UI Breakfast: UI/UX Design and Product Strategy

How do you make sure your design efforts are effective? There's no bigger mistake than just guess! Brent Palmer, a design lead at Zendesk, walks us through the tools and methods for data-driven design. You'll learn how to approach customer research the right way, why testing is important, and how to deal with the research results. Podcast feed: subscribe to http://simplecast.fm/podcasts/1441/rss in your favorite podcast app, and follow us on iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play Music. Show Notes Zendesk — the company where Brent works Heap, Google Analytics, Mixpanel — common analytics tools Usability Hub — remote user testing for quick design validation InVision — a prototyping tool Zoom — a video conferencing tool for conducting 1-on-1 sessions Confluence — a documentation tool for storing results of UX research (also Google Drive, Slack) Inspectlet — a tool for heatmaps Pendo, Intercom — tools for customer research Zendesk Garden — a public library of user interface components for Zendesk products Follow Brent on Medium Brent's website Conferences where Brent is speaking this year: DIBI 2017, Design Matters 2017 Follow Brent on Twitter: @brentpalmer Today's Sponsor This episode is brought to you by Tiny Reminder — a simple productivity tool for freelancers and consultants. Need content or files on time? Tiny Reminder will play "bad cop" for you with friendly notifications! It works great for collecting content, feedback, files, bios, or anything else. What's best, this tool is forever free — sign up today! Interested in sponsoring an episode? Learn more here. Leave a Review Reviews are hugely important because they help new people discover this podcast. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, please leave a review on iTunes.

9 Mar 201747min

There are thousands of apps out there, dozens for every possible task. But how do you pick the right tools? How do you put together a toolbox that fits your own work process? Our guest today is Francesca Geens, the founder of Digital Dragonfly — a technology and productivity consultancy. We review the principles of human productivity, and then discuss popular tools for to-do lists, email, project management, and CRM systems. Podcast feed: subscribe to http://simplecast.fm/podcasts/1441/rss in your favorite podcast app, and follow us on iTunes or Stitcher. Show Notes Digital Dragonfly — Francesca's technology and productivity consultancy Asana, Trello — tools for to-do list management Unroll.me — a tool that rolls up your newsletters into a single daily email Feedly — RSS news reader Asana, Basecamp, Slack — project management tools for teams Evernote — a note-taking app Google Drive, Dropbox, Microsoft OneDrive — cloud storage solutions Capsule CRM, Nimble CRM, PipeDrive, OnePageCRM, Insightly — CRM systems Francesca's Productivity Teardown Follow Francesca on Twitter: @f_dragonfly Today's Sponsor This episode is brought to you by Tiny Reminder — a simple productivity tool for freelancers and consultants. Need content or files on time? Tiny Reminder will play "bad cop" for you with friendly notifications! It works great for collecting content, feedback, files, bios, or anything else. What's best, this tool is forever free — sign up today! Interested in sponsoring an episode? Learn more here. Leave a Review Reviews are hugely important because they help new people discover this podcast. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, please leave a review on iTunes.

3 Mar 201752min

It's episode fifty today! For this little anniversary, I invited my very first guest from episode one. Dennis Field is a famous design educator and entrepreneur, and also a brand evangelist at InVision. Today we discuss how creative individuals can partner up with large companies and become their evangelists. You'll learn how such relationships benefit both parties, how everything works, and how to get started with the brand you love. Podcast feed: subscribe to http://simplecast.fm/podcasts/1441/rss in your favorite podcast app, and follow us on iTunes or Stitcher. Show Notes Our first episode with Dennis (dated October 17, 2014) InVision — the company Dennis works for The Pipe — Dennis's book project Greenline Creative — Dennis's design studio The Designer's Handbook — upcoming book by Dennis Field (welcome to sign up for updates) Design Disruptors — a documentary by InVision Dennis's website Request a call with Dennis via Clarity.fm Follow Dennis on Twitter: @dennis_field Leave a Review Reviews are hugely important because they help new people discover this podcast. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, please leave a review on iTunes.

24 Feb 201735min

In this special behind-the-scenes episode you'll meet Benedikt Decke who helped me build and launch Tiny Reminder (the new productivity tool for freelancers and consultants). Benedikt is a talented software engineer, awesome consultant, and founder of of Stage CMS. We talk through the entire process "from idea to launch" — how we determined the scope for the MVP, how we launched it, why we switched to the freemium model, and what we plan to do in the future. Podcast feed: subscribe to http://simplecast.fm/podcasts/1441/rss in your favorite podcast app, and follow us on iTunes or Stitcher. Show Notes Tiny Reminder — the web application for freelancers and consultants we're talking about. Sign up today — it's free forever! Stage CMS — Benedikt's software product FemtoConf — the awesome conference in Darmstadt, Germany, organized by Benedikt Deicke and Christoph Engelhardt Brian Balfour talks on how to nail freemium in SaaS Benedikt's consulting website Follow Benedikt on Twitter: @benediktdeicke Leave a Review Reviews are hugely important because they help new people discover this podcast. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, please leave a review on iTunes.

12 Feb 201738min

Today we'll talk about reverse-engineering. You can apply this thought process virtually anywhere — in choosing the right client or the right lifestyle. Our special guest is Drew Thomas, an ecommerce expert and seasoned entrepreneur. We talk about our agency experiences in the past, and why we can "do what we want" these days. You'll learn how to start with the most important criteria, and work your way backwards to the desired client or lifestyle. Download the MP3 audio file: right-click here and choose Save As. Podcast feed: subscribe to http://simplecast.fm/podcasts/1441/rss in your favorite podcast app, and follow us on iTunes or Stitcher. Show Notes Drew's website Episode 43: User Experience in Ecommerce with Kurt Elster Shopify, Squarespace eCommerce — popular ecommerce solutions How I Reverse Engineered a Consulting Niche — Drew's article Follow Drew on Twitter: @truedrewco Leave a Review Reviews are hugely important because they help new people discover this podcast. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, please leave a review on iTunes.

3 Feb 201733min

Pattern libraries can help you streamline the design process and build a flexible system (instead of static pages). Today we're exploring this concept with Laura Elizabeth — a fantastic designer, writer & speaker. You'll learn how to plan and build a pattern library, how to document it, and how to make your clients fall in love with the result. Podcast feed: subscribe to http://simplecast.fm/podcasts/1441/rss in your favorite podcast app, and follow us on iTunes or Stitcher. Show Notes Double Your Freelancing — the website Laura is now redesigning with pattern libraries Design Academy — Laura's design course for developers Style Tiles — another concept for web design process Styleguides.io — great collection of website style guides Episode 26: Bridging the Gap Between Designers and Developers with Roger Dudler — our episode with the founder of Frontify Laura's official website Client Portal — Laura's product that helps keep all client deliverables in one place (use your special promocode uibreakfast to get $100 off) Follow Laura on Twitter: @laurium Leave a Review Reviews are hugely important because they help new people discover this podcast. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, please leave a review on iTunes.

27 Jan 201735min

How do you go about finding a mentor? Today our guest is Greg Gilbert, a serial entrepreneur and founder of multiple companies. Greg shares his great story of being mentored and becoming a mentor himself. You'll learn why mentoring is different from coaching or mastermind groups, how to find the right person, and how to start the relationship at the right terms. Podcast feed: subscribe to http://simplecast.fm/podcasts/1441/rss in your favorite podcast app, and follow us on iTunes or Stitcher. Show Notes Nerdy Makers — Greg's company Capsule — Greg's coworking space in Uppsala, Sweden The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz — Greg's favorite business book Greg's website Follow Greg on Twitter: @gregoiregilbert Leave a Review Reviews are hugely important because they help new people discover this podcast. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, please leave a review on iTunes.

5 Jan 201747min

Email marketing for software products differs from classic content marketing. We're looking into that today! Our special guest is Christoph Engelhardt, the founder of LinksSpy and the author of SaaS Email Marketing Handbook. You'll learn about the best practices, what campaigns work best during different lifecycle stages, and how users communicate with your software through transactional emails and reports. Download the MP3 audio file: right-click here and choose Save As. Podcast feed: subscribe to http://simplecast.fm/podcasts/1441/rss in your favorite podcast app, and follow us on iTunes or Stitcher. Show Notes LinksSpy — Christoph's SaaS product Moz — Christoph's previous place of work FirstOfficer, Churn Buster, GroupBuzz — SaaS products we mention as examples MailChimp, Drip, Intercom — popular email tools SaaS Email Marketing Handbook — Christoph's new book (the link includes a special 25% discount) Follow Christoph on Twitter: @itengelhardt Leave a Review Reviews are hugely important because they help new people discover this podcast. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, please leave a review on iTunes.

29 Des 201645min