The awkward art of following up

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📖WHAT I'M READING

The State of UX in Chile - I love reading about the spread of UX. Turns out there's plenty of UX opportunities in Santiago (the capital) with plenty of creative agencies to work for.
CES finally allows Sex Tech & Bans Booth Babes - One of my friends works in sex tech, and complains that conferences like CES discriminate this industry. After an embarrassing mistake last year, CES shows that it has learned to be more inclusive.
Start with an idea, not an aesthetic - Every time I started a project with too much a focus on the UI, I've failed and have had to go back to the drawing board. This article speaks to how great design is about ideas and problem solving first, and looks later.

🤷🏻‍♂️THE AWKWARD ART OF FOLLOWING UP

A mentee asked me recently... "I'm good at networking, but not at following up. What should I say?"

Following up can be an awkward experience, but it's a necessary part of networking your way into the field.

Establish some common ground when you meet. What is the other person's interests? A stronger foundation for relationships comes from being understood as a human being, versus a "contact" for someone to hit up for resume help.

Offer value first, then ask for help. One question I love to ask new people I meet is: "Is there something you're looking to get help with, or need a connection to? Maybe I can help or know someone who can." Their answer will give you a natural and direct way to follow up with them.

If you're asking for help, then be specific. I dread hearing "Can you take a look at my portfolio?" A portfolio can be big or small, have 1 case study or tons. Do you want feedback on all of it? Isn't that work I should be paid for? A better approach is to let the person know what you've tried already, and then appeal to their ego as an expert who has a unique point of view to help you.

"I really like how you format your case studies, it just flows. I'm struggling on telling my story in this case study - do you have any pointers? Is it too much content or need something else?"

Send "no response necessary" updates
As a self-proclaimed bad emailer, I am crap at responding to emails and also don't mind when people respond to my emails late. Inbox management is a universal struggle.

For that reason, it's often enough to send updates that require no effort nor response from the recipient. Sending career updates are a safe bet, e.g. what you're working on and new things you're trying in the field.

This helps accomplish two things: keep you connected and top of mind in that person's head, and also relieve that person's guilt/pressure from not responding to you. Building up trust with these updates first can make responding to you much easier, when the recipient has an better idea of who you are and what you're up to.

💩BAD UX EXAMPLE
Sign me out, Slack.
Slack just IPO'd and they're flush with investor cash. Their design and content teams are already top notch. I generally like Slack, but for an app that complex, they do get some things wrong.

One of these surprising things is how unintuitive it is to sign out of a workspace. I didn't know what to do here.

Took me a while to hit "edit", at which point the remove icon shows up. This is awkward because this convention is typically used to delete or remove something. I'm just trying to sign out.

Tapping the minus, the sign out button finally appears:

Finally, on the fourth step, you're able to sign out. Getting out of a workspace shouldn't feel like an Easter Egg hunt.

If you want to redesign or do a teardown of a user experience, a great place to start is:

Identify some core user tasks, e.g. account creation or signing out
Document, screenshot, and count the # of steps it requires to complete that task
Critique and redesign the experience.

If you're able to even reducing 5 steps to 4, that's a 20% improvement.