About

Included here are a few details from my life that are relevant to my interest in UX. They include significant influences, hobbies and motivations. Read them all or jump around.

Form & Function
Rhythm & Rhyme
Question & Answer
Marketing & Communications
Before & After
Consensus Process
Empathy
What is Adaptojen?

Form & Function

Growing up, I knew accessible bathrooms should be beautiful, that fancy cars aren’t always street-legal.

Some things go hand in hand

Every family fights. I grew up amidst heated debates around form vs. function and how they determined the value of a thing. My mother was a kitchen designer and strong advocate for aesthetics. My father sold automotive after-market products and championed all things high performance. My sister steered away from these discussions, but I was always intrigued. I could see both sides and that they were clearly better off listening to and learning from each other.

Rhythm & Rhyme

Being married to a musician and fellow songwriter, words matter. Their timing and meaning either rings a bell or blows a whistle.

Words can change your tune

Good lyrics, set to the right music, are a dance of expectation and surprise. That’s why we like them. My husband and I had each written many songs before we met. It was pretty electric how many of them felt like we’d written them for each other. But we both had our pain points when it came to relationships. Cautiously optimistic, we co-wrote this on our fifth date:

Win or lose, we don’t get to choose.
But over and over, I’ll still be singing.
Spin the lock, it clicks and it stops. {pause}
But the right combination is just the beginning . . .

Question & Answer

A degree in journalism gives you a license to be curious, as well as the constant feeling that you’re on a tight deadline.

Everybody has a story to tell

Researching and outlining interview questions, but also being present to moments where a follow up question might be illuminating. Being able to record and take organized notes while staying connected to the subject. Later being able to pick out patterns anecdotes to distill the headline and weave together the bigger story. My favorite – small story, big picture. Delivering deadlines on time. Taught journalism, failed students who didn’t do their fact finding. KNow your reader. User-centered communicator. Manage spce limitations

Before & After

What I’ve learned from remodeling the kitchens and bathrooms of three homes.

Creative Problem Solving

I work so that I can remodel.

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Frilly pink bathroom with curiously long and narrow walkway. — Before

Consensus Process

The consensus process used by Quakers has been in use for three and a half centuries.

Beyond Majority Rule

Consensus-based decision making

It would not be hyperbolic to say that consensus-based decision making is my religion. I’m a Quaker. Now there’s different kinds of Quakers, but none have anything to do with oats. I’m a convinced Quaker, meaning I came to it on my own, not unlike the first Quakers did — upon spending a few years in nature, enjoying the transcendence of silence, I discovered that I very much enjoy the company of people who like do the same.

At a Quaker Meeting for Worship, there’s an agreed upon mystical process that governs if and when someone will speak during the hour of collective silence. There’s actually a flowchart that describes it, which I intend to illustrate soon. Occasionally there is a dissonance, somebody ignores the process and instead rambles on about a story they heard on NPR, or jumps in to offer a rebuttal after someone else has shared. But there’s processes for handling it with kindness. (If it’s really bad, anyone can stand up and silently protest.)

Really, there’s processes for everything in Quakerism. This is by necessity, as there is no leadership. That is how Quakers came to be known for their consensus models. Because they do not believe that any one person has spiritual authority over another, all decisions are made using a consensus process. (To be clear, I do respect hierarchies in work environments, but I don’t think they should affect they way anyone is treated.)

Jen Ambrose