How to “UX your life” at CX Forums.
Empowering CX professionals to design their lives & careers with experience-design tools & techniques.
The following videos were recorded at CX Forums Atlanta on April 19, 2023 in Roswell, Georgia. The talk was short-form presentation of my “UX Your Life” article and talk.
A few weeks ago, I was invited to speak at CX Forums Atlanta about how I’ve used design-thinking principles to redesign my career, my life, and my family.
And if you want to learn more about how to "UX Your Life," read the updated Smashing Magazine article and get started with your own Life in Weeks and Eisenhower Matrix assessments with my free worksheets.
Clip one: My primary stakeholders.
The same design process we use every day to solve client problems can also be used to tackle the challenge of designing our lives and careers—even parenting! That’s helped JD come to think of his kids as much more than family, but as stakeholders:
"For a lot of designers, what I think keeps us in the business is we get to become experts in a process you can apply anywhere. I am also a parent. And it was a bit of an epiphany to realize this design process I use with my clients can also solve problems in dealing with my children—who I now like to call my primary stakeholders. If a client asks, 'Can I call you on Saturday?' I have to say, 'No, sorry. I’m booked with my primary stakeholders.'"
Clip two: It’s easy to be reactive.
There's a host of tools in every designer's toolbox to help them evaluate current-state materials, to assess user and stakeholder priorities, and to determine project KPIs. These inquiries both inform the generation of new ideas as well as the touchstones we use to measure a design solution's effectiveness.
But what if the design challenge isn't an app or a business? What if it's our life or our career?
"In the same way we’re mindful and introspective when we design our company’s website or the MVP of a product, how can we be mindful and insightful in thinking about what we need for ourselves? I think there’s an analog we can use for our life."
Clip three: There’s no excuse.
The difference between being proactive or reactive in matters of life—between being the main character or an NPC—is more a matter of will than a matter of skill.
"The same design concepts and the same journeys we track on a day-to-day basis for our customers and for their customer experience, we should be applying to ourselves. There’s no reason why CX, UX, design, or creative professionals shouldn’t have the most meaningful lives because we have all the tools and insights in order to help other people solve their problems. So, we should start solving some of our own."
After all, if we aren't proactively designing the best possible experiences for ourselves and those traveling through life with us, how can we best design solutions for the clients who come to us for help and expertise?
