Book review — An analysis of what makes things go viral. The book breaks down the core elements of change by looking at a diverse set of case studies, including the revival of Hush Puppies in 1996, the reduction of murders in New York by 64% over 5 years, the success of Sesame…

Bridging the gap between dream and reality — Dreaming up great designs is one thing. Making them a reality is quite something different. This post is the second in a series of behavior driven design to build a to-do app that actually help you get things done. Design recap The first post focused on the problem and how most to-do…

How to design products and services — The process of user experience design can get complicated and involved and somewhat confusing. However, the essence of a good user experience is quite simple. This post outlines the three most important elements of a good user experience. There are of course other foundational elements to user experience design that…

How to get things done. — I recently started learning programming and one of my projects is to design and develop a to-do app. This is the first in a series of posts that document my design and development process. Seeing that there is an abundance of to-do apps available, I had no problem doing research…

How to bring the best of two worlds together — Every now and again I walk into a new team and more regularly than not, there seems to be a disconnect between the design- and development functions. Understandable. Rewind 20 years. Design thinking and design was something that belonged mostly in advertising agencies. …

Exploring ensemble best practices — I’m interested in what makes a good team great. How do you get a bunch of strangers, possibly in different geographical locations, working together productively? How do you bring out the best in a team? These are the questions that keep me up at night. Extreme relationships XP has been a big…

The anatomy of a good user story — ”Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Goldilocks. She came upon a house and when no one answered, she walked right in. At the table in the kitchen, there were three bowls of porridge. Goldilocks was hungry.” The story of Goldilocks and the three bears is a…

An inclusive approach to more agile workplaces — Nearly two years after the great pandemic of 2020, the world will never again return to the old normal. Remote work is here to stay and your options are either to offer fully remote, or risk losing valuable talent. Most people are of the opinion that hybrid doesn’t work. But…

How to be human in a digital world — When the first lock-down as a result of the pandemic was announced, I was angry. Having been working remotely for years prior to the pandemic, I was very familiar with how technology amplifies any communication issues that might exist. I also know that the most common problem amongst teams is…