One workshop I especially liked was Jeff Gothelf’s ‘Lean UX: A Seasoned Approach to Designing in Agile’.

What is Lean UX? Lean UX is inspired by Lean Startup and Agile development theories. It’s about reducing waste: Light faster, collaboration, cross functional, less emphasis on deliverables and more focus on the actual user experience. The more shared understanding we have, the thinner the spec is.

So in essence, our designs are hypotheses; let’s validate or invalidate those hypotheses as quickly as possible so that we can spend time going down the right path and less time going down the wrong paths.

Lean UX brings usability testing to every sprint to validate design hypotheses with customers, and data is used to settle subjective issues.

According to Jeff, when we have the designers, the developers, and the business owners all in the same room sort of working on solving a problem collaboratively, suddenly all that subtly and nuance as to what design is about becomes transparent. The value of the designer becomes even more evident when the collaboration is working at the highest levels. The expertise and the different disciplines that all go into software design and user experience design start to emerge and become very obvious to the team.

I recommend watching this 5 min video where Jeff talks about ‘How to do Lean UX in 5 easy steps’. Or check out his Lean UX presentation on SlideShare.

This past weekend, I came across this video from the PBS special about Steve Jobs after he passed away that resonated with me a lot:

“When you grow up you tend to get told the world is the way it is and you’re life is just to live your life inside the world. Try not to bash into the walls too much. Try to have a nice family, have fun, save a little money.

That’s a very limited life. Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact: Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you and you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use.

Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again.”

Does the earthquake came at the “worst time” as Japan struggles to reduce its massive debt?

Japan might well benefit from any shakeup that encourages entrepreneurship from the ground up, increases competitiveness and imposes change on the decidedly change-resistant bureaucrats who really run the nation. For years, pundits said only a major crisis will bring about change in Japan. March 11 provided the shock; leaders just need to act accordingly.

Yet in this time of devastation and uncertainty, Japan has shown it runs well on many levels in spite of its government. This is a moment for sorrow and reflection, yes. It’s also a time to look ahead to brighter days. They could indeed be on the way.

My thoughts and prayers for the Japanese people.

How would sites or web apps be different if you could see who else is there with you in each moment?

Inventor, entrepreneur and visionary Ray Kurzweil explains in abundant, grounded detail why, by the 2020s, we will have reverse-engineered the human brain and nanobots will be operating your consciousness. Filmed in 2005, this is a little dated (his 2010 predictions seem a little optimistic). But you still can’t help be blown away by the audacity of his vision. He believes we’re heading for a radical merging of humanity and technology. What do you think?

The challenge is to be of service without becoming servile. We shouldn’t elevate any customer to the role of superior being, but treat each with human respect.

The key to becoming a stellar service provider lies in making only responsible commitments. This requires not simply being knowledgeable about what must be done but “no-legible” about how preferences resolve into satisfying results. We must know how and when to say, “No,” because no one can know what will finally emerge as best. Client and designer will have to discover what constitutes best, and this always means stumbling through some uncomfortable territory together.

It’s crazy how much more satisfying to it is when you are able to present an even better solution to the problem they were really hoping for when they were offering suggestions or ideas.

Of course you’ve heard this Henry Ford quote a hundred times:
“If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse.”

Or Tom Kelley’s (IDEO’s general manager) translation of that:
“Customers don’t envision the future, they inform the present.”