Journal.
‘Everyone has a story’
There was a lot to like about Liz Danzico’s contributions to UX London — her presentation on improvisation was smart and thought-provoking, her workshop on User Interview Techniques filled with solid advice and guidance. But I keep coming back to a quotation from Malcolm Gladwell that she shared as part of her workshop:
‘Everyone has a story. When people are talking about something they know well and do well, they’re almost always interesting. And if they’re not, it’s generally your fault because you’re not asking the right questions and you haven’t made them comfortable. And once I learned that lesson, my journalism became a lot easier.’
It’s something I’ll be making myself come back to before each and every design research interview I do from now on.
Photography credit: Malcolm Gladwell by kris krüg
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Will Myddelton
27 May, 04:34 PM #
Love it. I got totally drawn in by Stephen Sondheim the other day talking about the techniques of stagecraft even though I actively dislike his musicals. Listening to people talk about what they do, in their own words, is amazing. It’s what’s I love about blogs in fact.
However, if you ask people to teach you how to do what they’re talking about, rather than tell you how they do it, it mostly falls over…
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