Writing UX Strategy II in Berlin
UX Strategy (2nd Edition): Behind The Scenes — Take 2
A lot has happened since my first post (two months ago, ouch), so here’s where I am now.
Wondering why I’m in Berlin writing the 2nd edition of my book UX Strategy? There are so many reasons for it, that I feel it’s best to list them:
- My first book was written primarily at a library on the campus of Caltech in Pasadena. It was very stimulating to be surrounded by scientists and PhD candidates (for the approximate 2-years it took to write) working on much harder things than I was attempting. Plus, I can’t write at home, because I would find inconsequential household chores to do to avoid sitting down and writing. So after watching the movie “Wings Of Desire” by Wim Wenders for the umpteenth time (where a mid-century library plays a major role), I decided that this Berlin library was just as inspirational and certainly gorgeous enough to be my new writing den.
- I was (or am) very unhappy living in the US right now. All the negativity due to the dictatorship of Donald Trump and having to endure the 2020 election hype, while I’m trying to focus on something major, is way too much. I needed to get out… Plus Trump said people should leave anyway if they are not happy (what a doofus).
- I subleased my home in Los Angeles to JPL interns for the entire summer, which made it actually profitable to leave and rent a flat in Kreuzberg, Berlin with enough money to survive and focus on the book.
- I LOVE BERLIN! It’s full of opportunities to hang out with artists and weirdos, go see experimental music, take crazy contemporary ballet classes, eat insanely fantastic affordable food, and most importantly… meet European UX/tech people and get a much more global perspective on on how digital strategy is practiced at various German companies.
Many things have happened in the last two months. All mostly good, but some things definitely resulted in stress and distraction from being able to write. I’m mentioning this, because if you want to write something long format (i.e. a book, screenplay, etc.), you really need to have a rigorous routine that you adhere to. Lots of things needed to be sacrificed and with the last book that included temporarily not earning an income and not being in a romantic relationship. (Note: For this book I’m not sacrificing being in a European romantic relationship. :->)
The first distraction was that it took a few weeks more than expected before O’Reilly Media and I finally signed the book contract for the 2nd edition. I pretty much got the main thing I wanted, but I had to push back hard twice. Be certain I was very stressed out not having a signed publishing contract after already having relocated to Berlin to update my previous book. I think all the virtual hair I pulled out has grown back! Thanks again to O’Reilly Media for being patient and finding a solution with me.
I also did multiple talks and workshops during my first few weeks in Europe, doing a Digital Transformation talk at UX Camp Europe (in Berlin on my first day after flying 20 hours, all night from Los Angeles with my teenage son = no sleep) and also speaking at the 2-year anniversary celebration of the Digital Product School in Munich. In addition I also did two UX Strategy workshops; one in Berlin and one in Zurich. They both were too much work/stress for the amount of attendees of my typical workshops. Lesson learned: Don’t produce workshops in Europe during the summer! People go on “holiday”.
Also, Berliners are getting flooded with workshops! Worse, many UX-ers get paid ½ to ⅓ of what UX-ers in the US get paid for doing the same job (also considering German taxes are approximately 40-50% of salary). So they can barely afford to go to workshops and maybe their employers only approve one conference or workshop per year. There is definitely some geographic pay inequality here, that will hopefully shift in time. It’s a complex issue, because for certain, the cost of living in cities like SF, Seattle and NYC is quite high in comparison.
My last petty procrastination excuse is this… I don’t speak German and the CX (customer experience) in this city can often be craptastic. Sometimes it feels like the motto here is, “the customer is always wrong!” Sure, you can get along by speaking English, hanging out around tech people or hipster bars. But go and try to get a one-year German library card from a non-English speaking state librarian, or a SIM card at any store not in a touristy area, or how about buying baked goods at a local grocery store. I feel deaf while walking around or sitting in restaurants, because I can’t understand what the locals are saying to each other. I want to be able to communicate and thus I want to learn the language.
So yes, the process of acclimatization, even during the summer, was not easy for me. It is a bit cowboys and Indians in this so-called “unified city” and one becoming gentrified in some grotesque ways by people like myself (American/foreign tech people with entitlement issues, perhaps they are not even aware of) moving here in droves. Anyway, just getting down to my normal weekday routine of commuting to the library and learning all the library RULES and tricks (i.e. smuggling my own food in after numerous cafeteria currywurst lunches) took a while.
But on the upside, I’ve made solid progress with the book as a result of speaking at UX Camp (note: UX Camp is in English and FREE, so get your calendar reminder set as soon as they announce the date when the 2020 tickets are up for grabs… you have about a 5-minute window) and meeting several amazing people!
I saw Holger Eggert (who is a Strategic Design consultant) run a workshop at UX Camp about the terminology regarding digital strategy. Check out the chalkboard from his session.
After this “discussion session” and lots of semantic debate (Germans love that!), I learned that Strategic Design is a real thing that needs to be addressed in my second edition. It sits somewhere between product strategy and digital transformation. Two weeks ago, I interviewed Holger at the WeWork headquarters, so I could add a Strategic Design section to the updated Chapter 1. I will explain it in context with all the other terms I formerly called “Misinterpretations of UX Strategy”, which is now going to be called “Other forms of Digital Strategy”. If you want to learn all about Strategic Design before my book comes out, buy this book by Dan Hill called “Dark Matters and Trojan Horses” that Holger loves . Or read Dan’s medium post now.
I also met Sebastian at UX Camp and probably started either teasing him or imploring him about his role at Volkswagen. Soon I learned that he was basically a leader there in a major digital transformation effort. I asked him immediately if he would be open to being interviewed for the new Digital Transformation chapter in my book and he AGREED!!!!
We met last Thursday at a Vietnamese restaurant near their new office, not far from Alexanderplatz (Google bought the building of their old office). After we ate, I pulled out my question list and hit the Voice Memo record button on my iPhone. Here’s the list of questions I went into the interview with… I’d say the outline helped, but the flow was dictated by having him walk me through their process and past projects.
I am quite excited by the awesome and inspiring interview he gave me (sorry, you are going to have to wait for the book). But in short, Sebastian is leading their group on some very cool and LEAN initiatives that blew me away. I’m not sure if what he told me will be sprinkled throughout the book (since he uses so many of the techniques I advocate, including storyboarding in a very clever way) or if it will just be contained in the chapter on Digital Transformation. But hopefully we will get the necessary NDAs/permissions in place and some artifacts to share about their processes and/or projects.
I have another interview set up next week with a very cool company based in San Francisco, but I’m going to save the details for my next post. I would like to end with how I feel now after living in Berlin for a month, having met so many people here, who have been generous with their time.
Grateful and humbled.
I have come to realize that this 2nd edition really is NOT going to be just a bunch of updates to my UX Strategy techniques and new case studies. It’s going to be different from the first book in two other major ways. The first edition focused on case studies that I personally worked on with American startups. The second edition is going to focus on international enterprises and ethically-minded US companies, who already found a product market fit. It will not be about me conducting the work, but about how they conducted UX (or Product) Strategy with successful outcomes.
The book will have a much more global flavor and perspective. It’s going to even include methodologies and techniques that I had formerly overlooked, because I had not been convinced that they were worthwhile in the contexts or environments that I had worked in. Two examples are Ash Maurya’s Lean Canvas and RAPID Journey Mapping (for Service Design).
In the last five years, since my first book came out, I have learned a lot from the feedback of my readers, conducting workshops, and speaking at 100+ UX-related conferences. I have met strategists from all over the world which has had a profound effect on me. So all this and more is what I hope to continue sharing with you in future posts and in the release of the 2nd edition (Jan 2021).
Please CLAP 50 times if you dig!!! Thanks for all your support!
Link to the previous post, Take 1–“Thinking About Becoming a UX author?”
Link to the next post, Take 3–“Being a UX Author and Poser in Hollywood”
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