Debates continue to rage about the role of UX designers, user research, and how far knowledge about the user should permeate the organization. On one extreme, UX is seen as a specialized pocket of knowledge that informs the definition of projects and sets requirements. On the other, UX is something for which the entire organization… keep reading
We don’t ask ourselves this enough. Here are 6 critical questions to reflect on when considering if you should become a manager or not. When we’re asked, “Do you want to become a manager?” we often assume there is only one answer. “Oh, of course, I want to be a manager.” Right? Who doesn’t? Especially… keep reading
The title of this post is how Kenneth Coats described the feeling of leaving his office job to start his own business. After he unplugged from the Matrix, he simply couldn’t return—not even when a challenge from the Illinois Attorney General forced him to shut down his first venture, a service to help people expunge… keep reading
All-hands support can be a touchy subject for customer support professionals. When you ask designers and programmers to reply directly to customers’ questions, doesn’t that imply that anyone can do our job? At Basecamp, we learned the hard way that you shouldn’t expect other people to be able to do the work of your support… keep reading
As a leader, the most costly mistakes are often the most imperceptible. I’ve never met you, but I’m going to make a guess about you: You’re making leadership mistakes you don’t even know about. I don’t mean to sound presumptuous (or crass!). I’m in part reflecting on personal experience — I’ve made a boatload of leadership mistakes,… keep reading
It’s desperate times for those still clinging to their workaholic, exploitive ways. From Japan to China to even the US, there’s a growing understanding that working 70-80-90 or 130 hours per week is not glorious. Not virtuous. Not healthy. So what’s a whoever-works-the-most-wins advocate to do? Sidestep the question of efficiency, of health, of sustainability,… keep reading
As we write in “It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work“, you should treat your company as a product too. To improve a product, you listen, learn, (re)consider, concept, and iterate. The same approach should be used to improve your company itself. How you work, how you manage, how you develop and communicate policies… keep reading
I’ve always loved this kind of design. It’s clear, it’s colorful, it’s honest, it’s approachable, it’s folksy, it’s effective. ALL CAPS works. “NO JOB IS TOO SMALL” is impossible to improve on (it also says this in huge letters on the front of the truck). “Rain, sleet, or snow the gutters must flow” rhymes (and… keep reading
Wouldn’t it be great if there really was just one secret you had to know, and all your professional or entrepreneurial dreams would come true? Then you wouldn’t have to bother trying what works for your or your domain. You’d just have to apply The Secret, and voila! Needless to say, if there is such… keep reading
Back in February, DHH took to Twitter to rant about the hoop-jumping required to cancel his SiriusXM subscription. Others shared their own subscription cancellation horror stories, and before long, I had something to chase down. Today we released a new episode of the Rework podcast about our inquiry into hostile subscription tactics in the newspaper… keep reading