Opening Keynote by Henry
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RailsConf 20167 / 89
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00:00
BitPower (physics)Video gameSoftware developerFormal languageComputer-assisted translationNeuroinformatikCondition numberSelf-organizationWordGreatest elementForcing (mathematics)Right angleCorrespondence (mathematics)Rule of inferenceRevision controlClient (computing)Information technology consultingHypermediaFamilyProjective planeRoundness (object)Source codeCellular automatonPresentation of a groupMereologyTwitterComputer iconBit rateDifferent (Kate Ryan album)Table (information)Program slicingWhiteboardCircleMultiplication signData conversionStatement (computer science)Office suiteProcess (computing)Group actionComputer scienceUsabilityLevel (video gaming)Core dumpTranslation (relic)MathematicsMultilaterationFront and back endsComputer animationLecture/Conference
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Coordinate systemStrategy gameContent (media)Software developerVisualization (computer graphics)WebsiteDifferent (Kate Ryan album)Field (computer science)Type theoryLoginProduct (business)Goodness of fitLatent heatWeb pageWhiteboardPattern languageProcess (computing)ConsistencyMereologyInterface (computing)Computer architectureInformationFocus (optics)Projective planeDataflowElement (mathematics)Service (economics)Connected spacePhase transitionMeasurementMetric systemPropositional formulaAnalytic setCASE <Informatik>Feedback1 (number)Figurate numberMoment (mathematics)Revision controlBitLibrary (computing)UsabilitySoftware testingElectronic program guideMetreContext awarenessLevel (video gaming)Mathematical analysisWritingMathematicsDependent and independent variablesArrow of timeHecke operatorSlide rulePlanningWage labourSoftware maintenanceSoftware development kitData managementMatrix (mathematics)Group actionRight angleBookmark (World Wide Web)Direction (geometry)VideoconferencingLecture/Conference
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MereologyFacebookSoftware developerDegree (graph theory)Data conversionPower (physics)Field (computer science)Product (business)Process (computing)BlogReading (process)Multiplication signData storage deviceVideo gamePlanningMachine visionComputer programmingLattice (order)Mixture modelSelf-organizationComputing platformMathematicsEvent horizonOrder (biology)GradientSeries (mathematics)Sinc functionProjective planeView (database)Vapor barrierInformationRight angleWhiteboardVideoconferencingRepetitionArithmetic meanForm (programming)Lie groupCausalityBitFormal languageLogic gateContent (media)System callLine (geometry)Standard deviationBuildingWordArmSemiconductor memoryEmailLecture/Conference
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48:09
Computer animation
Transcript: English(auto-generated)
00:03
I'm very pleased to introduce our next keynote speaker. She has a background in computer science, psychology, and design, which I think is a fascinating overlap,
00:21
and is currently the director of user experience at Blue Wolf, has also written a book, which I think if you asked nicely, she might give you a copy. You can try that out later. I may have over-promised. We'll see. I think so. I think so. We can do that. Thanks for backing me up. OK. Ladies and gentlemen, please help me welcome Chanel Henry.
00:51
Thank you. Thank you. That was a great intro. It's funny because the past couple of weeks,
01:01
I've been staying with my mother. And I'm 33, so that's usually something not to brag about. She said something that was really hilarious. She said I was too kind, and I said thank you too much. So I'm ignoring her, and I want to say thank you to all the people that made this possible.
01:21
I want to say thank you to everybody that's here. I wanted to also say just thank you to everybody on the board and everyone that has made this conference possible for the future engineers, the builders, and the connectors of the world.
01:42
And I really want you to give all yourselves, actually, a round of applause, if you can. Please, thank you. All right. OK, so let's get into the down and dirty. This talk is a lot about UX, very little bit about Rails,
02:04
and a lot about awesomeness. So as you know, my background is very, I like to say, colorful, right? There were so many different ways I wanted to start off this introduction with some jokes. I was watching Seinfeld, like, OK, how would he do it?
02:23
I watched Oprah, and I wanted to be like, you guys are amazing. Look under your seats. That's where the free books are. There aren't any. Don't look. And then I'm like, you know what? I think the best way is to just say hi, so hello.
02:41
At the bottom of each slide, you'll see my Twitter handle. That's also my handle at Medium, where I write a lot about what's in here. So if you want to go on that journey, I welcome you to, in my mind. And then I decided just to use the RailsConf 2016
03:02
UX if you want to tag or say anything cool or anything like any critique about the talk. You can also download the presentation at bit.ly slash railsux2016. So who am I?
03:20
I'm a user experience architect and consultant, and it took a very long way to get there. My first computer was at the age of, I want to say, five or six. It was a Macintosh Plus. So definitely dating myself there, but I already told you how old I am, so you don't have to do the math. And then through that, I just love doing a whole lot of IT.
03:41
I was always taking stuff apart. I was always getting grounded for it. I loved being a developer back then, when QBasic was like, You say it now, and people are like, whoa, what are you talking about? So that led me on a very long journey,
04:01
because I also love doing art. And everyone said, there's no money in art. There's no money in making things look beautiful until you're dead. So I thought about that for a while, and then I decided to, OK, maybe I should look at these computer courses and just continue to go down that path.
04:20
I also realized that I was a storyteller. I love to tell stories about my life. I love to write about stories about my life. And then I realized I love to speak about it. I used to be a very, very, very shy kid, like the kind where I think one time I was in a group, and the person next to me introduced themselves,
04:41
and then I introduced myself with their name. And they were like, wait, you're the same person. I was like, wait, no, no, no, I'm sorry. I'm not Melanie. I'm Chanel. And then I had to really just look at that for a while, which I'll get into later. And then most importantly, I'm an alchemist,
05:00
which if no one has read the book, you are not alive. No. You must read the book, The Alchemist, of course. It does really help a lot with, I believe, with the journey that we're all on. I believe that we all do this for different purposes and different reasons. And for me, you'll find out what those reasons are throughout this talk.
05:21
And then the most important part of my life is that I love making beef jerky. It's very random, but I've been making it for about 25 years now, ever since I was eight. I was the kid that didn't ask for Barbies. I wanted a dehydrator because I love beef jerky and I loved fruit roll-ups.
05:41
And what better way to get that than by having the source? So I did that, and now I make what has been told to me by a lot of people, including, if you're not, well, I'm sorry, I'm from Philly. Philly in the house, any Philly in the house? No? Okay, none. Awesome. Yeah, city of brotherly love.
06:04
One of the top news correspondents there, her name is Renee Chanal-Fattah. She actually said it was the best beef jerky she's ever had. She's from Colorado, so I think I take her word. So that's important to me because I always feel like we need a hobby over the things that we do.
06:21
Unfortunately, every hobby that I had turned into a job. But that's another story. At the core of it, though, I'm a phony. And right here, I should probably walk off the stage because what do I have to say or what's going to be important? But I think what matters most about this statement
06:44
is that it's true and false at the same time. And I'll get into that. The first thing is what is user experience? So I felt like when I first got here, I was overwhelmed by the brilliant minds
07:00
that I was running into. I really couldn't have a conversation with a couple. I thought we were speaking Japanese or maybe another language that I didn't know about. That's how far removed I was from the backend language. And I kept asking myself, well, what could I possibly have to say that could be useful?
07:23
But being the director over at Blue Wolf, which was recently acquired by IBM, woo woo. I feel important because I feel like I can kind of pop my collar a little bit, sorry, sound. But you know, so we were recently acquired by IBM.
07:40
But coming in there, it was a group of 600 people worldwide. We have about 11 offices, a couple in Australia, a couple, one in France, one in the UK. I think we just got an office in Prague. And then we have a lot over here in the United States, San Francisco, New York City, Atlanta, Boston.
08:02
Just name a city, we're probably there. So they bring me in, like the one that looks like nobody, looks like a kid. I still get carded at the casinos. Like I can't even sit at the blackjack table and really get into it before they're like, no, that's cute, no, where's your ID?
08:21
So I come in there and nobody knows what design is or what UX is. The first question I got was from a developer and he was just like, you know, what's the quickest way to make an icon? And I said, going to Icon Finder and trying to find one that has an open creative license. And he was like, oh, I never thought about that.
08:42
He was actually designing each and every icon and then I realized that this was going to be a challenge. Because the internal learning adoption of this company would be difficult because they had never had a design department. But we have Fortune 50 clients, some of the clients that I've worked with, GlaxoSmithKline, T-Mobile,
09:02
I don't want to call out another bank that doesn't work, but Northern Trust, and Western Digital, which was my first project. And that was where I really learned that there was a very big gap between designers and developers. So then, as always, I felt it was my mission,
09:21
like I couldn't sleep unless the whole entire organization knew exactly what UX was. That happened about maybe four months ago and I've been there for three years. So, and it happened when I became a rebel. So, you know, we're titanium partners with Salesforce and that's basically what the company does.
09:42
We implement Salesforce into the corporations, into these top 50 corporations. So it was really difficult to try to talk in there, to talk to the business people, the sales people, the project managers, the CEOs, C-level people, everybody, to try to get them to understand what exactly UX is.
10:04
So, this is how it's usually seen. I'm really used to having it above, so that's why that weird thing just happened, but this is how it's normally seen. So, UX is typically seen just as interface design or visual design. People would actually email me like, hey, I have a wireframe, like, or I have this idea,
10:23
like, can you develop, design a website by tomorrow? And I'm like, no, like, do you know what it takes? Like, what's the company? Who's the audience? And they're like, oh, that doesn't matter. Just make it look pretty. That's the worst thing you can say to a designer is make it look pretty. Now, the cool part about me is that I'm a tribrid, right?
10:43
So, actually, let me go back to that slide. How UX wants to be seen is that we do everything from field research, face-to-face interviewing, product design, feature writing, requirement writing, technical specification writing, so we have to know
11:02
at some development tools to know what we can build. Usability, prototyping, visual design, and copywriting, when I never wanted to write because I'm such a goofball that, you know, when Western Digital wanted me to write their copy, I wanted it to be fun, and they're just like, that's too much humor.
11:21
We're, imagine us with a straight tie, but we just loosened it a little bit, like, not, just don't get too, don't get too out there. I'm like, okay, okay, you should probably get somebody from your marketing team then. And then we also do, you know, brainstorm coordination. Like, we really get off with, like, you know, doing those strategy sessions and having, like,
11:43
a lot of fun with that, like, really thinking about, like, what's possible. And how that happens is by this UX methodology that I actually put together for the company. This is version two, because, as you know with a designer, or you might not know, we're never happy with anything. I still already want to change this.
12:02
But the company went through a rebranding, so then I had to try to make it more simple as to what it is that we do. Now, I know a lot of you in the back can't see it, but I'm gonna go through it a little bit quickly and then show a couple examples. But when you really break it down, because I always, I love to look at patterns in the world.
12:23
Like, I'm a pattern seeker, a problem solver, and then I just try to connect all of them to make it make sense. Not only to me, but to everyone else. So, the first part is about discovery, and I put together something called an XPR workshop, which stands for Experience Process Review.
12:42
Some companies may call the regular ones like a BPR, Business Process Review, going through requirements, looking over your competitors, or people not in your field, but that are doing something close to it. Doing analytics audit, in which cases most companies are like, analytics who? And I'm like, oh no, why aren't you measuring?
13:04
We can't measure success if we don't have a success metrics to measure it against. Value proposition. Then we get into the user analysis, which is my favorite part because I love stalking people. I don't know if a lot of you saw me yesterday, but I was a lurker, I had a red hoodie on
13:22
that was in the matrix, just looking at everybody, just seeing what everybody was talking about, what everybody was doing. Someone sat next to me, and he had an advanced Swift book, and I was like, baller, okay. I just love looking to see what people are doing, and this helps me to do it in a way where I can see the users, do focus groups,
13:44
storyboards, interviews, contextual research when you're trying to be the fly on the wall, so it's like you don't really know that I'm there. Then there's information architecture. We bring all that information together, all the content together, all the information about the company together to put together a site map,
14:03
and then wire frames, which puts together a good content strategy. Then that's where the visual design comes in at. This is what everyone thinks I start with, like yeah, just hop into Photoshop or Sketch and do something cool, but I can't because I need to do the mood boards.
14:21
I need to go through the pattern library. I need to figure out the style guide. I love style, like both in fashion and in plain eye. I don't like looking at things that are unpleasing. Sometimes I'll run past mirrors because of that. That's another issue. Sometimes this is a therapy session. I just want you guys to know that, talking for me.
14:42
So yeah, and then usability testing as well so that we can make sure that all that information that we learned actually makes sense and it can be used by the users because at the end of the day, I always say that UX is just about users and content, and if you don't have either, there's going to be a great disconnect with the product.
15:02
Now, because I have dev up here really small, it does not mean it's not important. Actually, it's one of the most important things, but because I'm not a developer, I couldn't put it in that process, but I needed the company to know that actually we need to be involved with development because they actually placed us under marketing,
15:21
which is a whole other topic and a whole lot of legal issues. So after that, we go into maintenance, which is going over the UX specification document, which really just talks about everything that I talk about, but in plain English. It helps to create an improvement plan,
15:43
figure out the success metrics, and then also get that user feedback. We, like UX, we need to be told how you feel. I love responses, I love criticism, I love feedback.
16:01
I like to hear good stuff too, but I always love to just know what's going on in a person's mind. So some of the things that I was talking about were the competitive analysis, where we take the context and look at the content and the users and try to figure out the best way that your product can be successful.
16:21
We do process flows in which it's like, okay, you have a lot of screens, and I think the best example was my first project with Western Digital, which is actually up now. It was redesigning their customer service portal. Now they have three different types of audiences. They have the ones for the direct buyer,
16:43
like Apple, Staples, and then they have the home users and then small business. So for small business, just to get to the login screen took about seven or eight pages. And then the whole entire flow was about 65. We were able to condense that with me and the technical architect
17:00
to about 20 pages, and developers got scared because they were like, wait, no, wait, hold on. You couldn't possibly have put all the features in the process flows, but we did, and we explained it to them, and then everybody finally understood like, oh, okay, now we get it.
17:21
And I like those aha moments because we started to have more fun with it. It started to become less of a who are you, that early dating phase where you're starting to feel, like starting to see like, oh, I don't like that about you, or oh, am I going to like that you're a vegetarian and I really, really love to barbecue on the weekends? Like, you know, just trying to figure out what that connection is going to be like.
17:42
So it became very fluid after that. Branding elements are also a really big, important part because this helps the developers to, the front-end developers to realize, okay, like every page must be consistent. Like we're not just going to use Ariel on this page
18:01
and you know, whatever, like you know, Georgia on this one and whatever. Like, so I try to make sure that they understand how important it is in brand consistency because in doing so, then we can create these beautiful products. So the problem with Western Digital, even though it did end up being a success
18:21
towards the end, but the biggest problem at first was that we had offshore developers and then they had no budget for UX. They thought we could do a whole entire, you know, customer service portal for this global conglomerate in 150 hours. And in that reality, it was more like
18:42
a seven to 800-hour project. I'm a fast worker, so I did, you know, what I had to do, but I started to keep asking myself, like, okay, how can I change this for the next product, for the next project? And there were so many projects that happened after this. Like, because I was one of the only UX people there
19:03
and there was only one other person, so two for a company of 600 where there's like 100 salespeople going hard every day and selling something that they really don't know anything about. So it's like, I had to figure out, like, okay, I used to be a developer, right? I still am considerably, somewhat technically
19:24
kind of a developer, right? Like, I can understand the language, I know it's possible, I know what can be built. But how can I marry the two? The semi-conclusion that I got from all of this, and that I feel like you have got by now, is that UX is important in development.
19:43
Dev needs UX. But it's weird because, you know, as I was reading about this, they kept saying that, you know, user experience, you don't necessarily need to know development. And I actually disagree with that. I feel like in order to know what you're able, what your capabilities are, you have to be able to know
20:01
what can be built and what's possible. And then I feel like the place where the two can marry are in the process flows. And that's usually when we do come together. Because we're able to see, like, okay, can you build this, can you make this quick? I know it's going to cost a kind more, but let them know that they're saving money in the end.
20:21
My grandmom always had this saying, like, you know, if you buy once, you buy cheap, you buy twice, right? And I kept saying that and they would always laugh, like, haha, your grandmom's funny. But they never, but they never did it until the end. And then we had to do a change order and it was another million dollars. And then I wanted to say I told you so,
20:40
but it's like, you kind of can't. So you're just like, okay, yeah, no, no, you were right, you were right all the time. But you know, Jason Fried, and I liked his quote back in 2013. He said, here's what our product can do. And here's what you can do with our products. The products sound similar, but they are completely different approaches.
21:01
And I truly believe that's why 37 Signals is so successful today. And why Basecamp, you know, is so widely used because he gets it. Like, just because you can make something doesn't necessarily mean that you've made it for anybody. And this is why I always have to tell a lot of the companies that I go to.
21:21
And it's intimidating, because you know, I'm usually like the shortest one and like usually the only woman as well and some other things. And then I go in and I'm just like, okay, like listen to me because I know what I'm talking about. And they're like, wait, what? And then finally they're like, oh wow, you do? Okay, like let's have this conversation.
21:41
And I usually let everybody know that everybody's a part of UX. I want, you know, the CEO if he can come in here. I want the, you know, the TA, the IT guy. I want marketing. I want the interns. I want everybody. GSK was really good for doing that, where they brought in their pharmaceutical reps,
22:04
the IT team, and just a lot of people in this meeting and we were able to do, just have such a beautiful marriage between the two. And I remember someone coming up to me and saying like, this was so awesome. Like I haven't used like Post-its and crayons
22:21
and markers like since like grade school. And I'm like, wow, like we can do this in meetings. Like it's okay to use Crayola. Like it's okay to like, you know, talk about feelings. It's okay to like talk about, you know, these different things because I feel like it gets to the mission and the vision. And that's usually what my, the XBR workshops are.
22:41
They're very similar, but not the same, to like Google's, you know, design workshops. I just try to have that conversation. Because at the end of the day, and by the way, I love quotes. So you're going to see a lot of them. Design creates stories
23:01
and stories create memorable experiences. And great experiences have this innate ability to change the way in which we view the world. There's a lot of times at my job where I always hear design can't save the world. Like we're not, they always say like, it's not like we're saving lives.
23:21
And that bothers me because I got into this field. I got into all the fields that I got into. And I went to all the schools and got all the degrees that I got in that I have to basically, oh, and I also dropped out of a lot of schools too. So don't think I'm like not trying to be arrogant with that, but because you have to learn like, but basically what I learned at the end of the day is,
23:41
you know, like, I do want to change the world and we do have the power to change the world because of this, right? So I'm holding this not because I'm like texting my friends because I'm bored, like I'm holding this because this is, you know, the key, like my keynote and I'm able to see, you know, what's next. And we can build these experiences that are either, you know, sticky,
24:02
like in a good example of that is Facebook. You can't get off of it. They want you to continue to use it versus Slippy, which is like the watch where it's like, you know, I don't know what's there, but it's still providing me with the information that I need to do what I need to do throughout the day. One of my biggest projects that I remember working on
24:21
was with the United Nations World Food Program and we were able to design, and I designed with an organization in San Francisco. We were able to design basically a platform for NGOs and nonprofits for Africa that was kind of a mixture of our census and our food stamps program
24:41
to be able to help eradicate like hunger, the crisis and sickness within Africa and to me, that was changing the world, you know, like because something so simple as someone will go into the store and say, we're out of rice, so the guy, you know, closes up all the rice and keeps it for himself, but with this, and then there's a hunger crisis
25:02
because of that, but it was never true. But then what we were building was something where they will be able to check to see if that was true or check to see, you know, what they could do about it and then they were able to handle the situation in a better way.
25:20
That couldn't have happened had we not did the user testing, the field testing in Kenya, working with all these NGOs, making sure that we were able to like actually like hit our goal. So that's one of the biggest things, if there's anything I want to leave you with too, is about like the fact that you can actually change the world
25:42
and I know that sounds very like reading rainbow-ish, but it's like, and those that remember reading rainbow, I could sing the song if you don't, butterflies in the sky, no. But it's true, like we have the power, like we are the geeks and the nerds
26:00
and finally, you know, appreciated for that to be able to create such amazing things that can help save people's lives, especially in the medical field, especially in mental health, especially in any education. I was like in the hotel and they were talking about like,
26:20
yeah, you know, like join our Kansas City public school K through 12 and I was like, oh my God, that would have been perfect because I hated going to school. Like I liked it, but it wasn't fast enough and then I was too social but I'm also an extrovert and introvert and I know some of you get that. I'm an INFJ if that means anything to anybody but you know, like it was difficult for me to learn
26:42
and to also connect with people. So I always suffered in education. The quote up here is from me. UX has come a long way and it's not going anywhere but we still need to bridge the gap between design and development and honestly, most of the conversations I've been having
27:03
have been with all designers or developers and I'm the only designer but I feel like we all need to have this talk. But one of the other biggest things about why we can't have this talk is because there's a lot of barriers into STEM fields,
27:22
science, technology, engineering and math. There's ageism, racism, sexism, nepotism, oh my, like there's just so many like things that can stop people from getting into these fields or exploring these fields
27:41
or even exploring the power of these fields, right? One of the biggest things that got to me was actually all of those plus a couple others and I remember writing a really, really, really, really, really, really personal but not really rant
28:01
about like how come Kevin Rose and Tim Ferriss are doing all these awesome things and I'm just sitting at home like still like just designing this or doing that like why am I not, you know, like riding on the plane next to Bill Gates and doing some like really cool stuff like why am I still, why am I not awesome? What's like, where is that and is it too late?
28:24
So I talked, I spoke to a coworker and I ended up writing a blog post about it. It was the quickest blog post I had ever wrote and it was the one that most trended ever in life and it scared me because it got about maybe 20,000 views the first day
28:41
and then became one of the top 10 stories of that month for Medium and that was back in 2011 and that would actually spawn a whole series of events as to why I'm here today. I had a talk about this question right here. Is it too late to be awesome?
29:02
Apparently, there's a lot of people that struggle with feeling like it is and I always talk about this during tech talks because I'm very existential and very philosophical and I consider myself like a techno hippie because I really think I belong in the 70s but I probably couldn't do well without an iPhone back then
29:20
so I try to figure out like how can I mix the two? How can I still be like a free spirit, you know, like Denise from The Cosby Show or whatever like and just kind of be like, you know, it is what it is but still like be taken seriously and I did, I remember having a podcast back in, I think it was December
29:41
with Saron, founder of Code Newbie and I know you guys all know about that. Code Newbie, woo woo. There you go. And our talk was hilarious to me because I'm just like, this is like a developer podcast? Like are you sure you want me? Like, and she's like, yeah, no, like this is good. Like this is, I think this is what we all need to hear
30:02
and she was right because like I had to determine like what is awesome? Why do people struggle with this so much? Why do we see so many, like if we really take off the blinders, right? And we all know what's been happening in the news. I'm not gonna depress anybody. I try not to watch it. I only watch it at night
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because Jimmy Fallon makes it funny but you know, like there's a lot of different things that cause us to be afraid but at the end of the day, we have to realize life is short but I didn't want to start off with that. I didn't want to be like, well, you know, you have to be awesome because you're going to be dead soon. Like, no, that's, no, don't say that. You know, there's certain things you just don't say.
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So I'm like, okay. But this like post that I would write would begin to let me go through a lot of self discovery and a lot of discovery with other people to find out what it was that was getting away. So before I had to define what, like before I could say what was awesome,
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I had to define it. The same way that I didn't know I was successful until I defined what success was for me. And it's not the same for you. It's not the same for anyone else. And this definition might not be the same for you but to me and to Brene Brown and to Oprah and to, you know, to a lot of people, you know, it's being your authentic self.
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Who is that, right? Like sometimes we're so distracted. We're so distracted with the things around us, our insecurities that we're not really sure as to like how to really, as to what that looks like. Well, Brene said, vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation, creativity and change.
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Vulnerability, how do you be vulnerable? I'm gonna be vulnerable right now. I have been scared crapless to talk to you. But this happens every time. Like I've done many, many talks but every time before that I'm like, okay, okay,
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what am I gonna say? I can't rehearse, I can't do this, I can't do that. Like I know I have the comedian gene. I know I like to make people laugh but it's like, do people wanna laugh all the time or do they wanna be taught? How can I do both? And then I was able to find a connection in there somewhere but it wasn't until I was able to get to that vulnerable place
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where most people had told me to be quiet, like no, no, no, don't talk about the fact that you actually hate that design or don't talk about the fact that you had like a mental breakdown like in 2013 because I overworked myself. Don't talk about like all of those taboo things but the thing is we need to talk about them
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because humans are wired for validation. That's why it's like, it's funny because being a UX person I say, I value feedback and I can't really see many faces except the ones in the front and I see you smiling which is great. So it lets me like, okay, I'm doing something to make one person smile and it's awesome but we're wired for validation whether it's internal or external.
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External is the dangerous one because we're always going to look for that answer. We're always gonna look for that approval. The internal one is difficult because we weren't taught that. Like we were taught in kindergarten to be like, be yourself, do your thing and then by like fourth grade it was like,
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shut up, take that class, what are you doing? You're gonna be a doctor, not a painter in the woods. Like so we were always like taught to be something but and this was the top highlighted part of the blog and you know, I love Taoism and Buddhism.
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I like all the spiritualities actually, it's kind of cool but in my undergraduate degree is also too in youth ministry as well. So it's like, it's a nice little mixture in there of a whole lot of different things but when you are content to be simply yourself and you don't compare or compete, everyone will respect you. Funny part about that is
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that last part doesn't even matter. Who cares if they respect you, right? I think what like the subtitle of the Is It Too Late to Be Awesome was the dangers of perfectionism and comparison and that's usually when people are like, oh crap, yeah like that's good. Like okay, I get that because I'm always trying to compare myself.
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So I always try to say like, okay, well what's holding us back? And in psychology, I actually learned a lot of different things. There's a negativity bias. Our brains are more wired to hold on to the negative things than they are to hold on and see the positive things in life. Meditation, as much as we drill it into your head
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is actually to me brings your spirit back to your body. It allows you to actually see like and like be present and see like, hey listen, it's not that serious. Like because once you're authentically yourself and if you can cling on to that one positive thought, you feel good throughout the day. An example of that is a smile.
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Like when I see a smile and I'm having a bad day, I can't mean mug the person back. Like you know, by the way, Philly is very, very mean. So I remember going to like a bus agent and I'm all skipping and giving him my money and he's just like, what the hell are you like smiling about? And I'm like, oh, okay.
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Like he was really serious. Like why are you smiling? And I was like, I thought it was a good day but now it's not, you know? Like so now I'm just gonna continue on with my bad attitude, thank you very much. But you know, in Atlanta it's a different story. They're so nice there. I walk down the street angry and I have a you know, old man like smile up there,
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like cheer up there. And I'm just like, oh, okay, like yeah. I don't know what I'm smiling about but now I'm really happy. Like okay, so there's the negativity bias. Then there's the invisible audience which I'm imagining now. No, the invisible audience is an awesome phenomenon because it's actually the thing that developed within us
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when we were adolescents. It's the thing where we feel like everyone is watching us, that everyone is paying attention to us. And I always say that if that is true and it is true, then that means that if I'm thinking about you, thinking about me, thinking about you, thinking about me,
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then literally less than 1% of my thoughts are actually going to be about you. And when you have that freedom, knowing that nobody's really thinking about you, like I don't know what you guys are thinking about. I know you're looking at me but like I don't really, like it's not as like as serious as sometimes we make it out to be. And once you realize that that less than 1% is there,
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then you start to have a little bit more confidence. Now the problem with this invisible audience is that we're manufacturing a society where we need those validations. How many likes am I going to get in the next 10 minutes? If I don't get 15 likes for my outfit, I'm changing.
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You know, like that's how we feel. But at the end of the day, once we realize that like no one knows what they're doing, everybody's winging it. Like everybody, even Kanye is winging it, right? Like nobody loves Kanye more than Kanye loves Kanye.
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And it's one of the things I always have to remind myself like be Kanye, no, no, be yourself because that's what it's about. Everybody is winging it. And that's what brings me back to I'm a phony. And that's the whole imposter syndrome. We have this whole fear about feeling like that we really, really, truly don't belong here. Like we really like, there must be a joke.
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They really didn't mean to hire us, whatever. You know, like, but at the end of the day, we have to really think about this equation. Focus plus action equals momentum. Focus is a byproduct of choice. You have to continually choose to be focused. Now as a person with ADHD, it's a hard choice,
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but I choose to be like focused on whatever that is, whether it's speaking to you, whether it's writing something, whether it's designing something, whether it's thinking about a new invention, which happens like five times a day and I need a builder to do that. So if anybody wants to talk to me afterwards, that'd be great. You know, it's just focusing on that.
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And action requires commitment because sometimes we get so excited about the idea and then it just dips off. And you know, you've mad of write a book, The Dip. And it talks a lot about that. And momentum of course, as we know, is just making sure that we're keeping up with it no matter how slow, no matter how fast. We're keeping up with that.
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Now I'm gonna do Tony Robbins because of course, have to, right? Excitement must lead to immediate action or you will lose the power of momentum. More dreams die because we fail to seize the moment. Do it now. Carpe diem, right? Like we all learn this. We say it, but it's like we're still so afraid
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to do that thing, to do that one project, to learn that particular language, to do that particular path that we wanna do because it doesn't look like the next person. But if you ever notice, it's the weirdos. And I can definitely be called a weirdo. I could be a millionaire if I got a dollar
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for one that called me weird, normal or crazy. But it's like, those are the ones that stand out. Those are the ones that people want to talk to or want to be a part of that movement. So we have to take action. And yeah, it's time for a small story. So, and it's gonna be great
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because I'm gonna try to do this in three minutes because I don't want to hold you up. But every year Gumroad does a really cool thing called small product lab. They do it like four times a year. And they make it so that you come up with a product that you can like execute within a 10 day period. So I decided, yeah, okay, I'm gonna write a book.
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This is the book. It's called Mutination. I love long subtitles. So it's called The Skeptic's Quick Guide to Tackling Depression, Anxiety and Other Soul Sucking Ailments in a Distracting World. So this book, and this is what I had.
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So I did this talk to it as well. And it's been changing. So it's not like I'm recycling and you're not getting old goods. But like I did a talk similar to this at South By and I had everybody write down one goal, right? So my goal for this particular program was to write a book.
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Then it was like, what have you been avoiding? I'm like, well, writing a book. So then it's like, well, what's your superpower? And it's like doing things fast and making people laugh. But mainly doing things fast because usually the making people laugh part is by accident. And I just hopped in front of it like Ellen and then try to like make fun of myself
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before anyone else can. And it's been working so far. But the big part about this was that I learned a lot through it because I didn't complete it on time. So here were the results. I ended up becoming depressed, crap. Okay, so that would happen, right? So I'm writing a book about depression,
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I become depressed, that's perfect. So it's just like, okay. And I remember being so excited about this book because I'm like, yes, I figured out my own depression because like I said, I love mental health advocacy. I struggled with depression and anxiety my whole entire life. Ever since I was three, everybody was like, what do you have to be depressed about at three?
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A lot, okay, a lot when you really recognize the universe and your place on it. So it's like, oh my God, I was afraid of the sun rays. Like it was crazy. So I had to go through this depression. So then I decided to write the group because it was a Facebook group. And I was like, guys, I know I promised you
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this awesome book. I did a cool cover design. Like look at it, it's great, right? Like it's gonna be awesome, but it's not written. And everyone, they did the opposite of what I thought they would do. Like 40 people were like, that's okay. Like it's okay. Like that's expected. Like whatever you're gonna write is probably going to be amazing because you're going through this experience.
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And then I was like, okay, all right, all right, cool. All right, I have a little bit of confidence there. And it was during my birthday. So it was during the time where I was turning 33. So I was like, oh wow, I'm really a failure. It's another milestone. 33 is a really important number for me. I have nothing to show for it. Mind you, like all of my friends are like, what are you talking about? Like you have this job, you have this, you have that.
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But it's like, you know, you get in your own way. So I ended up writing a post about how I'm going to do this in a week. And I said, if anybody who's out there is reading this post, nobody is, I know, then like, if I don't finish it, then please tweet that I'm a phony. Never listen to her again.
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And just like unsubscribe from my blogs. But I said, but if I do get it, I get to like go to my Amazon wishlist and pick something like under $50, because it's like long. And I like to buy stuff off Amazon. So what happened was the stupid post went viral. So I was like, oh no, like, again,
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like why did the posts that I don't want go viral and the ones that I do do? So the post went viral, and then I became depressed again. Seriously, like, okay, okay, that's fine. But I kept going. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, I thought about it. Friday, I started. And then a book was born by Sunday. Now, it would surprise me that I was able to write it
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because I had realized I had already wrote it. I was afraid to just put it out there. So I was able to create this book. It's a small book, and it has a different type of, I'm like doing it differently because of course, you know, I'm a techie.
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So I'm doing it as an application. So it's going to be updated. This is version one. Version two will include like my life story. Version three will include, you know, more applications of that because of the fact that even how I got here by meeting like a random book publisher at South by Southwest that was like, can't wait for that book. And I'm like, okay. And then I just threw my computer
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like way deep in the closet. And then after that, I did write three chapters, ended up meeting Oprah, handed her like the chapters. And she's like, okay. And I'm like, yeah, definitely not writing that now. Like, and it's just like, what are you doing? Like you're a self-sabotager. But I ended up writing it. It's on Amazon now. If you go there, you'll see it.
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And that was like one of the biggest successes I have done to this day because I finished something. Like, and there's anybody out there that knows that feeling about finishing something like it's real. So the funny part was though, I forgot to reward myself. I was ready for the failure. I was so ready for the failure
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that I forgot to reward myself. But what I realized from all this was the greatest gift ever too is it's about accountability. Like you can't, like you have a greater success rate I've noticed when you share it. You have to share what you're doing. I share everything. Sometimes some things I shouldn't share.
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Like my friend Scott Hanselman, he's always talking to me like, remember, everything is a permalink. And I'm like, okay, okay. But I don't because I don't have a filter and I don't really wanna have a filter. It's like, I just wanna share it. And I wanna see how the people feel about that. And then we can talk about it. Like, let's just talk about it.
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So my favorite quote that I'm gonna leave you with, because this is also something that I battle with even with talking with you, like, should I be really techie? Like I'm gonna just appear like the, you know, like I said, like the hippie designer that's like, hey guys, like cool design stuff. Like you should work with me, like or whatever.
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And even with the book, I'm like, well, what do people wanna hear? But the biggest quote that I have ever encountered and I'll probably have it tattooed somewhere. I have like eight tattoos. You can't see, well, you see a little bit, but you can't see most of them. But don't ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and go do it.
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Because what the world needs is more people who have come alive. And that's by Howard Thurman. And that is a really like important quote to really, really take in. Because we're always wondering what people want, but what we want is you, you know. At the end of the day, it's not about, because everybody wants something different
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and everybody will be a critic. And I can do a whole talk on that, but that's not here. So, but the biggest part about this is to remember that we want you. You know, like I always quote Jay-Z and there's two things I'm gonna say from him, even though he's like at the doghouse right now.
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But he always says, you know, like everybody can tell you how to do it, but they never did it. And I found to be like the best way that I was able to be my authentic self and to be the self that I wanted to be was to be around those that I wanted, where I wanted to be. And it wasn't a comparison, it was an admiration.
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And then another thing too is he says, difficult takes a day, impossible takes a week. And I thought that was cute because I'm like, oh yeah, that's, I mean, most rappers always say like a lot of really cool things, but it actually happens for them. So I'm like, this actually must be true in some way. And it is because I didn't think
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a lot of things were possible, but I just needed to wait and I needed to be myself. So if there's anything that you get from this, it's that we need to talk more, bridge the gap, but most importantly, be our authentic selves. So go and be awesome. Thanks.