Illustration by dy

david young

Director of User Experience and Product Strategy

Seasoned and savvy Director of User Experience relying on analytic observation and creative instinct. +12 years of servant leadership to teams and their growth and +10 years collaborating with business allies, clients and stakeholders to create measurable, repeatable outcomes, outputs and impact. 

I will lead a team to be better aligned, more resilient and focused on delivering fast so we can begin iterating and adapting assumptions to improve products, experiences and results.

I want to deliver value that can be measured, grow talent and foster leaders of people and thought.

How I think

UX = CX

Separating user experience from customer experience isn’t possible if we are honest with ourselves about what we are to deliver.

Every customer had a UX moment before they became a customer. Too many bad UX moments on either side of that conversion and the loyalty is damaged.

There is really only one stakeholder

Design is not about where buttons go, or how long the content needs to be. It is defined by the intent of the audience, always.

If it is not in their service, it is not user experience.

Business experience means delivering impact

User experience affects the individuals using the output and Business experience is harnessing the value of good UX to drive positive impact for the business as an entity. It can be revenue, share of voice, loyalty or all of these. 

Give people something to react to

If design is hypothesis, it has tolerances and variables. Those produce measurable points. Measurement shows gap and alignment. That allows adjustment via iteration. Iteration makes improvements to the hypothesis.

Get something IRL as soon as you can.

Done > than perfect

It will never be perfect, no matter the design rigor. Perfect is a moving target. If it were fixed, it would lose all the magic and we would have nothing to chase.

Get things done, get them in front of who needs them.

Your team is your measure of success

Leadership is judged on the success of their team and the growth of the individuals therein.

How I lead

Make doing the work the norm

Meetings are not the seed of ideas. For a design team to make, individuals need dedicated time to silence the IMs and make real things that others can react to, and that information drives the next set of ideas when the teams convene.

Let them be professionals

Knowing when not to interject is as important as giving input for teams. Give them room to solve before presenting your own solution.

No "ninjas, superheroes or unicorns"

If a team is to succeed, donning one of them with the favorite child crown places the others at disadvantage and breaks chemistry. Single points of failure guarantee a future panic.

Help them grow too big for the team

Train your replacements and help them build measurable, intangible skills that are portable for the rest of their careers. 

Share the success, own the mistakes

Nothing will break a team unity faster than un-federating the group with blame. If something goes sideways, it can be fixed. No one should work with the fear of punitive action for mistakes.