professional Matthew Oliphant professional Matthew Oliphant

Pretty-bow-less Research

It doesn’t happen too often, but sometimes when you get to the end of a research effort, you look at all the data and think, “Did we talk to the right people,” because there’s very little overlap in the feedback.

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professional Matthew Oliphant professional Matthew Oliphant

Don’t be a designer

I am the one writing this, but, historically, I’m not the one who needs to be saying it in order to shift things toward a better direction. Cornelius either. It needs to be someone who has a direct line to the Business Ear.

It needs to be someone with clout, who writes articles for Forbes or something, who can say, “Something new is coming to the boardroom that will make Design Thinking look like Design Goofing Around.”

And that “something new” is something that fucking matters.

Is there anybody out there?

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prosonal Matthew Oliphant prosonal Matthew Oliphant

Was 2022 Way Less UX?

A year ago, I wrote something about a decision I made.

The saved-you-a-click version: Way less UX, way more writing AND publishing. A year has passed. How did it go?

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professional Matthew Oliphant professional Matthew Oliphant

Democratization Is Nothing to Fear — Unless You Fear Collaboration

Democratization is nothing to fear—unless you fear collaboration. I think in an organization that has a decent Resear Chops program, trained researchers on staff, and an understanding that research shouldn't be crammed into an Agile *Development* sprint can benefit a lot from a researcher's usual collaborators contributing to the body of knowledge.

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professional Matthew Oliphant professional Matthew Oliphant

Let Me Help

I’d like to bust those silos down, but instead I’ll try yet-another-thing to create space for people to do better. No silos. Maybe a wall or two, but only for working at.

It’s kind of my way of saying I believe in you. I care about your health and well-being. I love you.

Let me help.

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personal Matthew Oliphant personal Matthew Oliphant

Depression and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

I wish I had been riding for all the years between the southern coast of Portugal and the northern coast of Oregon. Not necessarily because I’d have lived a happier life (maybe I would, maybe I wouldn’t), but because I would likely have found sooner the correlation about envisioning success and consistent maintenance.

I’m not a big fan of metaphors, but I admit I kind of like this one. Primarily because it is both a metaphor and a … phor?

Freedom and a state of relaxed happiness is achievable through envisioning success and consistent maintenance. And I’m increasingly sure that applies to more than just motorcycles.

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professional Matthew Oliphant professional Matthew Oliphant

Hey, Designers: Learn to Business

If you want to have a greater impact as [insert your Experience-related profession here], your work needs to impact the roadmap (product, service, or other). And not just impact it, but drive it. That means you’re going to have to learn how to Business, how to negotiate, how to elicit & diffuse hidden agendas, and how to persuade.

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