Jeffrey Veen

Leaving Google

Today marks my last day at Google and an end to a truly remarkable period in my life. If feels like just yesterday we were signing the papers, telling our friends, and announcing to the world that our team had been acquired.

We were nervous, of course. Acquisitions can be tricky - different cultures, different values, different technology platforms can all conspire against successfully merging companies. But moving to Google couldn't have been a better fit. We immediately jumped into the Analytics team and started working with them on a redesign of their product. Their openness to rethink every aspect of the app still amazes me. It's one of the most meaningful professional collaborations I've experienced in my career.

I also had the opportunity to work with Google's User Experience Team - a shockingly talented and effective group of designers and researchers. I wish I could talk about all the amazing things they're working on; all the ways they're changing how we'll connect to the world's information and to each other.

The decision to leave was a tough one. Google clearly is an amazing company to work for. After consulting with many companies during my time at Adaptive Path, it's clear that Google is like no other: they move fast, think clearly, and push strategic decisions out to the people closest to their users. But in my career, I've always swung between the big and the small and it's time for another shift.

So what's next for me? I've got a couple of small projects in the works, but mostly I'm going to take a little break, travel a bit, and catch up on some serious miles on my bike. It's been a crazy couple years ... I could use a nap.

  2 May 2008 | Comments (29) | View blog reactions

Adaptive Path is looking for a CEO

There's a job opening posted over on the Adaptive Path blog that's particularly interesting - they are hiring a CEO. Considering the company's commitment to openness and transparency, it doesn't surprise me to see them conduct this search in such a public way.

I haven't had a desk there for over two years now, but I still keep very close ties. It has been exciting to watch how my former partners Peter Merholz and Jesse James Garrett have grown the company while hanging on to the core values we started with. They' will continue to serve as co-presidents of the company, but with a new emphasis on the content of their work. I like the way Peter talks about the change:

I tend to think about it as "What do you geek out to?" When I geek out, it's to experience design practice, events programming, supporting the team. I don't geek out to Running A Business. We're looking for someone who geeks out to Running A Business, and who appreciates the impact that design can bring to the world.

If you know someone (or are someone) who would excel at this opportunity, contact Bryan Mason, Adaptive Path's COO, at bryan dot mason at adaptivepath dot com.

 15 Apr 2008 | Comments (0) | View blog reactions

At South by Southwest

Just a quick note to say that I'll be part of the Great Geek Migration down to Austin, TX this week for South by Southwest. By all accounts, it should have the largest turnout to date.

I'll be on a panel lead by Clement Mok, a designer I've long admired. We're going to be discussing the role of analytics and measurement in the creative process. This is a topic I've wrestled with in a number of different ways throughout my career - whether it be user research, technical limitations, or quantitive analysis. There never seems to be an end to the constraints designers face. Maybe that's a good thing? That's what we'll be talking about.

Also - and this is very exciting - I'll be announcing a very exciting new thing we're working on at Google. I may even be handing out invites to a private beta if you're there. So come!

The session is on Saturday at 3:30pm and is called "The Elephant in a Creative Designer's Living Room."

  8 Mar 2008 | Comments (1) | View blog reactions

Indi Young's new book: "Mental Models"

Congratulations to Indi Young on the publication of her new book, "Mental Models: Aligning Design Strategy with Human Behavior." Indi and I were partners at Adaptive Path and worked together for a bunch of years. I'm thrilled to see her insights into research and design process captured in such an accessible and informative book. And I'm honored she asked me to write the forward, which I've included below.

"You’re researching all the creativity out of this project!"

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard designers, developers, and even business owners say this. It usually comes just after a project has begun, as I’m preparing for interviews with users. Designers just want to start designing, developers want to start writing code, managers want the thing to ship—so why are we spending all this time talking? And all this stuff just seems so obvious. Do we really need users to tell us what we already know?

I try to be diplomatic. "Maybe a few interviews now will save us lots of grief later," I tell them. "Think of this as insurance: Let’s make sure we’ve got the basics right before we’ve designed everything and written all the code."

But no matter what I say to convince a team to do research early in their project, I never let them know my dirty little secret: I used to be just as skeptical as them.

I’ve always believed in a user-centered design methodology. Even early in my career, when I was journalist, we always started with the mantra "know your audience." Later in my career, I'd go to conferences and watch presentations with process diagrams—boxes representing users needs with arrows pointing to boxes representing product requirements. Intellectually, I agreed. But when I started a new project, in that intoxicating first stage when anything is possible, I'd jump straight to solutions. "Let's use Flash for this part! And over here, we’ll design some awesome icons for navigation..." Our users were still important, but they were there to bear witness to how cool our designs were.

Then I met Indi Young. Indi and I were among the founding partners of Adaptive Path, a user experience consulting company that focused on research-driven design. We founded the company in the dark days of the Web industry. It was 2001. "Dot com" was a dirty word, companies were cutting their Web budgets, and projects were drying up everywhere.

It was then that "research-driven" started having real meaning to me. As Indi introduced her methodology and resulting visualizations, it became clear that she wasn't just trying to make designs better in some abstract way. Rather, her process was simple enough to resonate with anyone on a Web team. And perhaps more importantly, it would help connect Web teams to other core parts of their organizations who were skeptical of spending even another cent on their web sites.

In the end, using Indi's process, we were able to convince teams that we weren’t researching all the creativity out of their projects. We were researching the risk out. And no matter how the industry is faring, that's a story people want to hear.

This book is an excellent guide to a research method firmly grounded in common sense. But don't let the simplicity of the process detract from the power of the change it can enable. Talking to users in a structured way, analyzing in a collaborative way, and diagramming with clarity can transform the way you approach the Web.

And it might just ignite your creativity.

You can buy a copy of the book directly from Rosenfeld Publishing here. Use the code "FOVEEN10" and get 10% off.

 15 Feb 2008 | Comments (2) | View blog reactions

Join me at the Heather Gold Show

On Monday, 11 Feb 2008 (tonight!), I'll be joining Heather Gold at her show in San Francisco. I've been to the show a couple times before, and it's a blast - part standup comedy, part interview, part performance. Imagine the Leno show but people you might actually want to talk to.

The topic of the show is "My Needs / Your Needs." We'll be discussing what it means to serve someone else, and how you maintain your own identity when you're in a situation like that. This is something that's long been on my mind as a designer - how do I separate what I want from what our users want? Or, more accurately, how do I blend those things together?

Also on the show is my friend April Rinne, who specializes in microfinance in the developing world, and author Thea Hillman, who will be talking about sex parties. How's that for interesting conversation fodder?

Details are here. Hope to see you there.

 11 Feb 2008 | Comments (1) | View blog reactions