A few years ago, a bright-eyed entrepreneur came to me with an idea for a new app to help people accomplish their goals by saving more money. Saving enough money is a big problem in the US, so I took the meeting. That’s when it got weird. They wanted people…

Several weeks ago my friend Jared Spool tweeted this. It caused quite a stir among the design community, and from where I sit, that’s a great thing. This got a lot of people riled up. People said things like… “I don’t go to a restaurant, tell them to leave…

Last week I met the founder of a new sales and customer service platform at an event where I was mentoring. He asked if I would check out his app and give him feedback. So I signed up for his service and received an (automated) thank you email from the…

Understanding what people want and designing things that satisfy them is the most powerful way to achieve business goals. Whether you’re selling products or services, you might find that traditional marketing isn’t working as well as you’d hoped. No matter how good your product or service is, you might have…

Developing your brand isn’t just a one-and-done deal. A business brand is like a living, breathing entity that requires ongoing care and maintenance. Just as you make adjustments and refinements in your life when things aren’t working, the same goes for a business brand. Thankfully, conducting a brand check-in doesn’t…

If you’re like me, your inbox is full of people trying to sell you stuff. People are using lots of clever tricks to get you to open their email. Even better if they can get you to respond. …

Working in UX, we take empathy for granted. To us, it may feel like an overused buzzword, but we don’t realize that the majority of the business world hasn’t heard “empathy” within the context of a professional organization before. While we start the design phase thinking about customer needs and…

Can I share with you that I am not that fun at parties. For those of you who have met me in person, that will make sense, and you won’t be surprised that my go-to small talk question (a party faux-pas) is “what do you do for work?” …

I have this problem right now. I’ve been trying to cut down on discretionary spending (especially recurring payments). This means no Netflix and even my precious gym membership is on hold. It also means my Audible membership has been canceled. In case you’re unfamiliar, Audible is Amazon’s subscription audiobook service…