By Fresh Tilled Soil
Pugilistic UX at its best.
Pluralsight is looking to change the way the world learns, and they are using data and human-centered design to do it. That may sound like a big goal, because it is, but I wouldn’t count them out. James Aylward...
Who should talk to users? The answer is EVERYONE should talk to users. That means designers, product managers, sales, marketing, and yes, engineers. Without user research, how will you know you are building products that people will want? But on...
Did you know that the $700M GPS sports watch business was started by a fifth grader who created a lawnmower out of a coffee can, a fan, and a crutch? Well, sort of. Claudette Stevenson was on the forefront of...
“Innovate or die.” It’s one of many famous quotes attributed to management guru Peter Drucker. 3M, Apple, and many others serve as examples of innovation rescuing companies from the brink of extinction. But innovation shouldn’t just be a lifeline to...
There’s reason for optimism when it comes to diversity in product roles – specifically, the percentage of women product managers has grown year-over-year. Though they are still a minority in product, particularly when it comes to leadership roles. This means...
“Innovate or die.” It’s one of many famous quotes attributed to management guru Peter Drucker. 3M, Apple, and many others serve as examples of innovation rescuing companies from the brink of extinction. But innovation shouldn’t just be a lifeline...
Product Hero is our bi-weekly series that highlights outstanding members of the product management community. These industry leaders share tips on processes, team building, how to be a better product manager, and who they are outside of their careers. This...
The statistics for minorities in technology and entrepreneurship are underwhelming to put it mildly. 9.2% of tech industry employees are Latinx and African Americans 0.2% of venture funding goes to black females 20% of firms with paid employees are owned by minorities...
Our guest this week is Mike Brown, Head of Product at GenePeeks. Mike has the unique distinction of being named our very first Product Hero. And he’s also the first one to return as a guest on our podcast –...
Product Hero is our bi-weekly series that highlights outstanding members of the product management community. These industry leaders share tips on processes, team building, how to be a better product manager, and who they are outside of their careers....
A little over a month ago, we were invited to participate in General Assembly’s Inside the Minds of Brilliant Designers series. The idea of the series is to provide practical tips and insights from expert designers on how they’re solving problems...
Product Hero is our bi-weekly series to highlight outstanding members of the product management community. These industry leaders share tips on processes, team building, how to be a better product manager, and who they are outside of their careers. This...
In honor of 2017 Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD), we had a special guest in the studio to chat about all things accessibility. Marla Runyan is the Director of Digital Accessibility at Perkins School for the Blind and runs Perkins...
Rapid prototyping helps you pick the right goals and designs early in the product development process. Getting it right early pays off – what costs $1 to fix in the requirements stage costs $3-$6 to fix in design, $10 to...
A fascination with adopting the best process framework is distracting us from addressing a more serious issue in product management: leadership. Product managers from companies of all sizes and stages share the same leadership challenges: juggling the well-being of their...
The common thread to every Design Sprint is a problem (usually a hairy one) that needs to be solved. There could be a lack of clarity around a product, service, or direction. Perhaps an organization has made assumptions without a...
What does Peter Drucker have to do with your product team hiring strategy? Turns out not much really, but in this episode of The Dirt we attempt to make that clumsy connection. Fresh Tilled Soil CEO Richard Banfield sits down with...
We get a lot of questions around what to expect when it comes to Design Sprints. Some clients have studied up on design thinking methodology and maybe even flipped through the O’Reilly book on Design Sprints, while others have only...
In this episode of The Dirt – our first in quite some time – Fresh Tilled Soil Design Strategists Jill Starett and C. Todd Lombardo discuss one of the most common questions we hear: “What can a Design Sprint help...
In this, the most important episode of The Dirt ever, Mark, Steve and I talk about a term we frankly invented for this show: User Offboarding. We discuss how to let go of your users whether it be through an...
A Re-run! On The Dirt today, please welcome Jenn Schiffer of Bocoup. We talk about the details of contributing to and maintaining open source projects, including: setting maintenance expectations; guidelines for being a good contributor; and how to ignite Jenn’s...
In part 2 of our series on Successful Product Management we have an in-depth conversation with Instapaper CEO, Brian Donohue. Brian takes us through the beginnings of the product and it’s transition from Marco Arment’s baby to ownership by Betaworks....
This week we kick of a new series on Successful Product Management by sitting down with one of the greats, R. Colin Kennedy of Sonos. Colin takes us through the ins and out of how a product comes to life...
For the third chapter of our “Designing Your Career” series, Larry Goldberg takes us through his long career in accessibility, from nearly 30 years at WGBH to his current role as Director of Accessible Media at Yahoo. Listen in for...
Today on The Dirt: how to actually make a plan for your career and then follow through with it. You know, the way you’re supposed to with your projects but never even thought about applying to yourself. Listen as Kate...
This week on The Dirt, we sat down with the large man of tall tales, Mr. Aaron Draplin himself. Aaron reveals how to transform the passion that feeds your soul into a passion that feeds your… stomach… Brought to you...
This week we sit down with, newly married couple, Josh Clark and Liza Kindred about the future of wearables. We chat about a magic wand Josh made to control his stereo, Liza’s WIFI hotspot handbag, and blue-sky some ideas about...
On this episode we have the great pleasure of sitting down with Google’s Product Lead for the Physical Web, Scott Jenson. We discuss the Internet of Things, how Scott much hates it (the term), and where we think this whole...
To close out our series on designing for the future we talk about near-future possibilities and products focused on creating accessible experiences. Follow The Dirt on Twitter Listen to the Show Download the MP3 Subscribe through RSS Subscribe on iTunes...
This week we sit down to talk about the pros and cons of working in a distributed team versus in a centralized location. We discuss it from side of the employee as well as the business. Follow The Dirt on...
This week we take a look at the particular challenges of an oft-ignored audience: users with literacy issues. Listen in to find out how you can improve the usability of your site for your entire audience by focusing on the...
Today, we’re ashamed proud to bring you a horrifying special bonus episode of The Dirt! We’ve assembled our favorite b-roll clips (the out-of-context bits that bookend each show) from the last few months that failed to make the final cut....
This week Mark and Steve interview Jesse Kriss of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory about designing for space exploration. Seriously. This episode is about designing for space exploration. Yes, that sound was Steve’s heart exploding from happiness. Follow The Dirt on...
This week we sit down with Chris Noessel, author of Make It So: Interaction Design Lessons from Science Fiction to talk about fictional UI. Steve actively exposes how much of a dork he is throughout this epic Dirt episode. Follow...
On the heels of a great series, we step back a bit to remind ourselves how awesome our friend Steve Fisher is by pulling this classic episode from the archives. We discuss how creating conflict on a project can lead...
This week we sit down with SuperFriendly founder, Dan Mall. To close out our series on performance, we chat with Dan about building and implementing a performance budget. The budgeting design has been an important part of our work in...
Today: a special super-sized episode of The Dirt featuring Colin Bendell, Director in the CTO Office at Akamai. In this wide-ranging discussion, we explore the performance implications of responsive design, the role of CDNs in major world events, and much,...
This week on the show, we sit down with Lara Hogan, the Senior Engineering Manager of Performance at Etsy and author of Designing for Performance. We chat about the importance of performance in experience design, how to get it into...
With the great news of our friend Jason Pamental coming on board here at Fresh Tilled Soil, we decided to re-release Jason’s episode on Responsive Typography. It originally aired on July 29, 2014 and has since been one of our...
