work with to make the necessary changes happen.

Listen to Laura describe the WIIFM--the "whiff em"--and teach people how to change and adapt at the speed of business. What's at stake for you, listener? Change management is essential for:

We think you'll enjoy this free and easy conversation about something that is anything but free and easy: accelerating change.

A continuation of Episode 2.14.

What a great conversation we had with Christian Crumlish, who currently serves as the Product Lead for the Office of Data and Innovation in the State of California, under Governor Gavin Newsom. Christian sat down with us to discuss his sometimes unexpected, always fascinating career evolutions. He shared a wealth of keen insights from his journey, beginning in tech publishing back, as he put it, “when the internet became a thing,” and following the many pivots that eventually led him to his innovative work in Gov Tech. In fact, our conversation was so fantastic that it covers TWO episodes—and trust us, you’re going to want to listen to both parts. In Part One, you’ll find out what “Old School Web Ethos” means and learn about Christian’s amazing career trajectory as an author (The Internet for Busy People, a big hit in the ‘90s), content strategist, information architect, pattern detector, consultant, and product lead, to name just a few of his roles. Part Two zeroes in on Christian’s current role, which he describes as “a small office in a very large government.” Overseeing product development while simultaneously looking for ways to make his work successes usable across all of the state government sites, Christian tells us about combating “Zombie Processes” and how innovating in government is a “long game” quite unlike other business tech. We also discuss the often-overlooked issue of psychological safety for teams and work environments.“One of those career things I’ve noticed is that you plant these seeds, and you don’t know what they’re for,” Christian told us. “And then years later, you realize, ‘I’m using that thing I used to do. It’s back.’ There’s a track you’re on sometimes, even when you don’t realize it.” We’re so excited to share this inspiring dialogue with you and the optimism we feel for tech improving public service.

Kai Brunner can see a solution. He can see a whole system from within it.

He reminded some of us here at SXQ of Neo.

We don’t know if anyone else has likened Kai to Neo (or any other Keanu Reeves character, for that matter), but this seasoned designer-adventurer is this story’s hero.

In “The Matrix,” Neo masters his powers when he widens his scope to see the full matrix before him. What appeared to be random chaos is organized by his mind into clear patterns with distinct meanings. He sees the solution and finds his purpose. As an adviser to early-stage start-ups, Kai aims to bring order to creative chaos and share his vision for clear solutions. Our conversation was fascinating, and we found his thought processes and perspective to be powerful and exciting. We discuss the fun and fabulous fiction book on DevOps, The Phoenix Project, by Gene Kim, giving us a window into Kai’s thoughts on how DevOps impacts the design process. It’s a springboard into a light-hearted but deep dive into what we like to call a “designer’s designer,” and we think you’ll enjoy it. In the words of Steve Jobs, it isn’t all about how it looks. It’s how it works.