Podcasts about Information architecture

In this episode of the Knowledge Base Ninjas podcast, we speak with Rina Groobman Cassouto, CEO of ContentMaster. Rina shares insights from her 30-year journey in technical writing. Starting with a background in English Literature, Rina transitioned into tech writing through a single course and went on to lead documentation teams and train writers globally. She emphasizes that technical writing today is more than just editing. It's about structuring information effectively. Technical writers who understand information architecture can turn disorganized content into valuable, user-friendly documentation. According to Rina, strong writing and a willingness to learn are more crucial than domain-specific knowledge, and hiring a technical writer should reflect that. She also adds about the role of AI in tech writing, viewing it as a helpful assistant rather than a replacement. Writers who bring strategic thinking and structural clarity to content creation will remain indispensable, even in an AI-driven future. Catch the full conversation on the Knowledge Base Ninjas podcast for valuable takeaways and pro tips. Stay tuned for expert insights and actionable strategies you don't want to miss out on.

On this episode of the Crazy Wisdom Podcast, host Stewart Alsop welcomes Jessica Talisman, a senior information architect deeply immersed in the worlds of taxonomy, ontology, and knowledge management. The conversation spans the evolution of libraries, the shifting nature of public and private access to knowledge, and the role of institutions like the Internet Archive in preserving digital history. They also explore the fragility of information in the digital age, the ongoing battle over access to knowledge, and how AI is shaping—and being shaped by—structured data and knowledge graphs. To connect with Jessica Talisman, you can reach her via LinkedIn.  Check out this GPT we trained on the conversation!Timestamps00:05 – Libraries, Democracy, Public vs. Private Knowledge Jessica explains how libraries have historically shifted between public and private control, shaping access to knowledge and democracy.00:10 – Internet Archive, Cyberattacks, Digital Preservation Stewart describes visiting the Internet Archive post-cyberattack, sparking a discussion on threats to digital preservation and free information.00:15 – AI, Structured Data, Ontologies, NIH, PubMed Jessica breaks down how AI trains on structured data from sources like NIH and PubMed but often lacks alignment with authoritative knowledge.00:20 – Linked Data, Knowledge Graphs, Semantic Web, Tim Berners-Lee They explore how linked data enables machines to understand connections between knowledge, referencing the vision behind the semantic web.00:25 – Entity Management, Cataloging, Provenance, Authority Jessica explains how libraries are transitioning from cataloging books to managing entities, ensuring provenance and verifiable knowledge.00:30 – Digital Dark Ages, Knowledge Loss, Corporate Control Stewart compares today's deletion of digital content to historical knowledge loss, warning about the fragility of digital memory.00:35 – War on Truth, Book Bans, Algorithmic Bias, Censorship They discuss how knowledge suppression—from book bans to algorithmic censorship—threatens free access to information.00:40 – AI, Search Engines, Metadata, Schema.org, RDF Jessica highlights how AI and search engines depend on structured metadata but often fail to prioritize authoritative sources.00:45 – Power Over Knowledge, Open vs. Closed Systems, AI Ethics They debate the battle between corporations, governments, and open-source efforts to control how knowledge is structured and accessed.00:50 – Librarians, AI Misinformation, Knowledge Organization Jessica emphasizes that librarians and structured knowledge systems are essential in combating misinformation in AI.00:55 – Future of Digital Memory, AI, Ethics, Information Access They reflect on whether AI and linked data will expand knowledge access or accelerate digital decay and misinformation.Key InsightsThe Evolution of Libraries Reflects Power Struggles Over Knowledge: Libraries have historically oscillated between being public and private institutions, reflecting broader societal shifts in who controls access to knowledge. Jessica Talisman highlights how figures like Andrew Carnegie helped establish the modern public library system, reinforcing libraries as democratic spaces where information is accessible to all. However, she also notes that as knowledge becomes digitized, new battles emerge over who owns and controls digital information​​.The Internet Archive Faces Systematic Attacks on Knowledge: Stewart Alsop shares his firsthand experience visiting the Internet Archive just after it had suffered a major cyberattack. This incident is part of a larger trend in which libraries and knowledge repositories worldwide, including those in Canada, have been targeted. The conversation raises concerns that these attacks are not random but part of a broader, well-funded effort to undermine access to information​​.AI and Knowledge Graphs Are Deeply Intertwined: AI systems, particularly large language models (LLMs), rely on structured data sources such as knowledge graphs, ontologies, and linked data. Talisman explains how institutions like the NIH and PubMed provide openly available, structured knowledge that AI systems train on. Yet, she points out a critical gap—AI often lacks alignment with real-world, authoritative sources, which leads to inaccuracies in machine-generated knowledge​​.Libraries Are Moving From Cataloging to Entity Management: Traditional library systems were built around cataloging books and documents, but modern libraries are transitioning toward entity management, which organizes knowledge in a way that allows for more dynamic connections. Linked data and knowledge graphs enable this shift, making it easier to navigate vast repositories of information while maintaining provenance and authority​​.The War on Truth and Information Is Accelerating: The episode touches on the increasing threats to truth and reliable information, from book bans to algorithmic suppression of knowledge. Talisman underscores the crucial role librarians play in preserving access to primary sources and maintaining records of historical truth. As AI becomes more prominent in knowledge dissemination, the need for robust, verifiable sources becomes even more urgent​​.Linked Data is the Foundation of Digital Knowledge: The conversation explores how linked data protocols, such as those championed by Tim Berners-Lee, allow machines and AI to interpret and connect information across the web. Talisman explains that institutions like NIH publish their taxonomies in RDF format, making them accessible as structured, authoritative sources. However, many organizations fail to leverage this interconnected data, leading to inefficiencies in knowledge management​​.Preserving Digital Memory is a Civilization-Defining Challenge: In the digital age, the loss of information is more severe than ever. Alsop compares the current state of digital impermanence to the Dark Ages, where crucial knowledge risks disappearing due to corporate decisions, cyberattacks, and lack of preservation infrastructure. Talisman agrees, emphasizing that digital archives like the Internet Archive, WorldCat, and Wikimedia are foundational to maintaining a collective human memory​​.

Listen now on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube.—Jorge Arango is an information architect, author, and educator. For the past three decades, he has used architectural thinking to bring clarity and direction to digital projects for clients ranging from non-profits to Fortune 500 companies. He's the author of Duly Noted: Extend Your Mind Through Connected Notes, Living in Information: Responsible Design for Digital Places, co-author of Information Architecture: for the Web and Beyond, and host of The Informed Life podcast. Besides consulting, writing, and podcasting, Jorge also teaches in the graduate interaction design program at the California College of the Arts.In our conversation, we discuss:* How AI is becoming a transformational technology for UX design, akin to the emergence of the web decades ago.* The limitations of AI, emphasizing its role in augmenting human work rather than replacing it.* Jorge's experiences with AI in both the research phase and content taxonomy applications for information architecture.* Tips for understanding and integrating AI tools into UX workflows, moving beyond chat-based interfaces like ChatGPT.* The importance of approaching AI with curiosity and seeing it as a way to enhance, rather than disrupt, traditional workflows.Jorge recently released a self-driven course for folks wanting to learn about information architecture.Some takeaways:* AI tools are best used to enhance human efficiency, allowing professionals to perform tasks at greater scale and speed. For instance, large website analysis becomes more feasible with retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) techniques, enabling quicker insights without compromising accuracy.* Not all AI tools are suitable for every UX process. Effective use requires tailoring tools to specific phases, such as research or content taxonomy, and understanding their strengths and limitations, like context window sizes or text-based limitations.* AI's potential is often misunderstood due to hype or fear. Developing a hands-on relationship with AI tools dispels misconceptions, revealing their actual capabilities and boundaries, such as their reliance on user input for quality output.* Rather than delegating entire tasks to AI, think of it as a collaborative editor. Prompts like “What am I missing?” can provide fresh perspectives on drafts or reports, enhancing the final product without diluting human expertise.* Viewing AI through a lens of opportunity rather than threat helps professionals integrate it constructively into workflows. This involves learning about non-chat-based AI tools and exploring new use cases, fostering innovation and efficiency in UX practices.Where to find Jorge:* Website: https://jarango.com* LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/jarango* Twitter/X: https://x.com/jarangoInterested in sponsoring the podcast?Interested in sponsoring or advertising on this podcast? I'm always looking to partner with brands and businesses that align with my audience. Reach out to me at nikki@userresearchacademy.com to learn more about sponsorship opportunities!The views and opinions expressed by the guests on this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views, positions, or policies of the host, the podcast, or any affiliated organizations or sponsors. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit userresearchacademy.substack.com/subscribe

Peter Morville is a pioneer of information architecture. He co-authored Information Architecture for the World-Wide Web, the classic O'Reilly “polar bear” book on the subject. In our previous conversation, I interviewed Peter about a big change in his life. In this interview, we turn the tables: he interviews me about a big change to this show.See full show notes at:https://theinformed.life/2024/12/15/episode-155-peter-morville/

Peter Morville is a pioneer of information architecture. He co-authored Information Architecture for the World-Wide Web, the classic O'Reilly “polar bear” book on the subject. This is Peter's third appearance on the show. I asked him back because I wanted to learn about his decision to retire from IA consulting. This is the first of two conversations with Peter about navigating big changes.See full show notes at:https://theinformed.life/2024/12/01/episode-154-peter-morville/

"Accessibility of subsurface data is key, especially as companies move along their digital maturity journey. A lot of valuable data is still locked up in boxes, not adding value." In this episode, Patrick Meroney urges geophysicists to align technology with business goals, advocate for innovation within their organizations, and pursue change strategically to drive long-term success. Patrick Meroney, Vice President of North American Operations at Katalyst Data Management, discusses the critical role of subsurface data management in geophysics and how aligning technology with business processes can drive success. Patrick highlights the challenges of digital transformation, the risks of overlooking business goals, and the importance of workflow integration in subsurface operations. Patrick also offers actionable advice for geophysicists on optimizing technology investments and balancing innovation with cost efficiency. KEY POINTS AND TAKEAWAYS > Align technology with business strategy: Many companies fail to align their technology decisions with business goals, leading to great technologies failing due to mismatched processes. > The power of integration: Patrick emphasizes that the biggest opportunity for efficiency gains lies in integrating data across geophysical workflows, which continues to be an ongoing challenge. > Digital transformation readiness: While digital transformation is critical for data accessibility and quality, companies must align it with their readiness and long-term strategy. > Prioritizing critical features: Geophysicists must focus on core business needs and avoid overly broad or niche requirements when selecting new technology solutions. > Innovation vs. efficiency: Companies must clearly define whether they prioritize innovation or efficiency, as this will impact their technology investments and integration efforts. THIS EPISODE SPONSORED BY KATALYST DATA MANAGEMENT Katalyst Data Management® provides the only integrated, end-to-end subsurface data management solution for the oil and gas industry. Its employees operate in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and South America and are dedicated to optimizing the value of subsurface data, including seismic and well data. Katalyst enables clients' digital transformation of E&P data with digitizing services and digital transformation consulting. Learn more at www.katalystdm.com. GUEST BIO Patrick Meroney has worked in and around Information Management in Exploration and Production for over 30 years. He has written and presented on various topics, including GIS, Information Architecture and Delivery, Data Governance, and Organizational Readiness. Pat has held various positions in the E&P business and within IT and IM organizations at ConocoPhillips and Repsol and is currently the Vice President of North American Operations at Katalyst Data Management. LINKS * Visit https://seg.org/podcasts/episode-239-unlocking-subsurface-success-integrating-data-and-strategy-in-geophysics/ for links to past episodes highlighting topics discussed in this episode. SHOW CREDITS Andrew Geary at TreasureMint hosted, edited, and produced this episode. The SEG podcast team comprises Jennifer Cobb, Kathy Gamble, and Ally McGinnis. If you have episode ideas or feedback for the show or want to sponsor a future episode, email the show at podcast@seg.org.

Q Walker draws a line between circus and UX, shares their experience of being cyber stalked, and unpacks the IA intricacies of emojis. Highlights include: What can designers learn from circus performers? Why did you start researching the information architecture of emojis? Are changes to emojis a form of benevolent censorship? What makes the presentation of the gun emoji interesting? How has embracing your queerness helped you reclaim your bravery? ====== Who is Q Walker? Since late 2023, Q has been the General Manager of The Circus Hub, the centre for circus arts in Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand. Before joining The Circus Hub, Q was an Experience Lead at PaperKite , where they plied their trade of UX strategy and UX research to helping brands like the All Blacks, Volkswagen, The New Zealand Ministry of Health, and Hell Pizza, to better serve their customers. Q's career in design started in the United States at Fidelity Investments in 2012, where they worked as a Communications Design Manager and - among other things - used UX and graphic design skills to create data visualisations, interactive reports and web app interfaces. It was during their time at Fidelity that Q both started and completed a Master of Science in Human Factors in Information Design at Bentley University.  They have also shared their expertise and experiences with audiences at UX New Zealand (more than once) and UXPA's Boston conference. ====== Find Q here: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/q-walker/ ====== Liked what you heard and want to hear more? Subscribe and support the show by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts (or wherever you listen). Follow us on our other social channels for more great Brave UX content! YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/TheSpaceInBetween/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-space-in-between/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thespaceinbetw__n/ ====== Hosted by Brendan Jarvis: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brendanjarvis/ Website: https://thespaceinbetween.co.nz/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/brendanjarvis/

Lana Brindley, Senior Technical Writer at Shippit, provides a comprehensive overview of information architecture. She outlines the various steps involved in developing information architecture and also sheds light on the key teams involved in its design.

In the latest episode of the Rosenfeld Review, Lou sits down with old friend Peter van Dijck, author of Information Architecture for Designers: Structuring Websites for Business Success, one of the first books ever written on Information Architecture. Peter is now a partner of Simply Put, a Colombian company that builds and designs useful AI Agents—including the soon-to-launch Rosenbot! Peter offers insight into the world of AI. Having been one of the first to speak about IA, it is fascinating to hear what he now has to say about AI. Join Lou and Peter as they take you through the journey where language itself is transforming from design to technology. What You'll Learn from this Episode: - An introduction to the Rosenbot, an AI bot that Peter's company is developing for Rosenfeld Media - Some basic vocabulary for speaking about AI and ML so you “don't feel like an idiot” - Mind-blowing truths about the potential of Generative AI's language capabilities - How writing has transformed from a design to a technology and learn what that means for how we interact with the data - About the importance of highly curated information when training bots and the tricky balance that comes when you want to present less polished sources like unedited conversations - The importance of the human side of things - The biggest surprise that has come from working in the industry Quick Reference Guide [0:15] - Lou's introduction of Peter Van Dijck [3:00] - AI on a basic level [4:59] - Generative AI's language capabilities [18:08] - How we interact with metadata and writing as a technology [20:00] - How real-use cases make technology more exciting and instantaneous [22:19] - Information about the new Designing With AI Conference [23:33] - Some of the jargon around AI and IA [24:16] - Introduction to Lou's Chat Bot, the Rosen Bot [24:39] - The importance of training bots on highly curated information [28:34] - The tricky balance of curated and less polished content [30:26] - The human side of things [31:55] - Different interaction models [37:58] - The biggest surprise working in the industry [38:30] - A Gift For You Resources and Links from Today's Episode: Peter Van Dijck Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petervandijck/ Peter's Company, Simply Put: https://www.getsimplyput.ai/ Information Architecture for Designers: Structuring Websites for Business Success https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00YDJPPCM The My Climate Journey Podcast: https://www.mcjcollective.com/media/podcast

Rachel Price is a Principal Information Architect at Microsoft and teaches Information Architecture at the School of Visual Concepts in Seattle. She was a guest on The Informed Life in 2019, discussing the role of structure in improvisation. Today's conversation focuses on a subject that's on a lot of information architects' minds: how to responsibly design AI-powered systems.See full show notes at:https://theinformed.life/2024/06/02/episode-141-rachel-price/

Abby Covert, an information architect, discusses the significance of language and the role of information in our lives. She explains that information is unique to each individual and is the result of data and content processing in our brains. Abby emphasizes the importance of understanding mental models and how they shape our perception of information. She also highlights the role of language in organizations and the need for clarity and consistency. Abby shares insights on the power of diagrams in sense-making and decision-making. She encourages individuals and teams to zoom out to gain a broader perspective and to live and lead by their values. Chapters 00:00 Introduction and the Definition of Information 05:23 The Role of Language in Organizations 11:33 Perfectionism and the Challenges of Making Sense 25:07 Living and Leading by Our Values 30:01 The Impact of Information Architecture on Media Consumption   Ready to Learn More with Abby Covert? https://abbycovert.com/ What Do You Mean? Information architecture for kids (and their adults) - assemble with the author https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnTsKmsGmvw   Reach out to us and let us know what topic you want next season to focus on: https://www.unhingedcollaboration.com  

This week it was my pleasure to speak with Jorge Arango about his latest book, Duly Noted: Extend Your Mind Through Connected Notes. Jorge is an information architect, author, and educator. For almost three decades, he has architected digital experiences and made the complex clear for organizations ranging from Fortune 500 corporations to nonprofits. He is the author of "Living in Information: Responsible Design for Digital Places" and co-author of "Information Architecture for the Web and Beyond." In addition to his design consulting practice, Jorge hosts "The Informed Life" podcast, writes a blog, and teaches at the California College of the Arts. In this chat, we'll explore how capturing and organizing thoughts extends beyond traditional note-taking into forming a digital "knowledge garden," where ideas can flourish and interconnect. Jorge will delve into the cognitive science behind why notes are not just for memory, but crucial for thinking, emphasizing the role of the environment in processing information. He'll also guide us through various taxonomies for organizing information and discuss practical tools like Obsidian, Notion, and Apple Notes that can help manage our mental landscapes effectively. Get ready to learn about leveraging digital tools for building a lasting knowledge repository, the importance of nurturing our thoughts to foster innovation and clarity, and why developing a system you trust for note-taking can transform the chaos of information overload into a structured haven of insights.  ______________________________________ Connect With Jorge: Website Book  Podcast  LinkedIn ______________________________________ Connect with Erik: LinkedIn  Facebook  Instagram  ______________________________________ This Podcast is Powered By: Descript Descript 101 Castmagic Ecamm Podpage Rodecaster Pro Top Productivity Books List Make sure to support the show by checking out the sponsors! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

> Episode website < Episode Summary: In this enlightening episode of Insights Unlocked, UserTesting's Bailey Copithorne talks with Abby Covert, an esteemed information architect and author, to unravel the intricacies of information architecture (IA). They explore Abby's journey from graphic design to information architecture, the challenges to understanding information architecture, effectively introducing IA to teams where the concept may be new, and how to leverage AI in the field of information architecture. Guest bio: Our guest is Abby Covert. Abby is an information architect who helps people make sense of information. She writes books and teaches courses on information architecture. She is also the founder of The Sensemakers Club, a digital clubhouse where you can meet sensemakers with similar interests and challenges to your own. What You'll Learn: Abby's professional evolution: from aspirations in musical theater to information architecture, Abby shares how her career transitioned through various phases of graphic and digital design. Challenges in Information Architecture: understanding the common misconceptions that beginners have and how Abby's teaching approach addresses these challenges. Practical applications: insight into Abby's tenure at Etsy, including her innovative approach to implementing a voice of the customer program that reshaped how user feedback influenced product development. Future of Information Architecture: discussions on how information architecture is becoming increasingly crucial in the development and humanization of AI and machine learning technologies. The Sensemakers Club: Abby talks about her initiative to create a community for information architecture enthusiasts to connect, learn, and grow through The Sensemakers Club. Key Quotes: "Information architecture is not just about organizing data; it's about organizing it with intention." "Democratizing information architecture means making it a tool everyone can use to make sense of their messes, not just the trained professionals." Resources Mentioned: Abby Covert's Books: How to Make Sense of Any Mess and Stuck? Diagrams Help. The Sensemakers Club: www.thesensemakersclub.com Episode Timestamps: [00:00] Introduction to Abby Covert and the episode theme [05:22] Abby's journey from graphic design to information architecture [15:45] Common misconceptions and educational approaches in information architecture [25:30] Implementing customer voice at Etsy and its impact [35:50] The critical role of information architecture in AI and machine learning [45:10] Discussion on the future and democratization of information architecture [55:00] Conclusion and information about the Sense Makers Club Call to Action: Check out The Sensemakers Club and consider joining to connect with a community of like-minded professionals and enthusiasts. Read Abby's influential books to gain a deeper understanding and practical insights into tackling complex information architecture challenges. Further reading: For more information, read this UserTesting blog post, Information architecture: a comprehensive UX guide for beginners.

The Writers of Silicon Valley podcast is back! Listen to the first new episode with Chelsea Larsson, Senior Design Director at Expedia. We discuss the future of content design, UX writing, how AI is impacting everything, and why content designers shouldn't hang on to old definitions. And maybe…why content designers should learn Python? I'm really excited to bring the podcast back, and really excited for you to listen. Things we discuss during this episode: Generative artificial intelligence Information Architecture for the Web Open AI, ChatGPT, Gemini Python Chelsea and her stuff: Chelsea on LinkedIn Smallish Book (newsletter) Listeners get 20% off podcasts and workshops at UX Content Collective! Just use PODCAST20 at checkout.  

The humble notes serve a larger purpose - be they a simple list, recipes,  or essential information we jot down for later recall and planning. We sit down with Jorge Arango, the coauthor of Information Architecture for the Web and Beyond, to unlock the secrets of note-taking. Our first episode of the season with Jorge is more than a conversation; it's a roadmap to redefining how we handle the barrage of digital information overload.  His latest work, "Duly Noted," offers deep insights into how we benefit from good note-taking and note-making practices. We discuss the evolution of thought organization and how technological advancements enable us to manage our ideas, reflections, and discoveries with newfound clarity by using digital tools.Jorge helps us envision a future where AI isn't a threat but a collaborator, amplifying our creative processes. Tune in, and transform the way you gather, organize, and leverage knowledge in a highly digitized world.Don't forget to purchase your copy of the book with this discount code ITCPOD for 20% off the price of the book, Duly Noted. This code is valid for only 30 days after April 4. Guest BioJorge Arango is an information architect, author, and educator. For the past three decades, he has used architectural thinking to bring clarity and direction to digital projects for clients ranging from non-profits to Fortune 500 companies. He's the author of Duly Noted: Extend Your Mind Through Connected Notes, Living in Information: Responsible Design for Digital Places, co-author of Information Architecture: for the Web and Beyond, and host of The Informed Life podcast. Besides consulting, writing, and podcasting, Jorge also teaches in the graduate interaction design program at the California College of the Arts.Suggested ReadingUsing AI as an Assistant to Organize ContentShow CreditsIntro and outro music - AzAudio engineer - RJ Basilio

Julia Pond, information architect at Trilyon, Inc, joins the podcast to discuss her work using XML and DITA to collect, manage, and publish content. Visit https://tenminutetechcomm.com/ for a transcript of the episode. Email ryan.weber@uah.edu for more information on the show!

Welcome to the PhD Survival Guide Podcast! In this episode, I talk to author Jorge Arango about his book - Duly Noted: Extend your mind through connected notes. This episode is packed with information on how to think differently about notes as well as how to use notes as tools to progress your research. As always, we hope you enjoy this episode! Get Duly Noted: Extend your mind through connected notes from Rosenfeld today with discount code PHDPOD for a limited time! Jorge Arango: Jorge Arango is an information architect, author, and educator. For the past three decades, he has used architectural thinking to bring clarity and direction to digital projects for clients ranging from non-profits to Fortune 500 companies. He's the author of Duly Noted: Extend Your Mind Through Connected Notes, Living in Information: Responsible Design for Digital Places, co-author of Information Architecture: for the Web and Beyond, and host of The Informed Life podcast. Besides consulting, writing, and podcasting, Jorge also teaches in the graduate interaction design program at the California College of the Arts. Connect with Jorge Want to be a guest or send me a voice message? ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Check out our linktree!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ If you enjoy this podcast and want to tune in as more episodes of the PhD Survival Guide come out, please leave the podcast a like or follow! This way, you will be notified every time a new episode airs. Please share us with your friends! Don't forget to leave us a review! If you have any suggestions for future episodes or topics you would like to hear about, please let me know in the Q&A section below!  Follow us on Instagram! ⁠@PhDSG_Pod ⁠ DISCLAIMER: This podcast was written, produced, and hosted by myself, Ferass. While we do the best we can to gather information from various sources, it is important to remember that everything we say here is of our own opinions and inferences. All PhD students, mentors, and programs are unique and the advice may not always apply. We implore you to think with an open mind. The purpose of this podcast is to help guide and empower current and prospective students throughout their journeys. We appreciate your time. We are also on Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts!  --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/the-phdsg-pod/message

In this episode we explore the transformative shift in search engine optimization (SEO) with the advent of Google's Search Generative Experience (SGE). We dive into how generative AI is revolutionizing the way we interact with search engines, moving from keyword-based queries to more conversational, semantic searches. This change is not only altering SEO strategies but also reshaping the landscape of online content discovery, particularly affecting marketers, institutions, and the broader field of higher education. The discussion highlights the need for content to be more nuanced, focusing on user intent and context, and the increasing importance of social signals in determining a website's relevance and authority. We try to unpack the implications of these advancements for website traffic, organic search visibility, and the overall user experience in the digital age.Show notesIntroduction to Google Search Generative Experience (SGE) and Its Impact [00:00:43]Discussion on the evolution of search from keyword to semantic, emphasizing the role of generative AI in this transformation.The Shift from Keyword to Semantic Search [00:05:14]Explanation of how search engines have moved beyond simple keyword matching to understanding the context and intent behind queries.Implications of SGE for SEO Strategies [00:08:13]Analysis of how SGE changes SEO, with a focus on content relevance, user intent, and the shift towards more informative, conversation-driven search results.The Role of Content in the New SEO Landscape [00:22:17]Insights into how content must evolve to meet the demands of generative AI-powered search engines, emphasizing quality and context over keyword density.Social Signals and SEO [00:29:43]Discussion on the increasing importance of social media in SEO strategies, highlighting how social signals contribute to a website's authority and relevance.Practical Takeaways for Marketers and Educators [00:33:41]Recommendations for adapting to these changes, including focusing on creating nuanced, intent-driven content and leveraging social media to enhance SEO performance.Closing Thoughts [00:33:41]Reflections on the educational and transformative aspects of the episode, with a call to action for listeners to consider how these developments in AI and search technology might affect their strategies in higher education and beyond.  - - - -Connect With Our Co-Hosts:Ardis Kadiuhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/ardis/https://twitter.com/ardisDr. JC Bonillahttps://www.linkedin.com/in/jcbonilla/https://twitter.com/jbonillxAbout The Enrollify Podcast Network:Generation AI is a part of the Enrollify Podcast Network. If you like this podcast, chances are you'll like other Enrollify shows too! Some of our favorites include The EduData Podcast and Visionary Voices: The College President's Playbook.Enrollify is made possible by Element451 — the next-generation AI student engagement platform helping institutions create meaningful and personalized interactions with students. Learn more at element451.com. Connect with Us at the Engage Summit:Exciting news — Ardis will be at the 2024 Engage Summit in Raleigh, NC, on June 25 and 26, and would love to meet you there! Sessions will focus on cutting-edge AI applications that are reshaping student outreach, enhancing staff productivity, and offering deep insights into ROI. Use the discount code Enrollify50 at checkout, and you can register for just $99! This early bird pricing lasts until March 31. Learn more and register at engage.element451.com — we can't wait to see you there!

A world without AI? Unimaginable. And that's why - so is a world without information architecture, according to Jessica Talisman, information architect at Amazon. Information architecture extends beyond browse menus and UX/UI. We talk about why.

Jorge Arango is an information architect, author, and educator. For the past 25 years, he has used architectural thinking to bring clarity and alignment to digital products and services. He's the author of Living in Information: Responsible Design for Digital Places, co-author of Information Architecture: for the Web and Beyond, and host of The Informed Life podcast. Besides consulting, writing, and podcasting, Jorge also teaches in the graduate interaction design program at the California College of the Arts.In this podcast you will learn:How to extend your mind using connected notesThe three simple principles for creating a knowledge gardenHow to boost your creativity and upgrade your thinking with connected notetakingBuy Jorge Arango's New Book Duly Noted: https://amzn.to/3TFnKfn (Use the code: aidanpkg at checkout for a 20% discount)Jorge Arango's Website: https://jarango.com/MY FREE ONLINE COURSES:

Access the captioned version of this webcast at https://youtu.be/xZvPvmIFMjY

Jorge Arango is an Information architect, author, and educator, and he's written a new book, Duly Noted, about the age-old practice of notetaking. If you're like me, you've been taking notes since your school days. Back then, we used notebooks, a Trapper Keeper, and sticky notes – anything that could help us ace a test, remember important tidbits, and consolidate ideas. Notes are an extension of the mind. But it was always a headache to organize them, synthesize them, and recall them at the right time. Enter the digital age – which tried to improve on the humble art of notetaking, but apps like Notes and Stickies tried to replicate digitally what we were using in the real world. Newer apps like Obsidian let go of real-world metaphors by utilizing three principles: shorter notes, connecting your notes, and nurturing your notes to build a knowledge garden that will serve you for the rest of your life. If you bring value to the world through your thinking, you have the responsibility to look after your thinking apparatus. Duly Noted will augment, magnify, and extend your capacity to think well. Externalizing your mental processes is one of the most powerful means we have to think better. If used well, the humble note will help you be a better thinker and a more effective human. What you'll learn from this episode: - A history of notetaking tools - Why notetaking is a personal endeavor - How digital notetaking tools have evolved - About Jorge's new book and how, upon reading it, you just might become a better thinker and increase your effectiveness Quick Reference Guide [0:00:12] Introduction of Jorge and his books [0:01:18] Introduction of Jorge's new book on taking notes and creating a knowledge garden, Duly Noted [0:09:47] Books that will make you a better knowledge worker [0:14:14] Design in Product Conference [0:15:35] Managing knowledge with computers [0:26:03] Knowledge as a garden [0:28:09] On tools for nurturing a knowledge garden [0:33:08] How Jorge uses AI with Obsidian [0:36:37] Jorge's gift for listeners Resources and links from today's episode: Information Architecture for the Web and Beyond by Louis Rosenfeld, Peter Morville, and Jorge Arango https://www.amazon.com/Information-Architecture-Beyond-Louis-Rosenfeld/dp/1491911689 Living in Information: Responsible Design for Digital Places by Jorge Arango https://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/living-in-information/ Duly Noted by Jorge Arango https://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/duly-noted-extend-your-mind-through-connected-notes/ O'Reilly's book Mind Hacks by Tom Stafford https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/mind-hacks/0596007795/ Tools for Thought by Howard Rheingold www.rheingold.com/texts/tft/ Design in Product Conference, November 29 https://rosenfeldmedia.com/design-in-product/ Roam Research https://roamresearch.com/ Obsidian https://obsidian.md/ The Extended Mind: The Power of Thinking Outside the Brain by Annie Murphy Paul https://anniemurphypaul.com/books/the-extended-mind/ Figure it Out: Getting from Information to Understanding by Karl Fast and Stephen Anderson https://www.amazon.com/Figure-Out-Getting-Information-Understanding-ebook/dp/B085412Q1X Build a PKG (Personal Knowledge Garden) Workshop https://buildapkg.com

Please Rate and Review us on your podcast app of choice!Get involved with Data Mesh Understanding's free community roundtables and introductions: https://landing.datameshunderstanding.com/If you want to be a guest or give feedback (suggestions for topics, comments, etc.), please see hereEpisode list and links to all available episode transcripts here.Provided as a free resource by Data Mesh Understanding. Get in touch with Scott on LinkedIn if you want to chat data mesh.Transcript for this episode (link) provided by Starburst. See their Data Mesh Summit recordings here and their great data mesh resource center here. You can download their Data Mesh for Dummies e-book (info gated) here.Akins' LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/akinslawal/Schema for Success: https://www.schemaforsuccess.com/aboutIn this episode, Scott interviewed Akins Lawal, a Data Strategist. To be clear, he was only representing his own views on the episode.Some key takeaways/thoughts from Akins' point of view:Far too often in data, people move to build _something_ instead of focusing on building good information architecture specific to the task at hand and the organizational goals and capabilities.Good information architecture isn't about tech, it's about the principles and practices of how you're going to structure your data/information.Keep going back to good product principles in information architecture: your focus should be on what are you trying to accomplish over what are you trying to build.?Controversial?: Organizations need to focus far more on hiring for learning capacity instead of only for current skills. The world is changing too quickly to try to focus on specific skills for many data-intensive jobs.Leadership buy-in ends up being the number one determining factor of success for projects and transformation according to many studies. Trying to proceed - even with the greatest plan ever - without that buy-in greatly reduces the chances of success.Maturity models can be extremely helpful but they sometimes don't tell the full story. Look for pockets of maturity in your organization and see what can be copied/replicated and what can't when improving the maturity of

Episode 59: Get started with information architecture Information architecture can elevate lots of content design and UX writing efforts. But how do you get started on it and how do you manage the many stakeholders that need to be involved when working on IA? In this episode I share my experience working with IA and what has worked well for me (and what hasn't) Learning outcomes:  What is Information Architecture? What is taxonomy? How to lead IA projects and collaborate with others How to document IA Why IA impacts other content design efforts Connect with host, Nicole Michaelis:  nicoletells.com // Contentrookiepod.com  https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicoletells/  hi@nicoletells.com --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/contentrookie/message

 We're back with part 2 of our Information Architecture Conference recap! If you missed part 1, be sure to check it out. Today, we recap 3 more of our favorite talks PLUS share what we enjoyed most about the conference and what we would improve.

We are FINALLY getting to talk about the Information Architecture Conference! Part 1 of 2. Topics include what makes this conference special, what it is, why we were excited to go to it, as well as highlighting 3 of our favorite talks. Part 2 will include 3 more talks we loved, as well a little more about what we got up to in New Orleans!

As the digital practices have grown and evolved over the past few decades, the job title "information architect" has become less common. That doesn't necessarily mean that the work isn't being done, but IA is now often in the province of a designer, content strategist, or other practitioner. Abby Covert sees this situation as both a sign of progress and as an opportunity to more deliberately democratize the craft of information architecture. https://ellessmedia.com/csi/abby-covert/

Bio Jeff helps organizations build better products and executives build the cultures that build better products. He is the co-author of the award-winning book Lean UX (now in it's 3rd edition) and the Harvard Business Review Press book Sense & Respond. Starting off as a software designer, Jeff now works as a coach, consultant and keynote speaker helping companies bridge the gaps between business agility, digital transformation, product management and human-centred design. His most recent book, Forever Employable, was published in June 2020. Social Media ·         LinkedIn ·         Jeff Gothelf - coaching, consulting, training & keynotes ·         OKR-book.com ·         Twitter ·         Instagram ·         Jeff Gothelf - YouTube    Interview Highlights 04:50 Early career 16:00 Thought leadership 19:10 Outsource the work you hate, it shows 23:00 Defining a product 24:35 Product Managers as navigators of uncertainty 28:15 Succeeding as a Product Manager 37:25 Strategy, vision and mission 42:00 OKRs 48:00 Leading and lagging indicators 54:10 Do less, more often    Books and resources ·         Forever Employable - how to stop looking for work - Jeff Gothelf      ·         Best product management books - Lean UX, Sense & Respond... (jeffgothelf.com) ·         Lean vs. Agile vs. Design Thinking: What You Really Need to Know to Build High-Performing Digital Product Teams: Gothelf, Jeff ·         Sense and Respond: How Successful Organizations Listen to Customers and Create New Products Continuously: Gothelf, Jeff, Seiden, Josh ·         The role of a Product Manager: Product Managers are Navigators of Uncertainty https://jeffgothelf.com/blog/product-managers-navigate-uncertainty/ ·         Information Architecture, Louis Rosenfeld, Peter Morville, Jorge Arango ·         The Lean Startup | The Movement That Is Transforming How New Products Are Built And Launched ·         Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making, Tony Fadell ·         The Creative Act: A Way of Being: Rubin, Rick Episode Transcript Ula Ojiaku Hello and welcome to the Agile Innovation Leaders podcast. I'm Ula Ojiaku. On this podcast I speak with world-class leaders and doers about themselves and a variety of topics spanning Agile, Lean Innovation, Business, Leadership and much more – with actionable takeaways for you the listener. So I have with me the legend, Jeff Gothelf, who is an entrepreneur, keynote speaker, highly sought after keynote speaker I must add, coach and much more. So Jeff, really honoured to have you on the Agile Innovation Leaders Podcast, thank you. Jeff Gothelf It's my pleasure, Ula, thanks so much for having me. I'm thrilled to be here. Ula Ojiaku Oh, good. Well, I usually start with a question for my guests to find out more about themselves as individuals. And during our pre-recording session, you mentioned something that was intriguing to me, that you actually played piano and you were part of a touring musical band, could you tell us about that? Jeff Gothelf Absolutely. I've played piano my whole life, my dad plays piano, there was always a piano in the house, and I had pretty big rockstar dreams as I was a kid growing up. It's really all I wanted to do. I can remember in high school everybody's like, what are you going to go to college for? I was like, I'm going to be a rockstar, figure that out. And, you know, I played in bands in high school, I played in bands in college, and towards the end of college I started playing in a couple of relatively serious bands, serious in the sense that they were decent bands, in my opinion. They were touring bands and they, you know, they made enough money to sustain themselves. They weren't jobs, they didn't sustain us as individuals, but they sustained the band system. And it's fascinating because, you know, at the time I was 19 and 20, I did this really until just about the time I met my wife, which, I was 25. And so I did it until about, I was about 25, and, you know, in hindsight you don't see it when you're in it, especially if you've never really done anything else. I'd always had jobs, but the jobs were always, you know, I delivered newspapers and I made sandwiches and I was a, you know, worked for a moving company, whatever, right? But in hindsight now it's clear to me that I was being entrepreneurial. In those days, the bands, each of them, especially the touring bands, were startups, you know, it's a bunch of folks getting together with a crazy idea, thinking that everyone in the world will love it, it's going to change the world, and doing everything they can and putting everything into helping folks realise that, and building that vision and, and executing on it. And, you know, scraping by and hacking things together and hustling and doing what you can to build a successful, in this case it was a musical group, but it was essentially a startup. And these days, not only do I look back fondly on those days and all those, all those guys that I played music with are my best friends to this day, we still talk almost every day, but I learned so many skills about being entrepreneurial, about experimenting, about learning, about failure, about iteration, about, you know, what's good, what's good enough, when do you call it quits, that's a really tough thing to do, you know, letting something go that you love is really difficult. And I know now, you know, 20 years later, that so much of that experience figures into my day-to-day work today. You know, even to this day, like if I get a new speech to give, if I get, a new client or a new, you know, assignment, I call them gigs. You know, I got a new speaking gig, I got a new consulting gig, I got a new coaching gig, that type of thing. It's impossible to remove that. And it's, it's amazing to me really, because at the time, you know, I could not have told you what I just said to you and, but in hindsight it's super clear to me what I was doing and what I was learning because I've put it to use over and over and over again in my life. Ula Ojiaku That's fascinating. It reminds me of what one of my mentors said to me, and he said, whenever you are given an opportunity to learn versus, you know, get more money doing what you already know, always choose to learn because there's no wasted knowledge. So it's more of tying it back to your days that, you know, as a musician, as a part of a touring band, you were learning and you're now using those transferrable skills, right? Jeff Gothelf Yes. Ula Ojiaku And would you, well, I don't play any instruments, but I used to be part of, you know, different choirs and my daughter also now does that, you know, kind of sings. But there are times when, you know, things would go wrong and you're finding yourself having to improvise so that the audience wouldn't know, okay, this isn't part of the script. Would you say that has also played a part in your experience as a band member did such? Jeff Gothelf I mean, the thing that comes immediately to mind is just comfort on a stage, right? Comfort in front of people and being able, you know, being comfortable in front of a room and performing to some extent or another. I think that that's, that came from that, the ability to, you know, hide or improvise, mistakes that happened. You know, I remember I was, we did this as a band all the time, and nobody ever knew really, unless they knew a particular song of ours very, very well. And you know, some things like that happen all the time when you're, giving a speech or teaching a class or whatever it is. I mean, I remember giving a speech in Budapest one time at Craft Conference in front of 2000 people, and the screen kept going out, my slides are up there in front of, and they kept flickering and, and going out. And it was just a question of, you know, what do you do? Do you just sort of collapse and be like, well, the slides are gone, I can't do anything, or do you keep going? And I think a lot of that drive and that ability to land on my feet in those situations came from being in that band and putting on so many shows. Ula Ojiaku And I'll say it helps that you knew your content as well, because if you had just read it 10 minutes before and you got on the stage, then it would be a different thing. Jeff Gothelf It would not have gone well. Ula Ojiaku Yes. Okay, now I understand you have a BA in Mass Communication and you also went on to do a Masters in Human Factors in Information Design, and in your previous life you used to be a software designer. Jeff Gothelf Correct. Ula Ojiaku How did the winding road go from band member, you know, through the academics, to Jeff we know today, I mean from software designer to now. Jeff Gothelf Yeah, it's interesting, it's a great question. The, look, the rockstar thing didn't work out, you know, there's a thousand reasons, but I think the bottom line is we just weren't good enough, that's, that's probably where it netted out, but… Ula Ojiaku  And you were getting married, you said you met your wife. Jeff Gothelf I was getting married, yeah. You know, and having no money doesn't, those two things don't really play well together, you know, and so the band thing was ending and, you know, the web was starting, so we're looking at the late nineties at this point, just to kind of date myself a little bit, we're looking at the late nineties and in the late nineties as the band was, the last band that I was in, was winding down, the internet was coming up and I'd always been prone, you know, to computers and a little bit of computer programming, just very basic stuff, you know, and I started building websites, basic, you know, brochure websites for my band and for other bands, and I taught myself HTML to be able to do that. And then as the band was winding down, web 1.0 was happening and, you know, back in 1999, if you could spell HTML, you could get a job, you know, and I could do a little bit more than that, I did a little bit of graphic design, a little bit of, of HTML, and so I got a job, I got a job because it was easy to get a job back then, they took a lot of risks on people, and we learned on the job and that's what kicked things off, that got me doing web design and shortly thereafter I moved into Information Architecture, which was a brand new term and a brand new field as defined in a book by Lou Rosenfeld and Peter Morville called Information Architecture for the Worldwide Web. And that book really changed my life because it gave me a sense that I, instead of just doing kind of the last step in the process, which was the markup and the design portion, I could move further up the waterfall, if you will, in the website creation process and do a lot of the Information Architecture, and that was great, and that was really, that really spoke to me and having sort of landed in that position, as the web evolved and became more interactive and Information Architecture expanded into, well, more fields showed up in interaction design, UI design, UX design, I expanded my skillset into that world. And then that really began the trajectory of starting to build design teams and then going into product management, eventually launching our own studio, our own firm, and then finally after selling that studio, going out on my own and teaching all this stuff. But that's, that's sort of like how I went from band, to the web and everything, and there's, you know, there's a lot, I skipped a lot of steps there, but that's the story in general. Ula Ojiaku Thanks for that, Jeff, and I think you also told part of your story in your book Forever Employable, How to Stop Looking for Work and Let your Next Job Find You. Since we're already on this topic, could we just delve into that? So you said something in that book about, you know, in your job as a software designer, you know, Information Architect, I can't remember the exact role you had, but you had an aha moment where you felt you, quoting this in my own words, I'm not quoting your book exactly, but you felt like you could always be replaced in that role and you wanted to carve out a niche where you are always in demand. Do you want to tell that story in your words so that I stop butchering it. Jeff Gothelf Yeah, I mean, look, it was interesting, you know, I progressed in my career in the same way that, you know, most people progress in their career, the way that my parents told me the world works, you know, you go to college, you get a job. It took me, and there was a little, you know, band break in there for me, but, you know, I got my first job, and then you work hard for a few years and you get a promotion, and then you, maybe you move to another company and you get a raise and, you know, you just kind of move your way, you climb your way up the corporate ladder. And that's what I did, I did that for a decade and I, you know, I clawed my way up into middle management like everybody does, or like most folks do. And when I turned 35, on the morning, in fact, of my 35th birthday is how the story goes in the book, I kind of woke up in a panic. I was concerned, like you said, that this wasn't going to last. I was going to become more expensive, the number of opportunities available to me as you climb, available to anyone, as you climb the corporate ladder gets smaller and smaller and smaller. Right? Exactly. Right. That's by design, right? You want fewer managers and more people doing the work. And I was genuinely concerned that I was going to run out of, I was going to get fired, I was, there's, I was hiring people at the time and the people that we were hiring were younger than me, they were smarter than me, faster than me, they were better than me, and they cost a lot less than me. And so I was really worried, and I saw this with my friends too, I had friends who were maybe five years older than me who were struggling with this very thing. They were struggling to find a job or stay employed, and stay relevant. And I was terrified. I was terrified I wasn't going to be able to feed my kids, you know, that was the big thing for me. And so I made an explicit decision when I turned 35 that I was going to stop chasing jobs. Like, as the subtitle of the book says, How to Stop Looking for Work and Let Your Next Job Find You, I was going to stop looking for work, and I was going to create a situation where jobs were constantly finding me, where opportunities were finding me, because that way if something happens to my current job, well there's a stream of inbound opportunities available to me. And to kind of cut to the chase here, the way that I decided to do that, and the way that I write about it in the book, is through thought leadership. That's it. Like, that's the, you know, recognised expertise, personal branding, right, becoming somebody who people know and somebody who can help solve specific problems, and that's what I did. And look, it took me years, a lot of years, to really build up my reputation and my profile, and I've done it to an extent, and it's impressive to me today to see how many people are doing it so much faster than me. Now, you can credit it to the tools that's available to them, the nature of conversation online these days that's fundamentally different than it was 10 or 15 years ago, and these folks have just kind of nailed, nailed the system here. But it's thought leadership is what's worked for me to do that. Ula Ojiaku And I'll say, I mean, yes, there are people who might have done it faster than you did, but there is this saying that people are able, if I'm able to see as far as I did, it's because I'm standing on the shoulders of giants. I'm just saying it's credit to you for sharing your experience because it's helping us to know what to do moving forward. Jeff Gothelf Look, and that's, I think that that's the benefit here, right? I think I talk about this in the book, right? About sharing generously, giving back to the community, helping people avoid the mistakes that you made, helping them skip a step. And to me that's, you know, a lot of folks would see that as, well, aren't you enabling the competition? No, I'm helping the community get collectively better. And eventually I hope that if I get to a position of need, the community will help me, that's what I hope. I don't expect it, but that's what I hope happens. Ula Ojiaku So how, how did you go about setting up the systems then? Because you, you got this realisation, oh my gosh, I am going to be, I may be obsolete in my current role faster than I'd rather admit, so you said you now went, you said, okay, you're going to be a thought leader. How did you decide on what area to start from and how did you then go about setting up the systems and the structure you have right now that are helping you? Jeff Gothelf The first thing was really to decide what I wanted to be known for. You know, in the book we call it planting your flag, but it's a question of what is, if I'm going to be a thought leader, if I'm going to build a personal brand of some kind, if I'm going to be known for something, what is that thing? And, and you know, our natural tendency is to go for professional things. What do I know best at work? What do I do best? I'm a Project Manager, a Product Manager, I'm an agile coach, I'm a software developer, I'm a designer, but doesn't have to be professional. Could be personal, right? I told you I play piano and I happen to really love old vintage electric pianos. And I used to have a fairly large collection of vintage electric pianos. I could have built my thought leadership around vintage electric pianos, right, and it's viable to an extent, but the target audience here, so this is where kind of the product management hat comes on, right? The target audience is tiny. It's tiny. Like, even if you took all the keyboard players in the world, right? And, and then all those keyboard players who play vintage electric pianos, which is a subset, and all the people who care about this kind of stuff. I mean, it's still an infinitely smaller audience than say, web design, or product management, or even agile software development or things like that where I ultimately ended up. And so I chose that I wanted to be known for User Experience Design, and more importantly, UX design with Agile, because that's the problem that I was solving at the time, or solving for at the time, and nobody had a really good answer for it when we started solving for it, and that to me felt like an opportunity. And then that was what I, so then I started doubling down on that. And what that meant was starting to write, starting to share generously, speaking at conferences, getting on podcasts, things like that. And really starting to, at the very least, tell the story of the work that we were doing at the time, as I was the Director of UX at TheLadders in New York City at the time, and we were working on a daily basis, on a Sprintly basis, to tackle the challenge of good user experience design and agile together. So that's what I was writing about. And that eventually led to Lean UX, the book. But that's how it all started and that's where the focus was. Ula Ojiaku Okay. And how have you then set up the structure? Do you have a team currently or do you work in a lean manner? Jeff Gothelf So these days there is a system and there is a team. It's interesting, years ago I did a gig in the UK, see I said gig, comes out naturally like I told you. I did a gig in the UK for rentalcars.com in Manchester. And at the time, their Head of Product or Chief Product Officer, was this fascinating woman named Supriya Uchil. And she was a fantastic client. I really enjoyed working with her. And when the gig was over, she emailed me, she said, hey, would you like to hear some feedback about what it's like to work with you? No client has ever done that, by the way, not before, and not since. And I said, absolutely. I would love to get some feedback about what it was like to work with me. And she gave me a bunch of feedback, a lot of the work. And I took a lot of notes and I took a lot of post-it notes. One of those post-it notes has stuck with me for years now. It still sits here on my whiteboard, I still have it here, and it says outsource the work you hate, it shows. Right. And that's what she said to me. And she said, look, it's obvious to me that you hate doing sales. She goes, every time we had to have a sales conversation, you were clearly uncomfortable and not really into it. Right. She was right. I hate doing sales, I really do, and so over the years, as I've built this business, as it's grown, as it's become a, you know, a viable, successful business, you know, business of one per se. I have built a team of outsourced professionals to support a lot of the work that I do today. So, for example, I have a content marketing team. Now that team takes content that I create and they repurpose it across multiple channels, and they help me build, you know, my email newsletter and they help me build my LinkedIn presence and other things like that. It's my content, but they do all of that work. In addition to that, I've outsourced all my accounting. I have a fantastic accountant who works with businesses, only with businesses like mine, and so they understand my business and my way of working, everything's online, everything's digital, and that's super helpful. There is a woman that works for me part-time who basically handles the entire logistics of my business, scheduling, calendaring, travel. And then on top of that, she also handles BusDev and sales for me. And so that, to me, all that does is it removes all the things out of my way that I hate doing, and it leaves me with a tremendous amount of free time to do the things that I love doing, which is content creation and delivery. And that has made the ability to generate that content and distribute that content far more efficient and successful. And I'm super grateful to be able to, you know, to be in a position to be able to do that. And it supports the lifestyle that I'm trying to create and it allows me to, again, to focus on the things that I truly enjoy doing. Ula Ojiaku Thanks for sharing that, that's really insightful. Now, going back to something you said earlier about putting on your Product Management hat, there are some people in the audience who might be wondering, okay, what would you define a product as? Is it always something tangible or could we expand that word to mean anything that someone consumes, which might also be intangible, for example, going to a show, would a show be called a product? Jeff Gothelf That's a great question. The simplest definition that I've used and that I like for product is the way an organisation delivers and captures value. To me, that's a product. Now, that product could be a service, right? And I don't want to open up that can of worms. So if you're a band and you deliver a show, you cap you. that's how you deliver value. And if you capture value, like you sell tickets to that show, and merchandise, and maybe streaming revenue, then your product is the music and the show. So, yeah, absolutely, right, that's the way that you capture value. And so to me that's the simplest definition, the way an organisation delivers and captures value. Ula Ojiaku Thanks for that definition, and this leads me to my next question, which is, so how does it relate to the discipline of product management? What does a Product Manager do then? Jeff Gothelf I believe that Product Managers are navigators of uncertainty. So a Product Manager's job is to take an idea, right, or, you know, the way an organisation delivers value, and to take it from concept, to market, to successful business. Now, the challenge with that is that we live in a continuously changing world. The pace of that change is increasingly faster, and this idea that you can confidently predict exactly what to do, how to do it, when to do it, and be right all the time is false. There's just too much change in the world. I mean, think back three years ago, right? The world was radically different three years ago than it is today. Radically different from 10 years ago, we could, we could not have predicted the things. I mean, I started my job at TheLadders in New York City, I talk about this, in October of 2008. Everything was going great in October, in the early part of October 2008. Right, we had a roadmap, we had plans, you know, in three weeks after I started my brand new job as Director of User Experience, Lehman Brothers melts down, and the financial crisis ensues, right, and we, you know, we're a job market site and all of a sudden the whole ecosystem's upside down. And so, and so I believe that the Product Manager is a navigator of uncertainty. They take a specific set of skills, a specific set of qualities, like curiosity and humility, and they build a process for de-risking the product idea and maximizing its chances for success. That's what I believe Product Managers do at a very high level. How that manifests will vary from Google, to Bank of America, to Boeing, to whatever, to, you know, I'm thinking, I'm trying to think of something like Cisco, the food service people or whatever, right? Like every organisation is going to do Product Management differently for a variety of reasons. You know, domain, industry context, corporate politics, blah, blah, blah, you know, technology stack, whatever. But at the end of the day, I think if you're looking at sort of fundamentally what a Product Manager does is they help a team navigate the uncertainty of product development. That's their job. Ula Ojiaku I dare say that even within a sector, even an industry, the way it's carried out could also vary from company to company, would you? Jeff Gothelf A hundred percent, yeah, I mean, a hundred percent. I mean, it's absolutely true. And so I think to say like, oh, I did Product Management at Google, so I'm a great Product Manager. Well, you might have been a great Product Manager at Google, congratulations, right? Does that mean that you're going to be a great Product Manager at, you know, Barclays, I don't know. You're going to bring that skillset to bear in a completely different environment, in a completely different industry. So I think if you've got the fundamentals in place, you'll do great. But trying to sort of copy and paste what you did at Google very tactically into a different environment, I don't think it's going to work. I mean, happy to be proven wrong, but I don't think it's going to work. Ula Ojiaku So what are the fundamentals then that a Product Manager would have that would give them a higher chance of success? You know, transferrable success from one area to one another. Jeff Gothelf I'm going talk about two qualities that are, I believe are fundamental to the success of a Product Manager, and then kind of four things to keep in mind. And I think those are, I think that to me, those are the fundamentals. I think that the two qualities that a Product Manager needs to have is humility and curiosity. I think all successful Product Managers are humble and curious. And those are really two sides of the same coin, let's be honest, okay. There's really, there are two different ways to describe a very similar quality in a person. Now, humility simply means, people misunderstand humility. People think humility is a lack of vision or a lack of conviction or a lack of ideas. Or being a doormat. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, exactly. And it's not, humility simply says that, look, I have, uh, I'm going to use my expertise and my experience to come up with a strong opinion about what we should do. However, in the face of evidence that contradicts my strong opinion, I'm willing to change course. That's humility. That's saying, you know what? I was wrong about this. The evidence proves that I was wrong, so we're going to change course. The curiosity side of the story is the excitement in finding out if you were right or wrong, and to me, those two fundamental qualities of a person make for excellent Product Managers. Somebody who's willing to admit that they were wrong about their strong opinion, and somebody who's excited to find out if they're right or wrong about their strong opinion, and curious to see if maybe there's a better way, right? I think this is a good idea, but there's got to be a better way, no, let's go find it. To me, that makes for excellent Product Managers. So those are the fundamental sort of personality qualities. I think those are really hard to teach. I think you can train people to some extent but, you know, ego's tough and humility challenges the ego a lot. And so do the facts for that matter, facts challenge the ego a lot, the evidence you collect from the market. So then there's that. And I think the four sort of things to keep in mind for excellent sort of transferrable product management are customer centricity, agility, evidence-based decision making, and continuous learning and improvement. So a lot of agile concepts in there, you'll hear sort of a lot of agile concepts. You can argue all of them are agile concepts, although not exactly how all agile is implemented these days, but nevertheless, so customer centricity first and foremost, right? As a curious and humble Product Manager, your primary focus is making the customer successful, not shipping features, making the customer successful. That means understanding the customer, understanding the problem that you're solving for them, understanding what's getting in their way, understanding what they're doing today, understanding how the competition is solving this problem for people, understanding technology and how you might apply it to better solve this problem, understanding where the market is going so that you get ahead of it, you don't get caught behind, right? But it's all about understanding the customer. What are customers looking for? What are they trying to achieve? What's getting in their way? And really knowing them, not just quantitatively, but qualitatively, meeting them, talking to them, having regular conversations. To me, that's the first sort of key quality of a successful Product Manager. The second is agility, and that stems directly from those qualities of humility and curiosity. Agility is the ability to change course, it's the willingness to change course. It's the flexibility to say, you know, we started going down this path and I know we've spent a couple of Sprints heading down this path, but it doesn't make sense anymore, and so we're going to change course. And yeah, we burned two Sprints on this and that sucks, and I'm sorry, but we didn't burn two months on it, we didn't burn six months on it, right. And so we're going to shift to something more successful because of what we've learned in the past. And that brings me to the third point, which is evidence-based decision making. So those course corrections are being made based on data that you're gathering from the market, qualitative data, quantitative data that lets you know that, yeah, this is a good path to go down. Or, you know what, we really need to pivot here or to completely change course into something else, but you're making decisions based on data and not just opinion. And then finally, this continuous learning and improvement. This, again, this is that curiosity that says, we did a good job, we solved the problem, the product's successful, great. How do we make it better? How do we keep learning whether or not this still makes sense? Right? To me, that's what makes for successful Product Managers, right? Those multiple focus areas and two core qualities of humility and curiosity. I think that's what makes for good Product Managers. Ula Ojiaku That's awesome, thank you for that. And would you have, I mean you do, in your books, you've shared lots of war stories where you know, you had experience with product management or product leadership and to the audience, I'll say read the books, but is there any example maybe that comes to mind of someone who was a Product Manager that, you don't have to name names, you don't have to share like details, but that kind of brought to life all these personal qualities and focus areas and how that affected the work? Jeff Gothelf I mean, look, I've worked with a ton of remarkable folks over the years. I think I started really meeting folks who were working this way when I met folks like Janice Fraser who, in fact came up with the phrase ‘strong opinions, loosely held', which is exactly what I was just describing a few minutes ago. Janice has built multiple businesses and has really helped pioneer these ideas into sort of the mainstream. And I've seen her repeatedly do this. Eric Ries, you know, with The Lean Startup, really brought a lot of these ideas to light in a very easy to digest way, hence the success of his work in the past, and he lived this stuff in the businesses that he's built over the years. I had a colleague and co-worker and co-founder in a business named Giff Constable. Most recently, Giff was the Chief Product Officer at Meetup, but he's been a serial entrepreneur his whole life. Giff really embodied these ideas, like he's a smart guy, tons of experience, really great ideas, but he would test them all, and if he didn't get evidence that convinced him that they were right, he was willing to change course. And I learned a ton from working with him and building businesses with him. And it was inspirational because in many ways, you know, I appreciated his ruthlessness. You know, we all, it's hard, you know, this is personal stuff, this is my idea, all my ideas are great, I love my ideas, right. And he loved his ideas, but he was very, very good at separating emotion and evidence. And I really learned a ton from him as well. So those are three folks that kind of come to mind immediately. Ula Ojiaku Thanks for that, it reminds me in terms of what you said about Giff being ruthless, I think is a term in journalism to “kill your darlings” because you could write an article or, you know, write your first draft and you're so in love with it, but by the time the editor brings out their red pen or something and starts striking it out, you have to separate emotion from the love. Jeff Gothelf That's exactly right, kill your darlings is the reality of this, of good product management. It's, you know, if the data doesn't prove it, and the data we're looking for is changes, meaningful, positive changes in the behaviour of the customers that we're serving. And if the data doesn't show it, then no matter how brilliant this idea was, how much you love it or how much you thought it was just revolutionary, it doesn't make sense to continue to invest in it, we've got to find, figure out a different way. Ula Ojiaku That's awesome. I'd love to get to your take on the terms, you know, vision and strategy. How would you define these terms would be my first question, and my second question, and I'm happy to, you know, share this again, is how would you then tie this to, you know, for example, product development? How would they, how should they influence product development? Jeff Gothelf Yeah, so look, a couple things. There are, I'm not going to lie to you, you know, I struggle a little bit with, you know, vision and mission. Strategy is clear to me, but differentiating between vision and mission, some will say a vision is like what will the world look like in five years or something like that? Or if you're successful, what changes will you see in the world? That type of thing. Whereas a vision is sort of like the big motivational, like what was it for Google? Cataloguing all the world's data, that was their vision. Right? Ula Ojiaku Can I give you my own take? So my understanding mission is more like, okay, what do we stand for? We're going to save the world? And vision is like, okay, in this amount of time, you know, this is how we're saving the world. So it's kind of a picture from the future, say if we travel five years into the future and we see our customers, what are, how are they behaving? You know, what exactly does the world look like for us? While mission tends to remain constant. That's my understanding anyway. Jeff Gothelf Okay. Yeah. And so to me, look, it's directional, right? In the sense of like, we are, you know, we're going to make sure everyone is clean drinking water, like clean drinking water for everybody, right? That's our, is that our mission or our vision? I don't know. But like, or maybe that, maybe that's the mission and the vision is, you know, a world where no one's thirsty. To me, those are like you, I think you need that in the sense that like, you need to know sort of at a high level what problem is the company solving for in the world? I think that's important, right? Because I think that inevitably there are going to be initiatives that seem to stray from that. At the very least, you can point and say, look, is it our mission to bring clean drinking water to everybody in the world? And why are we like investing in a sports website? Right, doesn't make any sense. So at the very least, it gives us that perspective. Strategy, however, and I think strategy is really, really, really important. Strategy is super important for aligning the organisation so that everybody is pulling in the same direction, so that everybody is clear on what the short term goals are for the organisation and it gives people, if done correctly, it gives people the freedom to experiment and learn to figure out the best ways to achieve the strategy, because I do believe that strategy is a hypothesis. Our hypothesis is that we want to expand into the North American market in 2024. Okay, great, let's figure out all kinds of ways where we might start to build some market share in North America in 2024. Right. And to me, I think that that is the true benefit of strategy. I think that it can also be misused, at least, for alignment, that's very specific. Our strategy is, you know, North American market share and we're going to do it this way. And you can get very prescriptive with that. Now everybody's aligned, everybody knows what we're doing, but it doesn't allow for the flexibility and that push and pull that ultimately reveals a better way to do something or is more creative or more innovative. And so I think strategy is key. It's key to articulate it clearly and simply, it's key to disseminate it clearly and simply across the organisation. And I think no team in the organisation should have their project approved if they can't clearly state how they believe this might help achieve the strategy. That's what I believe. Ula Ojiaku And on that note, so you said no project or team should have their initiative approved unless they can show how it helps move the needle towards the desired strategy, the direction of travel, the organisation, I suppose that's what you mean, the organisation's direction of travel or what they want to achieve. Now how, because one of the shiny new objects, or, well, not an object per se, but more like a buzzword is OKRs, objectives and key results. So how can we use that? Or, let's say, can it be used to help with tying strategy with the work that, you know, the lower levels of the organisation might be doing? Jeff Gothelf I think it's critical to be able to tie the pieces together. Now, I don't expect an individual contributor necessarily to be able to do that, but certainly their manager can say, hey team, we're working on this very tactical thing because it's a component of these five other tactical things that when you put them together, they roll up and they achieve this much more meaningful thing together. Right, and so I, again, I think that there needs to be a clear, and it's rare, look, let's be honest, right? Everyone in the organisation needs to understand what the strategic focus is for the next six months, six to 12 months. Okay. And again, if you can't speak directly to why you're working on the thing that you're working on, then your boss should be able to answer that question for you. Ula Ojiaku So it's really about, what I'm hearing you say is that there needs to be a strategic focus for an organisation at least that looks ahead six to 12 months into the future to say, okay, this is what we're going to be doing. And for teams, they have to find a way of articulating how they are contributing to that strategic focus, to the fulfilment of that strategic focus. Now, how can OKRs be used? I know you said, okay, individual contributors may not necessarily use that, but in the situations where you feel they apply, how could they be, and by they, I mean OKRs, objectives and key results, how could this format help? Jeff Gothelf OKRs to me, are the key to bringing this alignment. So if there's a clear strategy. Without a clear strategy, the OKRs don't help, okay. But if there's a clear strategy and we've set success criteria for that strategy, for that strategic hypothesis, then, or we can start to say, okay, great. We are, our strategic focus for 2024 is North American expansion, we'll know we've achieved it when, you know, we've got 10% market share, this much revenue and a, you know, new customer referral rate of 20%, something like that. Right. All of a sudden, the organisation knows what it's targeting, not only what the strategic focus is, but the actual behaviour change that we're looking for. So fundamentally, every team in the organisation can then start to say, okay, we work on X, and X is a leading indicator of Y and Y is a leading indicator of market share. Okay. So the objective, while it should be local to the team, as well as the key results, they function as leading indicators for the strategic goal, right? So let's try to make an example on the fly, right? So we're talking about North American expansion in 2024. Let's assume that we are in the, you know, online furniture business, something along those lines, right? And so if, maybe you work on a merchandising team, right? And so there, in order to do proper merchandising, you need access to specific suppliers, right? And so there is a team that does supplier and vendor relations. Right. That team understands that for the merchandising team to be successful, they've got to build these relationships with these vendors. So their OKR is going to be about building those relationships, right? Those relationships in turn allow the proper merchandising to take place, which then allows for the proper, you know, for market share to grow in the North American market, for example. So, but that connection can be, you can literally draw it on a board because people understand the strategy. And so objectives and key results become the, sort of the tactical strategic beacons for each of the teams. Each team knows exactly what they're targeting and why, and they understand, in theory, how it might help achieve the overall strategy, which again is a hypothesis, it might be wrong, but at the very least, they've got a shared direction. Ula Ojiaku Thank you for that example. There's something you said about the leading indicators. So I assume that would fall under the key results part, because we'd have the objective which is like the, you know, ambitious statements and then the key results are like, this is what success looks like in terms of achieving that broad statement, the objective. Now, would you, I've read articles from respected thought leaders who say, okay, yes, leading indicators are good, but there also needs to be, you know, the lagging indicators, kind of a balance of, will I say measures, you know, leading, lagging and quality indicators. I don't know if you have any, I mean, I'd love to hear what your view would be on this, because if we're only looking at leading indicators, there might be a temptation to just be short term in our thinking and not also try to measure the lagging indicators, like okay, the actual revenue of the profit that you get versus our likelihood of getting that revenue. Jeff Gothelf Yeah. So look, so short answer is both are important, I think, obviously, and I think both are required. Slightly longer answer is the lagging indicators in an organisation often tend to be the, what we call the impact metrics for the organisation, the high level measures of the health of the business, like you said, revenue, sales, you know, customer satisfaction, etcetera. Right. So yeah, those things need to exist. Typically, they exist at the leadership level, and so then whatever's happening within the teams, tends to function as a leading indicator ultimately to those sort of high level lagging indicators. Right? So we're going to, you know, I've got a team working on email marketing, and they're working on email market opening click rates, right? Those are leading indicators of eventual sales, and those sales are leading indicators of revenue, which is a lagging indicator of the health of the business. And so those, that's,to me, both are needed. Typically the lagging indicators tend to be at the strategic and the leadership level. Ula Ojiaku I read on your blog post that you have another book coming up, whilst we're on the subject of OKRs, and you're going to be, or you are in the process of co-authoring yet another book with your co-author Josh Seiden. Could you tell us about that? Jeff Gothelf Absolutely. So, yeah, so Josh and I have been working and writing together for a long time. We have been talking about outcomes and OKRs together for a long time, and we feel there's an opportunity in the marketplace to build, to write a tactical how-to implementation guide for all, organisations of all size. And that's what we're doing. It doesn't have a title yet, we do have a website at okr-book.com where you can sign up and learn a bit more about it and then kind of be on the mailing list when we do have more info about it. We're writing it right now. To be honest, I've been writing it in public for the last two years on my blog every week at 500 to 700 words at a time. All those just kind of getting those ideas out there and experimenting to see what works and what doesn't and what gets feedback and what doesn't, and that's been super helpful and I expect this to be a popular book, and I expect this to be a very helpful and tactical book for organisations who are going through the process of implementing OKRs and are trying to make them work both as a goal setting framework, but also truly understanding the kinds of changes to ways of working that come after you've implemented OKRs. Agility, or agile ways of working, product discovery, Lean UX, right? Those types of activities as well, to help teams build that evidence-based decision making that we talked about earlier. Ula Ojiaku Awesome. Is there any timeframe or do we just go to your, to the website you mentioned and sign up to get more updates on the book as they unfold? Jeff Gothelf okr-book.com - that's the website? Ula Ojiaku Yes. And when do we expect it to be released? Jeff Gothelf October. Ula Ojiaku This October, awesome. So that would also be in the show notes. Are there any books or materials that you have found yourself gifting or recommending to people that have impacted or shaped the way you think right now? I mean, that is in addition to your, you know, Sense and Respond book, Lean UX. Unfortunately, I don't have the physical copy of the Forever Employable ones and, but yeah, are there other books that you could recommend to us? Jeff Gothelf Yeah, I think so recently I've read Tony Fadell, his book Build, the Tony Fadell of Apple and Nest and various other fame, Build is a really good book and really interesting insight as to how he works and builds products, and most recently I just finished the new book by Rick Rubin, legendary music producer Rick Rubin, it's called The Creative Act, and I found that book to be fascinating and really inspiring. I mean, it's, you know, he is very like, listen to this, you know, get into the zone and just the flow and, you know, there's a lot of that fluffy guru kind of stuff in there too. But I agreed with 90% of what I read in there about creativity, about, you know, working with an idea, about developing an idea, about getting feedback on an idea, about letting an idea go, about changing context and constraints to create more creativity and innovation. And I really enjoyed it. So it's called The Creative Act, it's by Rick Rubin, and it's an easy read and I would recommend that if you're looking for that kind of motivation, I think it was really smart. Ula Ojiaku Awesome. Is there anything else you'd like to ask of the audience? Jeff Gothelf I just hope that if you've got anything you'd like to ask me, don't hesitate to get in touch via Twitter or LinkedIn or my website. If you're interested in OKRs, do sign up for my newsletter, and go to okr-book.com and sign up there. And beyond that, I hope to see you online or in person sometime in the future, because it's nice to meet people in person again these days. Ula Ojiaku Great. Thank you very much, Jeff, for these. Any final words of wisdom for the audience before we go? Jeff Gothelf The pithy phrase I'll close with is this, do less, more often. That's the phrase that I would recommend for you. Ula Ojiaku Wow. Do less, more often. I am going to be pondering on that statement. Thank you so much, Jeff. It's been an honour speaking with you, learning from you, and I hope we would get the opportunity to do this again, hopefully. Jeff Gothelf Thank you, Ula. This was amazing. Thanks for having me on the show. Ula Ojiaku That's all we have for now. Thanks for listening. If you liked this show, do subscribe at www.agileinnovationleaders.com or your favourite podcast provider. Also share with friends and do leave a review on iTunes. This would help others find this show. I'd also love to hear from you, so please drop me an email at ula@agileinnovationleaders.com Take care and God bless!   

We're taking a break again this week to get some rest after IAC. We'll be back in 2 weeks with new episodes! To fill the void, we thought it'd be fitting to re-release our episode on IA in Product to celebrate our first time presenting at the Information Architecture Conference.

In this episode of "From Embers to Excellence," Dave Hollenbach interviews Seth Earley, a renowned speaker, author, and influencer with over 20 years of experience in Knowledge Strategy, Data and Information Architecture, Search-based Applications, and Information Findability solutions.Seth is the author of "The AI-Powered Enterprise," a book that was released in April 2020, and went on to receive the Axiom Business Book Silver Medal in the Artificial Intelligence / Robotics / Algorithms category in 2021.In this insightful interview, Seth shares his expertise in achieving higher levels of operating performance by making information more findable, usable, and valuable through integrated enterprise architectures supporting analytics, e-commerce, and customer experience applications.Seth's writing has appeared in prestigious publications such as IT Professional Magazine from the IEEE, Harvard Business Review, CMS Wire, CEO World, TechTarget, eCommerce Times, and Analytics Magazine, and he co-authored “Practical Knowledge Management” from IBM Press.Tune in to this episode to learn from a true expert in the field of leadership excellence and gain valuable insights into how to make your enterprise more efficient and effective through the power of AI.https://www.earley.com/

In episode 138 of The Content Strategy Experts Podcast, Gretyl Kinsey and Christine Cuellar talk about a common content strategy trap: what happens when information architecture (IA) is missing, and... Read more » The post Why information architecture matters (podcast) appeared first on Scriptorium.

Early-Stage WordPress Startup Investing The Key Factors David was one the first web pioneers, Back in 1992 he developed a line-mode web client and also contributed code to the initial WWW library. Was the first to introduce and promote Hebrew on the web. He has over twenty years of experience as a CTO and a CEO and was involved in several start-ups and established companies and was the founder of two successful ventures. His academic background is in computer science (BS) and educational technology (M.Sc). Was adjunct university professor, an IDF "Basmach - Mamram School" instructor, gave numerous workshops on Information Architecture, UEX, E-Learning, and Cyberwar, wrote two books and several articles on the early days of the Internet and received innovation awards including the Hebrew University Kaye award for innovation (twice). Main Questions For Interview #1 - David what have been some of your most interesting and exciting investments in WordPress? #2 - What is the start-up investment scene like at the present moment in Israel? #3 - What are some of them of the most interesting start-up companies or sectors on your radar at the present moment? #4 - What are some of the key factors that you look for in early-stage investing? #5 - If you go back to a time machine at the beginning of your career, what advice would you give yourself? #6 - Are there any books, websites, or online recourses that have helped you in your business development that you like to share with the audience?

Are you ready to move your intranet into the cloud? Richard talks to Susan Hanley about her work helping organizations migrate intranets into Microsoft 365 Sharepoint Online. Susan talks about avoiding lift-and-shift implementations for intranets - or anything going to the cloud. Better to take what you have learned about your intranet and build a governance plan in M365 to migrate content piece by piece. The good news is most of your old SharePoint customizations are now built-in capabilities in SharePoint Online! The conversation also digs into building pages to replace documents and what should be searchable - an intranet migration is a great chance to build an even better intranet!Links:Viva ConnectionsPrivate Channels in Microsoft TeamsSharePoint News PartRecorded January 6, 2023

We are heading into this holiday season with a little series of episodes called "Meet the Verdooners. You'll get to hear from each of our team members and get a little background on them and what makes them tick. This first episode introduces Marshall Hines, our Creative Director and the person responsible for helping us communicate this message of fiscal responsibility in the most compelling and understandable way possible. After the episode be sure to check out the books Marshall recommended:Increments of the Neighborhood Brian O'LooneyVisualizing Density Julie Campoli and Alex S. MacLean

Amy Jiménez Márquez is Vice President of Experience Design at Zillow. Previously, she led design teams at Amazon and Compass. In this conversation, we focus on the role of information architecture in managing digital experiences at scale, with a particular focus on research and modeling.Transcripthttps://theinformed.life/2022/12/03/episode-102-amy-jimenez-marquez/Show notesAmy Jiménez Márquez - LinkedInAmy Jiménez Márquez (@amymarquez) / TwitterZillowAmazon AlexaMyers–Briggs Type Indicator - WikipediaSophia PraterObject Oriented UXSophia Prater on Object Oriented UX – The Informed LifeDesigning Connected Content: Plan and Model Digital Products for Today and Tomorrow by Carrie Hane and Mike AthertonConceptual Models: Core to Good Design by Jeff Johnson and Austin HendersonMuralContent management system (CMS) - WikipediaBoxes and ArrowsChristina Wodtke - WikipediaAlesha Arp - LinkedInShow notes include Amazon affiliate links. We get a small commission for purchases made through these links.

In episode 39 of The Product Design Podcast, Seth Coelen interviews Sarah Doody, Founder and CEO of Career Strategy Lab, a job search and career accelerator program for people in UX, tech, and product. Sarah started as a UX Researcher and Designer with different startups in New York City. She opened a research and design consultancy in 2012 and is now focused on career development and coaching with Career Strategy Lab.During our chat, Sarah shares how she strategically designed her career path and grew her network while honing a critical skill she believes launched her into her successful career! We also discussed Sarah's 3-part product strategy to propel your career path, and the top myth UX professionals believe about recruiters.During our interview with Sarah, you will learn:

Diana Sonis is a passionate believer in holistic 360 strategy and design, with extensive expertise in UX and CX design, service design, and design thinking. Lis Hubert is an acclaimed design and strategy thought leader, writer, and speaker with extensive experience in digital strategy, customer experience, information architecture, and design. Together, they founded CX by Design, a human-centered design company that helps businesses design people-centric products, services, and organizational systems in order to create exceptional customer experiences.  Listen to learn about: Customer experience design Near- versus long-term strategy Helping organizations make design thinking part of their internal processes What exactly is innovation? Systemic innovation Designing for customer intent  Our Guests: Diana Sonis Diana is a passionate believer in holistic, 360 strategy and design, with extensive expertise in UX Design, CX Design, Service Design, and the Design Thinking methodology.  As founding partner of CX by Design, Diana's mission is to identify nuggets of opportunity within an organization, reorient its existing systems and structures to improve the human experience, help others extend their thinking, and drive material business advantage.  Having designed, built, and successfully sold several companies, Diana works to help businesses shape abstract concepts into concrete online and offline experiences that respond to the needs and motivations of real people.  When she's not solving strategic challenges, Diana can be found in pursuit of good coffee everywhere. Lis Hubert Lis is an acclaimed design and strategy thought leader, writer, and speaker with extensive expertise in Digital Strategy, Customer Experience, Information Architecture, and Design Thinking.  As founding partner of CX by Design, she has made it her mission to help companies meet their strategic goals. She does so by making the invisible visible through research, making the complex simple through her unique perspective, and bringing understanding and meaning through expert facilitation.  With over a decade of designing successful products and strategies for clients of all sizes, her passion lies in helping her partners think holistically about driving, and enacting, real change. Lis helps businesses not only increase their bottom line, but also their longevity through customer loyalty. When not tackling complex strategic problems, you can find Lis traveling the world enjoying the human experience to the fullest.    Show Highlights [01:18] Diana and Lis talk about their paths into design and customer experience. [07:04] How Lis and Diana approach systems design. [08:11] The three components of a business ecosystem. [09:03] Gauging the health of the business based on the components. [11:27] Lis' and Diana's business backgrounds and how it's helpful for the work they do now. [12:37] Near-term strategy versus long-term strategy. [13:40] Strategy is no good without a roadmap and a process. [16:25] Working backwards from the goal to create the map to get there. [18:38] Why CX by Design starts their weekly client meetings with a few minutes of non-work-related chat. [20:58] Helping clients see the potential of design thinking as a problem-solving method. [24:32] Getting an entire organization to shift into thinking like a designer. [26:47] Creating a culture of innovation. [27:39] CX by Design's “sweet spot.” [28:24] What is innovation? [29:26] The importance of language in an organization's innovation culture. [31:56] The concept of systemic innovation. [33:40] Design for customer intent. [35:32] Looking for ways customer intent and a business' core values interconnect. [36:08] Diana and Lis use the company Patagonia as an example. [38:48] How CX by Design uses information architecture tools in their work. [43:43] Books Lis and Diana recommend that have influenced their work.   Links Diana on LinkedIn Diana on Twitter Diana on Medium Diana's website Diana's articles on UX Booth Diana's articles on boxes and arrows Lis on LinkedIn Lis on Twitter Lis on Medium Lis' personal website Lis' professional website Lis on Women Talk Design Lis' articles at UX Magazine Lis' articles on boxes and arrows Lis' articles on UX Booth CX by Design – sign up for their newsletter CX by Design on Twitter   Book Recommendations Who Do We Choose to Be?: Facing Reality, Claiming Leadership, Restoring Sanity, by Margaret J. Wheatley Pervasive Information Architecture: Designing Cross-Channel User Experiences, by Andrea Resmini and Luca Rosati Ten Types of Innovation: The Discipline of Building Breakthroughs, by Larry Keeley, Helen Walters, Ryan Pikkel, and Brian Quinn The Compass and the Nail: How the Patagonia Model of Loyalty Can Save Your Business, and Might Just Save the Planet, by Craig Wilson and Kyle Tait Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High, Third Edition, by Joseph Grenny, Kerry Patterson, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler, and Emily Gregory The Design of Business: Why Design Thinking is the Next Competitive Advantage, by Roger Martin Designing for Growth: A Design Thinking Tool Kit for Managers, by Jeanne Liedtka and Tim Ogilvie This Is Service Design Doing: Applying Service Design Thinking in the Real World, by Marc Stickdorn, Markus Hormess, Adam Lawrence, and Jakob Schneider   Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like Design Thinking for the Public Sector + Building and Training Design Thinking Teams with Stephanie Wade — DT101 E14 Civic Design + Innovation Ops + System Design with Ryann Hoffman — DT101 E62 Employee Experience by Design: How to Create an Effective EX for Competitive Advantage with Belinda Gannaway — DT101 E75

As an expert with 20+ years of experience in Knowledge Strategy, Data and Information Architecture, and Information Findability solutions, Seth has worked with a diverse roster of Fortune 1000 companies; helping them to achieve higher levels of operating performance by making information more findable, usable and valuable through integrated enterprise architectures supporting analytics, and customer experience applications.    Seth Earley is a sought-after speaker, writer, and influencer. His writing has appeared in IT Professional Magazine from the IEEE where, as a former editor, he wrote a regular column on data analytics and information access issues and trends.   He has also contributed to the Harvard Business Review, CMSWire, and Journal of Applied Marketing Analytics, and he co-authored “Practical Knowledge Management” from IBM Press. Seth is also the author of the award-winning book; The AI-Powered Enterprise: Harness the Power of Ontologies to Make Your Business Smarter, Faster and More Profitable. Seth was named to Thinkers360 top 50 global thought leaders and influencers on Artificial Intelligence for 2022. Key Takeaways Seth provides us a basic description of what AI is all about, and what its major components areHow owning a knowledge management strategy can go a long way in helping you plan and execute AI systems into your businessLeveraging the power of machine learning to collect data on your customers' behavior Science or Magic? How AI can provide you with reliable predictions for what content, products, or services your customers craveThings to take into consideration when building your business foundational knowledge Ways of capturing explicit knowledge and ensuring it is more readily consumable and accessibleHow knowledge can act as a key differentiator in your business practiceThe importance of mapping your customer's journeyWhy metrics are vital when it comes to data collection and storage Connect with Seth Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sethearley/   Website - https://www.earley.com/   Twitter -  https://twitter.com/sethearley 

Seth Earley is a Chemist by training and an expert on AI. Specifically, how AI is used to improve knowledge management. In fact, he wrote the book on the topic titled “The AI-Powered Enterprise” in which he explains the importance of ontologies when applying AI. Seth is the CEO of Earley Information Science. He has been advising companies on technology strategy since 1994 and is currently focused on AI and knowledge engineering. Listen and learn: Seth's contribution to AI history… including the term he coined that was co-opted by former IBM CEO Ginni Rometty Why all AI is a data (and information architecture) problem How the Applied Materials field services team reduced time spent finding information by 50% with knowledge engineering and ontologies Why proper information architecture is required for virtual agents to reduce call volume and help live agents What has changed since Seth first published his AI book in 2020 The benefits of semantic search vs. traditional keyword search Where to start with a knowledge management strategy Why “data scientists spend more time being data janitors” How to mitigate the impact of bias in AI training data References in this episode: How AI can detect employee burnoutThe Innovation Delusion on Amazon Earley Information ScienceThe AI-Powered Enterprise on Amazon Kevin Dewalt, Prolego CEO, on AI and the Future of Work

Seth Earley is an expert with 20+ years of experience in Knowledge Strategy, Data and Information Architecture, Search-based Applications, and Information Findability solutions. Seth has worked with a diverse roster of Fortune 1000 companies helping them to achieve higher levels of operating performance by making information more findable, usable, and valuable through integrated enterprise architectures supporting analytics, e-commerce, and customer experience applications.  Seth Earley is a sought-after speaker, writer, and influencer. He is the author of "The AI-Powered Enterprise" from LifeTree Media which was released in April 2020. In 2021, the book received the Axiom Business Book Silver Medal in the Artificial Intelligence / Robotics / Algorithms category.  His writing has appeared in IT Professional Magazine from the IEEE where, as a former editor, he wrote a regular column on data analytics and information access issues and trends. He has also contributed to the Harvard Business Review, CMS Wire, CEO World, TechTarget, eCommerce Times, and Analytics Magazine. Journal of Applied Marketing Analytics, and he co-authored “Practical Knowledge Management” from IBM Press. 

In this episode, the inimitable Dan Brown, Principal and Co-Founder at EightShapes, joins us for a chat and a drink about the world of Information Architecture. Dan talks about how the IA domain has evolved over the years, and how his company has evolved with it. In the process, we discuss what is needed to make good ideas come to life now that the skills and tools required to build well-constructed products have converged so much over the years. We also discuss the ways that designing projects has changed, from titles and casting, to documentation, and everything in between. Enjoy! Drinks: Leinenkugel Summer Shandy, Devil's Backbone Lime Margerita, High Quality H2O Links: EightShapes, LLC: https://eightshapes.com Books Designing Together: https://tinyurl.com/WBUDanBrown1 Communicating Design: https://tinyurl.com/WBUDanBrown2 Practical Design Discovery: https://abookapart.com/products/practical-design-discovery Cards Surviving Design Projects: https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/surviving-design-projects-v2 IA Lenses: https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/information-architecture-lenses Podcast A Lens A Day: https://open.spotify.com/show/2saemBQZKAzRGuDhO9y8Hi?si=37500f0ea9e049e9 --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/whatbubblesup/message

Marketing teams typically drive the overall market penetration strategies. They could also drive your strategic priorities in key market segments and transform the customer experience. Also, while they use a lot of tools and technologies to be efficient with their day jobs, they very rarely are part of the operational core. So what are the systems that marketers need in their roles? And do they need to interface with the enterprise systems such as ERP? How do you accommodate the needs of marketers in the enterprise architecture?In today's episode, we invited a panel of cross-functional experts for a live interview on LinkedIn who brings significant expertise to discuss information architecture for the marketing department. We covered many grounds, including the systems for each marketing role and their process boundaries. Finally, we discussed new technologies and industry-specific architecture, including the challenges associated with B2B and B2C business models.For more information on growth strategies for SMBs using ERP and digital transformation, visit our community at wbs.rocks or elevatiq.com. To ensure that you never miss an episode of the WBS podcast, subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform.

Sales teams are typically known to be completely disconnected from the organization. But if you have a smart sales team, they understand the importance of technology and what it can do to the sales process. The sales technologies have also come a long way. There are so many tools out there that can help with each step of the process. But what are the systems that need to be part of the enterprise architecture to help with each sales role inside the organization?In today's episode, we invited a panel of cross-functional experts for a live interview on LinkedIn who brings significant expertise to discuss information architecture for the sales department. We covered many grounds, including the systems for each sales role and their process boundaries. Finally, we discussed new technologies and industry-specific architecture, including the challenges associated with B2B and B2C and how the processes might differ due to nuances of the marketplaces, customer portals, configurators, and dealer onboarding processes.For more information on growth strategies for SMBs using ERP and digital transformation, visit our community at wbs.rocks or elevatiq.com. To ensure that you never miss an episode of the WBS podcast, subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform.

If you are responsible for managing operations for your organization, you will find yourself caught in the middle. On one side, you have a sales team that may not commit to driving predictable sales, but they will not allow you to miss even one delivery, even if it may be out of your control. Then on the other side, you have unpredictable factors such as workers not showing up on time or truck drivers not meeting their commitments. Finally, you need to make sure you can plan facility expansion, staffing, and training. You are also responsible for maintaining the quality of your products while maintaining all the regulatory compliance, including the health and safety of your employees. That's a lot. And there is no way you can do all of that on papers, spreadsheets, or disconnected systems. So, what systems do you need to build the annual operating plan? But most importantly, which systems will help you deliver on that plan? Is ERP enough? Or do you need more than that?In today's episode, we invited a panel of cross-functional experts for a live interview on LinkedIn who brings significant expertise to discuss information architecture for the operations department. We covered many grounds, including how to start on the annual operating plan and the systems and data points you might need to build your operations plan. Finally, we discussed concepts such as how to incorporate risks into your operating plan, where IIoT fits in the planning and operational execution, whether quality, health and safety, and SPC fit in the architecture.For more information on growth strategies for SMBs using ERP and digital transformation, visit our community at wbs.rocks or elevatiq.com. To ensure that you never miss an episode of the WBS podcast, subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform.

If you ask any manufacturer, they will tell you that the Shop floor is where you make money. You need to make sure you have the right material and the right operator at the right machine. Wasting machine or machinist time is equally expensive. But then your margins may be tight, and you need to make sure you are profitably able to produce the job by optimizing the cycle time. You also need to make sure that you service your equipment at the right time, or you have the risk of disruptions. So how many different systems does the shop floor need? And how to create the system architecture to enable the smart factory?In today's episode, we invited a panel of cross-functional experts for a live interview on LinkedIn who brings significant expertise to discuss shop floor information architecture. We covered many grounds, including the stories related to shop floor information architecture across various manufacturing industries of various sizes. Finally, we discussed what companies need to do to take advantage of Industry 4.0 technology and architectural patterns.For more information on growth strategies for SMBs using ERP and digital transformation, visit our community at wbs.rocks or elevatiq.com. To ensure that you never miss an episode of the WBS podcast, subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform.

While the 3PL and companies involved with freight movement may have much stronger needs for logistics and transportation processes, manufacturers and distributors can't be efficient if they treat logistics as their stepchild. In fact, more and more companies are managing their in-house fleets to meet the consumer expectations of faster delivery and issues such as driver shortages. The inhouse fleets are also required if you have regulated business or special requirements to ship your goods, such as Frozen food or if 3PLs might be cost-prohibitive for your business model. Even if you rely entirely on LTL and FTL carriers, you still have to manage the scheduling, timely loading or unloading, and coordination with your 3PL carriers if you want to avoid overages. So what are the needs and best practices to cost-effectively manage the logistics needs for a manufacturer or distributor? And what system and integrations would they require to manage them?In today's episode, we invited a panel of cross-functional experts for a live interview on LinkedIn who brings significant expertise to discuss logistics information architecture. We covered many grounds, including stories related to the different systems that logistics function needs and the role of POD and rate shopping systems in the architecture. Finally, we discussed why manufacturing and distribution companies need to think before bringing capabilities such as last-mile delivery in-house and how the supply chain companies have a very different business model than the traditional manufacturers and distributors.For more information on growth strategies for SMBs using ERP and digital transformation, visit our community at wbs.rocks or elevatiq.com. To ensure that you never miss an episode of the WBS podcast, subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform.

A warehouse is a critical component to drive operational efficiency, especially if your company moves a lot of goods. The warehouse is also the area, which is typically the start of the automation, and if you operate your warehouse without barcodes, it might take forever to deliver the goods. Also, with ASRS systems and robots, the sky is the limit with what you could do to treat the warehouse the way it deserves. But without the foundational information architecture and connected systems, it's very hard to gain the efficiencies you expect. Sometimes poor implementations or poorly connected systems cause implementation failure of large Robotics or ASRS systems. What do you need to make sure you have a solid foundation for your warehouse to automate your warehouse processes?In today's episode, we invited a panel of cross-functional experts for a live interview on LinkedIn who brings significant expertise to discuss warehouse information architecture. We covered many grounds, including stories related to the information architecture for warehouse processes and the considerations that businesses need to keep in mind while designing the architecture, including WiFi availability, interactions with 3PL, the need for robotics, and the number of sites. Finally, we discussed how newer technologies such as multi-shuttle systems, AMRs, and drones that can cycle count are driving the need for refined architecture.For more information on growth strategies for SMBs using ERP and digital transformation, visit our community at wbs.rocks or elevatiq.com. To ensure that you never miss an episode of the WBS podcast, subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform.

Procurement plays an extremely important role in ensuring that you have the right raw materials at the right place at the right time. They are also responsible for the S&OP planning, which is the hardest to master, and misaligned S&OP functions could significantly impact the top and bottom line. And they are often left behind when it comes to their technology needs. They are also an afterthought in the organization in creating sophisticated procurement processes that will have tangible financial results. But what do procurement professionals need to perform their duties? Is ERP enough? Or do they need more? Where do systems such as P2P, CLM, Spend Analysis, Supplier Discovery, Supplier Information Management, eSourcing, Contract Management, eProcurement, eInvoicing, Supplier Management fit in the architecture? And how to design an architecture that allows companies to create process boundaries between these systems and share information while maintaining a single source of truth.In today's episode, we invited a panel of cross-functional experts for a live interview on LinkedIn who brings significant expertise to discuss procurement information architecture. We covered many grounds, including stories related to the different systems that procurement function needs and the role of MDM and CLM in the architecture. Finally, we discussed the vendor collaboration required at the various stages of the order lifecycle, starting from the design, procurement, finance, and production.For more information on growth strategies for SMBs using ERP and digital transformation, visit our community at wbs.rocks or elevatiq.com. To ensure that you never miss an episode of the WBS podcast, subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform.

In this episode of The Nick Lugo Show, you will learn everything you need to know about personal branding. I sit down with the best of the best, as he shares his tools, tips, and tricks to market yourself and your ideas. You can find his resource list at: https://mauricebretzfield.com/digital-marketing-resources/ Maurice Bretzfield is a Digital Strategist with 40+ years of Business Management, Business Systems, Information Architecture, Digital Marketing Strategy and Systems Development, and Outsourcing. “I am curious. I love nothing better than to focus on a new challenge. I am fortunate to live an enormously interesting life.” Mentor status: Elite He served The Center For Early Education in West Hollywood California as a Trustee, Board Treasurer, Vice President, and Capital Campaign Co-chair. He has also served Cedars Sinai Medical Center as a member of The Board Governors and The Los Angeles Children's Museum as a member of its Board of Trustees. And now he is a https://www.score.org/ (SCORE.org) Certified Business Mentor. He consult, develop, mentor, teach, and evangelize. His favorite part about Digital Marketing? “I've been a Digital Marketer for over 25 years, but it's only the last six months that really count now”. Digital Marketing has so many moving parts and the field expands and changes exponentially. New tools and platforms emerge all the time. He is the father of two wonderfully successful young women and is blessed with five grandchildren. Listen to his interview with “https://anchor.fm/kennysoto/episodes/Interview-with-Maurice-Bretzfield---The-Man-Who-Introduced-Me-to-Digital-Marketing---Episode-50-e15blm5 (The People of Digital Marketing with Kenny Soto)” to dig deeper into his content. You can find his resource list at: https://mauricebretzfield.com/digital-marketing-resources/ SPONSORS SneakerCreatures: https://www.sneakercreatures.com/ USE PROMO CODE: NICKLUGO for 10% discount on all sneakers PODCAST INFO: Podcast website: https://nick-lugo.com/ Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lugos-journey/id1527159307?uo=4 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1OrMPWEyIGIdQpBkNEZqe0 RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/3ffb95d4/podcast/rss YouTube Full Episodes: www.youtube.com/NickLugoShow YouTube Clips: www.youtube.com/channel/UC_IEc5zSq7grb4lgGGEcqUw SUPPORT and CONNECT: – Twitter: https://twitter.com/NickLugooo – Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nick.lugo/ – LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-lugo-2a7124208/ – Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nicholas.lugo.311 – Email: nicholasanthonylugo@gmail.com