I was invited to be a guest speaker at General Assembly's User Experience (UX) Design immersive course. I decided to collect and share some wisdom from a few friends who are some of the most experienced designers and design leaders in Australia.

1. GENERAL ASSEMBLY
UX DESIGN IMMERSIVE.
STUFF YOU MIGHT WANT TO KNOW…
Designer & Business
Consultant. Startup Founder
BEN PECOTICH
20 AUGUST 2015

2. A bit about me… I’m a designer, business consultant and startup founder – including
two social enterprises. 22 years of business, design, technology and management
consulting in Australia, NZ, UK and Europe. 19 years in financial services and over 14
years working on startups and small businesses.
My focus is on working with people to create ideas and make them real for positive
change.
My team and I at Dynamic4 design and build business, brand, product and service
ideas.
I’m a big fan of social enterprise, collaborative consumption, collective impact and
the sharing economy.
Let’s chat about some ;stuff I and many other designers wish we knew when we
were starting out…
INTRO
BEN PECOTICH

3. EMPATHY
Create great experiences for users,
clients & your team

4. PROBLEM SOLVING
Work with people to create solutions
they want for their problems

5. MORE THAN DIGITAL
Design experiences across a variety of
contexts and touchpoints

6. DO GOOD
Use design for positive change. Don’t get mixed
up in dark patterns and unethical businesses

7. • Get specific. UX can mean different things to different people. What are the
specific areas of the design process you love and are focussing on?
• Articulate your own design process. Know it deeply and know why. If you
understand the principles you’ll be able to adapt to an agency's or client's.
• Ability to deal with stakeholders is just as important as your design skills.
• Always be learning. Expose yourself to different contexts and cultures.
• There are always trade-offs.
• Be part of the design community – not just when you’re job hunting.
• Job hunting can be tough. Budget and hiring approvals take time. Time passes
quicker for the person hiring than the person looking.
OTHER STUFF YOU MIGHT WANT TO KNOW

8. To collect some wisdom from a few friends who are some of the most experienced
designers and design leaders in Australia… I posed this question on Facebook:
SOME WISE WORDS
Hire or work with new UX designers? What do you
wish they knew or did differently? Designers, what do
you wish you knew when you were starting out?
A great discussion with plenty of wise words followed. Here are some key quotes.
Thanks to Katja Forbes, Anthony Quinn, James Breeze, Ash Donaldson, Matt Gardan, Stephen Cox, Lisa Railey,
Dave Mallam, Joe Ortenzi, Steve Baty, Morgane Borzee, Erin McIlroy, Rache Jayne and Vince Ryan for their input!

9. Important they value
their previous experience
and bring it into play in
their new role.
Katja Forbes
@luckykat

10. Get to know your work style
preferences and how to
work with the different
workstyles others may have.
Anthony Quinn
@AnthonyQuinnArt

11. Having travelled a whole lot
really helps build a staff
member's empathy for other
cultures. This is also
important for the diversity of
culture we have in Australia.
James Breeze
@jamesbreeze
Article: Beyond your resume -
What I look for in a great recruit

12. Take the time and effort to
understand the theory behind
the tools before they're used.
Understand what tools and
methods are available –
there are thousands.
Ash Donaldson
@ashdonaldson

13. Design is a process, trust in
it and you'll always get great
results, force it and you get
frustrated.
Matt Gardan
@mattigee

14. Every design decision we make is a
judgement on what we think people
could / should / can be doing. As
UX'ers we have responsibility to not
only creating what is possible but
also how people might feel during
those interactions.
Stephen Cox
@S_Cox

15. Founder & Managing Director, Dynamic4
ben@dynamic4.com. www.dynamic4.com
www.linkedin.com/in/benpecotich
@benpecotich
BEN PECOTICH
Good luck kicking off
your UX design careers!