Reframe: Shift the Way You Work, Innovate, and Think - Reframe your problems as opportunities

@eriktorenberg ooooh!!! Ok so now we get to gossip. :) Last year, one of our clients asked for us to set up a research study in New York. They asked us to conduct friendship groups with customers and do one of our immersive fieldtrips (where we take clients through experiences related to a topic, like navigation or white space, so that they understand it better). They specifically asked about doing a fieldtrip to the American Girl doll store, which I thought was odd. It turns out that they had year end budget to spend, and essentially wanted a paid trip to NYC during the holidays. I wanted to include the story in the section about why innovation isn't happening and the employee mindset, but the editors felt that it may be interpreted as offensive and it really didn't add to the main point of the book. I really don't want to offend anyone so I agreed and took it out! (Great question!!)

@russfrushtick A simple one is that by having a pretty UI, you have a great UX. There are plenty of beautiful, crappy websites out there (crappy defined as not leading to conversion) so if the problem is in the information architecture or overall flow, make sure you aren’t focusing on the lipstick too much—it’s still a pig. Another is that user research with any person is better than user research with no one. Although I do understand that money and time are barriers to doing proper user research, try to get actual users (not your siblings or partners) to give you an accurate read of what works and what doesn’t. Sometimes, you are worse off hearing what you want to hear from friends and people who don’t tell you the truth.

@melissajoykong 1) My (totally made up) three requirements: a) benefit the people who work at the company/make money b)benefit your customer in a unique, meaningful way c) help to make the world a better place. If you're doing all these things, you are probably growing. 2) Ask What if?. If you feel stuck, take 3 minutes to come up with ways to get unstuck. By doing so, you'll realize that you have plenty of options, and it's up to you to take one. To me, designing your life is about deciding what you want in and what you want out, and making sure you are constantly moving in a direction that brings you happiness!

@jacqvon I have been thinking about doing it for years, but my excuses held me back. Then I went to a meeting with a fairly large financial company, and was appalled at how the company employees were acting. It's as if they didn't care about their company. To be honest, I was jealous. They have millions of dollars in their budget, and I started dreaming about all the good I could do with one of those millions. It was around then that the Excuse Personas started taking shape, and I realized that my job (I talk about being a teacher as my calling in the book) was to teach people not to consult. The book was a way for me to get down everything I wanted to say to help those employees who felt stuck and teach them a method to get unstuck. I still don't know how giving away the "secret" to how we've been able to help companies innovate and grow is smart, but I guess we'll find out whether writing this book was a smart decision soon enough!