Jenny Emick

I'm thrilled to share that my latest product and design discovery article is live on Mind the Product! As a consultant, I've observed that the term 'Discovery' can have varying interpretations across different teams. It's not uncommon to encounter a team deeply immersed in a solution yet lacking a shared understanding of the customer opportunity they're addressing. At Lab Zero, we meet clients where they are and advocate for discovery while maintaining flexibility. We often employ lightweight methodologies to foster a shared understanding, even when work is already underway. Teresa Torres' book “Continuous Discovery Habits” is a guide to developing the mindset and practices that enable teams to discover and deliver value to their customers throughout the product development process. Her explanation of the 'Opportunity Solution Tree' helped me articulate a process for asking questions and bridging gaps when joining a new team. The first part of this two-part series looks at reversing the 'Opportunity Solution Tree' to establish a connection between the ongoing solution, customer opportunities, and business outcomes. The second part (coming soon!) will explore strategies for identifying gaps in your team's understanding of customer needs and the necessary measures to mitigate risks before launch. This series will help consultants, new team members, or a struggling team connect with that all-important why and launch valuable experiences for their customers and their orgs. Have you tried something like this with your team? Feedback is appreciated! If you haven't explored Mind The Product's extensive content library, I highly recommend it! In addition to articles about discovery and understanding customer needs, the community has shared insightful perspectives on product leadership, business, and teams. It's a great place to see perspectives on processes and theories informed by real-world use.  #ProductDiscovery #Design #Discovery #ContinuousDiscovery #Onboarding #Risk #CustomerOpportunity #Value #BusinessOutcomes

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Diversity in design isn't just a buzzword—it's a business imperative. 🌈 As a hiring manager, I've seen firsthand how diverse teams boost creativity, product quality, and profitability. I believe in building teams that reflect our users and bring fresh perspectives to every project. How do you ensure fairness during the hiring process when you have to look at portfolios? Here is my perspective on the challenges of inclusive hiring. #DiversityInDesign #InclusiveHiring #TeamBuilding

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What makes a story or presentation great? Earlier this year, I sat down with the Stripe design team to share my advice on creating effective presentations and telling engaging stories. Here’s what I shared with the team: 👇 Creating engaging presentations involves two steps: 1️⃣ Building structure 2️⃣ Adding detail -- Step 1️⃣: Building structure -- 🤨 → Start with why–Understand why your presentation exists. What are you trying to achieve? Are you explaining, motivating, or convincing? Who is your audience? ✍️ → Write it out—Writing a script helps you quickly outline possible structures and keeps the focus on the content that best meets your presentation’s purpose. 🎨 → Draw it out—If writing isn’t working, try drawing! Think about key visuals or concepts you want to convey. Sketch those out in logical order. 🔬 → Avoid jumping into detail—Add detail only when your structure can support it. Otherwise, you'll get bogged down in unnecessary content—a common issue for new designers. 📐 → Use a blueprint—If you’re struggling, use familiar story structures like Rags to Riches, Hero’s Journey, or Elevator Pitch. ⚔️ → Define your timelines and tensions—Across any good story are clear timelines and tensions. Ask yourself “what are the key events or moments of tension in my story?” Build off those. -- 2️⃣ Adding detail -- 🖱️ → Keep it simple—Simplicity helps your audience understand your message. And that's the ultimate goal. 🎯 → One thing at a time—Avoid overloading slides with information. Present concepts, images, and data points one at a time to help your audience absorb the material. 🤔 → Fidelity dictates feedback—Use a level of fidelity that reflects the feedback you want. Higher fidelity tends to prompt detailed feedback, while lower fidelity focuses on overall structure and flow. 🧑‍🔬 → Ditch the jargon—Avoid using technical jargon and acronyms without explanation. It can confuse your audience and distract from your message. Meet them at their level of understanding. 🛠️ → Make it real—Use real-world examples to help your audience visualize the context of your presentation. On the other hand, using 'lorem ipsum' in your designs can make it challenging for your audience to provide useful feedback and critique. That's it! I hope these tips help you create and present your work with greater confidence. If you'd like to see the full presentation or share your tips, let me know in the comments below! 👇 #storytelling #design

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💡"You have to learn to transmute your love for creating through your designs to a love for creating through a design TEAM. Your creative successes will be shown through how successful your team is. This is the key to leading and managing in the creative space." https://lnkd.in/gHMwbEhT Check out my thoughts on leadership in the creative/UX space, and share your own below! What tips or struggles would you share with up-and-coming creative leaders?

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Love this thoughtful and balanced argument for resetting expectations for what design (lowercase d intentional) and design leaders can and can't fix from Sarah Gallivan Mitchell. Andy Polaine, in his response (https://lnkd.in/eC959VEc) to the some of the same rhetoric Sarah responds to, has likened the growth of the design industry in the past 15-20 years to the Cambrian Explosion. It bears considering that the real Cambrian Explosion was followed in relatively short order by multiple mass extinction events. Some species that were less well adapted to the changing conditions for life on Earth didn't make it, but this allowed new forms of life to develop and flourish. My hope is that some evolutionary selection may take place over time in regards to which voices are anointed to speak for All of Design, so that voices like Sarah's may, too, be heard and flourish. #design #designleadership #futureofdesign https://lnkd.in/eQ-PGgBM

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2 years with Nectar! 🤘🔥 My favorite highlights: → Our team’s growth from 23 employees to 90 employees. Product alone grew from 6 of us to 21 strong now 🙌🏼, and we’re a sleek, efficient, resilient team under Brian Cressall and Nate Tingey. → Established Nectar’s Design System and built our component library, significantly improving speed, consistency, and quality of design and implementation. → Completed a massive UI design refresh for the existing product (bless the devs still building it 🫡 ). → Launched Nominations, the largest and most impactful new feature we’ve built at Nectar yet. → Completely scrapped a project, because it was the right thing to do. Grateful to work on a team that’s hyper-focused on our ultimate goals, and is sincerely willing to let sunk costs be irrelevant. → Ideated, designed, and launched our new product Internal Communications in 8 weeks with a small, mighty team 🤯 I’m still amazed we managed it. → $40M Series B funding in April 2024 with PeakSpan Capital. → Saw our efforts, motivation, and passion pay off when Nectar was recognized as the 2nd Fastest Growing Company in Utah County, 1st fastest growing software company in Utah, 8th fastest growing software company in the U.S., and 87th fastest growing company in the U.S. (across all industries). → 300% increase in revenue in Q3 2023 vs Q3 2024 (Q3 was also 50% above our revenue Q2 2024). → Saw every department at Nectar grow in excellence. I’m in awe of the caliber of Engineering, CS, Marketing, Sales, and what they accomplish. → Relished the challenge and variety of asks in the beginning as Nectar’s sole designer, including working on print design (looking at you, 28’ tradebooth) and animations for the first time. That animation announcing Nectar’s new logo a year ago? That was my first animation, and I’m still proud of myself for figuring it out enough to make that 😂. → Spent way too much on Holiday gas station runs (RIP old office). This is a long list, but for the record I cut it in half from what it was 😅. I’m grateful Nate reached out on LinkedIn right at the perfect time when I was looking to switch things up, and that we’ve made a great team ever since. Getting to work closely with our little product design team—Nate, Mason, Tyler, and Maya—and many, many others keeps me growing and keeps me motivated on the daily. Nectar’s mission and way of working resonated with me from the beginning. It’s rewarding to see our company continue to gain momentum and maturity, all while seeing how much room we still have to grow. Very, very grateful to be part of the journey. As we say, it’s still Day 1 at Nectar. 🚀

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This is a great post for designers moving into management/leadership roles. The nature of your job changes dramatically and it's important to figure out the most effective ways to help your team and the company. As noted in the article, it's very easy to have your time consumed by managerial tasks (operational work). Being deliberate about how you want to spend your time, focusing on the change you want to bring about and working consistently towards that end are critical skills to learn. #UX #Design #DesignLeadership https://lnkd.in/e_g4TRJx

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Had to share this thoughtful article about the conflicting feelings we have as designers with new AI tools.... made me consider the threat of too much standardization over innovation, or letting your own creative instincts atrophy. Check it out and lmk your thoughts

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Incorporating inclusive and equitable design practices results in: 1. Reaching new users who are underserved by existing products by designing solutions that authentically connect with them 2. Developing more differentiated products with new features, potentially unlocking new market opportunities and revenue streams 3. Product designers experiencing more meaning and purpose in their work, and design participants (who are underserved by the current market) feeling heard and included in the design process Read more about our work here: https://lnkd.in/gDzFazm7

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Way back in March I ran a workshop for designers to discuss the potential impact of AI on our roles, and on the people who run and use the services we design. I finally, FINALLY wrote it up here: https://lnkd.in/eHfr-gCD

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UX/DR should be a job title. I spent a few days last week with dscout and loved the discussions around UX Design and UX Research and their roles. In the current job market, we have seen many talented UX/Researchers laid off or devalued. While they delivered valuable insights, in many cases, they were not actionable or did not structure a team around them to be actionable. This is where we continue to blur the lines on Research and Design and deliver for our customers.    A UX designer is inherently a UX researcher, as effective design hinges on a deep understanding of user needs and behaviors. In this role, the UX designer immerses themselves in research processes, gathering insights through user interviews, usability testing, and data analysis. This research informs design choices, allowing designers to validate ideas and iterate based on real user feedback. A UX researcher can go further as well to inform design, stretch to do some wireframing or other artifacts to support the work - delivering insights is not the end state. #ux #userexperience #userresearch #uxresearch #uxr #colab #amazondesign #designleadership

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“Be who and where you are.” I’m still processing all of the amazing insights that came out of Clarity: A design systems community conference last week but several themes have been bouncing around in my head since then. → Get smaller and connect - Dan Mall and others talked about a trend towards smaller core design systems with surrounding layers of shared patterns like recipes, all being consumed by teams managing their own local libraries. This results in teams being able to move faster and eliminates the need for design systems folks to feel that have to be a bottleneck. → Be who and where you are - John Voss and others talked about building the system that your users and team need rather than conforming to what larger companies are putting out there or the oversimplified “stereotype” you yourself have unintentionally created for your product. → Listen - Ben Callahan and others talked about the need to reset our current mental models for how design systems teams see our roles and responsibilities. How do we move away from our perceived tactical responsibilities towards more listening and validating of the needs of our consumers and users? 💎 My personal takeaways from all of this have me reframing my own journey with my team from "a series of mistakes" towards "the necessary growth to become the team we are today." → When we implemented that now outdated framework, tried to centralize everything into a single bloated design system, or wrote all of that verbose documentation, we were doing what we needed to do to mature and are a better team as a result. → What my team is going through, we're all going through. The role of design in general is changing across the industry, not just in my organization. How lucky are we, that we have the opportunity to learn from each other as designers? → As team roles change, I’m curious to pivot my default stance away from “defend the designer's role”, and would be curious to see how I can facilitate “design” activities regardless of whether they are done by a designer, product manager, or engineer. I feel so very fortunate to be a part of such an amazing community and love the reminder that when you get a bunch of systems thinkers together in the same room, you're going to see patterns. Thanks again 🖤 Jina A. and all the speakers last week. #clarity2024 #designsystems #design

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🚀 Stay ahead of the game with my latest knowledge bomb! I delve into the rapidly changing design industry and offer tips on staying relevant in today's job market. Staying relevant is essential for designers looking to future-proof their careers. Read the full article here: https://lnkd.in/e9_dAYYk #Design #CareerAdvice #StayRelevant 🎨💼

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What do we stand for as a professional practice, particularly our leadership community? I appreciate Peter Merholz for raising the topic of advocacy and design. We need more spaces to grapple with this question actively and openly. Vague assertions of our fundamental humanism will no longer cut it given the active role we play in shaping so many tech products and platforms.   Designers did not have the same prominence in the industry during the rise of social media and were left with many many regrets. We won’t have that excuse this time around. The tech platforms are building their GenAI moats and rolling up their drawbridges. How might we use our collective voice to advocate more effectively?   From recent conversations it seems like there are two different (but interrelated) needs related to advocacy that continue to surface. I am hopeful that some signals will emerge out of the current design diaspora (which I have been writing about for Fast Company) and the new forums and networks that I profiled in my recent piece.   1. Professional Association: There seems to be growing interest in formalizing elements of our profession in a set of standards, norms and ethics. Mike Monteiro, have been beating this drum for a long time. But there now seem to be increased concerns around the “democratization” of various design disciplines within business (particularly product-first companies) that is creating additional unease with the elimination of so many specialized design and research-specific roles. This concern dominated the recent Advancing Research Conference. I fear that we could chase our tails for quite a while given the qualitative nature of our work and the heightened emotions on all sides of this debate.   2. Advocacy Agenda: I am more concerned with the broader question of advocacy as it relates to the techno-humanist ethos taking hold across the industry, super-charged by the rise of GenAI capabilities that have the potential to cut “users” completely out of the equation in terms of any meaningful participation in the design process. There are a number organizations that we could partner with that are grappling actively with these issues. Some, like Omidyar Network have the interest and capacity to fund fundamental research into the human experience, risks and hazards related to AI. But research reports will only get you so far. And legal / compliance risks are generally seen as afterthoughts, with the exception of the strong commitment to inclusive design from Microsoft and product equity from Adobe.   I believe there is a role for designer leaders like Timothy “TB” Bardlavens Albert Shum to step into this gap and be an active part of a design advocacy movement. In past eras giants like Victor Papeneck, Buckminster Fuller and John Thackara gave voice to our values and vision for more sustainable, equitable and imaginative futures. In this era, it may not be singular voice but rather a network or community that will serve as our beacon.

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🙏🏻 UXʻers in Hawaiʻi or Hawaiʻi businesses, we would like your input for our 2024 State of UX in Hawaiʻi report! Please see the details in the post below. 😊

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Scaling a business isn’t just about growth—it’s about creating systems that make growth possible. This is something I’ve come to appreciate deeply over the years in product design and now I get to further emphasize with our team and partners at Format-3. Early on, I thought great design alone was enough to solve problems. But over time, I realized that without systems to support it, even the best ideas can falter. I’ve faced projects where brilliant solutions didn’t scale—not because they weren’t innovative, but because the infrastructure to support them wasn’t there. What’s become clear is this: success often hinges not just on creativity but on repeatable, adaptable systems. These systems: ✨ Solve challenges consistently. 🔄 Evolve as needs change. 🤝 Foster alignment across teams. These ideas aren’t just for design—they apply to business strategy, team collaboration, and even personal growth. The better your systems, the smoother your path to scaling. The beauty of well-designed systems is that they don’t just solve today’s problems—they prepare you for tomorrow’s opportunities. In my experience, it’s the patterns we create and the processes we refine that truly define how far we can scale. Because when systems work, they don’t just support growth—they make it inevitable. #ProductDesign #SystemsThinking #Scalability #BusinessGrowth #technology

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I liked this observation from Linn Vizard's latest newsletter: "At the object and artefact layers, designers have tangible outputs of their work to point to. Service designers find it much harder to point at something tangible and visible." The outcomes of service design sound a lot like the outcomes of business leadership. (CX and e2e service improvement, backstage operations, org structure, the way people think and behave). Where is the chorus of people asking business leaders to "show their value," as so many service designers are asked to do? Oh right! that chorus is called the shareholders. 🙃 So why can't service designers' value be measured against revenue growth, (as we already do for any business leader working towards the same outcomes) and be done with it? The question of measuring the impact of design is such a common topic of discussion in The Circle.. it comes up pretty much every time we meet. ( cc Marc Fonteijn ) #servicedesign #outcomesoveroutputs #metrics #okrs

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Some really thoughtful questions by my dear friend Bob Baxley and really solid debate in the comments. My thoughts: If Design is not driving what the product experience becomes—or at least co-piloting with Product and/or Engineering—then yes it has no need for C-level representation. On the contrary when Design is driving or co-piloting, not only is a C-level seat warranted but also it facilitates Design being held accountable to measurable, specific outcomes. Part of the issue here is that SaaS companies, B2B especially, have conditioned us to believe every company must have a CPO. And in many cases Design reports into this CPO. But there are still a significant number of companies in the industry where Design is a strong contributor to the roadmap and product experience, and even influences technology decisions heavily in some cases, and in extreme cases has Product reporting into it. And often these companies understand Design needn't be measured with same scrutiny as Technology or Product to warrant C-level representation—or Design's metrics are the metrics that other Product org-led companies typically assign to Product. There is no clear consensus on this topic, but it's a worthwhile debate.

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It’s Thursday! Let’s talk about DESIGN DISCOVERY and how to make it PRACTICAL. Discovery is an essential part of the design process. In discovery, designers build a shared understanding of the problem and the design direction, establishing a foundation for all future design decisions. What does that foundation look like? In PRACTICAL DESIGN DISCOVERY, I describe three kinds of things to put into this foundation: → Principles: Enablers that help you make decisions → Concepts: Ideas that establish a big picture or north star → Models: Representations of the user experience When you draw a conclusion from user research, that’s a principle. When you say “our product is like a concierge for kids activities,” that’s a concept. And when you sketch out a flow chart or wireframe an important screen, that’s a model. Each of these contributes to the foundation that informs further design decisions. You’re not just creating these for yourself. The other people on your team – product managers and business stakeholders and developers – need to contribute to this foundation. These things – principles, concepts, and models – are the way you draw others into the discovery process. Sometimes managers tell designers to cut principles and concepts out of their process. I get it: Models are accessible because they are tangible representations of the final product. Even a flow chart is easier to react to than an unmoored design principle or a big idea. In discovery, however, you can’t model every aspect of a product. The point of discovery is to set the direction. Models provide enough of a view into the final product to get buy-in on that direction. But they’re not the whole picture. Principles provide guidelines for making decisions that the models do not cover. They establish constraints on the design process. Concepts align everyone around the product’s purpose or essence. They paint a picture of what the world looks like with the product in it. Both are helpful for decision-making. You don’t need to break the bank creating principles or concepts, or even models. Use a text file to capture statements as they jump out during the design process, like “never show a data visualization without context or explanation [a principle]” or “this is a mash-up between a to-do list and a calendar [a concept]”. Use models to illustrate principles and concepts. When folks provide feedback on the models, ask them about the concepts and the principles. “You said you were worried about the fields on this screen, but it aligns with our principle of ‘only ask for information when needed.’ Are there circumstances when the principle doesn’t apply?” Every part of the foundation – principles, concepts, and models – is a hook for a conversation with the entire team about the direction of your product. Looking for more ways to refine your discovery practice? Grab a copy of PRACTICAL DESIGN DISCOVERY! https://lnkd.in/dtar-e2

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