Session Title
Seven Years of College, Down the Drain
Presenter
Dante Murphy, Digitas Health
Session Type: Discussion
Implementing a cycle of continuous learning in the workplace.
This session is intended to be a participatory discussion about the specific details of a User Experience Skills and Strategies curriculum in the workplace. The discussion topics will include:
• Who is the audience for a work-based curriculum…new hires, mid-level staff, gurus?
• Who are the instructors…team members, consultants, academics?
• What are the topics?
• Are topics repeated, and are there different levels of detail and skill addressed?
• How often is the training held?
• Is the context live work or sample exercises?
• What is the role of local professional organizations?
• What stories of success or failure can members of the audience share?
The format for the session will be a facilitated round-table, with time allocated such that each topic will get an opportunity for discussion. Notes will be shared after the session with attendees.
Biography
Dante is the Vice President of User Experience for Digitas Health, the health agency of Digitas and a global leader in digital and healthcare communications. His responsibilities include experience strategies, ideation, design, testing, methodologies, and building a world-class multi-disciplinary design practice.
Dante was a session speaker at the Interaction ’09 conference and has also presented to audiences in New York, New Jersey, and Washington DC. He publishes a monthly blog called “Optimized Experience by Design” and currently has several book proposals in development.
5 Comments
If I understand the topic correctly, I am quite interested. The practice at a previous employer, was to hire good “people” with knowledge of the domain, but with the expectation that the team would train this person to our flavor of UI and IxD design. It worked out, but was also troublesome. Interesting idea to set out a formal education plan for a new hire, for example, before they are hired.
Rob-
I believe you do understand correctly, The idea is to have a structured education plan within your capability designed to improve the skills of the practitioners and expand the skills of the group.
I have seen some companies (mine included) that do annual “bootcamps”, but I think this concept is fairly uncommon. Would love to discuss it with others.
Many thanks for the feedback!
Dante
This sounds like a great concept, and one many companies could learn much from. Many companies don’t have well defined continued education policies for their employees, which is a real shame. Hope to get the chance to attend this discussion.
Interesting, but seems to broad for I10. More like a SxSW topic. Not enough IxD focus.
Brad, thanks for the props!
Dan, I admit that I opened this up to “a User Experience Skills and Strategies curriculum” on purpose, hoping that since it was a discussion the focus would evolve organically from the participants. But maybe you’re right, maybe it would degenerate into a series of disconnected monologues.
Nah…I’m too good a moderator for that.
But seriously…thanks for the feedback, it’s great food for thought (and it really means a lot to get thoughtful criticism from someone I really admire). Would love to hear if anyone else would prefer the topic to be broader or narrower.