Author Archives → David Hoang

The importance of peer mentors

One of the most effective way to grow and progress in your career is by finding mentors that will provide guidance along the way. Seeking advice from people who find it worthwhile in taking their time to invest in you will help you become better at your practice exponentially. There are two types of mentors. The first are senior mentors’ those who have practiced the craft for a very long time and share wisdom that you often don’t even see along the horizon of your career path. I wrote a bit about this in my post about having my personal board of trustees.

The second group of mentors are peer mentors; people who may not be senior to you (though they can be) but can provide guidance and insights in the current path of your journey. Often we think of mentors as someone with a lot more experience than us…a teacher/student relationship. Though those relationships are extremely important, remember that you can learn a lot from your fellow students as well.

My friend Natalie is a great example of a peer mentor. We are around the same age ad started our design careers at the same time. We have never worked together before but often converse about challenges we are going through. She is now the UX Director at Projekt 202.

We try to meet up every so often to catch up and get mutual advice from one another. This is not one of those sessions where someone is “picking your brain” and you get no value from it, but it is a two-way street where knowledge is shared as an exchange. Natalie would tell me some challenges she is going through, and I could chuckle then tell her “I am going through this exact same situation.” Though sometimes you need to rant a bit during peer mentor sessions, the intent is to really learn from each other. The difference between these conversations and the ones with your senior mentors is that your peers are in the midst of that process with you.

A list of some of my peer mentors (though not all):

There is no precise science to finding peer mentors, but you simply have to start conversations with people and see if it sticks. It does not have to match the job title you have, but the same state of experience/growth you are in. Natalie is a fellow introvert and very like-minded to me. Conversations with her really help me get a second opinion on my thinking and approach. We met by randomly following each other on Twitter. Lesli is a high-energy, super friendly (of course, she’s Canadian) and outgoing extrovert. We met because we happened to be sitting next to each other at a co-working space in New York City. Her opinion provides diversity to my approach. Find people who are situationally in the same place. An example is if you’re a designer looking to move up to a senior designer role, look for those who are looking for that same transition or people who have newly been promoted in that role.

Set an Agenda

This doesn’t have to be formally structured but I have found these conversations extremely helpful when there is time to think about things. Before meeting with a peer mentor, I like to send a few things I have been thinking to give them some context. In return, they do the same. I try to find mutual topics that we want to talk about.

I often like to cover:

  • catch up as friendly humans—see how they are doing in life
  • mention a few topics we both want to discuss
  • what has been working well and what has not
  • philosophies and guiding principles (I LOVE guiding principles
  • managing humans
  • situational advice and feedback

Set a Meeting Cadence and Stick to it

It’s important ot take the time to schedule these frequently. You decide in what cadence you need. I try to aim once per quarter, but with some people I may talk monthly and others (unfortunately) annually. Though these as group settings can provide value, my recommendation is 1–1 interactions. Go for a walk, get coffee, or some activity that lets you have a deep conversation. You will find these extremely educational, inspirational, and rejuvenating.

Go seek like-minded humans who bring a diverse perspective to refine you. Often your peer mentor might not work at the same company as you. In the quest for seeking mentorship, you may find that guidance needs to be found externally, which is fine. Think of this as rival professional athletes who train together in the off -season. It boils down to the needs you have as a practitioner of your craft and where you’re willing to seek it. It is totally okay to have a mentor who works at a different company.

See you who resognate with and reach out to them. The worse thing that will happen is you might not get a response. If you are looking for a peer mentor I am happy to make some connections or can make some time.

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Don’t build The Homer

Much of my time these days is focusing on working with product designers of various skills either at my current work or externally. Coaching and mentoring other designers has become something I deeply love. It was the way I started in design and there is nothing more gratifying then seeing people grow and exceed even you. Aside from fundamental skills and the creative process, one area I like to focus on is how you present your work and talk to stakeholders.

Everyone has stakeholders, but in design it can be more difficult because not only do you have your immediate stakeholders such as your manager and leaders in the company you work at, but also the end user. The vision of what is best for the business and best for the user is not always harmoniously aligned. Young designers want to do good work and be seen as successful in the eyes of their managers and stakeholders, but there is the danger of simply doing what you think what they want.

“Don’t build The Homer! Don’t build The Homer!” I often exclaim to them.

This saying was inspired by my favorite television series, The Simpsons. In an episode called “Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?” Homer discovers from his father Abraham that he secretly has a half-brother, Herbert Powell, a successful car salesman who has a little bit more hair and less of a belly than Homer.

Herb (voiced by Danny DeVito) is so thrilled about the discovery of his family member and invites the entire Simpson family to stay at his mansion. Herbert then gets the idea that Homer, the average American, is the perfect person to design a new care for his company.

Homer then has full authority to approve the car’s design despite the engineer’s hesitance on the ideas, which includes a bubble dome, tail fins and a horn that plays “La Cucaracha”.

When the car is unveiled it was so poorly received and because of the $82,000 sticker price, it cripples the company leaving Powell Motors bankrupt.

We as designers have a strong responsibility as decision makers, and simply saying “yes” to whatever people tell you to do can have sever unintended consequences. You owe it to your end users to not do everything your stakeholders want. In the end, stakeholders will want you to make the best decision regardless of what they say to you.

At WWDC I met up with my former coworker and manager Phil, a huge Simpsons fan as well. He got me the Hot Wheels version of The Homer, which I leave at my desk for inspiration and serves as a reminder…

Don’t simply be a Yes Person because you’re afraid to say “no” when you need to. Don’t lead those you work with down a path of unintended consequences.

Don’t build The Homer.

Assembling your personal board of directors

It is quite common for a company to have a board of directors who act as representatives to stock holders.I have written a lot about the importance of mentorship and these type of relationships to help you grow as a practitioner in your career, and there is no reason you should limit yourself to just one. As in other forms of relationships, you will find that you gravitate around certain people for specific things.Assembling your own Board of Directors (BoD) for you as a person can be beneficial in getting the hard questions answered. Though family members and friends have good intentions when giving you advice, they can often be too affirming and support you in what you want to hear, and not necessarily what you need to hear. With your personal Board of Directors, these are (or should be) constructed with people who will give you a dose of reality in each of their respective practices.An example of some people who sit in my personal BoD:

  • Adam: One of my best friends since I was 10 years old and former co-founder. He knows my habits personally and professionally and has a channel of communication with me that’s the realest.
  • Alan: The ex-Apple engineer and inventor who teaches me about shipping, ideas, discipline and getting things done.
  • Dylan: The UX Designer who used to teach web design/development. He encourages my writing and generously edits it.
  • Jaimee: A seasoned UX Director who expands beyond that. The person who really encourages me to speak at conferences and publicly share ideas.
  • Joris: My Dutch friend, a software engineer who chats with me about every month or so about our side projects.
  • Kimber: My new manager with industry knowledge of building and running product teams in the bay area. Not only do we have 1:1s professionally in my role but she gives amazing insights personally in my growth as well.
  • Marie: The first mentor who taught me the skills of design and has seen my progression from the very beginning. I go to Marie for everything but she has the most knowledge of my career historically.
  • Natalie: The proven executive and company builder who has really mentored The Rock Tumbler Collective and advices particularly on my innovation projects.
  • Laura: A former VP of Strategy who helps me focus on…surprise…the strategy of my career; where I am now, where I want to be, and how I position myself to get there.
  • Lesli: The Canadian Creative Director who I met sitting next to each other one day. A peer mentor who is going through similar growth challenges as I am now in a leadership role.
  • Rich: A former colleague and VP of Engineering. He loves to tinker, code, and has encouraged/helped me throughout my quest to write better Swift code.

(This is not everyone but a sampling of the range of conversations)After reading that you may think, “Wow, that’s a litany of mentors.” It definitely is, and each person voluntarily shares so much value with me.

How to Assemble Your BoD

This is simpler than you may think. Design the structure around your BoD and it will take form. You can formally ask each person for their time, but I’ve often found these relationships form naturally. If they cannot commit to it, they will tell you or it will be very apparent. The cadence in which I meet each person varies on who they are, what they do, and what their schedule can be like.Put it on the calendar: Treat your Personal BoD like a real board and make time for it other on the calendar. Otherwise it is at risk of getting pushed back or becomes secondary. The BoD provides value for you and your future so you must carve time to do it.A conventional BoD typically meet synchronously, but it is not necessary in this instance. In fact, I do not think anyone in my Personal BoD has ever met one-another. Just know what information you want to tell them.How you should meet with your BoD:

  • Set time to meet with them on a cadence. It can be quarterly, weekly, or even annually
  • Give a clear update of what you have been doing. This isn’t a time to impress anyone. Let them know what is going well and what is going bad
  • Ask for specific advice and insights about what you’re going through, and what your goals are
  • Take notes and write down your follow up plan. I like to write on physical paper and then add it in OmniFocus as an actionable item.
  • Most importantly, don’t waste their time. These people clearly are invested in you and care about you. Make sure you follow up and update them with what happens after you meet.

If you have a BoD, make sure they get a return on their investment. In this case, it is not financial (though it possibly could be), but the return is on you as a person. There is no gratification a seasoned vet in the industry gets more than seeing someone they coach and mentor grow exponentially.Set the expectation for yourself, not that you’re afraid of letting them down, but strive to make them proud.Who is on your Board of Directors? Is it time for you to reach out to people who you trust that will push you to get the best ROI on yourself?

My Guiding Principles for 2015

In the past few years I have abandoned goals/resolutions in favor of themes or guiding principles for the new year. The reason is because sometimes goals set in the past become irrelevant by the end of the year for me. Instead, I try to establish guiding principles of my areas of focus for the year and set smaller goals based on that.

Learn

Be consumed by learning. I feel I did a pretty good job at this in 2014 when I left HTC and was taking a break and working on my side projects before joining Black Pixel. However, I hope to accomplish intensive learning throughout the course of my year without having to quit my job every time!How I will learn this year:

  • Read 15 books for 2015, as per our reading group every year.
  • Immerse myself around people way smarter than me. (This is every day for me at Black Pixel).
  • Go to a museum once a month to see an exhibit.
  • Build something with an Arduino.

Create

For the last few years, I have been rather absent from creating physical objects. My work has been mainly focused on digital products. It was not until when I 3D printed an Apple Watch that I made a physical object and refined it with files, sandpaper, and other tools.Some do not know this about me, but I was an Art major in college. Those four years I spent so much time painting, drawing, photographing, woodworking, metal smithing, and sculpting. I really miss those days and there is really no reason I cannot take those skills and apply it to my job now. In a conversation with a friend, we talked about how working in digital products (design + code) is being an artist in a different medium. That really inspired me to re-calibrate my artistic approach.A few ways to focus on creating:

  • Build device prototypes with soapstone, plaster, or foam core.
  • Spend more time in a machine shop or studio.

Connect

Throughout my career I’ve had many great mentors who helped me get to where I am going now. They really enabled me and donated their time to help me develop as a designer/person when they really did not have to. Now later in my career, I feel like I am in a position where I can give someone some useful guidance.An idea is to meet with a new person a month—someone needing guidance in the industry. It is amazing how an introduction can change someone’s direction or enable them. In addition, I will continue to focus on receiving guidance from my current mentors and new mentors to come.Some ways I will connect:

  • Doing more public speaking and sharing with people. (Shameless plug, I will be speaking at Seattle Xcoders and CocoaConf in Portland this year).
  • Meeting with my present mentors once a quarter to get feedback from them on my career and life.
  • Introduce one person to someone new a month to help connect them to the design community.

Focus

Finding focus to learn, create, and connect. This means having to say no 1000 times to focus on the one yes you want to. It is not easy to do, but is necessary. In order to do this, I need to focus on what the goals I have are and stay committed to that, even if other enticing things come up and distract me from the goals. Now that said, goals can also change.This also applies to my personal life. I want to spend better time with people, not necessarily more time. I would rather have coffee and a good conversation with one person instead of going to a networking event and talking to many people briefly.For me, focus simply means being as present as possible in the what you are doing, whether that is having dinner with a friend or working on a project. Learn. Create. Connect. Focus.

Design Notes from Wren Lanier’s Talk: Designing on the Z-Axis

Disclaimer: These are notes I took from Wren’s talk but also added my own thoughts. You can see her slides here.“We’re not designing pages. We’re designing systems of components.” —Stephen Hay (@StephenHay)

Unless you are planning to retire as a UX Designer in five years, you will work on a project that will be beyond the display—hardware-enabled, mobility, etc.Two focuses in designing (particularly on mobile):

1. LayersThe biggest takeaway for me from the talk is when Lanier discussed heavily using the Z-Axis in the way you visualize layers and flows of a product. It makes me really want to explore finding software or a plugin that can help in visualizing wireframes and prototypes in a 3-dimensional space.Layers also allow interface elements to move independently of one another. Lanier uses the example of a Big Mac (as an anti-example of this) and then next shows a carefully stacked Jenga puzzle.

Examples:

  • A nav element can appear from the top of the interface and appear.
  • Content can move “forward” towards the user and move out of the screen. Example
  • A UI element may already exist below a layer. Example

Here is a quick drawing of how you can think of your layers. They don’t have to be entire screens but just a few UI elements to create a sense of depth.

2. Transitions

Transitions soften up the moments of change between layers, especially when a user is on a device that is viewed closer to his or her face. It also provides context cues for the user to interact with the app.For example, directly manipulating the message on the Mail app on iOS reveals options the user can interactive without taking him or her to a new screen.

What’s Next?I firmly believe that we as UX Designers are in very great danger of becoming irrelevant if we do not rapidly evolve with the technology we are designing for. We are entering the era of design of devices (in plural) and singularity is dead. Users are expecting a multi-device experience and we need to consider all the devices and the spaces between the devices.As the quote by General Eric Shinseki goes, “If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance even less.”View Slides

What surfing can teach you about life

I am no beach bum, but aspire to be one. Last summer I went to Lisbon with my co-founder and some of our friends from Paris—beautiful city with perfect weather, really nice people and great food. We went to the beach to go surfing. It was my first time and didn’t know what to expect. All I knew is that it was probably going to be more difficult than I remembered.It proved to be as difficult as I anticipated but I loved every second of it. I probably got on my board about 3 out of 25 times. However, it becomes addicting to keep trying. It made me think…surfing is a great life analogy. You could probably relate this to personal life but I’ll focus on decision-making as it relates to work (mainly).What does surfing teach you about life?

Choosing the right wave

The first thing I had to learn was to choose the right wave. I can’t tell you how many times I got on a wave that seemed good from a distance, and was too small to even go anywhere. On the flip side, I passed on a lot of waves which turned out to be great ones I should have jumped on. The perception of something from the distance skewed what it actually was as it approached closer. As I got more experience observing waves, I was able to make more confident judgments.

Committing

One thing is certain: You cannot half-commit on a wave. When you see a wave you want to take, you have to start paddling with your arms full speed and go 100% even if it is not the ideal wave. I think this is often true when it comes to life. When you decide on something, you need to see it through with no regrets, because hesitation can often be the first step to failure. At the same time, you can decide on pass on something, but you felt it was the right decision at the time.

Going full force until success or failure

They say in the startup world, that you want to fail quickly. Why? Because you want to get to the point where you realize if something is worth doing or not without wasting too much time or money. The results were really apparent for me; either I get on the board or fall off immediately.

Learn from successes and failures, and try again

After each attempt, I thought to myself, “What did I do wrong? Did I try to stand up too soon (or late)? Was the wave not good enough?” I take each experience and remember it for my next attempt. I think about this when our Xhatch team works on client projects. We talk about what we did well, and what we could do better. Even in the most successful projects, there are always things we could have done better.If I were to ever plan a team-building retreat, it would be taking the whole team surfing.