UI Breakfast: UI/UX Design and Product Strategy

Smart, narrow positioning is the key to success for anyone who sells their services. Who is your best customer? What kind of work do you want to be famous for? The world-class positioning expert Philip Morgan gives away a ton of actionable advice on this topic. You'll learn how to stop being a generalist, quit the pricing game, and become a successful specialist by employing your best talent. Podc...

Your creative skills aren't worth much until you practice them regularly. But how do you find time for that? Our special guest today is Shawn Blanc — author of The Focus Course, a creative entrepreneur, and my role model from years ago. You'll learn how to set goals, avoid distractions, build personal integrity, adopt the right habits, and live a truly focused life. Podcast feed: subscribe to http...

Customer support is the key part of user experience. But how do you handle it right? Our guest today is Alex Yumashev, the founder of JitBit Helpdesk, who has been in this industry for many years. You'll learn why customer support can't be a temporary job, how to approach it in a human way, and why even CEOs should still be doing support on a regular basis. Podcast feed: subscribe to http://simple...

When does A/B testing have a positive impact on your business? How do you make intelligent, informed decisions? How do you prevent your ego and past experience from interfering? Today our guest Nick Disabato, my good friend and a world-class expert in A/B testing, talks about his research-driven work process and his humble philosophy. Podcast feed: subscribe to http://simplecast.fm/podcasts/1441/r...

Dear friends, the podcast is finally back after the break! Our guest today is Heidi Pun, my designer friend from Slovenia. We talk about The Design Superpower — a free email course we just launched. We break down the entire process: how we came up with the idea, solicited articles from the top design superheroes, put the course together, and launched it across multiple platforms. If you're plannin...

Instructional design is about teaching people and designing training materials. Our special guest today is Stacey Howe-Lott — a guru of instructional design who helped dozens of entrepreneurs develop successful online courses and training programs. In this episode you'll learn how to approach any educational activity, set realistic objectives, counteract conventional wisdom for the "surprise&...

Content collection is a big, unsexy problem of every project. Our guest Kelsey Kreiling of Presence Agency (famous for their service called Week of the Website) mastered this skill to perfection. Her secret sauce is a framework that shapes the entire relationship with a client — from the first meeting to the project hand-off. Kelsey's tips will help anyone who deals with unresponsive clients and t...

To get ahead in your UI/UX career, you need to start writing about design at some point. Our guest Ben Gremillion, content designer at UXPin, will give you the best writing guidance. In this episode you'll learn how to pick a topic for your design article, structure it, capture your ideas, create illustrations, and edit the final piece for the best results. Podcast feed: subscribe to http://simple...

In this episode we're diving into conversion rate optimization with our special guest Momoko Price of Kantan Designs. You'll learn why research is key to any CRO activity, why elimination testing is awesome, what tools you can use to split-test your pages, and how to plan the entire testing process. Podcast feed: subscribe to http://simplecast.fm/podcasts/1441/rss in your favorite podcast app, and...

Discovering customer motivation is the core part of UX research! Today you'll learn to do it using Jobs to Be Done methodology (JTBD). Our special guest is Eric White, a customer-insight consultant who helps businesses understand why their customers buy. You'll discover the JTBD principles, and learn how to run an effective customer interview. Podcast feed: subscribe to http://simplecast.fm/podcas...

In this episode we're exploring a very unique, creative approach to user experience design. Andy Parker, digital consultant and UX designer, is a big fan of collaborative onsite workshops. You'll learn how to get all decision-makers together in one room, and how to solve design challenges with creative games and exercises. Podcast feed: subscribe to http://simplecast.fm/podcasts/1441/rss in your f...

How can we use psychology to inform our design decisions? Our guest today is Victor Yocco — UX researcher, speaker & author of the upcoming book Design for the Mind. He walks us through the key principles of persuasive design, and explains how to apply them in real-life UX projects. Podcast feed: subscribe to http://simplecast.fm/podcasts/1441/rss in your favorite podcast app. Show Notes Desig...

What design problems do startups have on various levels of development? How do they handle their UI/UX? To answer these questions, we invited a special guest: Jay Acunzo, VP of Platform at NextView Ventures. He's been helping startups for years by creating helpful content for them. In addition to startup problems, we also discuss Unthinkable — Jay's show for craft-driven creators (which represents...

Our special guest today is Roger Dudler, the founder of Frontify. The mission of their product is bridging the gap between designers and developers, improving the design workflow, and managing brand style guides (which is a huge pain for their large-scale enterpise clients like Lufthansa). You'll hear how they transformed the whole approach by giving project ownership back to the client. Tune in t...

This time my co-host Marie Poulin steps into SaaS founder shoes and shares the story of Doki, her platform for courses with mentorship and mastermind features. You'll learn what problems Marie and her co-founder Ben faced on the early stage of product development, and how they successfully built a solution that targets teachers, but faces students (a typical challenge for course software). Podcast...

Today Marie Poulin gives us an insight into digital strategy. First we discuss what it actually means, and how the strategic approach can be beneficial both for the client and the consultant. Then we break down the process into edible steps, so that everyone can start practicing elements of digital strategy in their client work. Podcast feed: subscribe to http://simplecast.fm/podcasts/1441/rss in...

In this episode we follow Marie Poulin's story of creating her famous online school for designers. She tells us how she got her first group of students for Digital Strategy School, how she experimented with pricing models, and what challenges she encountered on her way to success. This episode is precious for those who want to start their own training programs. Show Notes Digital Strategy School —...

Let's welcome Marie Poulin, our co-host for the next few episodes! Marie is a digital strategist and a founder of multiple businesses, including the famous Digital Strategy School. Today we'll hear Marie's success story as a designer and product creator, and figure out how she manages so many products at once. Show Notes Digital Strategy School — Marie's famous training program for designers Oki D...

Today's special guest, Danny Setiawan, is a product/UX coach for startups, and also the UX Lead for Mobile at The Economist. In this episode you'll learn how to instill the love for UI/UX into any conservative corporate environment, how to become a true UX leader, and how to address startup design needs at different growth stages. Show Notes Danny's website Relative ROI Calculator — the tool Danny...

Finally we get to talk about "real" design subjects! Today's guest is Liam Sarsfield, a seasoned creative director. We define the term "creative direction" and break down the process into edible steps. You'll learn how to put together a creative brief, conduct visual research, present visual work, follow up with clients, and source inspiration from famous creative directors. Sh...

How do you get playful with your SaaS business? How do you create and promote a remarkable, strong brand? Today we get together with Laura Roeder, the founder of Edgar — famous social media automation software which rotates your most important content. Laura shares her founder journey, the structure of their team, some content marketing secrets, and her formula for success (even though she says th...

It's so tough to "get into the flow" these days — with social media, distractions, calls, and alerts. Anders Thue Pedersen, author of the famous TimeBlock method, joins us today to share his insights on productivity. We discuss the best ways of getting into the flow and staying there for significant amounts of time, while making the work process transparent for clients and teams. Show No...

Today we're wrapping up the season with Christopher Hawkins! This episode is all about marketing. We talk about promoting individual podcast episodes, building an email list, and other marketing challenges that all of us face. You'll learn why 60 subscribers is better than zero, and why no product (even the most glorious one) will ever "sell itself." This episode is a huge reminder that...

Today Christopher Hawkins shares his favorite stories after recording 40 episodes of Chasing Product. We talk about cash flow in bootstrapped SaaS businesses, the importance of networking, starting small, choosing the right audience, and many other things. You'll find links to all original episodes below. Show Notes Episode 26: Long-Term Product Success ft/Tom Rossi Episode 27: Founder Success Hab...

In this episode we double down and explore the nitty-gritty production details of a single episode. We talk with Christopher Hawkins about planning an episode lineup, selecting and inviting guests, sticking to a topic, using intros wisely, and much more. Secret advice in the end of the episode: be fearless, keep producing, and change your thinking from "I have to do this" to "I have...