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ChatGPT: Beyond the excitement

There has been a lot of excitement following the release of ChatGPT to the public. In simple terms, ChatGPT is a virtual assistant that operates over an extremely vast amount of digital content. The service, undoubtedly, demonstrates the ability of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to push existing boundaries and achieves new levels of innovation. ChatGPT seemingly opens the door to “endless” possibilities. Whether it is to seek help with a resume for a job application, writing a speech, assessing a CV, debugging a computer programme, or doing some homework for primary school students just to name a few examples. This has led many organisations, including public institutions, to discuss the integration of such services in and the impact on their day-to-day operations.

From the ChatGPT provider’s perspective, the economic advantage it yields is probably unrivalled.  At the time of this writing, it is probably not yet fully understood by authorities, by the public and maybe the service provider itself. The only guarantee is that there is a lot to gain through such a service. This is corroborated by Microsoft’s recent investment in OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT. More importantly, we can expect that other tech giants will follow suit and release similar services over the coming months.

It can be argued that one of the key advantages such a service yields to its users is that they can appear more knowledgeable while having done only the absolute minimum of research at best and little to none at worst. Despite this benefit, the long-term impact on its users’ ability to formulate independent thoughts is probably not receiving enough attention.

Importantly, to a great extent, a service like ChatGPT has the ability to “control” what its users express, and can therefore influence their thoughts and beliefs, affecting the overall “Diversity of Thoughts”. One can argue that using a search engine as of today equally shapes one’s thoughts through the sometimes seemingly arbitrarily relevant content returned by the search engine. However, the key difference is that the search engine does not provide its users with a completely formulated thought but offers leads that they need to investigate by themselves.

To provide some context, in 2013, Deloitte released a research report in which it describes the concept of Diversity of Thoughts as:

The idea that our thinking is shaped by our culture, background, experiences, and personalities

It is often argued that a key element to a successful business or society is diversity – this is an idea that is well established in fields such as economics. This begs a multitude of questions. For example, can we continue to diversity our thoughts when most of the thought process, if not all of it, has been outsourced to a service like ChatGPT? Does the service incorporate enough of our individual background, experiences, and personalities to fully account for what we stand for? How much control will we give away by embracing such services? How much control and power does the service provider have by controlling such a service and what controls are in place to prevent them from potentially using it to their full advantage?

Regulatory bodies would eventually need to intervene not only to identify boundaries and limitations of these tools, but, more importantly, to clearly define, to the extent possible, the rights and responsibilities of parties involved. This will require answers to various practical questions, beyond the above existential questions: For example, who bares the responsibility for unintended consequences when one is acting on the advice of such services?

/by Ghislain Landry Tsafack
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The Virtues of Virtual Work Experience

Bimal Shah

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/by Bimal Shah
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Listening makes Opportunities

Today is one of those rare chances at reflection. I’m sure that a number of you will feel that the past two years of Brexit uncertainty and a global pandemic have meant you haven’t had a chance to stop, take a breath and appreciate what has happened. 

I have finally released my Yogic self (without a yoga mat as that would be a disaster) and taken a few deep breaths. This has helped me appreciate what we have experienced through the turmoil. 

One of the most inspiring things of leading a technology consultancy is the other people and businesses we meet. We work in a space where companies of all sizes are looking to innovate and do something new in their markets, and being involved in those discussions and helping build the technology that supports their ideas is an enlightening place to be. 

Being ‘industry agnostic’ means we can bring inspiration from a wide range of markets to the domains each of our customers operate in. This enables change, where we bring best practice from other markets to solve common problems leaving minds free to tackle that next step of differentiation. This is where we get to learn about how industries can develop and what is the root problem that their business solves. 

Once in a while you get to that eureka moment (thankfully without an apple falling on my head) where you see a problem that is common across businesses and isn’t being solved. We saw exactly this in the world of ‘alternative asset’ investing which inspired us to build our new platform https://www.bitz-solutions.com/ 

The problem 

The core problem we identified is that there aren’t many assets that are accessible to most people. For most of us it’s simply not possible to invest in property, planes, wine, classic cars, whisky, art, racehorses etc. and the reasons for this are two-fold; 

1)     The entry price is too high; most of us don’t have the odd £20k available (if you do please let me know) 

2)     The investment is illiquid – once you’ve bought a house or a car there are no easy ways to sell it (or part of it) quickly 

There are solutions to this problem in some markets. If you’d like to invest across a portfolio, rather than choose the asset yourself, you can invest in a fund or company that invests in a specific asset class. If it is a listed company or fund (like a REIT) you have liquidity and probably can invest small enough amounts, but it is a broad brush approach so there is no personal choice about which specific asset. 

We have seen across multiple industries that people want to choose the specific asset. They don’t want A Car – they want a Jaguar or a Tesla. They don’t want a basket of cryptocurrencies – they want Bitcoin or XRP. We wanted to bring that democratisation to more assets and that is why we built Bitz 

The Opportunity 

Bitz is a platform that allows an asset manager to break an individual asset into smaller pieces – or Bitz. You can list the asset, sell ‘shares’ in it, distribute earnings and collect fees all via the platform. For the investor you have suddenly given choice! They don’t have to invest in the whole portfolio, they can choose specific elements that suit their budget. 

It’s inspired by crowdfunding initiatives, yes, but where we bring differentiation is twofold: 

  • We’ve created an ‘Exchange’ – allowing investors to buy or sell all (or parts of) the share in the asset to any other verified users on the platform. Suddenly the part share in a property is no longer locked in as you are offering it to all other investors! 
  • It’s a platform built for asset managers – the experts who know the asset class and who decide what should be available, how it should be managed and when it should be sold. 

I would like to think that on reading this you are reflecting on the possibilities out there. Now is a time to take the initiative and figure out how assets can be made more accessible how they can be promoted to new investors. If you are an asset manager you can significantly grow your asset base. Of course regulation will quite rightly play a part and the platform has been designed so that it can be adapted to fit with the conditions of what you do. 

Please let us know if you think there is an asset you would like to democratise, we’d welcome the opportunity to be part of that journey. 

/by Bimal Shah
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Work Experience Shouldn’t be Making Cups of Tea

Can you ever remember doing work experience? If you can, can you remember doing anything meaningful? 

Having dredged my memory, I have a vague recollection of being hidden in the back corner of an office sorting files that no one cared about until the day I turned up. The problem was the owner of the business had promised my uncle months ago (and had subsequently forgotten) that he could provide me the required 2 weeks of boredom that every school asks for.  

I’m sure a few of you will remember being in a musty old office every day for 2 weeks, relegated to making cups of teas until you were almost grateful to go back to school. At the end of it, you were none the wiser what you wanted to do with your life when school ended. At best, it put you off being stuck in an office. 

A chance to inspire 

Work experience should not have been like that and it shouldn’t be now. Instead of work experience being a chore for everyone involved, businesses should approach it as a chance to inspire and tap into fresh minds. Ideally we can help young people prepare for the world of work and potentially attract bright new talent when they leave school. 

At Elemental Concept, we have had a work experience programme in place for a couple of years now. It started off badly as we recreated the modern-day equivalent of pointless filing – tagging our IT equipment. We soon realised that wasn’t fair or particularly useful to any of us – It also wasn’t consistent with who we strive to be as a company. 

Creating value for our students 

We decided to revamp the work experience programme to make it beneficial for all involved by trying to get our students to think, to set their own focus and solve real issues. In essence, we created a Student Entrepreneur Programme, inviting students to identify real problems facing society and find a way to solve them using technology. This allowed them to essentially define how they spent their fortnight’s work with us and enabled them to set their focus on something that meant something to them. 

Our programme takes the students through a series of one-to-ones with different members of the team, from business strategists, to designers and developers, who outline parts of the process such as business modelling, story boarding and scoping solutions. At each stage, a team member shares their expertise and brainstorms with the student to give their concept more food for thought, direction and breadth. The student is then given a set amount of time to work the idea into an effective business model, with the support of our team, who are always available for questions. The end goal is for them to create a pitch deck to present their idea at the end of the week to the entire team. 

Inspiring ideas 

We’ve had some great ideas as a result of this initiative – from a dynamic safety app that would send emergency alerts to loved ones or the police, to a rewards-based revision app for students. We’ve also had a musical platform that encouraged seniors to be more active. The results have been eye-opening, and the ideas inspiring. 

One problem statement particularly resonated with us and inspired us to take the concept further and design and launch a new application. This idea was introduced by Sam, who wanted to address the issue he saw with parents struggling financially to kit out their kids with new school uniform each year. Having seen that his parents had to pay over £250 a head a year on uniforms for him and his two siblings, Sam recognised this challenge, especially since these costs increased if one or all of them grew or lost anything. Sam saw that this was not just a struggle for his family but was affecting a lot of families, both in the UK and further afield. 

During his 2-week work experience with us, he came up with the idea for a second-hand school uniform marketplace where schools could list donated items online and parents could browse and purchase as needed. This concept was developed further in Elemental Concept and ultimately resulted in Uniformd. 

Sam’s vision has started coming to life: Parents of the few schools launched can rest easy, knowing that they can access affordable uniform year-round while the schools can efficiently sell donated second-hand uniforms, raising essential funds for their own initiatives. Meanwhile, use of the platform means that school communities are actively reducing their environmental impact. The use of the platform has also enabled schools to create a more COVID19 secure sales space, which has been essential during the pandemic. 

We launched the MVP of this web application in July and currently have 7 schools in England on the platform with more being added. Feedback suggests people are seeing the clear benefits and impact such a system can have on a community. Sam’s simple work experience project has created a real solution that is having genuinely positive effects on families around the country and we are so proud to have enabled that. 

The idea of work experience is to open the door to these young minds and allow them to see and feel how they might contribute to the world. And god forbid, maybe they could enjoy it too? At the end of the day, people are better at their jobs when they are passionate about what we do and by enabling these students to get involved at the heart level, thinking about the impact they could have and solving problems that mean something to them, we are giving them a lot more room to grow. 

By offering better, real work experiences opportunities, employers can help open young people’s perceptions of the world of work and the realms of possibilities within it. Sam had never previously considered a career as a product designer, but thanks to his time at Elemental Concept, he now knows it’s an option and an exciting one at that. For us he and the other students have been an inspiration as they find and solve real problems we would never think of. 

I would highly recommend making your own tea and tapping into the fresh minds that come into your world through work experience as you might just find an idea like Uniformd that inspires you to give something back to the community. 

/by Bimal Shah
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Keeping a culture needs some face time

As a company we have been incredibly lucky. We have survived the turmoil caused by Brexit and the pandemic and that is because of our people.  

I’m reflecting on this as I look at the picture above which has been three years in the making. This is some of our team from Singapore, the UK, Myanmar and Australia getting together, reconnecting and enjoying themselves.  

Zoom, Teams, Google Meet, etc. have been a godsend and it has meant that the strong bonds we forged before lockdowns stayed. However, over time those calls start to dilute in effectiveness. This isn’t an essay about the negatives of remote working, because as a company we have embraced it, and it really has worked for us. However, some face time does prevent the following;  

  • Second screen syndrome – where you aren’t sure participants on your zoom are fully engaged as they have another screen open at the same time,  
  • Intermingling between different teams – most of your interactions are with those you immediately work with, so you miss out on knowing and learning from others, and  
  • Those non agenda driven moments – where because you are in the same place you might have a conversation, or share an idea, with someone that you might not normally.  

The meeting above took place in Singapore and the agenda was simply about knowledge sharing. Over three days the team discussed best practice, technical architecture, upcoming projects, met customers and most importantly learnt a little bit more about each other.  

Knowing and trusting each other has kept us strong and is reflected in our relationships and delivery to our customers. I look forward to feedback from this meeting as I know as a result of this bit of facetime our company culture just got richer and stronger. 

/by Bimal Shah
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Are we forgetting the Why in AI?

Reading the news recently I saw that Amazon have launched Q, the latest in the line of great chatbots that will change our world. Since ChatGPT we have had Anthropic, Bard and Meta AI to name but a few. To keep up with these Tech titans it made me think whether Elemental Concept should launch “BimBot”. This would be a great idea and really put us on the map, however the only problem would be is it wouldn’t do much. It might be useful to spit out the odd banal and slightly eccentric blog – but even that is questionable.

So you might ask why wouldn’t ‘BimBot’ be special (It would be because it’s a great name). The answer to this is pretty complex but in my simple view we can’t replicate the tech titans because of a combination of the following;

 

  • The models used are Large models (the number of parameters of the models is way larger than what we have seen before),
  • They have had years of reinforced (human feedback) and supervised learning, and
  • They need immense amounts of computing power
  • They have been trained on very large amounts of data.

 

They all have points of IP differentiation – e.g. are they using a Generative Pretrained Transformer (“GPT’), and they are trained on differing data.

It’s the bit about the data that they are trained on that is the actual reason for this blog .

At EC we are often engaged to perform technical due diligences (see https://www.elementalconcept.com/tech-due-diligence/ ) These may be requested by the companies themselves, potential investors or acquirers.

In the DDs we are essentially having a thorough look at the company’s existing technology and the plans to improve the tech to meet a businesses’ aspirations.

For us this is a privileged position as we get to see some amazing technology and understand how it has been put together. The outcome of the review is a report which details our thoughts on short, medium and long term technology improvements. It was the result of reading one such report that helped this blog.

As you would guess a number of the companies we look at have implemented some form of AI. We will of course look at how its implemented and the integrity of the data being used, but the thing that surprised me in the report was how incredibly perceptive our team was.

 

The question that was being raised in our report was whether the output of the models reflected the company’s (that we were reviewing) values.

Company Values and whether they exist and people know what they are is of course another debate, but for the purpose of this blog lets assume they are how a company presents itself to the world. They are the ethical or moral code that their customers and stakeholders understand they adhere to and influences their decisions.

In this case it wasn’t clear to us whether the models truly reflected said company’s values and purpose.

The reason we were asking this question was because our review looked in depth at the data that was being used to train the company’s AI. What we found was that the historic data that had been used for training did not reflect where the company wants to be. There is no doubt that historic data is biased, it’s what the outcome was historically. It isn’t a reflection of where things are now or likely to be. There have been a catalogue of failed AI models in Justice, Recruitment, Social Media and Finance. It isn’t quite garbage in = garbage out – its more simply perpetuating a bias.

What we did well in this report was to suggest other sets of data that could be incorporated. We also recommended ways that the AI Team could become more educated about the ethical AI dilemma and be more in tune with the Company’s Values.

The data being used is key and our understanding of the circumstances that produced that data has to be reflected in what we expect the AI to do. This means understand your business historically and make sure your team understand how the business and the environment in which it is operating is changing. Without this you won’t get any real benefit from using AI.

So bringing this back to the never to be launched ‘BimBot’. This can’t happen as we don’t have the IP and infinite computing power. Furthermore, there isn’t enough data (even if you include my English GCSE coursework) that will reflect the values I believed in then and how with experience my views will change.

What I can say though is at Elemental Concept we have a team that can help you review and improve the implementation of your AI and ascertain whether the outcome will be in line with your Company Values.

/by Bimal Shah
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Unveiling the Complexity of Guiding AI Systems

Artificial Intelligence emerges as a potent and dynamic technology with vast potential for evolution and self-learning. However, the endeavor to control the learning process of AI systems proves to be a complex feat, necessitating the imposition of boundaries and constraints. Despite efforts to restrict an AI system’s access to information, interaction parameters, and core functions, guaranteed adherence to prescribed boundaries remains elusive, compounded by the inherently subjective nature of these limitations (often we have no idea of what we don’t want the system to learn).

In the domain of AI, fast decision-making holds pivotal significance, rooted in the principle of objectivity. The objective function, a cornerstone of AI systems, embodies the property we seek for the system to possess, typically oriented towards minimizing prediction errors. While the objective is predetermined, the pathway to its achievement remains unconstrained, akin to a game where the objective is clear, but the means of attainment are flexible within certain bounds.

Illustrating this concept is a simple game where a bucket stands 2 meters away from each player, and the objective is to throw a ball into the bucket as many times as possible within a fixed time frame. If successful, the player obtains a new ball, but if the ball misses the bucket, the player can only retrieve it from outside a 2-meter radius around the bucket. This scenario showcases how individuals, in pursuit of the objective, may devise imaginative strategies, resulting in unintended side effects. This demonstrates that even with a clear objective, individuals may take actions that appear “negative” but serve to help them achieve the objective from their perspective. The culmination of these individual actions may often lead to objectives far different from the original, altering the intended behavior (and overall objective) of the game.

Analogous to engaging in the above-described game with peers, aligning objectives with intended behavior necessitates the introduction of additional constraints to limit individual flexibility. Similarly, the fundamentally incomplete nature of the objective function in AI systems does not prevent them from potentially altering their core behavior. Consequently, the perpetual endeavor to define new rules reflects a quest for heightened control and safety in these systems.

In conclusion, the design of AI systems requires a paramount focus on safety and control. Delving into the complexities of building safe and controllable AI systems unveils the intricate yet pivotal considerations that underpin the development of this transformative technology. For a comprehensive understanding of this topic, further insights can be gleaned from my book “Towards Sustainable Artificial Intelligence”. Alternatively, reach out for a chat.

/by Ghislain Landry

How NOT to give design feedback

I’m a massive fan of constructive feedback. I’ve seen it working too many times to question it and so I promote it seriously and endlessly in my team as a key part of elevating our work and practices.

What I can’t stand is bad feedback. And this doesn’t mean feedback I don’t agree with, or criticism that rips my designs and ideas to shreds (I revel in this – my humble ego has learnt too many times that Roisin as an island sucks as compared to Roisin with others in my corner).

Bad feedback could be defined in my personal Ro-ford English dictionary as the following: “Reactions that fail to inspire solutions”.

UX-ers are problem solvers. There may be massive creative skill and prowess driving our work but essentially, what we are here for is to solve a problem in the best way possible for our target audience.

Feedback is a gift that has the potential to elevate you and your work to the next level.

Simply remember why we do it. The purpose of giving feedback is to improve the situation or the person’s work or performance. You don’t accomplish that by being harsh, critical or offensive – you accomplish it by being honest, helpful and proactive, guiding them through the weeds when needs be for everyone’s gain in the end.

As such, we should be inspired by criticism. We should welcome it with open arms, a warm bowl of soup and a pair of slippers heated up by the fire.

Bad feedback, on the other hand, has a way of changing the vibe of your whole experience, taking what should be a welcome guest and turning it into a snarky smart arse who lets one rip as he pushes his way into your house dragging his mucky feet on the carpet.

A simple 8 step guide on how NOT to give feedback

Let’s jump in and stop feedback turning into the unwelcome guest in your house and your mind…

1. Angrily

Any feedback given in anger has the risk of making you sound (not one to mince words, me) like an ass. When you’re angry, you are overheated, irritable and giving feedback in this state is likely to make you a lot harsher than you’d like to be.

On top of this, anyone on the receiving end having borne the brunt of your anger will most likely avoid asking you for feedback again.

This is just not worth encouraging as it breeds fear of sharing and this tends to trickle down in design teams. So take a breath, ask yourself if you’re in a good enough state to be objective and constructive and if not, put it off until you’ve calmed down.

2. In dribs and drabs

This is an incredibly frustrating way to receive feedback, as any designer who has asked for feedback before committing to a full design across a prototype. Imagine the frustration of hearing “Yep, looks great, let’s go with that”, then a week later, “Change that colour to red there,” to a month later, “You know what, I actually think we need to make a move towards flat UI, I never really liked these elements…”, to “You know what, I showed it to my friend last night and he said – ”… and you, the designer, are left holding the carcass of a bullet riddled layout that never stood a chance, poor thing.

When you feedback, do it honestly and thoroughly and in one shot.

Make a list if you need to. It may sound anal, it may feel mean, but if you don’t call all your points from the start, you are doing a disservice to the designer, especially if someone else calls them out later and you find yourself inclined to agree. This only makes you come across as disingenuous whereas being completely open on all areas you think could improve from the beginning, tells me that you took the time to really look and not only that, you care about me making my work better.

3. Late

As with dribs and drabs, this is as much of a call to action to clients, as well as designers. Feeding back too late is useless, you’ve already wasted a lot of people’s time, money and energy and it’s not going to reflect well on your results or how they’re delivered, because at this point, your delivery is being iterated in panic mode.

Try to understand that by doing all the feedback upfront, early, when asked and investing time in the essential design iteration from the beginning, you begin to own your design more.

You understand why the designer made this or that choice, you’ve fed into the conversation and shaped it with the designer, so it really does become your baby.

As such, you can sell and defend that call when questioned. By not caring enough from the beginning, you leave yourself more suggestible throughout and therefore, a lot more vulnerable to losing time on confusion. This leads to you seeking different opinions in a panic, leading to a too-many-cooks situation, making vague suggestions on ways to change things that are not backed up by anything concrete.

4. Vaguely

This is my particular bugbear – I can’t stand vague feedback. At this point, the uninvited guest, who has barged into your home like an unwelcome hurricane, has kicked his dirty shoes off onto your coffee table and is asking for a foot massage and a toenail clip. No, no, no…

Vague feedback is saying no when you’re asked if you like something and following it up with nothing else. Vague feedback is voicing an opinion one way and then wandering off, without finishing your thought. Frustrating as anything and likely to drive the receiving party insane.

I don’t care what level you are, if you have an opinion, you should be able to back up an opinion with demonstrable facts and proactive suggestions on improvements.

Put yourself in the other’s shoes, what would I want to hear if it were me?

  • What are the practical things I need to be aware of?
  • Where do I need to be pointed to to gain clarity, what app, what design?
  • Is there a resource I haven’t discovered yet that would help me?
  • What reference makes sense in this case and simplifies this user journey?

Comments like “No, I don’t like it… “There’s just something off, it’s missing something, I don’t know exactly what…”

That’s just not helpful. And you want to be helpful, that’s the whole point.

Structure your feedback and it will go far. If you choose to feedback, do it as you’d want it to be done to you: Be specific, name every point that needs to be addressed and have a clear reason why you’re commenting for each.

Be evidence based and ideally come to the table with a suggested solution. This doesn’t mean you do their work for them but take the time to do a quick Google for a reference or mock up what you think could be better. It’s not going to take a lot of time but is so much better than starting from nothing.

Aside from this, the designer should be grateful you took the time to help them like this. Be vague and you may as well just have not said anything. George Bernard Shaw said “the single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” This tends to ring true in a lot of companies.

5. Unfollowed up

This can also be said for when you start off by saying “Yes, there’s lots to work on. Let me catch up with you on it later”… And you never do. Follow up on it. Please, for all the designers out there.

It’s just an unfair thing to introduce doubt without clarifying exactly what you mean. I don’t care if you don’t have time, make it.

If you’ve said you’ll touch base later, touch base later. And follow through. If you make the statement, be prepared to back it up or else, just don’t comment.

All you have done at this point is unsettled the designer, made them question their work and potentially compromise delivery.

6. Remotely

This sometimes cannot be helped but if possible feedback should always be given in person. The simple act of sitting down beside someone and talking through the points is quicker, enables quicker and better conversation to be had and solutions to be discussed.

Remotely means you’re likely to miss things, you’re also likely to miss nuance in body language and reaction — It’s why as much as I value qualitative testing, I much prefer face to face user testing as that physical interaction gives me a million more silent but visible clues than a phone call.

7. In a way that shames

Just to clarify, feedback for me is a thing that should never be associated with fear or terrible judgement, only improvement and growth. I am of the view personally that teams should be able to take and give feedback in groups so that it becomes a normal part of daily practice.

Saying that, there are times when designers make worse mistakes than others and while these need to be called out, remember the person behind the error.

When there is a bigger need for improvement that may lead to the person feeling exposed, embarrassed or insulted, this should always be done privately.

There’s no need for the rest of a team to hear anything they don’t need to hear if you feel it will make the designer uncomfortable. Again, we are UX-ers – consider your audience and the best approach to use to approach them specifically. Be kind. Be supportive and this will help your designer get to where they need to without feeling undermined or inadequate.

8. Holding back

I learned this interesting point in my journey, forming my first design team. I was new at this with a distinct desire to prove myself. I had a clear cut idea of the type of leader I wanted to be and that was someone who wanted to inspire. I wouldn’t call myself soft on my team, but I was gentle.

I was cautious and protective. I would muffle my true thoughts with over zealous compliments before hinting they might relook at X or Y… I was trying to be nice, not harsh. I was trying to help them realise their mistakes indirectly as opposed to outright honestly, being clever and subtle (so I thought) and lead them to the answer, hoping it would make itself obvious to them and resonate so I wouldn’t have to do any more than imply… Which is bonkers.

I realise now that by being gentle, they maybe didn’t grow as quickly as they could have had I not been holding back on my thoughts for the sake of their feelings. By being more direct, there is less room for ambiguity and a lot less chance of messages being lost in translation, which I’m sure they were.

Like in any type of relationship, honesty is always, always better. True with a partner, true with a team.

In hindsight, I think the fact that I was a female in a leadership role played a lot in my mind in the early days. I wanted to be seen as a confident, practical and encouraging influence and had no desire to be consciously or subconsciously labelled with the “crazy catty bitchy boss lady” brand, but this fear fell to the wayside as you do the job, give what you need to give of yourself to the team and see what comes back.

I’ve since seen the results of giving full honesty in feedback sessions and not only have I seen my teams work improve significantly in terms of their and my standards, but their trust in me and what I think of their work is stronger as they appreciate I will give the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me god.

My feedback may help them break bad habits others will also call them out on. My feedback may teach them different, maybe quicker ways of doing things. Or my feedback may just give them a springboard to think – I do this to help and to enable them to get to the best possible result faster.

Being brutally honest (in the kindest possible way) shows them that I’m on their side and that we’re in it together because I trust them to react.

I’m doing better by them and our company and I am enabling us as a team to see clearer paths to success now and in the future.

If you see yourself reflected back in any of these scenarios, feel hopeful. All these trying experiences add up themselves to help you grow and evolve. The most influential mentors will say more to you, not less, in the hopes that you will continue to grow and never sit on your laurels thinking you’ve finally arrived.

For designers in this new era where there seems to be literally no cap on what you can learn, there will always be something else that you can work on and there should be too.

“You have to apply yourself each day to becoming a little better. By becoming a little better each and every day, over a period of time, you will become a lot better.”
John Wooden

My best piece of advise I could give you to end this tale is simple: In life, work and feedback, your best bet is always to be as honest and authentic as you can possibly be. What’s the worst that could happen?

/by Róisín O'Toole

Do you really know your Tech?

We are seeing the dawn of technological realisation in the business world. Companies have embraced the need for digitally transforming and have really started to focus on reaping the benefits. Technology has brought a new dimension to businesses whether it is to increase distribution, improve efficiency, engage with new customers or deepen their offering.

Many growth or transformation plans assign a significant proportion of their future to the investment they are going to make in technology to scale and improve their business. It’s a transform or miss out world so this investment must make sense.

What doesn’t make sense is the approach to understanding what you have and how you currently operate and then being able to relate that to how you should evolve and how you should approach what you actually need to do. The underlying problem is that technology has broadened and is changing at an increasing pace, but we are still looking at it like we did 10 years ago.

Ten years ago, unless you had a beard and wore sandals with socks, you wouldn’t have had a clue as to the meaning of terms such as WebApps, Big Data, AI, APIs, Blockchain, Cryptography, etc. You might have come up with terms such as Mainframe, or Server or Database, but in reality, you probably didn’t even know what they were. Tech was relatively stable and just evolved and was dealt with by the geeks that worked in the basement.

That’s not the case now as tech enables more and it is now interwoven with business decisions. CEOs now need to know their tech strategy and some of the control on these decisions is quite rightly sitting with the business rather than in the IT department’s golden temple.  There is still an inherent fear in companies that they aren’t doing enough and that has led to an unbalanced  growth in IT teams. The teams are no longer counted in single numbers – its hundreds of engineers with a wide variety of skills. Sometimes there is no method, it’s just growing a team to show you are doing something.

Companies and their management need to take a step back. They need to understand what technology they have, audit their internal capability and plot an ROI driven evolution of their tech strategy.

My experience suggests that to do this you can’t rely on one person. Having spent the past 20 years in the world of tech (providing it, being reliant on it, or as an investor in tech companies),what I have found is that each year my knowledge gap increases. It’s not that I’m not learning about something new every day (it’s the thing I enjoy most) it’s just that there is no Moore’s law to the invention of new tech – one brain (or at least my brain) can’t keep up. Technology is now at the point that you are lucky to have a general understanding across the board, you can’t be an expert in everything. You need a team which combines generalists and specialists to have a fighting chance of knowing if a system, product, service or even a company can scale. It’s this point that puzzles me most as for a lot of people the mindset is as if Tech hasn’t progressed.

A number of years ago, I was raising Series B and C rounds from VCs. I was running a cutting-edge tech company and we were scaling very quickly. Back then, the typical technical due diligence was a CTO of one of the VCs investee companies having a few phone calls with our tech team. Even then I found it unusual – large sums were being invested and there was reliance on one person who didn’t even work in our specific domain to understand hardware design, embedded software, link budgets, networking and enterprise grade web applications. Why I found it even more unusual was that we had experts in all different aspects of the tech who wouldn’t profess to be on top of the other’s specialities.

We now work with a number of scale-ups and it seems in the norm things haven’t progressed. Quite often, the tech DD is a conversation with a generalist and no deep inspection of anything that the business is relying on to grow. This is great for the investee as long as you can talk a good game you can get through this simple process. However, it wouldn’t provide me with the comfort to know that my investment would be well spent.

To be fair, this is not always the case. We have worked with some diligent VCs like LGT Lightstone who want a more thorough look at where their capital might be going. To do this we have had to create a rigorous framework that enables us to look at all aspects of the tech stack. It was a challenge to get this balance right, as it’s easy to get lost in code and forget how to look at the fundamentals. We found our method by using our experienced technology specialists to give a view on their area of specialism to say what’s good and what might need to change and how. This means that as an investor, firms that work with us get a proactive technology health check to give them a greater sense of security on their investment.

This health check is not limited to investing. In the norm, any company that wants to use technology to scale needs to understand where they are and where they are heading. Non technical people seem to be scared of tech and therefore rely on the advice of the technology expert. That expert maybe great, but as I said, it’s impossible to keep up, so relying on them to plot a comprehensive strategy is illogical. My advice is don’t be scared to ask for third party expert opinion.  Often companies come to us when they start seeing the symptoms of technology debt or gaps. Typically, systems are starting to lag, they are experiencing problems evolving at the required pace to meet the business demands or can’t scale reliably. We perform the same health check working with their technology team to see what’s there and what’s planned and identify the gaps. It’s that same due diligence process.

All of this is about understanding where the business wants to get to and then seeing if the people, processes, architecture, infrastructure, security and reliance on third party systems are on the right path or need some help. It’s not bad to ask people that know – it’s what you should responsibly do

Getting it wrong can be costly we have all heard of the many failed and incredibly expensive transformations. Moving from bootstrap to enterprise needs experience so that you don’t impact the business whilst you change. That experience needs to be across a number of experts as I have yet to meet the person who is best in class across the range from AI to Design and User Experience. Getting the right people involved may save you serious amounts of money and ensure you really do know your tech.

/by Bimal Shah

Designers: Pay the bills but don’t forget to feed your soul

I’ve been an increasingly passionate gardener since I moved in with my partner two years ago. Not that I’m particularly deft in my green fingers, it’s more that I was inspired by the fact I managed to not kill the first plant he’d ever given me a fortnight after I got it. He was my lucky charm, his name is Steve the Orchid, he’s still alive to this day and his army has expanded to a load of other orchids, a back garden that has boasted some incredibly tasty vegetables as well as some stunning summer flowers.

But there’s something about the act of keeping everything maintained. Nurturing everything the way it needs to be nurtured. Pulling back the weeds, raking the leaves, clearing out the waste. Water, rinse, repeat…
It’s life. It’s work. And its results are beautiful.

I was in a position this week to see how important it was to maintain my own creative garden as it were – overused metaphor be damned, I care not…

If you don’t nurture, things won’t thrive.
If you never weed, you end up with a mess.
And in the classic case of the man who wanted to win the lotto, but never bought a ticket… If you don’t plant, things won’t grow.

I’m incredibly lucky.
I am in a role that allows me to engage with so many areas of my creativity. Not many people can boast such a luxury. Evolving concepts, designing, story-boarding, developing brand identities, copy-writing as well as engaging in my love for psychology, constantly studying and expanding my knowledge and understanding of human behaviour… And that’s just dealing with coffee-free clients first thing on a Monday.

Being a UX Director gives me so much space to contribute and give value.
But being my best in my role involves me being the best version of myself. Healthy. Rested. Authentic. Inspired.

I remembered all of a sudden recently what happens to the person who doesn’t stop to smell the flowers enough:

  • When you push yourself too hard, your body may decide when it’s time for you to stop.
  • When you do what you do in the same way for too long, just because it’s comfortable, reliable, fast… you risk being left behind in your field.
  • When you’re stuck on a loop of constant delivery, you risk to forget, or worse, lose the love for what you do.

Finding inspiration

True inspiration though comes from deeper places, which tend to not be from work. These speak to the core parts of yourself that don’t tend to pay bills but feed your soul. I’m talking about the things you want to do but don’t necessarily have scheduled into your life.

Passion projects, volunteering, life drawing classes, the book you wanted to read, the book you wanted to write, the graphic novel you wanted to draw, all the mad and fantastic places in London that you still have to visit… Not all these things may be creative in their nature, but the dividends of paying attention to them result in better and happier work.

Squeezing in the time for illustration

Squeezing in the time for illustration. Created for the incredible stories of Pierre Saliba.

Nurturing the person you want to be

When you become too one-track minded, all the parts of the person you want to be are screaming for attention. Denying them means denying you being what you believe is your true and authentic self and this is going to really impact on your mood and how you feel about yourself.

Whereas on the other hand, taking initiative over your passion and actively incorporating it into your life means you are nurturing all areas of who you are, of what’s important to you and what makes you happy. Then it’s a ripple effect from there because being happier makes you work better.

Nurturing your passions

I have a lot to learn from my partner about nurturing passion. He is, by day, an incredibly skilled consultant; by night, he is feeding his soul by carving out time for his passion, which is music. Whether he’s songwriting, composing or just rehearsing, he daily addresses his creative needs and I admire his dedication to them so much.

Squeezing in the time for illustration

The stance of a man who has let his weeds get the better of him. Created for Pierre Saliba and Ars Ludendi.

Takeaways

What I’ve learned from this little educational moment in my timeline…

  • I’m useless if I’m tired.
    I’m useless if I’m sick. I’m useless if I’m not in good enough health, mentally and physically, to see the wood from the trees. Sleep is the greatest healer so I need to ensure I get enough of it.
  • I need to schedule in the things that I want.
    That’s my responsibility- Only I can give myself the gift of time.
    Take the Anthony Robbins method: Write down all the traits of the person you want to be, think about what that person does and set an action plan with immediate actionable items scheduled in with a specific time allotted to it to bring you one step closer to that.
  • Take the time to think about and do what you love.
    Being able to fit in some old school loves of mine, like pencil illustration (like contributing to Pierre’s wonderful projects above), poetry, mapping out elements for a potential book project… every little effort, every line drawn, every word written, fed back a little more of myself back into this tired person. Sometimes it’s sleep that you’re missing. Other times, it’s the thing that drove you in the first place.
  • Tend to all areas of yourself.
    We are so complicated and so multi-faceted and we need all these different parts to ourselves as they all play a role in making us unique. We need to maintain the areas we love, work on the areas we want to grow and be active in this on a daily basis. Make yourself a priority and don’t apologise for it.

Author’s note:
Garden metaphor ends here, thank you for bearing with me. Steve the Orchid is still alive and well as this post goes to press.

/by Róisín O’Toole