@bigmediumjosh
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Founder of Big Medium; co-author of Sentient Design; creator of Couch to 5K; proud dad
Asheville, NC
Joined July 2007
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Very few businesses are innovative. As they mature they're built to optimize profits and minimize risks. That's why so many are struggling to adopt AI and also why they desperately need people like Josh Clark & Veronika Kindred who challenge them to deliver intelligent experiences.
Two years ago they started writing a book, Sentient Design, about how to leverage AI as a new design material that can transform key interactions from practical to proactive ones. The book was released in June by Rosenfeld Media and is one of the best blueprints for businesses to remember the importance of human-centred design and outcome-oriented strategy.
They joined us this week on the latest Product Impact Reports episode to discuss the finished book and their now mature practice working with Fortune 500 businesses.
Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/3O11vQ…
Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcas…
But the irony is that even in one of the biggest hype bubbles ever, businesses struggle to know what to do with AI. The fast follower mentality of execs is strong and has been that way adopting mobile, cloud, security, personalization, etc. They're rewarded to keep pace and fired if they harm the brand.
Josh and Veronika solve this by taking the approach that has resonating across the truly innovative businesses — inspire leaders to think beyond the workflow and imagine the world they want to create. Stop worrying about how you do it today, obsess with how customers with it would work.
I remember 8 years ago listening to a podcast with Airbnb's CEO, Brian Chesky where he blew my mind with a simple and absurd approach. Ask your customers what a 3 out of 5 experience looks like, then 4 out of 5, then 5 out of 5, then keep going until you reach an 11 out of 5 experience. Challenge them to imagine an experience so magical that they're weak in the knees thinking of it. The point of the exercise was to cut through the magical and find value creation pillars that align to the business' mission.
We're back in that moment today with AI. The technology itself is pointless without the capacity to imagine doing things differently and the champions to make it happen even if it takes years.
Two years ago Emmet Connolly from Fin was interviewed in "Off Script: Designing the future with AI" and it takes a different perspective: AI will transform our relationship with interfaces. As the technology improves, the latency and abstractions between what we want and actually getting it will melt away. We'll move from pushing abstract levels and buttons, to simply asking for it. Two years later that's increasingly what we're seeing happen as products become more individualized.
@bigmediumjosh
🤓 We need your vote! @nikakindred and I are bringing the Sentient Design Report to SXSW to size up the state of intelligent interfaces. Vote for the thing here:
participate.sxsw.com/flow/sx…
The industry may be fixated on AI for production, but what matters most is the actual *product*. What are the emerging patterns and practices where design is creating extraordinary new value by weaving intelligence into the interface itself?
So lots of insight, sure. But as usual, the talk will also be super-fun. We'll laugh, we'll cry, we'll hug after.
Make sure it happens by voting here:
participate.sxsw.com/flow/sx…
Josh Clark retweeted
Had a cracking conversation with Josh Clark and Veronika Kindred for this month's Boagworld Show about their new book, Sentient Design.
We talked about designing beyond the chatbot, building trust into uncertain systems, and what happens to the designer's role when interfaces can adapt themselves in real time.
What I enjoyed most was the mix of optimism and healthy suspicion. AI creates some genuinely interesting possibilities for design, provided we understand what the technology does well and stop asking it to behave like a conventional computer with a slightly smug personality.
Listen to the episode and read the show notes at boag.world/036
#UXDesign #AI #SentientDesign
BREAKING: If you buy our book *and* Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” on Amazon, you can get “Bad” for free.
Friends, with deals like this, you can’t afford NOT to buy Sentient Design.
🤯 Our new book is Amazon’s #1 user experience book. (I always assumed my bestseller would be romance or young adult.)
🚀 Our book launched this week! We wrote "Sentient Design" because we needed it. We're sharing it because we thought you might need it, too. bigmedium.com/ideas/sentient…
ALT Josh Clark and Veronika Kindred holding a copy of Sentient Design in front of a vast bookshelf.
Josh Clark retweeted
🤖📷 A.I., Snake Oil, and Miracle-Cure Expectations bigmedium.com/ideas/ai-snake…
Here's @bigmediumjosh with a fantastic call for more nuance around how we think about machine learning and AI. These things are tools — not panaceas — and we need to discern how best to put them to work.
New talk! Sentient Design is the already-here future of intelligent interfaces—experiences that seem almost self-aware in their radically adaptive response to user need. (This is so much more—and in exciting ways so much less—than prompts & text boxes.) bigmedium.com/speaking/senti…
That thing when you're setting up a new account. and the system tells you your password is too strong (too long, too many special characters). Thanks for looking out for me.
So you spend five extra minutes making your password suitably weak.
Turns out snake oil is actually high in antioxidants and a potent anti-inflammatory.
Be distrustful of folks hyping any solution as a cure-all, but also don't assume that it's useless. We might just need to come at it from a new angle. (See also: A.I.)
Miami! Whatchya doing Wed night? Join me for this free talk about Sentient Design, the already-here future of intelligent interfaces. Gonna be a LIVELY but zero-hype zone… looking at what AI is *actually* good for (with a hard look at what it's not).
friends.figma.com/events/det…
Looking forward to digging into the storytelling and metrics (the ones that ACTUALLY matter) to demonstrate business value of design systems.
It’s free and you should totally come.
Not sure how to get more headcount or budget for your design system team?
Struggling to even get buy-in to implement a design system?
Join our panel on Tues, April 30 with @bigmediumjosh, @laurenloprete & @pjonori to learn how to build the business case and tell a compelling story for design systems.
➡️ Register for the event here: bit.ly/49PYJTd
The event will be hosted virtually on Tues, April 30 at 9am PDT. All registrants will receive a recording of the panel later in the week.
Josh Clark retweeted
You know design systems are a worthwhile endeavor, but you need to prove it to your executive stakeholders to get resourcing for it.
Learn how to build a compelling business case and communicate the value of design systems during our upcoming panel with @bigmediumjosh, @laurenloprete, and @pjonori.
This is a session you don't want to miss!
Do you have the business story down for your design system? Managing a successful design system—in fact, even getting it off the ground—requires both business savvy and good storytelling. We'll dig into it in this April 30 panel.
You know design systems are a worthwhile endeavor, but you need to prove it to your executive stakeholders to get resourcing for it.
Learn how to build a compelling business case and communicate the value of design systems during our upcoming panel with @bigmediumjosh, @laurenloprete, and @pjonori.
This is a session you don't want to miss!
Excited to share this talk in Miami next month! Sentient Design is what I call the already-here future of intelligent interfaces—AI-mediated experiences that feel almost self-aware in their response to user needs. Lots of opportunities (and risks)! friends.figma.com/events/det…
This is about AI... but also not. While AI and machine learning are enabling technologies, the goal is not to “make AI products.” Sentient Design lets us deliver valuable human outcomes in ways that haven’t been possible until now.
If you’re in Miami on May 22, I hope you'll come! You’ll discover new ways to think about AI in your personal practice—right now, today—and how it’s changing our industry and the interfaces we use every day. It’s going to be a lively evening. friends.figma.com/events/det…