A presentation at GIF London in in London, UK by Josh Silverman
PEOPLE PERSIST mynameisjoshsilverman.com/gif @jhsilverman
HELLO, I’M JOSH
“People now make their own brands – not for a profit, or shareholder value – but for a mission or movement. This shifts power and control to the individual.” Debbie Millman, @debbiemillman Chair, Masters in Branding Program, School of Visual Arts Founder, Design Matters New York, NY
SO MUCH HAS CHANGED in thirty years…
Source @BriarMade
working inside THE PEOPLE LAYER
1 DESIGN IS NEVER DONE.
2 FEEDBACK IS A GIFT.
SOLICITING FEEDBACK 1 2 3 4 Frame the feedback with open questions Hone in on the current problem Listen without reacting or interrupting Understand it’s a moment in time, not forever PROVIDING FEEDBACK 1 2 3 4 Make it about the work, not the person Lead with questions, not opinions Be as specific & timely as possible No “shit sandwiches”
3 ESTABLISH COMMON LANGUAGE.
4 FACILITATION IS A ROLE.
5 SOCIALIZE YOUR PROCESS.
6 MAKE DECISIONS TRANSPARENTLY.
7 REMEMBER, USERS ARE PEOPLE.
Laurie Voss @seldo The older I get, the more every problem in tech seems to be a matter of getting humans to work together effectively, and not tech itself. 136 2,162 5,680 22 Aug 2017
8 OPTIMISM RULES.
9 SELL, DON’T TELL.
• • • Tell them what you’re going to tell them. Tell them. Tell them what you told them.
• • • Tell them what you’re going to tell them. Tell them. Tell them what you told them.
• • • Sell them what you’re going to sell them. Sell them. Sell them what you sold them.
YOU USER
FEATURES BENEFITS YOU USER
10 SEEK CROSS-TEAM RELATIONSHIPS.
Source @MichaelPolivka
11 NETWORK, NETWORK, NETWORK.
PRESS PANELISTS
12 SHARE HOW YOU WORK BEST.
13 DIVERSITY IS REALITY.
@anatinge
“ Diversity and design share the purpose of creating for someone else. If you’re creating for only one user, you’re not affecting as much change as you could.” Candi Castleberry Singleton, @candi VP of Intersectionality, Culture, and Diversity, Twitter San Francisco, CA
14 RESOURCES FOR HUMANS.
“ The limiting factor to performance isn’t how hard an individual can work, or how smart they are, but how well a whole team works together.” Braden Kowitz, @kowitz Co-founder, Range Labs San Francisco, CA
15 CULTIVATE A GROWTH MINDSET.
Source: Carol Dweck
Source @anatinge
“ All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make, the better.” Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1844
people are you ready? LET’S BE MORE HUMAN
Bo Ren @bosefina In Silicon Valley I used to think being too “human” was a weakness. Too empathetic, too emotional, too vulnerable, too feminine. Now I wear “human” was a badge of honor. The future lies in humanists building a human layer on top of technology. 44 766 2,625 9 Nov 2017
Once you take care of people, then you can take care of product. #PeoplePersist
THANK YOU mynameisjoshsilverman.com/gif @jhsilverman
We’re living in a time where design has never been more valued and technology accelerates ever faster. There are more companies at billion-dollar valuations than ever before. And yet, hustle culture hasn’t fully evolved, and startups are still moving so fast that a few things do get broken along the way. Before we reach a critical stage, let’s pay more attention to the stuff that persists – like people. This talk will show you how to diagnose and solve for the People Layer, including:
The following resources were mentioned during the presentation or are useful additional information.
Design Fucking Thinking by Marc O’Brien https://designfuckingthinking.tumblr.com/
Relationship maps author Michael Polivka https://twitter.com/michaelpolivka
User Manual of me, by Cassie Robinson https://medium.com/@cassierobinson/a-user-manual-for-me-d3a851fbc694
Project Aristotle by Google https://rework.withgoogle.com/blog/five-keys-to-a-successful-google-team/
Level Up, a framework for self-assessing team performance, by Designer Fund https://designerfund.com/levelup/
The cost of meetings 📅💸 http://phillip.io/%F0%9F%93%85%F0%9F%92%B8/
Clockwise, a tool for managing time https://www.getclockwise.com/
Range, the startup building healthy workplace habits, and the Medium post that quoted its co-founder, Braden https://www.range.co/
Meeting Design by Kevin M. Hoffman https://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/meeting-design/
It Doesn’t Have to be Crazy at Work by the co-founders of Basecamp https://basecamp.com/books/calm
Andrew Lightheart, an excellent coach and your neighbor up in Brum, author of Presentation Now http://andrewlightheart.com/about
Design Better, a series by InVision on team performance – including videos, workshops, conversations, and more https://www.designbetter.co/
for free. You
can too.