@eriktorenberg ooooh!!! Ok so now we get to gossip. :) Last year, one of our clients asked for us to set up a research study in New York. They asked us to conduct friendship groups with customers and do one of our immersive fieldtrips (where we take clients through experiences related to a topic, like navigation or white space, so that they understand it better). They specifically asked about doing a fieldtrip to the American Girl doll store, which I thought was odd. It turns out that they had year end budget to spend, and essentially wanted a paid trip to NYC during the holidays. I wanted to include the story in the section about why innovation isn't happening and the employee mindset, but the editors felt that it may be interpreted as offensive and it really didn't add to the main point of the book. I really don't want to offend anyone so I agreed and took it out! (Great question!!)

@lexkon Funny enough, we just met with a potential partner, http://www.manmademusic.com/ and adored them! We are talking about new ways of using "sonic branding" to enhance the experiences we design for clients. They had some beautiful examples of not just how small interaction sounds (like swishes and clicks in an app) help with feedback and setting the tone (pun intended) for a specific brand strategy, but also how they've used sound to convey adjectives such as "innovative." Check out the AT&T example on their website--it's really well done. So yes, I definitely think there's a role for sound in UX.

@kunalslab Hi Kunal! Yes, I agree and will take it one step further--I think anyone can design their way out of any problem! Granted, some ideas will be better than others at first, but “working out that creative muscle” helps you come up with more ideas, making it more probable that the ideas are good!

@jeffumbro Yes, and I love it! Overall, I agree that simplified experiences where the interface essentially disappears are great. The design gets out of the way and the user gets the job done. And, having an app for everything is pretty annoying as well. Clutter anywhere, whether on a screen or in your life can be frustrating and lead to useless interactions. But, always remember to design for the context-- In other cases, reminding people that the interface is there to help them can be just the key to a better experience. We are designing an app for patients to use when they take a pill with a sensor in it, and in that case, the app almost serves as a friend and we are taking extra care to make sure that it’s helpful (and anti-clippy, no offense Microsoft!).

@jacqvon I have been thinking about doing it for years, but my excuses held me back. Then I went to a meeting with a fairly large financial company, and was appalled at how the company employees were acting. It's as if they didn't care about their company. To be honest, I was jealous. They have millions of dollars in their budget, and I started dreaming about all the good I could do with one of those millions. It was around then that the Excuse Personas started taking shape, and I realized that my job (I talk about being a teacher as my calling in the book) was to teach people not to consult. The book was a way for me to get down everything I wanted to say to help those employees who felt stuck and teach them a method to get unstuck. I still don't know how giving away the "secret" to how we've been able to help companies innovate and grow is smart, but I guess we'll find out whether writing this book was a smart decision soon enough!

@russfrushtick A simple one is that by having a pretty UI, you have a great UX. There are plenty of beautiful, crappy websites out there (crappy defined as not leading to conversion) so if the problem is in the information architecture or overall flow, make sure you aren’t focusing on the lipstick too much—it’s still a pig. Another is that user research with any person is better than user research with no one. Although I do understand that money and time are barriers to doing proper user research, try to get actual users (not your siblings or partners) to give you an accurate read of what works and what doesn’t. Sometimes, you are worse off hearing what you want to hear from friends and people who don’t tell you the truth.

@harrystebbings I have to shamelessly plug here--I think it's the mindset! Where I kept failing before was in trying to change corporate culture through "top-down" methods like teaching training on design thinking. Starting "bottom-up" where we are helping each individual employee see their role in contributing to innovation, user-centricity and beautifully designed brands, products and services has been much more rewarding and (I feel) successful. It's still too early to tell, but getting each individual to feel like it's his/her job to make customers love their company/brand has been a missing ingredient and the one I would propose as most important (for today at least!) :)

@melissajoykong 1) My (totally made up) three requirements: a) benefit the people who work at the company/make money b)benefit your customer in a unique, meaningful way c) help to make the world a better place. If you're doing all these things, you are probably growing. 2) Ask What if?. If you feel stuck, take 3 minutes to come up with ways to get unstuck. By doing so, you'll realize that you have plenty of options, and it's up to you to take one. To me, designing your life is about deciding what you want in and what you want out, and making sure you are constantly moving in a direction that brings you happiness!

@melissajoykong There are so many but I've personally been fascinated with finances and helping people understand more about spending money, learning about wealth, saving and investing. We've been working for years in this space, and I personally have worked on everything from ATMs to some of the newer fintech startups. Helping more people understand how to get out (or stay out) of debt is a passion area of mine. Healthcare, energy, and some of our work in the non-profit sector also have huge impacts in terms of quality of life. Interestingly, this question is part of why I wrote the book. I can't help everyone through consulting, but maybe I can help them if I just made it easy for a driven person to do what I would do on a project! (I talk about this more in the last chapter!)

@monapatel Is there one step of "The Reframework” that is more significant than the other steps? If you have to distill the steps down to the most important premise/step, what would it be?

@erictwillis Two answers: the most fun step is asking "What If?" because people get into it and lightbulbs start going off. So people would likely say that's the most important step. To me, the most important one is the Excuse Personas, because if you've invented reasons why you can't get unstuck, you never will actually follow through on those ideas and make any meaningful change.