Signal337

Artificial Intelligence. A phrase that conjures the folly of man, the audacity to make life and become god, and the fears of something that looks down on us as irrelevant. All doom and gloom aside and before our robot overlords take over...we still have a long way to go. In this episode, I explore the idea of using machine learning tools to aid designers, viewing AI more as a tool than a sapient entity. This reality is far more capable and probably is already here; how we decided to use these tools however needs discussion.

Not many companies have a fan base. To create a fan base, you need to focus on delivering quality experiences each and every time you interact with your audience. At Sheetz, this is what they do every day. In this episode, I delve into the dedication that Sheetz has for their customers and pierce the veil on how they focus on their customer experience through the lens of a design and business professional, showcasing how their relentless drive to exceeding customer expectations is a model for companies to learn and grow from if you want a truly rabid fan base.

Designers do a lot of things. They are asked to take on certain work and responsibilities, some are expected to, some do it to be helpful, and others do it because either no one else will or can...but what work should designers do or not do? In this episode, I talk about five things designers should do or at least have some base knowledge to be effective designers but not be a jack of all trades. Let's start off 2021 by beating a dead horse! Or at least set some context on why designers should have these base skills.

Design systems: a valuable tool to create consistent experiences for products and services at scale....but not just for large companies or products. In this episode I discuss my experience with design systems and discuss the value they bring to companies creating products and services at any scale.

Critique is an important part of the design process. To a product or service that is meaningful and valuable, it takes a village to ensure its success. However, most critique assumptions and experiences are fairly poor...both from the giving and recieving end of critique. Recently, this has been something I've been working on with my colleagues and in this episode, I want to share some basic truths about critique and how you can use it effectively in your work...all be setting the right frame of mind and attitude.

Finding a new job is tough, even without a pandemic raging. You have to make sure your resume and cover letter are current and tailored to the work you are looking for. As someone who has had a lot of jobs, I understand the amount of time needed to apply and follow up with HR and recruiters. In this episode, I talk about some strategies and tactics that I use to help me apply for jobs, whether I am passively looking or actively persuing. The biggest lesson from this episode is to not be passive in your job search, but actively maintain your documents to ensure when the time comes, you are prepared.

Living in Central PA, bullshit wafting through the air around the farms is a sure sign of planting season. Also another sure sign of planting bad ideas is the bullshit surrounding design thinking. This episode is my take on this hot take as I believe that design thinking isn't the thing that stinks...but rather it's the people espousing it and calling it design thinking. We discuss the famous Natasha Jen talk at Adobe 99U and the subsequent articles from FastCompany that discuss differing points of view. My own take is that design thinking is the tool we need to help shape the conversations at the table that we designers have been wanting to be at for while, but we must take care to ensure others don't destroy.

Design is a job...and to get a job you need some experience, but you can't get any meaningful experience without a job, right? It's the classic chicken and the egg story...but does it have to be so cut and dry? Can you get a job in design without a college degree? Can you pull together the knowledge and experience needed to get a job as a designer? Yes, yes you can. It takes a plan to get educated and get experience, but that plan doesn't have involve costly college. You can create a path for learning that fits your needs and investment by creating a realistic timeline and smart investment into your education in design skills and business acument. In this episode I break down a path for self-initiated education for anyone who wants to become a designer (Visua, Front-End, and UX). I talk about the following: * Setting a realistic timeline to learn * Learning the foundations and strategy, then learning the tools and tactics * Practical application by working with clients * Taking time to reset expectations and pivoting as needed * Creating case studies to show your work While I mention a lot of learning platforms and tools, I don't advocate one over the other...your experience may vary (even with the bootcamps). I am also not sponsored by any of these companies either.

I have a lot of jobs in my life...but it wasn't until I became a knowledge worker that I interfaced with job recruiters. As a designer, it's been interesting to see the different types of jobs that recruiters are actively hiring for and seeing the mismatch of knowledge and expectations. Conversely, some of my best experiences with a company have started with internal recruiters. So this episode is focused on how recruiters operate from the internal and external perspectives, how the industry is setup, the challenges recruiters face, and wondering about a different approach to recruiting.

Too often, many people let life happen to them instead of working towards something. Having a vision of what you want your life to be and how you are going to acheive it is key to realizing it and making your goals attainable. This episode discusses having a vision for your life and by having a vision how you can control the levers to your success. I discuss some backstory of mine about being a professional musician and how I had a vision to make that a reality and how shifted into design. This episode hopefully will have you think about what you want to do and identify what steps you need to get there.

Courtland Ellis is a man of many talents. Currently, he works at BankMobile, a fintech startup where he works on social media strategy, app design, and email marketing. He's previously worked at Aspire Ventures being a lead designer developing company brand assets, app UI design, and illustration and he got his started at The Fictory and Post-Age where he first interned and later was hired as illustrator and design doing game design, motion graphics, post-production, and concept art. In the last ten years, Courtland has honed his skills to be a succesful concept artist, all sprung from his love of comics and cartoons. He sat down with me to discuss his career path, insights on being a professional creative, and advice to young designers coming up in the field.

Failure sucks...no one likes to fail. But really, what is failure? Isn't the journey of getting good at something paved with the learning opportunities you go through? Is failure a bad thing? And what truly is failing at something? This episode is all about failure and reframing the conversation. To fail is to learn, to truly fail is to give up and not try. I share a story from early in my career about failure and how changing my mindset has helped me grow in ways I never thought possible at the beginning of my career. My hope is that this episode will help reframe things in your mind and face life, work, your relationships with more positivity.

Ten months. Not a terribly long time ago, but a lot of things have happened in those ten months. This episode is mainly about the journey so far with the show and some of the new things I'm going to implement for the future. These include: * Video content - Signal337 YouTube Channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUM-p1MWpbpa4xzjVeeJRPA?view_as=subscriber) * Guests and Interviews * Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/signal337) for ardent fans

Having PMP after your name is more than a fancy credential. Project management might be something you innately do as a designer or business owner and not even realize. In this episode I discuss my interest in becoming a PMI-certified project manager and how project management works for designers and the project managers who work with designer, whether in the marketing side of design or the technology side. We also go into the difference between project manages and product managers as well as discuss some resources to help grow your project management skillset.

I am trying not to be overly dramatic, but the United State of America isn't united. It's a fractured mess of shit. Over the last month, my growing tension and attitude towards how we conduct ourselves in society has both infuriarating and depressing. In this episode, I focus on Black Lives Matter and creating the society we should all be proud to be a part of. I recap some personal issues that have lead to my hyper-focus on where we are as a nation, and I share a damning lesson of mine that has helped me grow as a person and become more mindful and open to others. This isn't an episode about design or business...so feel free to skip if your prefer...but I couldn't in good conscience not speak up and share my thoughts and beliefs on how our society has failed to live up the values and aspirations we should have in this country. This episode is quite personal and hopefully shows that a world were truth, openness, welcoming, and solidarity is possible.

Digital accessibility came into my concern five years ago when I design the user interface for a physical product. I wondered how people with disabilities may actually use this thing I just designed. Fast forward five years and I sit with clients and partners on developing universal design strategy to embed accessibility standards through the entire product lifecycle. Digital accessibility lawsuits are on the rise and Beyonce and Dominos are only just the beginning. This episode talks about my history with digital accessibility, legal considerations and history, maturity of teams to embed accessibility standards into your design systems, and where you can go and learn about digital accessibility. I start off this episode pissed off because as a design professional, this is a no-brainer. But in this age...I can't take anything for granted.

COVID-19 sure has been the proverbial match in the bucket of gasoline. People are struggling, fearful, angry, confused, and dead. This episode may not mean much to a lot of people right now. Podcasts are down significantly at the moment and people are rightfully concerned about more important things than some guy pontificating from his little area in Central Pennsylvania. But if you need a break and would like to hear a litt about how things have been going for me and my views on leadership during these strange times, I talk about the heros I see helping all of us during this crisis. I reflect on unenviable positions of leadership...you know...when the going gets tough. It's difficult and hopefully you can find some points worth reflecting on yourself when it comes to leadership.

Hiring either excites or fills people with dread. It can be a long, drawn out process rife with poor communication and inconsistencies or a clear, understood process that puts the focus on doing the right thing. Hiring is tough for a lot of companies and organizations because it is a formalized introduction into people that ultimately results in how they will your company grow. This episode aims to demystify hiring through personal experience on building my design team, using a recent hire as the template of how this episode lays out our process, We also discuss the challenges and methods for 100% remote companies and global organizations, all starting with the job description. We will discuss 13 types of hiring biasis and how to overcome them as well as the importance of diversity and inclusive practices in hiring and organizational growth as key cornerstones to the success of your business.

Working remotely has a been a dream of mine for years. The romantic notion of rolling out of bed and working in pajamas online sounds like a dream. Many companies are successful, and profitable, as a fully distributed team. But when you cut through all of the praise and benefits that remote workers extol, is it the utopia they claim it to be or is it just a different set of problems? Let's discuss some of the benefits and considerations of working both from home and in an office and discuss what approaches can we adopt to evolve the future of work for betterment of all.

In this shorter episode, we discuss workplace assholes and their destructive (intentional or otherwise) behaviors and the toll their attitudes have on others around them. From the motivations of these individuals to how to deal with them head on, this episode prolly says the word asshole around 100 times. Not for the sake of saying it, but really to emphasize the point that these individual create such disruption in our working lives. Join us for an episode that sooner or later, we'll all have to deal with.

Branding is tough. There really isn't that great of a defintion. Wikipedia says "A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create and store value for the object identified." I take a different approach. In this episode, we discuss the intrinsic qualities of success brands, how to start building values and beliefs and leave the marketing to the end. We go over how to approach brands...and yes, we talk about Apple....but we also discuss personal brands and those who are doing incredibly well in building a presence around their message and beliefs. Branding truly isn't about the logo.

Whenever you move into a management role with direct reports, it can be daunting. How can you manage a team of individuals to work together and provide value? Whether you are new in management or are a seasoned pro, it's important to get the basics of communication right from the start. Otherwise, you can set a precedent that ultimately can fail you and your team. In this episode, we discuss the strategy of communication and familiarity with some tactics used to get to understand your team members and how to get them to communicate more effectively and collaborate with others in your organization in a way that fosters culture and empowers them to do what is right.

For as long as I can remember coming up in the design field, so many people represented themselves as artist instead of a designer. They aren't mutually exclusive, but they aren't the same thing by any means. This episode might piss some people off due to a rather strong stance I have about the differences between art and design. We'll go through some definitions and examples of what art is and what design is and we'll discuss creativity being that unifying path between the two worlds.

Extroverts and introverts get a bad rap. Often the extrovert is seen as loud, borish, domineering, and demanding of praise while the introvert is seen as quite, cold, conservative, and unwilling to partake in the conversation. These attributes couldn't be farther from the truth. Sure, do people posess these traits? Yes, but they aren't exclusively a trait of an extrovert or an introvert. This episode is about how to create space and channel the energy of each type in a way that fosters cross communication and understanding, while generally mapping their tendencies to the DiSC personality spectrum. Especially if you work with or manage people, understanding how to be an effective communicator and facilitator to get consensus is critical. I share stories of how I work with extroverts and introverts and try to create commonality betweens the two approaches in order to help team members grow.

some common patient experiences and see the physician's side of things in order to truly become patient-centered. Is healthcare really poised to become more patient-centered? Shouldn't it already be focused on the patient? Let's take a look at a few topics around the patients experience and digital technology that promises sweeping changes to the industry. While healthcare is incredibly personal and private, we all have some shared experiences through the patient's journey that directly effect your health outcomes. Let's talk about how physicians and healthcare organizations operate and look at how designing health systems together, that we may create a paradigm shift and change in perspective with how we interact with healthcare systems.

New York, San Francisco, Silicon Valley...they seem to be creative mecca for some people in the design industry. I say not so fast. In this episode I talk about why I choose to live in Central Pennsylvania and the opportunities that are afforded by being off the design industry radar. We discuss my reasoning for leaving and coming back to the area, the pros and cons of living in a small area, and what opportunities and challenges professionals and businesses face when either looking for jobs and hiring.

What makes a person a good leader? What is the difference between leadership and management? Can leaders be "made" or are they a unique breed? These are some of the questions this episode aims to answer. In the first of many leadership episode, Tim discuss his main tenants of leadership as he experienced through one of his more influential supervisors in his career. Tim shares his thoughts through story and examples and helps help those transitioning into a management role learn from his experiences. Let's keep the conversation going on LinkedIn and Twitter using the #signal337leadership tag to discuss your experiences and thoughts on leadership and management.

Since coming back from a work conference that I helped to plan, in this episode we discuss what you can do to help your survive your first conference experience. We also discuss considerations about speaking at a conference and look at the issue of getting paid as a speaker. We also discuss inclusive conference behaviors and code of conduct as well as the value the professional conferences provide to help you grow as a professional.

I teach a web design course a local college to a primarily visual design, print-centric body of students. I've made some observations at my own college and across Central Pennsylvania and beyond about design education in a traditional college-based program. Does design education need to change? Is on the colleges to change with the times or on the student to find direction and take it themselves? I'm not sure. I share my own college experience and share experiences, observations, trends, and thoughts about the supposed differences of design, print vs. digital, and the attitudes I've experienced in this realm. Would love to get a conversation on Twitter started around #designeducation to discuss.

There are many design and leadership podcasts. Signal337 is different. How? For starters, Tim McKenna is not a monolithic name in the design world, just a guy with over 14 years of experience working as a designer in a myriad of industries. Also, Signal337 is broadcasting from a small slice of America...Carlisle, Pennsylvania. A tiny, historic town far from the industry Meccas that are NYC, San Francisco, Chicago, and others. This unique perspective on design, business, and leadership happening in under-represented areas have voices just as important as the next talking head from major cities. This episode is all about me...Tim...and what I hope to do with this podcast. Learn a little bit about my background and my history, how I got into design, and where I hope to take the discussion and conversation for future episodes.