Meet Adam Steffanick, UX and Service Design Lead for the Digital Modernization Team
1. What is your role in BC GOV and what product are you currently working on at the Exchange Lab?
I’m currently a UX and Service Design Lead for the Digital Modernization team in the Exchange Lab. We’re developing digital.gov.bc.ca into a trusted wayfinding and guidance resource for digital modernization.
2. What do you like most about working at the Exchange Lab?
I like working on a cross-functional, agile team in an environment that encourages experimentation.
We’re able to explore innovative options for improving services and share our successes. Similarly, we can help others succeed by failing quickly and working in the open.
What I like most is being positioned to help other teams at scale and having the potential to impact services for people throughout B.C.
3. Do you have a favourite or apparent failure that has set you up for later success?
After completing my Master’s degree, I was facing a difficult job market in my hometown of Victoria. Offers of part-time positions and rejection letters led me to question whether pursuing linguistics was a good choice.
I took a summer job teaching English at Shandong University in Jinan, China. The rest of my cohort was from Nashville, Tennessee and this is how I met my wife.
She was the reason I applied to work at Vanderbilt University, where I taught for nine years before we decided to move to Victoria to raise our children.
4. What is an absurd thing you love?
I love absurdly hot chicken. My wife introduced me to hot chicken when I moved to Nashville in 2012, and I’ve been eating it since — the spicier, the better. Over the years, I’ve had it in various dishes, attended hot chicken festivals, and made friends who also enjoy it.
5. What is a book that has greatly influenced your life?
I studied The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell in creative writing courses. This book gave me an additional way to interpret stories. It’s also been a fun framework for chatting about movies with friends.
