Managing Partner and Owner at Don Rickert Design
Greater Atlanta Area
- Current
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- Managing Partner and Owner at Adventurous Muse (Musical Instruments venture of Don Rickert Design)
- CEO and Managing Partner at Wiederholt & Rickert Partners, LLC
- Managing Partner and Owner at Don Rickert Research and Design
- Past
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- Visiting Instructor (Industrial Design) at Georgia Institute of Technology
- Director, Human Factors & Customer Insights at S1 Corp
- Owner and Principal at Don Rickert, Ph.D., Consumer Research Consultant
- Director, Human Factors & Consumer Research at Bell Atlantic Video Services
- Senior Product Manager at James Martin & Co.
- Independent Consultant at Surveys, Statistical Analysis and Training
- Director, Academic Computing at The George Washington University
- Senior Research Associate at United Way of America
- Education
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- George Washington University, School of Business & Public Management
- Johns Hopkins University
- Loyala College (Baltimore, MD)
- Recommended
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19 people have recommended Don - Connections
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connections
- Industry
- Design
- Websites
Don Rickert’s Summary
I have over 20 years' experience as an expert and senior manager of the "people side" of invention, new products (interactive websites and physical goods), eCommerce and transaction-oriented software (e.g. bank systems and supply chain systems), including positions with AT&T Global Systems (now NCR), Bell-Atlantic (now Verizon), the George Washington University and S1 Corporation (top provider of financial and CRM systems for financial institutions, consumers, small business owners and large corporations). Much of my career has been in consulting; but even when it has not been, I have always insisted on direct client and/or customer contact.
I am Professional Member of the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) and an Adjunct Faculty Member in the Industrial Design Program at Georgia Tech, where I teach NPD (New Product Development), Design Research and Ethnography.
Don Rickert’s Specialties:
Strategic “big picture” skills; Inventiveness; Managing large dispersed teams; Working cooperatively with other teams; Career management of subordinates; Extensive experience in consulting; Qualitative & quantitative research—wide variety of products and services; Ethnography; Group facilitation; Ability to summarize research findings as they relate to business goals; Consumer psychology; Communication, persuasion, problem solving, leadership, verbal, presentation and organizational skills
Don Rickert’s Experience
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Managing Partner and Owner
Adventurous Muse (Musical Instruments venture of Don Rickert Design)
(Music industry)
June 2009 — Present (6 months)
Owner of Don Rickert Research and Design and Don Rickert Design (both DBAs for Wiederholt & Rickert Partners, LLC).
Don Rickert Design's newest venture is www.AdventurousMuse.com and its associated store, www.AdventurousMuseStore.com. This is an evolution of the still-operating www.FiddleandBowStore.com, but with an expanded focus beyond acoustic bowed string instruments.
Our Quest: to be the most interesting musical instrument store in the universe! Acoustic, electric & electronic instruments--ranging from innovative to beyond your dreams, with lots of adventurous musicians who have the financial means and are willing to spend what is necessary for the most innovative tools of their art available anywhere. -
CEO and Managing Partner
Wiederholt & Rickert Partners, LLC
(Market Research industry)
November 2008 — Present (1 year 1 month)
Wiederholt & Rickert Partners, LLC, doing business primarily as Don Rickert Research & Design, is a diversified New Product Development firm with several lines of business. As CEO, Don now has overall responsibility for ALL lines of business, which are summarized below:
1) Consulting & Services: Design Research, Product Concept Development and Prototyping, Market Research and Consumer Insights, UX (User Experience), Human Factors/Ergonomics and Usability
2) Self-funded Invention and Product Development of specialty/niche products: Focused mainly on...
* High-end musical instruments for professional musicians and related products such as music synthesizers for the recording industry
* Outdoor adventure equipment, mainly high-performance rowing craft, kayaks and related accessories
3) Patenting, manufacturing (through joint ventures), marketing and selling our own products, either directly through online stores or through licensing arrangements with other companies -
Managing Partner and Owner
Don Rickert Research and Design
(Research industry)
November 2005 — Present (4 years 1 month)
Don Rickert Research & Design™ is a Design Research, Consumer Insights, UX (User Experience) and NPD (New Product Development) firm whose focus is Useful, Usable and Appealing products; including interactive and transactional systems, as well as goods and services.
Don Rickert Research & Design™ provides PRACTICAL consulting focused on critical New Product Development (NPD) services to companies that want to create a successful new product (or fix a flawed or outmoded existing product). These critical services include:
* Design Research
* Product Concept Development and Prototyping
* Market Research and Consumer Insights Research (quantitative/statistical as well as qualitative, including ethnography)
* UX (User Experience)
* Human Factors, Ergonomics and Usability
Key differentiators from similar firms:
* Experience and know-how in improving interactive (e.g. web-based) and transactional (e.g. things like financial and supply-chain systems) systems as well as physical products (i.e. things that people buy and use)
* True expertise in BOTH quantitative methods (e.g. statistical modeling, conjoint analysis, cluster analysis, etc.) AND qualitative methods such as ethnography and depth-interviewing, which are often done together.
* A well-developed process for providing our clients with ACTIONABLE INSIGHTS; in other words, discoveries and insights from real people that focus and drive product development -
Visiting Instructor (Industrial Design)
Georgia Institute of Technology
(Educational Institution; 1001-5000 employees; Higher Education industry)
January 2007 — September 2008 (1 year 9 months)
Teach New Product Development (NPD) and Design Research in the Industrial Design Program, part of the College of Architecture.
Currently on hiatus in order to focus on the challenges of business expansion and a very full consulting portfolio. -
Director, Human Factors & Customer Insights
S1 Corp
(Public Company; 1001-5000 employees; SONE; Computer Software industry)
October 1998 — November 2005 (7 years 2 months)
Responsible for the TOTAL CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE for a wide range of financial technology products:
• Evangelist for User-Centered Design
• Organized collaboration of diverse design teams in around the world (Atlanta, Austin, Charlotte, Los Angeles, Boston, Ireland, U.K. and India): 25+ individuals
• Oversight of Use Cases and Functional Req's
• Company-wide User Interaction Standards
• Formalized Consumer Research, including ethnography and field interviewing, in the Product Development Process
• Introduced a UX Pattern-Based approach to product development
• Introduction and standardization of a number of new/better customer research methods, including online card-sorting, ethnographic methods, online testing, true quantitative (i.e. beyond pie charts) analysis of surveys
• Established visual attractiveness and emotional appeal as quality criteria
• Brought Primary Research function in-house
• Managed UX, Design, IA, Usability and Consumer Research staff and Consultants (12+) -
Owner and Principal
Don Rickert, Ph.D., Consumer Research Consultant
(Market Research industry)
February 1996 — October 1998 (2 years 9 months)
Consultancy Specializing in Consumer Research for New Product Development—
• Usability Evaluation (lab as well as field-based)
• Ethnography
• Scenarios and Persona
• IA and Interaction Workflow
• Distillation of research into design decisions
• UI prototyping
Primary engagements included:
NCR Human Interface Technology Center (HITC)—1995-1998. Work with NCR clients included—
• The NCR Financial Center in London; Product Design Group in Dundee, Scotland; ID Group
• Carnegie-Mellon University
• Software Engineering Institute (SEI)
• AT&T
• NIST
• Allegheny General Hospital
• Medical College of Pennsylvania
iXL and many of its clients—Highlights include:
Established foundation for the Information Architecture & Usability Practice: Offered the position as first Director of the new group.
Information Architecture: The method I developed for documenting Information Architecture was adopted as the company standard. -
Director, Human Factors & Consumer Research
Bell Atlantic Video Services
(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; Telecommunications industry)
December 1993 — February 1996 (2 years 3 months)
Consumer research for new product and service development (field studies, focus groups, surveys, usability testing)—Defined the total customer experience for Bell Atlantic’s Stargazer Interactive Television service, including—
1. Packaging and the consumer “out-of-the-box”experience
2. User interface design
3. Design, evaluation and manufacture of remote control devices
4. Training procedures for cable installers and Customer Support
5. Collateral materials (e.g. “quick guides”) for consumers -
Senior Product Manager
James Martin & Co.
(Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Information Technology and Services industry)
February 1990 — December 1993 (3 years 11 months)
Directed all aspects of the customer experience for top- selling online reference and computer-based training offerings related to the Information Engineering Methodology, including—
1. Packaging and consumer “out- of-the-box”experience
2. Information architecture
3. User interface design
4. Installation instructions for consumers -
Independent Consultant
Surveys, Statistical Analysis and Training
(Market Research industry)
August 1984 — August 1990 (6 years 1 month)
Clients included:
• American Institute of Architects (Questionnaire design, statistical analysis and staff training)
• IBM (training of System Programmers in the REXX language)
• Planning Council of Chattanooga, TN (Research, including surveys and interviews for community needs assessment)
• Systems Center (Human Factors/Ergonomics/Usability of mainframe operating system software) -
Director, Academic Computing
The George Washington University
(Educational Institution; 1001-5000 employees; Research industry)
August 1986 — February 1990 (3 years 7 months)
1. Managed technical support for the entire University (25,000+ clients) and directed technology strategy
2. Served as Chair of the University Technology Committee
3. Faculty appointment (Professorial Lecturer) in the Statistics/Computer & Information Systems Dept.—taught computer programming for social and behavioral science students. -
Senior Research Associate
United Way of America
(Non-Profit; 201-500 employees; Market Research industry)
August 1983 — July 1987 (4 years )
1. Managed and implemented quantitative marketing/satisfaction research to help the national office of United Way best serve its 2000+ local United Way organizations.
2. Created 'Quest: A Tool for Listening to People in the Workplace', a PC-based survey tabulation package for local United Ways—a top-seller for over a decade.
Don Rickert’s Education
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George Washington University, School of Business & Public Management
Ph.D. , Information & Decision Systems (Specialization in Human Factors) , September 1989 — May 1997
Dissertation: A THEORY-GROUNDED EMPIRICAL EVALUATION OF SPECIAL-PURPOSE AND GENERIC INTERACTION DEVICES FOR INTERACTIVE TELEVISION
- Activities and Societies:
- Member of the Doctoral Students Association Leadership Council; Doctoral Students Association representative to the Dean's Search Committee
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Johns Hopkins University
M.S. , Urban Planning & Policy Management , September 1979 — May 1982
Specialized in urban design research, field methods (e.g. ethnography), advanced statistics and information systems.
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Loyala College (Baltimore, MD)
B.A. , Psychology , September 1971 — June 1974
Additional Information
Don Rickert’s Websites:
Don Rickert’s Interests:
industrial design, design research, usability evaluation, invention, human factors, ergonomics, New Product Development, ethnography, consumer insight, consumer research, contextual inquiry, ideation, interviewing, market research, marketing research, musical instrument design, needs analysis, qualitative research, quantitative research, questionnaire design, rapid prototyping studies, rowing, small boat design
Don Rickert’s Groups:
• Professional Member, Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA)
• Guild of American Luthiers (GAL)
• Product Development & Management Association (PDMA)
• American Marketing Association, AMA
• Association for Computing Machinery, ACM
• SIGCAS, ACM special interest group for Computers & Society
• SIGCHI, ACM special interest group for Computer-Human Interaction
• CHI-Atlanta, the Atlanta Chapter of ACM SIGCHI
• Art Institute of Atlanta, Regular Industry Reviewer of Junior and Senior Interactive Media projects
• Georgia Institute of Technology, Supervisor of Masters and Doctoral Interns
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Interaction Design Association -
Next Gen Market Research (NGMR) The fastest growing Consumer Insights group -
UX Professionals -
Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) -
iXL Alumni -
Front End of Innovation -
Venture Capital -
Music-innovations -
User Experience -
Industrial Design -
Design Research -
Consumer Insights Interest Group -
Creative String Players -
MIDI -
MIDI Virtuoso -
Violin Makers and Luthiers -
Make a noise - with synthesizers! -
The CAD Atlanta Network (cadatl.net) -
Musical Instrument Design -
The AmeriCAD Network
Don Rickert’s Honors:
• Invited Referee for UPA (Usability Professionals Association) 2009 International Student Design Competition
• PDMA Georgia Chapter, Served on Executive Board as Director of Academic Affairs
• Atlanta Marketing Research Roundtable
• Faulkner University, Member of the Computer Sciences Advisory Board, serving as a representative for the Informatics (another name for Human-Centered Design) Program
• Two ‘standing room only’ lectures to the Atlanta Chapter of the American Marketing Association on the use of ethnography and related field methods in the NPD (New Product Development) Process
• Executive Council (founding member), CHI-Atlanta, the Atlanta chapter of the Special Interest Group for Computer-Human Interaction of the Association for Computing Machinery, (1998-99)
• Managing Editor, The CHI-Atlanta Bulletin, (1998- 99)
Don Rickert’s Contact Settings
Interested In:
- career opportunities
- consulting offers
- new ventures
- job inquiries
- expertise requests
- business deals
- reference requests
- getting back in touch
