Master series: Aarron walter

This is the third episode in a mini-series, between season 1 and 2 of True North, called the ‘Master Series’.

Loop11’s co-founder Shefik Bey talks to Aarron Walter, who is currently the VP of Design Education at InVision and before that he was employee number four at MailChimp where he founded their UX practice. Shefik and Aarron dive into topics including common problems design teams face and the internal conflict designers often face when trust into positions of leadership.

They also discuss what a VP of UX Education is and is it an internal or external facing role (1:29). The common themes surrounding problems design teams face and possible solutions (4:46). How UX research fits into designing for emotion (8:30) and whether organizations are doing enough research upfront to guide their direction (13:01). The discovery process behind MailChimp Snap and how the ethnographic research process lead to new feature development (15:00). Strategies for ensuring research happens in parallel and doesn’t hold up other areas of a team and is in turn shared with the team (20:21).

How designers are often thrust into positions of leadership which often causes them internal conflict (24:40). What attributes are either required or often seen in a great design leader (28:26). How to create a successful UX team and how the process changes depending on a company’s level of maturity (31:11).

Helping designers finding the balance between being thoughtful and considered versus productive and frequently shipping (35:20). How convergent and divergent thinking can work together to achieve an optimal result (37:54). How organizations should measure success (39:17).

You can find Aaaron on Twitter - @aarron

Follow Shefik Bey on Twitter - @shefikbey