Linknote — — 85 words

Business — User experience

Someone using a screwdriver as a hammer

How harmful is the net promoter score? — Jeff Sauro, MeasuringU

A very useful contribution to the debate surrounding the usefulness/harmfulness of net promoter score. Jeff Sauro transcends the often polemical nature of the debate, by analysing actual research on the effectiveness of net promoter score.

The news still isn’t all that great for proponents of net promoter score. But at the same time, it’s not quite as bad as its detractors make out.

Kudos to Jeff Sauro for doing some actual research on this.

Note — — 225 words

Business — Personal — Society

Work:

It’s 10 years since Woolworths closed down. I worked there at the time. To this day, the whole experience is among the most surreal of my life.

At the time, I wrote a lengthy series of blog posts detailing my own story of the goings-on around the failure of one of Britain’s most iconic businesses.

Being on the shop floor while a British institution collapsed around me taught me a bit about business. But it taught me *a lot* about people. Enjoy this look back.

(These used to be linked to each other using a WordPress plugin, but these were lost during a migration — so here they all are.)

1. [Woolworths: The curiously British US-based company](https://doctorvee.co.uk/2009/01/06/woolworths-the-curiously-british-us-based-company/)
2. [Woolworths as it was known and loved, and neglected](https://doctorvee.co.uk/2009/01/07/woolworths-as-it-was-known-and-loved-and-neglected/)
3. [Woolworths: Childhood memories and adult gripes](https://doctorvee.co.uk/2009/01/08/woolworths-childhood-memories-and-adult-gripes/)
4. [It wasn’t just the credit crunch](https://doctorvee.co.uk/2009/01/10/it-wasnt-just-the-credit-crunch/)
5. [The blunder of Woolworths](https://doctorvee.co.uk/2009/01/11/the-blunder-of-woolworths/)
6. [Identity crisis](https://doctorvee.co.uk/2009/01/12/identity-crisis/)
7. [The beginning of the end](https://doctorvee.co.uk/2009/01/13/the-beginning-of-the-end/)
8. [The nasty side of human nature](https://doctorvee.co.uk/2009/01/14/the-nasty-side-of-human-nature/)
9. [Woolworths: Final thoughts and wrapping up](https://doctorvee.co.uk/2009/01/17/woolworths-final-thoughts-and-wrapping-up/)

For more on Woolworths 10 years on from its collapse, [check out Graham Soult’s excellent report](https://www.cannyinsights.com/2018/12/31/nine-out-of-ten-ex-woolworths-sites-remain-in-active-retail-use-a-decade-after-closure/).

Linknote — — 175 words

Business — Personal — User experience

UX your life: Applying the user-centered process to your life (and stuff) — JD Jordan, Smashing Magazine

I’m always in two minds about whether people should use work-based techniques on personal problems. I have heard of people using Trello boards at home to organise tasks, which sounds as nightmarish as it sounds sensible. I’ve even heard of people running scrum-style weekly planning meetings with their family, which definitely sounds overboard to me.

But I do like the look of some of the ideas here. For instance, I’m keen to map out out my life in weeks.

And I already know that affinity mapping can work great at home and for other stuff.

[When we did the MoRun in November](https://duncanstephen.net/this-time-last-week-i-ran-the-edinburgh-morun-5k/), Lauren and I made an affinity map to decide which of two runs to enter. My gut feeling told me another run would be better. But writing down all the pros and cons of each race, and grouping them, made it clear that my gut feeling was actually wide of the mark.

Linknote — — 89 words

Business — Technology

"Prime and punishment"

Dirty dealing in the $175 billion Amazon Marketplace

A fascinating article about the various dirty tricks and scams that independent retailers are playing on each other on Amazon Marketplace.

For sellers, Amazon is a quasi-state. They rely on its infrastructure — its warehouses, shipping network, financial systems, and portal to millions of customers — and pay taxes in the form of fees. They also live in terror of its rules, which often change and are harshly enforced…

Sellers are more worried about a case being opened on Amazon than in actual court…

Linknote — — 109 words

Architecture — Business — Human-centred approaches — Society

Illustration of a woman in a workplace

Thoughts on vulnerability

This is a really enlightening and enjoyable article about how vulnerability can sometimes be a strength.

What I’ve realized is that sometimes being vulnerable is a really powerful feeling, like being bilingual: being present and making clear decisions in a meeting while rocking a baby, or confidently stopping someone mid-presentation to ask what an acronym means. Or having my waters break and calmly finishing a meeting. Like, that’s bad-ass, right?

But what struck me most about this article was the point about how a thoughtless office space design in a less-than-diverse workplace created an unforeseen problem for a woman who needed a little privacy.

Linknote — — 87 words

Business — Human-centred approaches — User experience

Desire paths

UX past, present, and future

An enjoyable and informative history of user experience. Some familiar themes, but not entirely your standard take. A reminder that people have been doing something like user-centred design for longer than we sometimes think.

…UX is not really a new thing. It might seem new to your organisation and its design process, but in fact it’s been emerging since before the dawn of the internet, back in the 80s, and people have been looking to solve similar problems for almost 140 years.

Linknote — — 68 words

Business — Human-centred approaches

Nine ways to unlock creativity in your organisation

A reminder why finding the right problem is often more important than finding the right ideas.

[M]ost of our organisations don’t suffer from a lack of ideas, they suffer from a lack of process that identifies the ideas worth having…

Creativity is not innovation. Creativity is a prerequisite for sure. Innovation, however, is the practical application of creativity.

Linknote — — 140 words

Business — User experience

Making work meaningful: A leader’s guide

McKinsey report on how to engage employees.

> People who find meaning at work are happier, more productive, and more engaged. Four practical interventions can help make the search more likely to succeed.

I am struck by how two of the four interventions listed are fundamentally about understanding your users better.

> ### Reduce anonymity
> Talk with employees about who their customers are, and encourage each employee to connect with one.
>
> Build regular, face-to-face interactions with customers into existing processes, stimulating employees to learn who is most affected by their work.
>
> ### Help people grasp the impact of their work
> Invite customers who have had the best—and worst—experiences with your products to talk with employees in person so your team can see how their work affects customers.

Another reason why user experience is worth it.

Linknote — — 173 words

Business — Social science

How to regain the lost art of reflection

[A] focus on information processing, reaction, and execution — while it may feel productive — causes the quality of our thoughts to suffer. We believe that corporate leaders in today’s complex world urgently need to recultivate the art of reflection.

In an increasingly busy and complex world, how do we make sure we have the space to think reflectively? It’s the classic notion of having your best ideas in the shower.

I think this is part of the reason why I feel a benefit from walking so much — about two hours most days. This gives me the unstructured thinking space this article argues for.

On a recent cycle, I found my thoughts subconsciously drifting towards a knotty work problem. For a few seconds, everything seemed crystal clear. “I’ll remember that later,” I thought, and on I went with my cycle. When it came to it, it took some time and effort to recall what seemed so obvious when I was cycling with my wandering thoughts.