Boxes and Arrows: Comments by Paul Sherman

Paul Sherman — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 21:25:38 GMT

Very enjoyable article! I really like your description of the product manager’s role and responsibilities. I just posted an article at UXMatters that touched on some of the same points, in particular the conflict between product management and user experience. I don’t want to shill so I won’t post a link. But here’s title of the UXMatters article: Connecting Cultures, Changing Organizations: The User Experience Practitioner As Change Agent.

Paul Sherman — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 16:06:00 GMT

Thanks for a good read James. A couple of comments: You said of user needs research:

“Rather than support the design process, this research helps the IA understand the nature of the problem.”

Maybe I’m picking at semantic nits, but it seems to me that because a “design” in our world is a functional description of a problem-solving tool, there is very little – maybe no – difference between understanding the nature of the problem and the early stage design process.

My last comment is on your “strategy and scope” section: for anyone interested in a structured approach to negotiating strategy and scope, I HIGHLY recommend Adam Polansky’s chapter in “Usability Success Stories.” Full disclosure: I edited the book. But I’m propping Adam, not me.

I find I just keep returning to Adam’s case study for bite-sized nuggets of smartness.

Paul Sherman — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 01:20:44 GMT

Good artcle. I’ve been taking the same perspective myself, and I’ve also called for UX professionals to see themselves as change agents. (Reference: http://uxmatters.com/MT/archives/000162.php)

I think your points about organizational resistance are spot-on. My particular take on this is that organizational culture drives most, if not all, organizational inertia.