Summary
What happens when your craft and your career shift and you have to adapt quickly? How do you take what you’ve learned into uncharted territory and forge new skills and new relationships? From working behind the scenes in public radio production, Emily Eagle pivoted to user experience, eventually working (also behind the scenes) on enterprise software for omni-channel retail. Public radio ethos has come in handy in the enterprise space, where the practice of listening carefully, breaking a problem into smaller parts, and telling the story of the bigger picture all help to understand complexity and build empathy for customers and employees.
Key Insights
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Storytelling skills from public radio can be effectively transferred to enterprise UX design.
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Empathy and deep listening move beyond sympathy to respect and reflection in both journalism and UX.
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Obstacles, whether personal or systemic, can serve as invitations for growth and career transformation.
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Collaborating closely with domain experts like Leslie Brown builds trust and leads to better problem understanding.
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Recognizing and analyzing user workarounds reveals hidden obstacles and opportunities for design improvements.
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Setting clear context and scenes is crucial for UX when users have no opportunity to rewind or undo actions.
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The principle of murdering your darlings—cutting favorite but unnecessary parts—applies both to storytelling and design.
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Community college can offer diverse and supportive environments for career pivots with peers overcoming adversity.
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Enterprise UX design focuses on enabling users to successfully overcome challenges rather than persuading or selling.
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Acknowledgment and encouragement from mentors can be pivotal in helping individuals discover new career paths.
Notable Quotes
"I thrive on learning about how people overcome obstacles."
"Truly listening can push us beyond empathy to respect and reflection."
"When you encounter an obstacle, how do you respond? Maybe it’s an invitation to grow."
"In public radio, your listener can’t rewind. We have to design for thoughtful user progression."
"Sometimes we have to murder our darlings—let go of favorite parts to let the story or design grow."
"I felt like a journalist pretending to be a designer."
"Every workaround is a mini story of somebody overcoming an obstacle."
"We have the Big C and the Little C: our external customers and our salespeople using the tools every day."
"It’s the worst thing when someone feels dumb in front of a customer because the tools don’t support them."
"When you’re talking, it’s easier to learn something new, but if you’re shy and don’t talk, you don’t learn anything."
Dig deeper—ask the Rosenbot:
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