Indi Young

Newsletter

So, how can I talk to everyone? My newsletter.

indiyoung.com/newsletter/

I don't want to become one more ad on your feed.

Social media only shows one post and then a bunch of paid-for posts.

I also don't want AI involved in making my posts ... we are getting inundated by AI posts being responded to by other AI.

Helping your team and grow their skillsets is key to everyone's success, including the organization's.

Course – Listening Deeply

If you *want* inspiration, but your org refuses to support you, I give 50% off any of my courses for people paying on their own. That's $250 for a four-week course. And right now, I am offering 25% off the course Listening Deeply, so the paying-for-yourself cost is $187.50. PREP4FTS

Change is always hard, but this time seems harder to grow something new and better out of the flames. (Or maybe I'm feeling too betrayed by everyone who decided that knowledge isn't needed anymore to inform business decisions. You only need to slap experiements up and measure whole-market response.)

Junior roles have been eliminated in many places.

"Everyone’s baseline is already at fight-or-flight." Margo Stern (author of Good Job, for hiring managers & for applicants, a flip-over book) sternlyworded.com/good-job-book

🧵 Organizations don't think their employees need inspiration for creative thinking anymore. Who of you is still encouraged to take courses? Which orgs still have training workshops to usher in new ways of thinking? I hear that Leadership only approves occassional professional development now.

I can walk to Sprouts in 20 min, whereas Whole Foods takes 30 min. Since I rarely go to these stores, I choose to walk to get exercise. But that day was busy with work, so I chose Sprouts.

I didn't have to ask AI. I think first before using a tool that costs the planet and society so much.

If I had stopped to consider that their prices would probably be only 40 cents off, I would have realized that I have a better way to make the decision where to buy it: how close the store is to me.

Both grocery stores are within walking distance.

So, I have to buy it at either of two giant chain grocery stores, Sprouts or Whole Foods.

I asked AI what the 32 ounce bottle would cost at either store. The prices were really close.

🧵 I'm embarrassed. The other day I asked Google search AI a price comparison question that I didn't need to ask.

I had run out of lotion. It's winter here, and I let myself use lotion to offset dry, itchy skin. It's locally produced, but the producer does not sell direct.

Training

indiyoung.com/training/

Outcomes

IT ONLY COSTS YOU ONCE. Collect this deeper, broader understanding once, then use it for years. (It takes a couple of months, working on it 10 hours a week.) Creative thinking is worth it.

Data Science that Listens (DStL) ... it's how orgs enable truly human creative thinking.

Instead, strong signals enable more variety and other perspectives. Recognizing that not everyone thinks like you helps teams support more thinking styles and approaches. Understanding what people are trying to get done in their larger context helps teams see new pathways to support.

But that's wrong. 🛑 Weak signals lead to the same old ideas. Weak signals come from the same old perspective that the team has had for years. It leads to assumptions and bias. Plus, it's easy for leadership to ignore weak signals.

🧵 Is creative thinking dead? (No! But Leadership thinks they don't need it.)

Leadership says "weak signals are fine for ideation." I hear of product craftspeople being urged to chat with a few users of their solution or just ask AI.

Course – Listening Deeply

indiyoung.com/listening-de...
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indiyoung.com/contact/

If you want to join a Practice Group for Listening Deeply, I can run one. I need ten people, and have four people on the list so far. Please ping me here, or on my website.

Each of my self-paced courses takes a few weeks (in a typical overwrought work schedule). Get started now, one short lesson every workday, and you're there!

Listening Deeply is life-changing for product creators and designers! 25% DISCOUNT on right now: PREP4FTS.

If you want in on the new upcoming Finding Thinking Styles course, you'll need to learn how to listen deeply.

📖 Adquira o livro Tempo para Escutar: bit.ly/tempo-escutar
📖 ¡La versión en español viene en camino! [Próximamente]

#UXResearch #DesignResearch #InclusiveDesign #DesignStrategy #ListeningDeeply

My book or my course helps you learn what questions to ask, what pull-tabs are, and how to make it easier for a person to tell you what happened in their mind.

⏤
🎓 Listening Deeply, the self-paced course: bit.ly/course-listening-deeply
📖 Time to Listen, the book: bit.ly/book-listen

4. The core is how we come closest to understanding:
a. inner thinking
b. emotional reactions
c. personal rules

Listening deeply: never bring up your own topic. Only follow theirs.

1. Each topic is like a candy with many layers.
2. One candy has many concepts in it, only related by the topic.
3. Each candy has layers. Outer layers are how we typically chat:
a. description: explanations, facts, scenes
b: expression: opinions, preferences, attitudes
c: generalizations.

When a person tells you what happened, and how they were thinking at the time, they don't tell a sequential, straight story. They bring up one topic, which flows to another, then they hop off to a third, then back to the second, etc. You can embrace this tangle of topics. Here is how:

Training

indiyoung.com/training/#te...

indiyoung.com/books/#time-...

indiyoung.com/explanations...

A wonderful option for Listening Deeply is to set up a private Practice Group (5 weekly working sessions with me) for your team of 5+ people.

If your team is smaller, you can opt for the self-paced course with this 25% off discount: PREP4FYS

Hey team leaders 🐦‍⬛ If you are interested in my upcoming course on Thinking Styles (which are fantastically different than personas), it will be released in mid-May. ⚠️First, make sure everyone on the team has taken the pre-requisite, either the course Listening Deeply or the book Time to Listen.