Finding an IA job, idea #2: network

Posted September 8, 2009, under Career Planning, Information Architecture
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This is part 2 in a short series I’m doing on finding an IA job. Read part one of finding an IA job: practice.

Networking is critical and especially important since many jobs in our field are filled not via traditional job postings, but rather through word-of-mouth. Who you know matters and is a big factor when looking for work.

There are a number of ways to network. Here’s some suggestions:

  • Research and reach out to other IA’s in your local community. We’re not scary and often can be of help or will try to keep our eyes and ears open about possible opportunities — either within our own companies/teams or with others. Here is Calgary you’ll want to try Calgary UX or the soon-to-start Calgary UX Bookclub
  • Come out to events and conferences. Calgary UX runs quarterly events, local conferences like UX Camp and nForm’s CanUX are all great places to meet others.
  • Talk to those who are doing UX in the community. The other day I got a great letter of introduction from an IA moving to Calgary asking if I’d be willing to meet with him, view his work and talk about the community here in Calgary. We’re meeting this week and it’s a great example of putting yourself out there.
  • Seek out folks on IXDA, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other gathering points. Many of us post using hashtags like #ux or #ia. Search for common phrases like information architecture, usability, interaction design, service design to find others who talk about IA topics. You might even stumble on some local folks.
  • Browse the membership directories of UX groups/associations. The Information Architecture Institute and other groups have membership directories that are accessible to members. It’s a great way to uncover folks who live and work in your city.

Any other ideas?

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Finding an IA job, idea #1: practice

Posted August 12, 2009, under Career Planning, Information Architecture
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This is the first in a multi-part series I’m doing about finding an information architecture (IA) job. Hope you enjoy.

One of the challenges for people trying to become and IA is how to gain experience so they can find employment and build their skills. It’s the classic “chicken and egg” story — you need experience to get a job and you need a job to get experience — and can be very frustrating.

While I wish our profession was better at supporting the development of new information architects, it sometimes isn’t feasible to take on new talent (even interns). But I can say that when openings do come up, I want to be able to see how you problem solve, work through issues/challenges and communicate your decision-making and a plain old interview won’t do that.

So how do you get experience, when there are no positions available and you don’t have client work? Simple, just  practice. Practice is a great thing as it enables you to do something, fail, learn, while building skills over time.

For example, take the following “practice” scenario:

  • Pick your favourite e-Commerce site
  • Map a process flow of their existing web shopping cart
  • Assess how that cart compares to other site carts (similar and different industries/verticals/services)
  • Seek out a best-in-class cart experience and/or example cart interaction patterns
  • Show how you would re-design said cart to make it “more usable” — sketch a bunch of ideas, explore options
  • Pick an option and make some wireframes using your favourite application
  • Walk some friends through a presentation of your idea — take questions afterwards
  • Evaluate the cart changes with your friends. See what works and what doesn’t.
  • Make changes to your cart idea based on your collected feedback
  • Create a blog post on your blog and walk people through the process start to finish, callout the eCommerce site you evaluated (who knows their product/ID/IA manager might read the post)
  • Twitter it to all, share with your local IA community — let them see what you can do

What I’d see coming out of this process would be:

  1. That you can explain flows and complex interactions
  2. That you understand the importance of research to inform your understanding of problems to develop ideas
  3. That you can identify problems, evaluate with heuristics and/or usability in-mind
  4. That you can ideate and think thru options
  5. That you know how to use a tool to capture your solutions
  6. That you can communicate your work
  7. That you understand the importance of user testing (you alone don’t have all the best ideas and approaches)
  8. That you can effectively integrate feedback into your work
  9. That you know how to market yourself and network

Add a few of these to your “portfolio” and bring to your next interview. Then I will be able to see what you do and know.

Who knows, I might be hiring sometime soon.

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7 traits of a great information architect

Posted July 21, 2009, under Information Architecture
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I had a discussion today with a colleague about the traits that make a great IA. Here’s the list I came up with:

1. You are personable

You’re friendly, outgoing, willing to talk with and connect with others. You are someone people like to work with (and if you’re lucky) someone a few even aspire to be like. You’re approachable, can hold a conversation, convince others of your ideas and communicate your thoughts.

2. You are aware

You keep up with what’s going on in the IA/UX space. You blog/twitter or LinkedIn to connect with others and spend your days (in between work and life) finding like-minded souls, places to share ideas and opportunities to learn more.

3. You have used a wide range of tools and approaches

Ideally you’ve dabbled in a number of tools to collect, analyze and communicate your information architecture solutions. Might be Visio, Omnigraffle, pen and paper or MS Office. Either way you’ve played, tested, tried and continue to evaluate new tools and approaches.

4. You have the ability to frame problems

You have a unique ability to understand and frame problems. You think like Albert Einstein who once said: “If I were given one hour to save the planet, I would spend 59 minutes defining the problem and one minute resolving it.”

5. You have the ability to solve problems

Being an IA is really one big problem solving job. Our toolkit is a compendium of found, made up and often used techniques and approaches to solving problems. You have an ability to pull from a wide-range of techniques, tools and even common sense to solve problems. You don’t get mired in problems, you move through them.

6. You use your common sense

You have lots of common sense and trust your instincts. You have an ability to take the even the most complex of problems and simplify it. You’re able to see the big picture, don’t get lost in the weeds and can pick up and jump into ambiguous situations finding your way through it even as you go.

7. You have empathy

You can empathize with your end-user and produce great work. You are considerate of the users needs, scenarios, challenges and frustrations. You’ve done your homework before the work begins. You visit the site you are working on or use the product you are redeveloping. You talk about “users” with names like “Sally” or “Frank” and wonder aloud about how you can make their lives better, easier, faster, and/or less frustrating. You’re like Avinash Kaushik’s definition of a great web analyst “…great analysts have a customer centric view that makes their mind a lot more amiable to think like customers, all 1,000 segments of them…and their personas and challenges”.

Any others worth adding?

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My kale and chard soup recipe

Posted July 8, 2009, under Food
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Couple people asked for my Kale and Chard soup recipe I mentioned in my spud! post. Here it is:

INGREDIENTS
1 head of kale
1 head of swiss chard
2-3 cloves garlic
1 yellow onion or shallots
Few sticks celery
Few carrots
Salt and pepper taste
Bit of olive oil
Stock (veggie or chicken)
Sour cream (optional)

Cut kale and chard into small pieces (the smaller the faster they cook). Dice onion, garlic, celery and carrots. Put a soup pot onto stove top and heat to medium-high. Add oil, garlic and onion and saute until the sugars are released and onions are transparent. Add chard and kale and cook until tender, then add carrots, celery. If you have other veggies in the fridge that you need to use up you can also add zucchini, eggplant, potatoes, even an old end of parmasean, etc.

When celery and carrots cooked to soft add stock and simmer for 20 minutes or more (if you’re like me there’s no rushing soup).

Taste the soup then and add salt and pepper to taste. Next using a hand blender purée the soup to desired consistency. Serve in bowls with sour cream garnish.

Enjoy!

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spud! change how you get groceries

Posted July 6, 2009, under Food
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Those of you that know me, know that I’m a huge foodie. I love to cook and enjoy trying new foods. There is nothing I won’t eat — though I lean towards the vegetarian/vegan side of life when I can. I’m also passionate about the environment and my impact on the planet and wanted to talk about my love of spud! — an online grocery service that I use.

I started using spud! back in 1998 when I lived in Vancouver. I heard about the service while I was working at Citizens Bank of Canada Douglas & McIntyre (a Vancouver-based book publisher) and was impressed with both the idea of having groceries delivered but also the idea of doing something healthy for me while supporting a local business and local farmers. At the time I was single and didn’t own a car and biked everywhere. Each week I’d order online and a new bin would get dropped off at the house I lived at. It was like Christmas with produce as the gifts. It made me eat food I had never tried or bought before regularly before (like swiss chard and mustard greens), saved me from lugging heavy bags back from the grocery store on my bike, and gave me more time to do other things in life. Later we moved across the street from an organic grocery store and I stopped using spud.

When we moved from Vancouver to Calgary, I noticed that spud! had grown up and now had a location in Calgary (as well as Portland, Seattle, LA and San Francisco). I was thrilled as the nearest grocery store was a Safeway that had horrible produce and almost nothing organic to choose from. So, I signed up. The good news is that in my short absence spud! got even better. The selection expanded and the flexible options (like customizing your produce selection, creating standing orders and email reminders) make shopping for groceries a snap.

Spud! is easy, saves me time and money, still helps me eat healthy and best of all is run by fantastic people. Their customer service, the drivers and everyone who works there are super friendly. I’ve joined the spud! Facebook group, follow spud! on Twitter and feel like I’m part of something bigger doing good in my community. Especially fun has been winning some spud! schwag like a spud! shopping bag, a spud! t-shirt and even $25 off my order.

Now we have a son, and he loves spud! And because I don’t have to spend my weekends running around town doing grocery shopping – I get more time to spend with him. He’s hooked on the fresh carrots, broccoli (we had fresh local crowns earlier in the year), my amazing organic kale and chard soup, Happy Planet juices and Sweet Potato Pow cookies (if you haven’t tried these cookies from Calgary-base PURE you must). We even built a birdhouse out of a Happy Planet carton and he likes to help unpack the weekly spud! delivery.

So what’s it like ordering groceries online using spud?

All in, I think my grocery shopping takes me maybe 5 minutes a week. And I can do it from anywhere, anytime. Here’s what I do:

Sunday night I login and make changes to my produce bin. I sometimes remove some of the suggestions and then browse through what’s available looking for one-off treasures – like the fresh fava beans I grabbed a couple weeks ago. Then I flip through the weekly specials, add any items we need from my saved favourites. Then I submit the order. Done.

One of the cool things spud! does is track the mileage associated with each item you buy, and if your order comes in under 1250km, you get entered into a draw for a free dinner. I usually spend some time at the end of my order tweaking things to try and come in under (what they call a “local hero”) as I’m really cognizant of how far my food has travelled. After all, buying local means supporting your local economy and local farmers. What could be better.

With each spud! purchase you earn rewards points. Points can be cashed in (1000 point = $10). In the spirit of giving back I donate my spud! rewards to the local food bank every second order. I cash in $10 and then do a donation online for $10. It’s amazing how quickly I can earn points and it helps the hungry in my community. And I still get a tax receipt in the mail from the food bank.

Some of the things I like about spud!

  • The lack of packaging. My order comes in a big rubbermaid bin, not a bag or plastic bags. The previous week’s bins get picked up when my next order is dropped off. What’s inside is fresh, local and not from a box. When it does come in a box, container or otherwise it is usually recyclable.
  • Local, organic food really does taste better. I can no longer eat a grocery store carrot or bland veggies. In fact even my son notices how bad carrots taste when we go our for dinner.
  • They listen to their customers. The spud! blog, customer surveys, Twitter all help them continuously improve.

Some of my favourite products at spud!

Aside from the fantastic produce, these are some of my favourite products at spud!

  • Hoven Farms organic beef burgers. These are to die for and great on a BBQ or when camping. From Eckville, AB.
  • 2GreekGals Tzatziki. Yummy with some spanakopita (which spud also sells) or a side of veggies. From Calgary, AB.
  • Anahata bars. These are fantastic snacks and help address that occasional craving for something sweet.
  • Sweet Potato Pow Cookies – Pure Indulgent Foods makes some of the best vegan/dairy-free cookies you’ll ever have. A mainstay in Calgary’s Marda Loop area, now delivered via spud!

Some things I’d like to see spud! do better

No one is perfect (but spud! is close). Here’s some things I’d like to see them offer:

  • Expand the product selection. I get the economics of a limited product shelf, but I’d love to see a slightly bigger selection of things. Where I think they could do a better job is in the breadth not depth of products. For example, it would be nice to be able to buy pickles in the summer time – but I can’t.
  • More variety in the weekly specials. Week to week it could be more interesting. Kiju juices have been on sale now for something like 6 months. Time to switch it up at bit.
  • Provide the ability to locate all “local” products with a single click – as I can with new products. Spud! does classify their products as being local, but there’s no easy way to see all of them at one go. You only see the “local” flag on things when you look at products in a category or on the detail page for an item. This would help me cut down on the mileage my groceries travel.
  • Add nutritional information. It can be hard knowing how healthy something is that you are ordering — since you don’t get to see the labels when you shop (like you do in a store). Spud products are generally on the healthy side anyway, but it would be helpful for those times when you have questions.

Anyhow, that’s my post about spud! If you’d like to try spud! and start enjoying great fresh produce, local dairy and bakery with delivery you can save $25 over your first 4 deliveries. Just signup using promo code CR5-100004913.

Enjoy!

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