Podcast appearances and mentions of aaron irizarry

Episode 072 of Underserved features Brian Durkin, Sr. Group Manager & Head of User Experience, Data & Analytics at BNY Mellon. Brian leveraged his art degree into some web design work but found his true passion was in information architecture. He came to this realization in the middle of an interview, which he politely asked to terminate. Instead, he was offered a new IA job the next day! Also covered: World IA Day, getting fintech to understand IA, and the fun parts of working for Nickelodeon.     Charles Zicari, Brian's first real IA mentor: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charles-zicari-90798/   IxDA: https://ixda.org/   UXPA Boston: http://uxpaboston.org/    World IA Day, Brian started the one for Boston: https://worldiaday.org/    Some of the past speakers of World IA Day Boston:  Peter Morville - https://www.linkedin.com/in/morville    Steve Portigal - https://www.linkedin.com/in/steveportigal/  Josh Seiden - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jseiden/  Abby Covert - https://www.linkedin.com/in/abbytheia/  Aaron Irizarry - https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaroni/  Todd Zaki-Warfel - https://www.linkedin.com/in/zakiwarfel/  Dana Chisnell - https://www.linkedin.com/in/dana-chisnell/  Christina Wodtke - https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinawodtke/ 

Welcome to Surfacing. This episode co-hosts Lisa Welchman and Andy Vitale speak to design leader Aaron Irizarry. Aaron talks about music, his design journey, and his steps to create team environments that create space for the whole person. Andy asked Aaron about building and implementing design systems, and Lisa asked Aaron to talk about how he ensures that being authentic at work is available for every worker. Finally, Aaron gives us tips on how to make the best vegan tacos. Episode transcript

Recently, I've been reading a book called “Ethic of Excellence” by Ron Berger. He teaches teachers about how to invoke pride in students, to invite them to work through community engagement and thoughtful feedback, and multiple drafts of work. Check out his classic short video called “Austin's Butterfly” here. He asserts that thoughtful feedback (ie critique) is essential to making great work, which he also asserts is the whole point of life: Make great things. He boils a philosophy of critique down to three principles: Be Kind Be Specific Be Helpful I wanted to bring together three of my favorite leaders to have a roundtable conversation about leading a culture of critique, and to open up about how to bring these ways of working together to life at work. Aaron Irizarry has been on this podcast before, with his co-author of “Discussing Design” Adam Connor. He's the Senior Director of Servicing Platforms Design at Capital One and is a deep, deep thinker on this subject.  Aniruddha Kadam recently left LinkedIn, where he was a Senior Design Manager. He's also an Advisor at Rethink HQ, which recently released an excellent guide to leading critique.  One of my favorite points in that guide is: Make it clear what you are NOT asking for feedback on!  And the roundtable is rounded out by the amazing and delightful Christen Penny, who is a Design Educator & Community Builder and leads the Design Education team at Workday, an enterprise cloud application for finance, HR, and planning.  I wanted to open with Christen's quote about culture change being challenging, because it's critical to have empathy for ourselves and others as we try to facilitate and lead change.  Creating rituals around critique takes time. Getting people to lean into the discomfort takes effort. Building psychological safety doesn't come for free. We should remind ourselves that we're asking people to lean into discomfort - to run into the fire. Ron Berger's perspective is ultimately the goal:  We want our work and our organization's work to be excellent. And we need outside feedback to make that possible. Critique before a launch is a lot less painful than realizing a missed opportunity after we hit “send”. There is so much goodness in this conversation! I hope you take the time to absorb it all. Head over to theconversationfactory.com/listen for full episode transcripts, links, show notes  and more key quotes and ideas. You can also head over there and become a monthly supporter of the show for as little as $8 a month. You'll get complimentary access to exclusive workshops and resources that I only share with this circle of facilitators and leaders. Also: I use and love REV for the accurate transcripts they make for me...it makes making my podcast notes and essays more meaningful and insightful. I love reading the transcript and listening to the session at the same time….it really gets the conversation into my brain! I also use the automated transcription feature for my coaching clients to help them get maximum value from our sessions. I sent the transcript to Rashmi so she could pull out what she needed from the conversation. Head over to http://bit.ly/tryrev10off to get $10 off your first order. In full transparency, that's an affiliate link, so I'll get $10 too! Links and Questions: Aaron Irizarry, Sr. Director, Servicing Platforms Design at Capital One  is here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaroni/ Adam Connor & Adam Irizarry on a way-back episode: Designing a Culture of Critique Aniruddha Kadam, Advisor at Rethink HQ, formerly Design at LinkedIn  is here:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/aniruddhakadam/ Rethink HQ Critique guide: https://www.rethinkhq.com/design-critique/leading-effective-design-critiques Christen Penny, Design Educator @Workday is here:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/christenpenny/ Some questions that guided our conversation: Why is Critique important? Why is a culture of Critique important? What are the barriers to cultivating a culture of critique? What are best practices on the individual, team and org levels to invite more critique?

In this episode: ➡️ What's the difference as when do we need what? ➡️ Different aspects of Feedback & Critiques ➡️ Tips on providing feedback ➡️ Tips on receiving feedback ➡️ TOP 6 main takeaways —— Mentioned resources:

Aaron “Ron” Irizarry, is the Sr. Director, Servicing Platforms Design at Capital One. He loves all things user experience, problem-solving, and design process. Having worked for Fox/IGN, HP, Nasdaq, and now Capital One, Aaron loves sinking his teeth into complex problems. In addition to his day job, Aaron speaks at events and provides training for companies on design team structure, communication, and collaboration. He is also the co-author of Discussing Design.Most importantly, Aaron is a master of the BBQ arts, a lover and player of heavy metal music, and a lifelong Dodgers fan.In this episode we cover:Design systemsThe critiquing processCollaboration between levelsFacilitation techniques and frameworksEstablishing ground rulesIdentifying emotional responsesFeedback vs. critiqueVisit the Funsize websiteSubscribe to The Funsize Digest

Tanner and Jasmine share their must-read books for designers. Spanning everything from how to conduct design critique or present your work, to what makes a good manager and how learning about org design can help your understanding of the work you do. The full list of books mentioned are: 1. The Design Method, by Eric Karjaluoto 2. The Shape of Design, by Frank Chimero 3. The Design of Everyday Things, by Don Norman 4. How Design Makes the World, by Scott Berkun 5. The Creativity Challenge, by Tanner Christensen 6. The Making of a Manager, by Julie Zhuo 7. Org Design for Design Orgs, by Kristen Skinner and Peter Merholz 8. Sprint, by Jake Knapp 9. Radical Candor, by Kim Scott 10. The Advantage, by Patrick Lencioni 11. The Messy Middle, by Scott Belsky 12. Redesigning Leadership, John Maeda 13. Discussing Design, by Aaron Irizarry and Adam Connor 14. Don't Make Me Think, by Steve Krug 15. About Face, by Alan Cooper 16. The User Experience Team of One, by Leah Buley 17. TED Talks, by Chris Anderson 18. Loonshots, by Safi Bahcall 19. Just Enough Research, by Erika Hall 20. Principles, by Ray Dalio 21. The Dance of the Possible, by Scott Berkun 22. The Elements of Typographic Style, by Robert Bringhurst 23. Thinking With Type, by Ellen Lupton 24. The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, by Edward Tufte 25. Why are we Yelling, by Buster Benson 26. Resilient Management, by Lara Callender Hogan 27. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, by Patrick Lencioni 28. Articulating Design Decisions, by Tom Greever 29. Start With Why, by Simon Sinek 30. Mastering Collaboration, by Gretchen Anderson If you pick just four books to read from the list, Tanner and Jasmine recommend: The Design of Everyday Things, Org Design for Design Orgs, Discussing Design, and The Making of a Manager (even if you're not a manager!).

Influence and Leadership aren't things you turn on and off...it's a muscle you have to practice all the time. And while being “on” all the time might sound exhausting, Stacey Hanke, my guest today, suggests that the key to leadership is being consistent. Leadership and influence is something you practice “monday to monday” and every day in between. Stacey is the author of Influence Redefined and Yes You Can! … Everything You Need From A to Z to Influence Others to Take Action. Her company exists to equip leaders within organizations to communicate with confidence, presence and authenticity, day in and day out. One thing I really heard from Stacey is that in order to grow it's critical to see ourselves from the outside. That can mean recording yourself speaking or presenting or it can mean having a coach or trusted advisor who can give you honest feedback  - and that you have to prepare for that feedback. If you want to dive into how to develop a culture of critique and feedback about your work, check out the show notes for my interview with Aaron Irizarry and Adam Connor, authors of “Discussing Design”. One of my favorite questions in this episode came from Jordan Hirsch, who was in the most recent cohort of my 12-week Innovation Leadership Accelerator:  How do you lead from the middle, without formal authority? Stacey had some solid, down-to-earth advice: Don't waste anyone's time - be brief and clear in your communication Have your message clear and crystallized so you can speak to it without notes Be clear on how you want to be perceived and how you are currently perceived Deliver value, consistently Show up for others - listening deeply means you can respond deeply If you want to connect with a community of innovation leaders keen on growing in their authentic presence, you should apply to the upcoming cohort at ILAprogram.com One other fine point I want to pull out from this interview is how influence shifts depending on the size of the conversation you're holding space in. 1-to-1 : It's easy to adapt and influence one to one: Stacey suggests that we listen deeply and get our conversation partners to do most of the talking. Also, mirroring their body language can create connection as well. Groups - if it's more than five people Stacey's rule is to get on your feet. You'll have more energy and the group will feed off of that. Large Groups - be “bigger” - use more of your voice, and use the whole stage. Connect to the whole room, purposefully, with your eyes One side note: I misquote one of Newton's Laws. The Third law is about how every action creates an equal and opposite reaction, not the second law! How embarrassing! Check out the show notes for how to find Stacey and her work on the web as well as links we mentioned in our conversation. Show Links https://staceyhankeinc.com/ The trusted advisor Ed Sheeran on giving up his phone: https://www.teenvogue.com/story/ed-sheeran-doesnt-have-cell-phone Deep Listening on Ian Altman's Podcast: https://www.ianaltman.com/salespodcast/deep-listening-impact-beyond-words-oscar-trimboli/ Developing a culture of critique: Designing a Culture of Critique http://theconversationfactory.com/podcast/2018/9/2/culture-of-critique 

Paul speaks with Aaron Irizarry, Capital One's Design Director, about designing effective teams and more!

A few weeks ago the 2018 Digital PM Summit was held in Memphis. This is the 6th year the conference has been held and the Bureau of Digital (https://bureauofdigital.com) put together another incredibly inspiring conference. The event focuses on helping PMs in who work in the Digital space amp up their ability to practice their craft. During the conference, Aaron Irizarry gave a presentation called “Laying the Groundwork: Building Foundations for High-Performing Teams”. (https://bureauofdigital.com/aaron-irizarry) Aaron is currently working as a Design Director at Capital One. After Aaron’s session we had the chance to sit down and record a podcast on how to create Personas. During the interview we talk about why personas are so important how to go about creating archetypes, personas, how to conduct proxy interviews, and how much detail you should include when you are putting them together. Aaron is also the co-author of Discussing Design: Improving Communication and Collaboration through Critique. (https://www.amazon.com/dp/149190240X/ref=cm_sw_su_dp) If you’d like to get in touch with Aaron with additional questions or to hear more about his session at the Summit, you can reach him via Twitter at https://twitter.com/aaroni

Critique is one of the most crucial conversations there is. How to ask for and get feedback when you need it is a core life skill. Without it, we're in the dark. Setting up a special time and place with clear rules and goals to get the crucial feedback you need to move forward…that's designing the conversation, and I can't think of a conversation that's more critical. Pun Intended! My guests today are the authors of the wonderful (and quick reading!) book “Discussing Design: Improving Communication and Collaboration through Critique” Adam Connor, VP Organizational Design & Training at the strategic design consultancy Mad Pow and Aaron Irizarry, Head of Experience Infrastructure at Capital One. Critique isn't just “fancy feedback”….Critique is about asking for and the designing the conversation you need to have, with the people you need to engage. Do you want: a Reaction, a clear Direction or deep analysis? That's Critique: it has rules and boundaries, and if you don't ask for critique, you can't get it. We dig into the 3 myths of Critique, how critique isn't really a designers skill, it's a life skill for anyone trying to bust out of the status quo. I want to highlight a few things you'll hear towards the end. I asked Adam and Aaron to discuss how they handle a few key aspects of the Conversation OS Canvas in their critiques, like power dynamics, turn-taking, and interfaces and spaces for the conversation. Invitation: The core point (and what the opening quote is all about) is that you get the critique you ask for. And that if someone *isn't* asking for critique it's pretty tricky to offer it to them successfully. In those cases, getting permission to give feedback is essential. Power:  Adam sets the ground rules that if you're invited to the critique session, your voice should be heard, and that in this session we're all equal. The facilitator is there to balance voices, to call out people who are to dominating or hiding in the conversation. Interface: I always say that when you change the interface you change the conversation. Adam and Aaron both prefer in-person critique conversations – email isn't designed to support the depth of communication real critique requires and as they say “Asynchronous feedback will never be the same as a live conversation.”  But as teams become more distributed and digital, they've found some benefit in doing a “pre-read” and a “notation round” in a tool like InVision or Mural, and then moving to a video call. Turn-Taking: While I am pretty obsessive about turn-taking, Adam says that he's sensitive to it, but doesn't want to over-control it, preferring an organic flow. He'll sometimes use a “round-robin” to make sure everyone speaks in turn and at least once. Finding a way to balance voices within an organic structure requires a skillful facilitator.   Adam Connor, Mad Pow https://madpow.com/about/team/adam-connor Aaron Irizarry, Capital One https://about.me/aaroni Discussing Design http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920033561.do   Video is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zahbC1Mfks  

In today's episode, I talk with Aaron Irizarry about what to do when your design and dev team starts to fall apart. Today's episode is sponsored by Dolby. One of the most important things you can do for your application is ensure that the quality of your audio is strong. You already know Dolby and sound quality go hand-in-hand. Check out how Dolby can help you make your iOS applications better at spec.fm/dolby.

You might think NASDAQ is that little ticker that scrolls stock prices across your screen or around Times Square. Turns out they do a whole lot more. Today we'll hear how they use human-centered design and rapid prototyping to make business apps. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In the 4th installment of the “Revolve Conference Speaker Podcast Series,” Ilise Benun, of Marketing-Mentor.com, interviews Aaron Irizarry, Director of User Experience at Nasdaq, about his topic, Hold Fast: Managing Design Teams When Projects Go Sideways, at The Revolve Conference, a gathering of design, business and marketing professionals to be held Oct. 27-28, 2016 in Charleston SC. See you there! Details here: http://revolveconference.com

Aaron Irizarry (Point Of Recognition) knows what it means to own his faith. He is a husband, father, graphic designer, author and all around legit brother. But his journey was not always filled with positivity. We'll get into some hard lessons he had to learn in his late teens and how he turned things around. You can connect with Aaron on Twitter at - http://twitter.com/aaroni. You can check out the book he co-authored, Discussing Design here - http://bit.ly/RonBook

The O'Reilly Radar Podcast: Getting a seat at the table is one thing; understanding what to do with it is way more important.O'Reilly's Mary Treseler chats with Aaron Irizarry, director of user experience for Nasdaq product design, about Nasdaq's journey to become a design-driven organization. Irizarry also talks about the best ways to have solid conversations about the designs you're working on, and why getting a seat at the proverbial table isn't the endgame.Here are a few snippets from their conversation: It's really interesting to see an organization that didn't have a product design team as of, what, 2011, I believe, see the need for that, bring someone in, hire them to establish a team, which is my boss Chris, and then see just the transition and the growth within the company, and how they embraced product design. The more we delivered, the more we built equity within the company to be able to kind of have more of a say. … What has really helped us is that we didn't just focus on getting a seat at the table. We focused on what to do when we have that seat, and how we keep that seat and bring others to the table as well. What are you going to do when you get that seat at the table? Are you going to go talk to them and be like, "design, design, design"? Are we going to push our agendas, and what we think is best as designers, or do we even understand the nature of the game? Especially in an enterprise situation, this isn't like Disneyland for designers. This is about trade-offs. This is about learning how to communicate and work with people. … Getting a seat at the table is one thing, but understanding what to do when you're there, and how to work with people in a way that allows you to keep that seat at the table, is way more important. I learned that design doesn't matter as much, as far as doing what's right in design, and what the community thinks is the best way to handle something. Do what's best for the organization. Work with the people in a way that makes the product better. It makes them feel better about the work that's being done, and you're going to have much more longevity sitting at that table. We all come from different backgrounds. We have different experience levels. We've gone to different schools, or worked at different companies. All that weighs into your experience, and the lens through which you approach design. You may say a certain term, and I may say that same term, but we understand it two different ways. The whole Princess Bride thing — that thing you said, I don't think it means what you think it means — that's really very common. It's really good to make sure that we understand what the person is getting at. If you can really do those things, keep your cool, not get offended, you really have a good chance to have really solid conversations about the designs that you're working on. Subscribe to the O'Reilly Radar Podcast: Stitcher, TuneIn, iTunes, SoundCloud, RSS

The O'Reilly Radar Podcast: Getting a seat at the table is one thing; understanding what to do with it is way more important.O'Reilly's Mary Treseler chats with Aaron Irizarry, director of user experience for Nasdaq product design, about Nasdaq's journey to become a design-driven organization. Irizarry also talks about the best ways to have solid conversations about the designs you're working on, and why getting a seat at the proverbial table isn't the endgame.Here are a few snippets from their conversation: It's really interesting to see an organization that didn't have a product design team as of, what, 2011, I believe, see the need for that, bring someone in, hire them to establish a team, which is my boss Chris, and then see just the transition and the growth within the company, and how they embraced product design. The more we delivered, the more we built equity within the company to be able to kind of have more of a say. … What has really helped us is that we didn't just focus on getting a seat at the table. We focused on what to do when we have that seat, and how we keep that seat and bring others to the table as well. What are you going to do when you get that seat at the table? Are you going to go talk to them and be like, "design, design, design"? Are we going to push our agendas, and what we think is best as designers, or do we even understand the nature of the game? Especially in an enterprise situation, this isn't like Disneyland for designers. This is about trade-offs. This is about learning how to communicate and work with people. … Getting a seat at the table is one thing, but understanding what to do when you're there, and how to work with people in a way that allows you to keep that seat at the table, is way more important. I learned that design doesn't matter as much, as far as doing what's right in design, and what the community thinks is the best way to handle something. Do what's best for the organization. Work with the people in a way that makes the product better. It makes them feel better about the work that's being done, and you're going to have much more longevity sitting at that table. We all come from different backgrounds. We have different experience levels. We've gone to different schools, or worked at different companies. All that weighs into your experience, and the lens through which you approach design. You may say a certain term, and I may say that same term, but we understand it two different ways. The whole Princess Bride thing — that thing you said, I don't think it means what you think it means — that's really very common. It's really good to make sure that we understand what the person is getting at. If you can really do those things, keep your cool, not get offended, you really have a good chance to have really solid conversations about the designs that you're working on. Subscribe to the O'Reilly Radar Podcast: Stitcher, TuneIn, iTunes, SoundCloud, RSS

Check out this episode of Digital PM Radio where Carl Smith talks to Digital PM Summit 2015 speakers and authors of Discussing Design Adam Connor and Aaron Irizarry about how they partnered up to help people give better design critiques, the Digital PM Summit, and how their topic is a great one for any digital PM.

Critique is often confused with being negative and critical. However, the basis of critique is communication. Having strongly grounded communication is necessary for any relationship in life, work related or not.

Structure aids collaboration and helps achieve consensus. If everyone is participating in a structured environment, you begin with a greater level of understanding. Using a design studio as a process can get everyone on the team communicating and moving in the same direction.

Critique is an integral part of the design process. Contrasting from feedback, critique is more focused and specific. Often, rather than a gut reaction, it is framed within the context of a dialogue. It is centered around arriving at an understanding.