Conventional career advice overwhelmingly teaches that office-politicking extroverts are best set up for success. As a result, if you’re offbeat, you’ve probably felt that the parts of your personality that seem out of sync are weaknesses you need to overcome.  What companies really need are passionate, original thinkers. Businesses need “disruptors” — Silicon Valley’s favourite word — and they need employees who are too odd to understand the ways things are “supposed to work.” Fellow misfits, do not fear: You do not have to change your fundamental being in order to thrive in your career.

Embrace Your Weird

<ul><li>Your unique point of view is a strength, not a weakness. </li><li>Your sensitivity is what allows you to read a room and, ostensibly, play to it. </li><li>Your emotional intensity/curmudgeonly nature/crippling social anxiety/outsider status means you’re not constantly trying to curry favour with an uninspiring boss or your phoning-it-in co-workers. </li></ul>Having the courage to celebrate your differences and communicate your ideas will help you succeed in nearly any vocation. So keep at it. Push yourself to share ideas or fixes to long-standing problems. Propose your big, wild dream project. Embrace your quirks.

Your Quirk Is Your Strength

The impulse to want to fake it, to be more poised, polished or more like what you perceive all those #bosses on Instagram to be, is powerful — especially if you’ve spent a lifetime feeling odd. But pretending to be something you’re not in a new job, faking skills or contorting yourself to gain recognition, is a short-sighted strategy with little return.Your best work will come when you can be open, accountable, curious and fully who you are — not by performing some outsize version of who you think you should be.

Don't Fake It

Focus on the value and strengths you bring in this moment, even with all of your perceived flaws. Identify what it is about work that makes you feel anxious. Learn to push through this anxiety instead of running away from it. A daily meditation practice may help with this; so could a simple 10-minute walk.Pinpoint the triggers that make you feel ashamed or insecure and begin the process of overcoming them. Journaling, therapy, and confiding in friends are all potential ways to cope.

Sharpen Your Hidden Strengths

<ul><li>Many of us have been told that confidence is a fixed state — once we have it, it doesn’t go away. But confidence is actually fleeting: One day you will be swaggering around a conference room fired up to give a presentation and the next you’ll be eating your feelings in the office kitchen paralyzed by a full panic. </li><li>Most people — misfits or not — experience this sort of indecision. We think confidence is a requirement to be successful. </li><li>But instead of focusing on confidence, set your mind to developing your competence — and becoming better at what you do. </li></ul>

Confidence Is Overrated

For many of us, the biggest obstacle in the way of our success is the noise we create in our own heads: psyching ourselves out, telling ourselves we can’t do it, distracting ourselves with problems that don’t necessarily exist outside our minds. For those of us who experience these thoughts, learning to control our overthinking — and anchor ourselves back in reality — is critical. Remember that what we perceive as failure is often an opportunity.

Stop Overthinking

So you hate networking, the small talk gives you hives and you find yourself in a state of panic over professional events. All of this may make you may feel like you’re alone at work. You aren’t. You just haven’t identified your people yet. The awkward moments you experience on a regular basis can be an opening for a conversation with someone who also struggles with feeling like they don’t fit the mould. Look for these moments of honest rapport, and seek out the people at work who behave in a way you admire and whose work you genuinely respect.

Misfits, Unite!

<ul><li>Focus on building genuine connections and relationships, not transactional relationships based on what other people can do for you.</li><li>Ask questions that have nothing to do with work.</li><li>Give heartfelt compliments. </li><li>Be a person your new colleague-friends can trust. </li><li>Actively support your co-workers, back up their ideas, offer help when you can and celebrate their successes. </li><li>Set boundaries and stick to them. You are not obliged to socialize with co-workers outside the office if you don’t want to, nor do you have to take on their personal problems to be a good colleague.</li></ul>

Networking Tips For The Misfits

For all the square pegs out there who are not able to fit the round holes of corporate culture.

It's possible to survive — and even thrive — as a misfit without forcing yourself into a round corporate hole. Here's how to embrace your weird and successfully navigate the workplace. 

career

Career

corporateculture

Corporate Culture

A Misfit’s Guide to Navigating the Office - Guides

Sometimes, getting your team out of quicksand will require you to be more directive than empowering. Don't worry: we can still approach this in a way that drives buy-in and helps your teammates feel heard, and know they have autonomy. Sometimes, being directive is the most empowering thing you can do.

Managing A Team In A Directive Way

A manager has to ensure that the team has a clear roadmap with well-defined projects and deadlines.To check this, managers can start by asking themselves: When you think about how you want to lead your team at this moment, what are you optimizing for?

Identify What You’re Optimizing For

Describe your role in outcomes, rather than describing how you will do your work.Example: Ensure the team has internalized the project's timeline<ul><li>Ensure each team member has a clearly defined individual role in this project.</li><li>Communicate to stakeholders when there are surprises and changes to the plan within 24 hours.</li><li>Make sure the team knows who to reach out to when they have questions about progress.</li></ul>

Identify the Who, What, When, and How

<ul><li>Avoid the word "accountable". Use longer descriptors to describe what you actually mean</li><li>What's going to happen, or be different, as a result of me doing this thing?</li></ul>Example: "I facilitate standups on Mondays and Wednesdays."

Communicate the Who, What, When, and How to Your Team

<ul><li>Describing your role in terms of outcomes will allow you to make informed "how" decisions that always tie back to the primary goal.</li><li>Identify your teammates' roles and responsibilities.</li><li>Block out time for this work.</li><li>Find one person who will be good at giving you gut-checks as you develop the plan.</li><li>Let them know when and how you'll be sharing a project plan with them.</li></ul>

Define the Who and What for Your Team

If you need to communicate to particular individuals first: Prioritize communicating with different folks based on how much their reaction or input will affect your future messagingIdentify what's changing about how the team is doing their work and what's staying the sameRespond to pushback: Stay in coaching mode, help this person feel heard, and be clear about what parts of the plan can be amended versus which parts are firm

Nailing Down the When and How

Before getting defensive, arguing, or shutting your teammate down, try spending five minutes using open coaching questions to understand where they are coming from:What feels most important to you about this?What is your gut telling you? What one thing do you wish you could change about this?

Ask Open Coaching Questions

<ul><li>As leaders, it's our responsibility to choose the approach in each new scenario that will work best for the work, the team, and the organization.</li><li>It's important for every leader to learn how to adopt a directive approach when it's the most effective option while maintaining the trust and buy-in of their team</li></ul>

Empowerment Vs Direction

Last newsletter, I answered a manager’s question about helping their team break the cycle of going in circles, while still being as empowering as possible.



teamwork

Teamwork

leadershipandmanagement

Leadership & Management

You can be directive without being a jerk

<ul><li>One needs to normalize these moments of inner doubt</li><li>Point out particular leadership skills this person exhibits, the achievements they've nailed, values and intentions they carry, and the effects they've had on those around them.</li><li>In addition to giving them this specific, positive feedback, we have an opportunity to help these people look in the mirror at their true selves.</li><li>The simple act of helping them reflect on what they see is incredibly powerful.</li></ul>

The Key Points

If you have a teammate coming to you questioning their worth and effectiveness, or your spidey sense gives you a clue that their self-confidence is feeling challenged, you can equip yourself with a framework that will help this teammate recognize their successes and impact.

Those Moments Of Self-Doubt

Open questions can help your teammate realize, recognize, and internalize their own skills and impact. You can spend time asking them these questions in a 1:1. Here are a few:<ul><li>In the last year, where have you created more clarity or predictability for people?</li><li>In the last six months, how have you helped your teammates hone new skills or advance their careers?</li><li>In the last three months, what decisions did you facilitate or make? What blockers or missteps did you help the team or company avoid?</li><li>What will the future look like, thanks to the work you’ve done?</li></ul>

Ask Open Questions

If your teammate prefers to process and introspect privately, you can send them these questions to think through on their own. They can block out 20 minutes of focus for reflective time with an exercise like this. Invite them to share any new lightbulb moments with you the next time you meet.Please don’t worry about leading your teammate down a particular path of realization. Sure, you can hold up that metaphorical mirror for your teammate and tell them what you see. But the simple act of helping them reflect on what they see is incredibly powerful, too.

Reflective Time

This post originally appeared on Lead Dev.



Help your teammates navigate moments of self-doubt

Your time outside of your day job is your own.You have the time to learn how to bake bread, learn to cook, or just do whatever you want, and there is no excuse for not being productive.But People get exhausted after the initial spike and let go.<ul><li>Why has there not been a flood of new Great American Novels clogging Amazon's self-published section?</li><li>Why have most of the new podcasts and TikTok accounts popped up in March of 2020, when people were at their most bored-why have most of them gone silent?</li></ul>

The Premise

<ul><li>Working diligently and consistently towards our dreams, especially if they're relative longshots, is one of the hardest things we’ll ever do, if we do it at all.</li><li>The self-confidence needed to believe in ourselves enough to try, and the dedication needed to maintain the discipline to keep doing it over and over again, even when it’s hard.</li><li>Without the structure of the workplace and other people relying on you, there is no necessary timeline for any project. No sprints to the finish line, no target projections to hit.</li></ul>

Meeting Our Own Deadlines Is The Hardest

Just as we have met deadlines in our jobs, why can't we do so when we are on our own?Your self-work should be as crucial as any office deadline. Remember: <ul><li>You are your own boss.</li><li>The person who hired you for this job liked you then and trusts you now.</li><li>They saw something in you that not everyone else sees.</li><li>Thanks to the charity of this person-this person being you-you got your dream job.</li></ul>

You Work For A Boss As You Fear Disappointing Them

<ul><li>Your boss, which is you only, don't expect you to push yourself to the max every day, but they want to see you improve consistently</li><li>Your boss has the unique ability to know when you're not pulling your weight, and they're not afraid to call you out on it.</li></ul>

When You Are Your Own Boss

Your boss knows the core of our issue with self-imposed deadlines. Here is a small exercise.<ul><li>Pick a task that is slightly challenging but doable.</li><li>Set a deadline for tomorrow, or sometime this week, at 9 am.</li><li>You can't change the deadline once you set it.</li><li>If you've set your output at something you know is manageable, it shouldn't be a problem.</li><li>Don't disappoint yourself.</li></ul>

Govern Your Self-Imposed Deadline

<ul><li>Being a professional is about taking something abstract (dream) & turning it into something more concrete (action).</li><li>We all should take our dreams seriously - we all have the capacity to be professional, and bring that kind of focus and energy to our passion work.</li></ul>

A True Professional

Setting yourself a deadline like your boss does.

productivity

Productivity

timemanagement

Time Management

How To Set Deadlines That Feel Real

At the peak of the pandemic, businesses and leaders saw it as a huge inflection point, a great opportunity for individuals to redefine strategies, workplaces, teams, and social contracts. But what they are afraid of is that, after this great opportunity, people will crawl out of the rubble and go back to old ways of working that frankly, hadn’t been working for us for decades.This time is your opportunity to learn from your peers. This is your opportunity to open up your curiosity, and make sure that you, your team, and your organization never goes back to work, but only goes forward.

Never go "back" to work; go forward to work

There were two myths of collaboration prior to the pandemic. One myth was that all collaboration starts with a meeting. And the other was that the more people you get involved in collaboration, the slower the decision-making. But that is just not true.In fact, we can utilize simple, high-return practices of asynchronous collaboration.That’s the most powerful takeaway from hybrid work: Instead of sticking to our old ways of synchronous meeting and collaboration, we can use a valuable new set of underutilized tools.

Collaboration starts before the meeting

In the olden days, mental and physical well-being were dealt with as individuals, sometimes shamefully in the shadows.But at the peak of the pandemic, we saw more vulnerability. We saw more openness. And with that, we saw more bonding and team cohesiveness.

Resilience is a team sport

Add a five-minute agenda item to your team meeting - the “foresight five minutes.” Before a meeting, everybody has been designated to come to that five minutes with a distinct way of looking at the world.One individual or group is looking at the world relative to competitive threats. Another one is looking at the world relative to technological changes and customer changes and macroeconomic policies and then the question is asked, “What risks and opportunities do we need to potentially move into an analysis meeting?”

Foresight is crowdsourced 

Today, we have to negotiate very clear outcomes-based weekly sprints of our work.What are each of us and each of our teams going to do this week? And then you allow empowerment during that week to achieve as much as they can achieve. And then a standup at the end of the week determines, what did we do? Where did we struggle, and where are we going for the next week? There’s a negotiation among the team to make sure that everyone is aligned, and off we go.

Move from "Crisis agile" to agile as your primary operating system

education

Learning & Education

Insights that will allow you to compete in the future of work

With a virtual farewell party, you’ve got to have some activities planned, or you’ll end up with 20 faces blinking at each other expectantly from their Zoom boxes. <ul><li>One fail-safe activity is a quiz about the departing co-worker: questions about projects they worked on, the name of their dog, what instrument they play in their punk-rock band, etc.</li><li>It’s also a good idea to ask at least one person to give a toast (typically the departing colleague’s manager or another higher-up who knows them pretty well), and to give the person who’s leaving a chance to say a few words if they’d like. </li></ul>

The best activities for a remote farewell party

When a departing colleague has been at the organization for a while, it can be fun to invite former co-workers to the farewell, too.It turns the Zoom gathering into a mini-reunion, as well as a sort of retrospective This Is Your Life moment. Even if they can’t attend, they may be able to share stories or tributes about the departing colleague that can be included in a goodbye card or read aloud during a Zoom call.

Inviting alumni to company parties

<ul><li>A fond farewell lets the person who’s leaving the company know how much they’ve been appreciated, and affirms that the parting is on good terms.</li><li>The decision to leave a job can be kind of like a birthday—a moment when we take stock of our lives and do a lot of existential pondering. In both cases, a celebration can help people feel supported at a time when they may be a bit vulnerable.</li><li>A party gives people who still work at the company an opportunity to feel a sense of closure, too. Some people may feel quite sad when a co-worker they’re close to leaves; others may worry about their future.</li></ul>

Why it’s important to throw goodbye parties for co-workers

Managers can consider the work that goes into throwing goodbye parties (and doing other tasks that contribute to a convivial workplace culture) when determining promotions and raises.They can assign office parties to an employee-focused on internal talent as part of their formal job description. Or they can ask different people to take charge of farewell parties on a rotating basis, so the work doesn’t fall disproportionately on just one or two employees.

Recognizing the work that goes into a goodbye party

Virtual goodbye parties can be tricky to manage. But as more people switch jobs, knowing how to organize a proper sendoff for departing colleagues is an important skill.

remotework

Remote Work

How to throw a good farewell party for a remote colleague

Learn from the Japanese concept of Wabi Sabi which encourages to value simplicity and to find beauty in imperfections and impermanence. Wabi sabi teaches us how to simplify and prioritize the right things, while allowing time to make the necessary changes. It shows us how to access the magic of the everyday and the mundane and to understand that what we have is enough.

Find Beauty And Fulfillment In Life’s Perfect Imperfection

Wabi: subdued taste. Sen no Rikyū revolutionized tea ceremony favoring a version that celebrated natural beauty and simplicity. Rikyū’s style of tea ceremony was known as wabi tea, or “wabi-cha.” Wabi implied a mindset that appreciates simplicity, humility and frugality.Sabi: elegant simplicity and beauty that come from the passing of time. Pensive luster, in Tanizaki words, is preferred to shallow brilliance.Wabi sabi implies a worldview that appreciates simple beauty, imperfection and the transience of all things.

Learn From The Meaning Of Each Word

Imperfection is to be celebrated. Home should be the place where you feel more at ease. Use natural and imperfect materials like wood and stone that remind us that life is perfectly imperfect. To bring more of yourself in your home decorate with objects that create emotions or memories in you. This coupled with the right kind of decluttering can help you build a home focused only on the truly important parts of your life.The wabi sabi home, then, allows for all of our imperfections, but encourages us to simplify our lives so that we’re closest to what we cherish most.

Soulful And Simple Home

“that a certain type of perfection can only be realized through a limitless accumulation of the imperfect. And personally, I find that encouraging”

﻿When we pay attention to nature, we begin to notice a whole world of quiet and simple magic. We also become more present. This is celebrated in Japanese poetry called Haiku and in the classification of seasons. Japan calendar has 24 smaller seasons to acknowledge small changes like “Mist starts to hover”. Noticing the small changes in the outside world make us more attuned to changes in our body and mind. We start to notice we need to rest, to lighten or to change scenery. Nature impermanence makes us aware of our own. Cherry blossoms reminds us that we must focus on what really matters now.

Tune Into Nature, Embrace Impermanence 

”Suffering is inevitable, pain is optional”We mist learn to embrace change and respond promptly to it. We cannot control what happens to us but we can control how we respond to it.The sooner we accept what is happening the better, as we can modify our behavior to the new reality.Life is fundamentally imperfect. And after we’ve accepted this basic truth, we should realize that much of what we have already is – in its own way – perfectly imperfect.

Embrace Acceptance 

"I have not failed. I've just found ten thousand ways that won't work." Thomas EdisonAs we embark on a learning journey, we must understand that the journey will never be complete. It will have set backs and advances but won’t end. You are not competing against others but growing compared to the person that you were yesterday. In this process failure can be the opportunity for expansion, we can reframe it and learn useful lessons that we might have otherwise missed.

Embrace Failure As The Path To Success

Tea Ceremony is a moment where we look after of one another offering care and consideration.It has 4 principles:<ol><li class="ql-align-justify">“Wa” - Harmony. What could you do to encourage harmony in your relationships?</li><li class="ql-align-justify">“Kei” - Respect. What do you respect of each individual that you could celebrate and acknowledge?</li><li class="ql-align-justify">”Sei” - Purity. Cultivate purity of heart and seek out the best in each other. Think of how you could manage your conflicts differently if you tried to see the best in others.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">“Jaku” - Tranquility. To connect with others you need space and calm. How can you create more time and space to grow your relationships?</li></ol>

Tea Ceremony Principles Can Help Improve Our Relationships

There is no perfect career path. Each successful person had to endure many difficulties and face many failures in their path to success. “Do” represents the journey one has to take to acquire knowledge and wisdom in a discipline. Sado, the way of tea; Judo the way of gentleness. It is the path towards something which contains the most vital lessons. The journey is more important than the end goal.The same is true for our careers. We should seek out and learn the most important lessons in our journeys through self reflection.

Enjoy Your Career Journey And Its Unplanned Turns

With age we acquire life lessons, wisdom and discernment . We treasure moments with loved ones and carve out time to do the things we enjoy most. Perfection can be found in the everyday magic of our imperfect lives.Take time to reflect and write down the things you love most like the eleventh-century poetess Sei Shōnagon which noted her favorite things, in lists like “Things to Quicken the Heart”.

Cherish Your Time On Earth

Wabi sabi encourages us to value the perfectly imperfect in every area of our life from career to relationships.

The definitive guide that teaches you how to use the Japanese concept of wabi sabi to reshape every area of your life and find happiness right where you are. Fed up with the exhausting challenges of our fast-paced, consumption-driven existence, millions of people around the world are turning to timeless cultural traditions to find true meaning. In this transformative handbook, Beth Kempton introduces you to wabi sabi (”wah-bi sah-bi”), a captivating concept from Japanese aesthetics that offers a whole new way of looking at the world. With roots in Zen and the Way of Tea, wabi sabi teaches you to see beauty in imperfection, appreciate simplicity, and accept the transient nature of all things. It inspires you to simplify everything and concentrate on what truly matters. Filled with simple yet profound wisdom, Wabi Sabi will help you slow down, reconnect with nature, and be gentler on yourself. From honoring the rhythm of the seasons to creating a welcoming home, from reframing failure to aging with grace, Wabi Sabi teaches you find more joy and inspiration throughout your perfectly imperfect life.

mindfulness

Mindfulness

motivationandinspiration

Motivation & Inspiration

travel

Travel

books

Books

The definitive guide that teaches you how to use the Japanese concept of wabi sabi to reshape every area of your life and find happiness right where you are. Fed up with the exhausting challenges of our fast-paced, consumption-driven existence, millions of people around the world are turning to timeless cultural traditions to find true meaning. In this transformative handbook, Beth Kempton introduces you to wabi sabi (”wah-bi sah-bi”), a captivating concept from Japanese aesthetics that offers a whole new way of looking at the world.With roots in Zen and the Way of Tea, wabi sabi teaches you to see beauty in imperfection, appreciate simplicity, and accept the transient nature of all things. It inspires you to simplify everything and concentrate on what truly matters. Filled with simple yet profound wisdom, Wabi Sabi will help you slow down, reconnect with nature, and be gentler on yourself. From honoring the rhythm of the seasons to creating a welcoming home, from reframing failure to aging with grace, Wabi Sabi teaches you find more joy and inspiration throughout your perfectly imperfect life.

Beth Kempton

Wabi Sabi

<ol><li class="ql-align-justify">The first way to make more money as a Ux designer is to be obsessed. Always be curious and get good at your craft</li><li class="ql-align-justify">The second way that you can make more money is to get a lot of different experiences, in many different areas of UX Design</li><li class="ql-align-justify">The third way you can make more money is to add more skills to your already existing skill in UX Design. For instance, computer programming and interaction design. You can also learn how to facilitate workshops.</li></ol>

3 Ways You Can Make More Money as a Ux designer

As a UX Designer we want to get paid what we deserve, here are 3 important ways to make more money as a UX Designer

If you're a beginner or a mid-level UX designer looking for a way to increase your UX designer salary and make more money, then you should consider at least one of these 3 paths. In this video AJ&Smart CEO Jonathan Courtney shares the best 3 ways to earn more money as a UX designer and how you can boost your earnings in the field of UX/UI design too. The advice in this video comes from Jonathan's experience as a CEO of a Product Design Agency, who has worked with UX designers and has hired in-house and freelance UX designers over the past 10 years. ➡️ If you want to learn more about Facilitation and Workshopping check out our FREE training here 👉 https://go.ajsmart.com/start 🤔 Which of these 3 paths resonated with you the most? Do you have more questions about being a UX Designer? Share your questions in the comments below 👇 ⏰ Video timestamps: 0:00 Intro 1:12 Path 1 - Become the best at UX design 3:00 Tip 1 - Become obsessed with the product world 3:49 Tip 2 - Get a lot of different experience 5:15 Tip 3 - Work at an agency with a lot of client products 5:50 Path 2 - Move away from EXECUTION towards STRATEGY 9:15 Book 1 - The Lean Startup 9:56 Books 2+3 - Business Model Generation + Value Proposition Design 10:39 Book 4 - Good Strategy Bad Strategy 11:10 Medium Article - What The F#@k Is Strategy? 12:10 Path 3 - Layering on high value, complementary skills 12:39 Example skill 1 - Facilitation & Workshopping 14:49 Example skill 2 - Development 15:39 Example skill 3 - UX research 17:03 Summary + Conclusion 🌳 Resources named in the video: Book 1 - The Lean Startup by Eric Ries http://theleanstartup.com/ Book 2 - Business Model Generation by Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur https://www.strategyzer.com/books/business-model-generation Book 3 - Value Proposition Design - Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur https://www.strategyzer.com/books/value-proposition-design Book 4 - Good Strategy Bad Strategy by Richard Rumelt http://goodbadstrategy.com/ Book 5 - Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne https://www.blueoceanstrategy.com/ Book 6 - Playing To Win by A.G. Lafley and Roger L. Martin https://rogerlmartin.com/thought-pillars/strategy Medium Article - What The F#@k Is Strategy? https://medium.com/just-thinking/what-the-f-k-is-strategy-fc1195846e55 Thanks for watching! ---- #UXDesigncareer #UXDesign #UXDesigner 📩 If you want to stay ahead of the Workshop / Facilitation game, level up your career, and be in the know on the nerdiest, 'techiest' things, sign up for our FREE newsletter here: 👇 📝 https://aj-smart.ck.page/21100f1c73 👀 🔔 And if you haven't yet subscribed to our Youtube channel for more Workshop / Facilitation Skills/ Career / and Design Sprint videos: ❤️ https://www.youtube.com/AJ&Smart?sub_confirmation=1😉 📗If you want to learn even more about Workshop Facilitation grab our Free Facilitation Guidebook https://go.workshopper.com/facilitation-gb Want more? Join 200,000+ people subscribing to our AJ&Smart YouTube, LinkedIn, and Instagram channels for free content to help you and your team do more valuable work. AJ&Smart is the #1 design sprint firm in the world, the official Design Sprint training partner with Jake Knapp, inventor of the google design sprint, and partner of choice for the world's most successful brands. 3 Ways To Increase Your UX Designer Salary (2022) https://youtu.be/5OI_AyNrObw

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

moneyandinvestments

Money & Investments

product

Product & Design

If you're a beginner or a mid-level UX designer looking for a way to increase your UX designer salary and make more money, then you should consider at least one of these 3 paths. 

In this video AJ&Smart CEO, Jonathan Courtney shares the best 3 ways to earn more money as a UX designer and how you can boost your earnings in the field of UX/UI design too. The advice in this video comes from Jonathan's experience as a CEO of a Product Design Agency, who has worked with UX designers and has hired in-house and freelance UX designers over the past 10 years.      

➡️  If you want to learn more about Facilitation and Workshopping check out our FREE training here 👉  https://go.ajsmart.com/start

💰 Check out our guide to UX Design Salaries in 2022: https://www.workshopper.com/post/ux-designer-salary 🤑

🤔  Which of these 3 paths resonated with you the most? Do you have more questions about being a UX Designer? Share your questions in the comments below 👇

⏰ Video timestamps:

0:00 Intro
1:12 Path 1 - Become the best at UX design
3:00 Tip 1 - Become obsessed with the product world
3:49 Tip 2 - Get a lot of different experience
5:15 Tip 3 - Work at an agency with a lot of client products
5:50 Path 2 - Move away from EXECUTION towards STRATEGY
9:15 Book 1 - The Lean Startup
9:56 Books 2+3 - Business Model Generation + Value Proposition Design
10:39 Book 4 - Good Strategy Bad Strategy
11:10 Medium Article - What The F#@k Is Strategy?
12:10 Path 3 - Layering on high value, complementary skills
12:39 Example skill 1 - Facilitation & Workshopping
14:49 Example skill 2 - Development
15:39 Example skill 3 - UX research
17:03 Summary + Conclusion

🌳  Resources named in the video:

Book 1 - The Lean Startup by Eric Ries
http://theleanstartup.com/

Book 2 - Business Model Generation by Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur
https://www.strategyzer.com/books/business-model-generation

Book 3 - Value Proposition Design - Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur
https://www.strategyzer.com/books/value-proposition-design

Book 4 - Good Strategy Bad Strategy by Richard Rumelt
http://goodbadstrategy.com/

Book 5 - Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne
https://www.blueoceanstrategy.com/

Book 6 - Playing To Win by A.G. Lafley and Roger L. Martin
https://rogerlmartin.com/thought-pillars/strategy

Medium Article - What The F#@k Is Strategy?
https://medium.com/just-thinking/what-the-f-k-is-strategy-fc1195846e55


Thanks for watching!

----

#UXDesigncareer #UXDesign #UXDesigner

📩 If you want to stay ahead of the Workshop / Facilitation game, level up your career, and be in the know on the nerdiest, 'techiest' things, sign up for our FREE newsletter here:  👇
📝  https://aj-smart.ck.page/21100f1c73   👀

🔔 And if you haven't yet subscribed to our Youtube channel for more Workshop / Facilitation Skills/ Career / and Design Sprint videos: ❤️ https://www.youtube.com/AJ&Smart?sub_confirmation=1😉

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3 Ways To Increase Your UX Designer Salary (2022)
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3 Ways To Increase Your UX Designer Salary (2023)

3 Ways To Increase Your UX Designer Salary (2022)

Everybody talks about how to establish that work-life balance. But the phrase work-life balance is misleading. A better phrase is work-life harmony. When you feel energised and happy at work, feeling you're adding value, it makes you better at home. Likewise, if you're happy at home, it makes you a better employee or a better boss.

There is no such thing as work-life balance

It's not about the number of hours in the week. It's about if you have energy.  Is your work depriving you of energy or generating energy for you? Similarly, are you adding energy to your work or draining your coworkers of energy? You have to decide if you're going to add energy. The same at home. So it's a cycle, not a balance.

It's not a work-life balance, it's a cycle

The work-life balance metaphor implies there's a strict trade-off. However, you could be out of work and have all the time for your family but be really depressed and demoralised about your work situation.  It's not about the number of hours. Yet, if you went over the top and worked 100 hours a week, then there could be limits. The best place is where both sides of your life give you energy.

Why the work-life balance metaphor is dangerous

In this Sessions short, Jeff Bezos details why there is no such thing as work-life balance. To be considered to attend our next event, we welcome applications at http://www.summit.co/apply Connect with Summit: http://www.summit.co http://www.instagram.com/summit http://fb.com/summit

videos

Videos

In this Sessions short, Jeff Bezos details why there is no such thing as work-life balance. 

To be considered to attend our next event, we welcome applications at http://www.summit.co/apply

Connect with Summit: 
http://www.summit.co
http://www.instagram.com/summit
http://fb.com/summit

Summit is an ecosystem that exists to connect and nourish global makers. 

We are committed to fostering experiences that bring people together to explore, play, gather and grow ... together. 

We gather across six pillars including thought leadership, culture and performance, art and expression, hospitality, health and happiness and impact.
 
The Summit Community is diverse and multidisciplinary, made of renowned activists, artists, athletes, entrepreneurs, non-profit leaders, performers, scientists, and beyond. 

Summit Series | Brings together global entrepreneurs and change-makers to cross-pollinate and collaborate. 
Summit Junto | Helps people find their people through forming professional and personal advisory boards.
Summit Impact | Harnesses the power of creativity and community to solve challenges facing humanity.

Ready to make no small plans … so that you can live your biggest life? 
Apply to join our community: www.summit.co/join

For inquiries: hello@summit.co 

 


Summit

Work-life balance — Jeff Bezos

<ul><li>Mindfulness, in the Buddhist tradition, is a tool to sit with, understand, alleviate, and ultimately overcome suffering. </li><li>No doubt, mindfulness in itself might alleviate some of the suffering workers experience. </li><li>However, corporate mindfulness often supports <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/basics/productivity">productivity</a> as the sole arbiter of <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/basics/self-esteem">self-worth</a>, which is in itself a source of suffering. </li><li>Moreover, corporate mindfulness is typically shorn from the ethical teachings that accompany it in Buddhism. </li><li>“Right Livelihood” is a part of the “Eightfold Path” of Buddhism.</li></ul>

Corporate Mindfulness

Many Silicon Valley corporations(Think Google or Meta) provide everything from daycare to laundry to fitness centers and snacks, meals, and happy hour drinks, in an effort to glue workers to the workplace. Some corporations even sent their workers weekly snack boxes during the pandemic, as well as paying for mindfulness and other wellness apps and programs.

Corporate Maternalism

Silicon Valley appears to have created an elite within corporate America, one which has developed its own religion, co-opting mindfulness to suit its own purposes. Will workers continue to drink the Kool-Aid? Are we all buying into the religion that says Big Tech (and social media) will solve all our problems, thus disconnecting ourselves from more meaningful engagement with our neighbourhoods and communities?

In Silicon Valley, Work May Be Religion

Many tech workers feel fulfilled and “whole” because of work, others at the margins of the tech industry are living broken lives. There is a social cost to  “Techtopia,” a society where work is the highest form of fulfilment. The problem with Techtopia is that work monopolizes the resources of a community—its time, energy, money, and devotion. As a result, people disinvest in other vital social institutions—families, faith communities, neighbourhoods, and political institutions. Work becomes the alpha institution, around which all other institutions must submit to.

Techtopia: Everything Revolves Around Work

In Silicon Valley, work is the new religion.

"Work Pray Code: When Work Becomes Religion in Silicon Valley" is a must-read.

religionandspirituality

Religion & Spirituality

Mindfulness in Silicon Valley: Is Work Becoming Religion?

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