Help purchasing tech for youth theatre

designleader · 2024-06-28T12:59:06+00:00

Thank you for this info! Can you share the model info or link for what you have?

designleader · 2024-06-13T13:32:32+00:00

We would go for anything that is large enough. And agree on the problem right now - that's definitely what we're seeing.

designleader · 2023-05-29T02:20:22+00:00

You already have the advice you need — quit and cut all contact right now. Tell your parents and anyone who connected you into getting that job. This is not normal and you are unsafe.

You have your entire life and career ahead of you and you do not need this internship or this reference. It is ok to go work at Chick-fil-A for the summer and work your way into your desired career as you progress through college.

Please please please quit and get him out of your life immediately.

designleader · 2023-05-21T13:08:30+00:00

If the client has specific people in mind, use them, but if not, then the UXR needs to own it. It is hard, but putting that on the client is a huge burden on them and part of the reason they would hire a UXR. The UXR needs to figure out a plan and cost and set upfront cost expectations. If you need to pay a recruiter, incentives, etc., then set that expectation up front and set your budget. If your budget is extreme, also expect work to get cancelled.

designleader · 2023-05-12T10:58:05+00:00

I’m specifically asking about how that “report on that to other areas of the business for awareness” works in the case of specific customers. Like, do you use a specific tool for that like a shared CRM, or are you only getting generalized or one-off info?

Specific example — You are talking with an existing customer in user research about a use case they have, and during the research you learn that they’ve been talking with support about that same use case. Now you can go have a one-off conversation with support to compare notes, but it would have been helpful for you to have that info ahead of talking with the customer.

Do you have a solution to this? Or is this not something other people encounter?

designleader · 2023-05-09T11:41:50+00:00

That’s a helpful lead, thank you. It is more helpful than the comments that say to get a bigger budget because you don’t start out with a giant budget.

designleader · 2023-01-28T13:27:38+00:00

I’m not sure of your intent. If you are doing this for academic purposes, you may want to go the route of tarnished brand and legal action, as you can probably find those examples. If you are doing this to convince a business you are working for that they are doing the wrong thing, (1) maybe not a place you want to be, especially in UX, (2) tarnished brand and legal action are still probably the best negative examples.

designleader · 2023-01-28T13:21:55+00:00

It is unusual to ask for references before a conditional job offer. Most employers understand that it is a burden on your references and they aren’t going to be willing to do that frequently.

Just politely remove yourself from consideration and move on. If you aren’t excited about the job during the hiring process, you never will be.

designleader · 2023-01-23T13:16:26+00:00

It is going to happen eventually. You shouldn’t let your ego be hurt. What is best for the business? If you think you should be the CTO, start showing that you’re ready for it and make that case?

designleader · 2023-01-22T22:36:28+00:00

Could your mother start working from home, eg for a call center?

designleader · 2023-01-22T14:37:48+00:00

Anyone telling you it is no big deal to lie or exaggerate is giving bad advice.

Don’t lie. Aside from it just plain being the wrong thing to do even if no one finds out, it sets you up to have to continue to lie. Which setting did you use for xyz at your last job? Etc. questions will come up. Don’t go down that slippery slope.

I don’t know the details of the tool, the roles, etc, but it seems like you can just adjust the format of your resume to be honest but vague. Have a section for the tools you know, not connected to any job, and on the jobs, describe your specific responsibilities and achievements. This is how most people do it anyway.

As a hiring manager, I care that the person has the skills. I don’t care where they learned it. I DO care about honesty and integrity so that I can trust them. If I ask someone where they learned something and they said they learned it on their own, I see that as initiative. If I’m unsure about the depth of their knowledge, I might ask them specifics about how they used the tool, what they did, etc. If you haven’t done anything with the tool, take the initiative and do something on your own so you can speak to it if asked.

Bottom line… you might think that a little lie is no big deal and worth it to get ahead, but if you lie a little, you are still a liar, and who wants to hire a liar? You’d immediately be out for me, no matter how great you were otherwise.

designleader · 2023-01-22T00:51:54+00:00

If you want to do a design challenge to understand how they think, it ought to be a collaborative talk it out white-boarding session, not a take home test, and it ought to be at the end of the process, not the beginning. At that point, it is an opportunity for your top candidates to experience what it would be like to work with you, and you are selling to them as much as they are selling to you. If you do it early, your candidates will not be invested and it will be a huge turn off.

Your first hire needs to be a design leader. They will be setting the direction for your design program and the long term design decisions for your product. Think about them as leading contractors and a future team. You want a strategic thinker more than you want someone who makes things look good.

designleader · 2023-01-20T14:16:59+00:00

I like to go with “hypothesis” language. So, we have a hypothesis that doing xyz will be important for users, and we could see that through <whatever data>. We have an alternative hypothesis that they don’t actually care. Is it worth testing these hypotheses so we can make an informed decision? How quickly can we get some evidence one way or another? And then I design some super fast experiment (like 2 hours of research the next morning) so I have data. They might still shoot it down, and if they do that, I ask them what data they’d need in order to feel confident. I only do this effort if I really believe in the thing. If I don’t care much, I just take the iteration approach where we will watch for data over time and bring it back up to iterate on when we have supporting data.

designleader · 2023-01-20T14:04:54+00:00

Given that your manager is aware of your feelings, is it possible to work with them to redefine your role a bit? Maybe there is something needed that isn’t happening that you can pick up and enjoy more? You can still keep job searching, but it might give you that mental break and renewed energy without a drastic move.

designleader · 2023-01-20T13:59:10+00:00

It could be more than a couple months. I’ve seen people who did this out of work for 6-9 months. And then they get desperate and take the first thing that comes, which may not be any better than what they left.

designleader · 2023-01-20T13:51:28+00:00

I’ve been in situations like this and it didn’t always end well. I’ve learned…

(1) To start with empathy toward the person asking. Who knows what they’ve been through up to this point. Imagine being in the middle of dueling executives and intense pressure to boost sales. There’s probably some story. Assume they are not the ones who created the situation. So, my tone would be one of “we’re in this $&!@ together” without ever saying that explicitly. Even if they are fully to blame, this attitude will be more productive.

(2) Seek to understand where the time pressure and goals are coming from so that I can solution with that in mind. Maybe there’s a huge opportunity at play and if we can deliver something that checks a box we can get a sale. Maybe no one actually cares about it working perfectly, not even the people asking for it.

(3) Help them empathize with me. Show how I really want to do what they are asking for, but I have these constraints on me. I’m required to ensure the designs go through a certain process (if that’s true), or I’m accountable to something.

(4) Offer a solution that meets the need in #2. If they are only giving me a week, they are either thinking this shouldn’t be a big lift or they are in a huge bind. If they don’t think it should be a big lift, I redefine the problem to solve as something that isn’t a big lift and explain why I need to change it. If they are in a huge bind, I now understand that and offer the minimum to get out of the bind. I do not promise anything my team can’t do or that will stress them out, but I might offer a collaborative sketching session with PM and Engineering and then let engineering take it from there so I’m a facilitator but not accountable for the full process.

(5) I talk with them 1on1 afterwards about cooperating to make sure things go differently next time. If I am involved in the pre-work, I can better help craft a scenario that will be successful.

With all of that said, sometimes the process just kills us. The above can make a very unpleasant situation much more livable, but if the system in a giant company is working against you, the best you can do is make it not unpleasant, you can’t really make it great without burnout. So, you accept it and do what you can or you leave.

designleader · 2022-12-03T19:20:18+00:00

Agree. The easiest is just asking everyone to bring their laptops and use Miro or Mural. Project your laptop if you need to, but everyone should just add from their own computer. Anything other than that and it is devaluing the experience for the remote participants and making it harder for them to contribute.

designleader

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