“WE need to feel comfortable Feeling uncomfortable.”

After 22 years of working across every imaginable industry, this is something I find myself thinking often. The biggest mistake I see many companies make is becoming complacent with where they are and an unwillingness to try something that is unfamiliar and perhaps uncomfortable. In my opinion, the best innovation comes when an organization is willing to try something without creative limitations. I’m not afraid to fail and think that every failure is one step closer to discovering the correct solution.

I love user experience! It doesn’t matter if it’s something tangible like a physical product or more obscure like the attendee flow in an amusement park. I am constantly looking at the world around me and asking myself how could this experience be more effective, efficient, and memorable?

I think my love for experience came the first time my dad bought me a Nintendo Entertainment System. I loved that machine and how it gave me an immersive experience between the digital and real worlds. Whether it was shooting the gun in “Duck Hunt,” racing against Cheetah on the Power Pad, or simply being the best Mario Bros. player in my social circle (I can still beat the game in 10 minutes or less). I was hooked on fun, amazing experiences and analyzing what made them work.

In the mid 90s I became obsessed with Apple. To say Steve Jobs had a profound affect on my career choice would be an understatement. If ever I’ve had a celebrity idol, it was Steve, he made me want to “Think Different” about anything and everything. I’ve only shed tears for one celebrity when they died and that was Steve Jobs.

I was fortunate to get to work at Sapient Publicis early in my career. I consider this period my real education into user experience as I was exposed to a variety of consumer facing challenges across so many different industries. It was during this time that I learned my real passion came in working on projects that I felt made a meaningful and lasting impact on humanity. This was when I made a conscious decision to move away from consumer facing brands and started working on cause oriented projects.

When I was younger I was always trying to push the envelope in developing solutions that I thought no one had thought of before and could be considered “cutting edge.” As I’ve gotten older and gained wisdom and experience I’ve learned that often this type of approach leads to a lot of creative fluff with no real perspective. Over time, I’ve learned that the best solution is usually the most simple and least expensive.

Another thing I’ve learned through the years is the best tool a person has to solve a problem is the tool they know best. With an industry that is rapidly changing I work to stay atop the latest and greatest technologies, but when it’s time to get work done I want a tool I have experience and confidence in, and this is usually the ones I’m most familiar with.

There’s never been a more exciting time in history to focus on user experience and I’m excited to see where the next 20 years takes us. I hope that one day when I retire I can look back on my career with satisfaction knowing that I made a meaningful contribution and impact on society.