Aurelius Podcast: Episode 20 with Aarron Walter on UX Organization Models, DesignOps and User Research

Episode 20 highlights:

  • What does a high functioning design team look like and how are they organized?
  • The three types of successful enterprise UX organization models
  • How companies like Target, Spotify, Netflix, Google and more are doing designops and great UX design at scale
  • Creating and sharing user research findings across your organization

read more… “Aurelius Podcast: Episode 20 with Aarron Walter on UX Organization Models, DesignOps and User Research”

Inside Aurelius: Episode 001 with co-founders Zack Naylor and Joseph Szczesniak

In our very first episode of Inside Aurelius, we discuss a number of topics with highlights including:

  • Why we made Aurelius v2 and how we got there
  • How we used user research and customer feedback to completely re-design and re-develop our product and company focus
  • UX design, science and art
  • How Joseph, our CTO took an interest in UX as a developer and how UX can enrich a developers work and satisfaction
  • How and why developers should participate and have a stake in user research

Aurelius Podcast: Episode 2 with Jared Spool

Episode 2 highlights:

  • the importance of framing the problem in UX and product strategy
  • how to tell if you’re designing and building the right features or products
  • measuring the impact and success of UX design and product strategy
  • balancing an understanding of the business strategy to make better design and product recommendations
  • Jared’s most effective way of getting your company to prioritize UX and product strategy
  • who owns the user experience?

read more… “Aurelius Podcast: Episode 2 with Jared Spool”

Aurelius Podcast: Episode 3 with Fred Beecher on Design Strategy

Episode 3 highlights:

  • What is design strategy? What is product strategy?
  • Effective design strategy methods and approach
  • Where business strategy ends and design strategy begins and the difference between the two
  • Where design fits into business strategy
  • How design can help you monetize failure
  • Ways that design and product strategy can drive business strategy
  • Practical ways design can help fulfill your company mission

read more… “Aurelius Podcast: Episode 3 with Fred Beecher on Design Strategy”

Aurelius Podcast: Episode 5 with Dan Brown on Design Discovery

Episode 5 highlights:

  • Design discovery; what it is and how to do it?
  • Creating designs as a way to further push the discovery process
  • Striking a balance between “big picture” and “fleshing out the details”
  • Knowing when you have enough information to design
  • Using a common language to share and act on user research insights

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Aurelius Podcast: Episode 6 with Peter Merholz on Product & Design Strategy

Episode 6 highlights:

  • Some history of Adaptive Path and how they got into design and product strategy
  • Pitfalls to avoid when making a product and design strategy
  • How to be more than a UX design “stylist” or “executionist”
  • The role of UX and design in business strategy
  • Differences between UX and product management
  • Design like a lawyer and get everyone on board with your decisions and recommendations

read more… “Aurelius Podcast: Episode 6 with Peter Merholz on Product & Design Strategy”

Aurelius Podcast: Episode 8 with Audrey Crane on UX Design, Research & Napkins

Episode 8 highlights:
  • Audrey’s concept of “give me a napkin”
  • Knowing how and when to step backwards from a prescribed solution to find the problem to solve
  • Working with your team and stakeholders so you can make a meaningful contribution as a designer
  • How we can find, and solve, the right problems as designers
  • UX designers and product managers working together successfully
  • Who owns the advocacy for and voice of the customer?

read more… “Aurelius Podcast: Episode 8 with Audrey Crane on UX Design, Research & Napkins”

I Found a Remarkable Way to Kill Politics in my Design and Product Strategy

Can I get a show of hands from how many people have ever had an awesome idea shot down due to politics or flimsy opinions?

Yep, I’ll bet you’ve been in client or stakeholder meetings finding yourself hit with a bunch of questions and critique about the decisions or recommendations you’ve made. Heck, you might even have a great story to tell and well thought out reasons for why you did what you did. Yet, there you sit, watching all that great work get flushed down the drain right before your very eyes by the highest paid, or the loudest (or both!) person in the room. Often, the discussion turns to things about the product or service that fly in the face of customer needs or even our own company objectives. Watching well crafted ideas get argued away in a single meeting is like squabbling over what to have for dinner while the house burns down around you.

Here’s the good news: killing politics and emotions in your design or product strategy doesn’t have to be an impossible task. By setting clear, well defined goals for your strategy, you can easily sell great ideas, decisions and recommendations without banging your head against the wall.

Download the free 4 point product strategy goal checklist, and we’ll walk through how to use it right here in this post. When we’re done, you’ll be on your way to building a brilliant design and product strategy that solves the right problems for your company and its customers.

read more… “I Found a Remarkable Way to Kill Politics in my Design and Product Strategy”

Aurelius Podcast: Episode 7 with Jeff Gothelf on Product & Design Strategy

Episode 7 highlights:

  • Jeff’s definition of product strategy
  • Bringing clarity to the process of building a product strategy
  • The difference between brand and product strategy, and how they work together
  • The single biggest factor that holds most companies back from having a great product strategy
  • Building a product roadmap and strategy that actually works
  • How to empower your teams to solve problems instead of only building features
  • Who owns the product strategy? Product managers or UX Designers?

read more… “Aurelius Podcast: Episode 7 with Jeff Gothelf on Product & Design Strategy”

How to Build an Awesome Product & Design Strategy

How do you know you’re building the right products and features? Is there anything more frustrating than planning design and development efforts with no real understanding of our customers or how we’re helping our business?​

read more… “How to Build an Awesome Product & Design Strategy”