And now for something completely different

A short post on why I’m making the leap from communications to UX and product design

In the tech and media worlds, Medium posts like this one on what’s new in someone’s career are common. I’ve lived and worked in San Francisco for awhile now, and one of the first things I learned is that it’s a place where up-and-quitting your job in pursuit of entrepreneurship or a crazy idea is currency in conversation.

Outside of the tech bubble though, leaving a perfectly good career and signing up for a tech “bootcamp” – as I did this past month – is less intuitive. That disconnect is why I’ve spent the better part of the last two months haphazardly explaining to friends and family what a bootcamp is and, more importantly, why I’ve become so interested and invested in UX.

So for any interested parties, I’m laying out the rationale behind the change in plans here. The short story is that I’m headed to Tradecraft, a full-time immersive training program, where I’ll study Product Design with an eye towards UX design and research. Over the next three months or so, I’ll be knee-deep in a blend of curriculum, client work for startups in the Bay Area, and mentorship from industry practitioners.

Those that have asked me what exactly I’ll be studying know that I’ve been dancing around a clear cut definition of UX. That’s in part because User Experience (UX) is still a relatively new space, and has yet to land on one standardized definition. You need only look at this User Testing blog post for 15 different definitions to see just how nuanced our understanding of the field still is. But for me (and for right now) UX is the art and science of designing for a user’s experience with a product, site, platform, or more.

So why UX? For starters, the field sits squarely in my interests. I’ve always been keen on the intersection of technology, people, and design, and researching and writing about the interplay between the three. I was also lucky to have early exposure to the field via a great firm that taught me very early on that the space even existed.

More broadly though, my time working with some truly stellar startups and established brands in tech comms taught me that tech is constantly evolving, and it is constantly exciting. As I’ve watched the advent of everything from machine learning, to self-driving cars, to chatbots, I’ve learned that the tech that’s becoming front and center in our lives requires striking a more careful balance between algorithmic precision and a human touch than ever before. The opportunity to take on that challenge via UX, and ultimately help companies to better grapple with that balance, is why I’m enormously excited to be entering into the field, particularly at this point in time.

I’ll be writing here from time to time on what I’m learning, who I’m reading, and what I’m thinking. I hope you’ll join in on the conversation.