For just over 4+ years I had arguably what some may consider to be the “dream job” in software design: serving in a largely self-defined Principal level role for a revolutionary team ushering \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Design Thinking” into a 25 year old enterprise technology firm, Citrix\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwith 100% executive support from our CEO and SVP of Customer Experience. I worked on initiatives that combined my talent and energy: Driving visionary concepts, leading design evangelism, delivering innovation with the Citrix Labs team, coaching startups at the Startup Accelerator, and running a successful design speakers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 series, plus countless other activities that were fun, rewarding, and impactful. In a rare situation where I helped shaped design vision and culture\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwith executive visibility and trust\u00e2\u20ac\u201d I also learned a great deal about what it means to foster a corporate design team\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s success (witnessing its rapid growth to over 120 people!), and what it means to be a design leader (not for the faint of heart!)…with all the inherent challenges, frustrations, and anxieties ;-) It has been an amazing journey.<\/p>\n
And in the end, I did everything I sought out to do…and more, with opportunities I never imagined possible. I can say with sincere gratitude and profound awe: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Mission Accomplished\u00e2\u20ac\u009d.<\/p>\n
So, what’s next? How does one transcend such a uniquely compelling situation? What comes after the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153dream job\u00e2\u20ac\u009d?\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time to disrupt<\/em>. In tech circles, this is has become a trite buzzword implying some game-changing invention that radically alters convention (usually along with some wild-eyed multi-billion dollar valuation ;-) However, for a designer\u00e2\u20ac\u201d a fundamentally creative individual, who constantly evolves, seeks stimulus for personal and professional growth\u00e2\u20ac\u201d\u00c2\u00a0once awhile you need to pursue that risky, uncommon opportunity, a catalytic event to shift your whole perspective and approach, taking things to the next level. To learn something completely different and push your own limits. Sometimes, you just need to disrupt yourself<\/em>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n And what better way to do that than by joining an exciting 20+ person start-up called Cloud Physics, as their Director of UX, charged with bringing beauty & soul to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Big Data\u00e2\u20ac\u009d analytics? :-) While I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been in Silicon Valley for 12+ years, to the surprise of many I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve actually never worked at a start-up before (ironically, perhaps). So let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s take a leap\u00e2\u20ac\u201dinto a wholly new role, company, and environment with a compelling focus and critical impact upon design strategy & vision. There is no textbook or class syllabus for something like this\u00e2\u20ac\u201dimprovisation will be key! I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be taking a different approach from “big corporate” Customer Experience, emphasizing a Lean, Navy SEAL, craftsperson approach to delivering design excellence. I might even learn to code, just a little bit ;-) It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s both exciting and daunting, with plenty of worthy challenges ahead. I look forward to sharing lessons and insights from “start-up land” in the coming weeks. Stay tuned!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For just over 4+ years I had arguably what some may consider to be the “dream job” in software design: serving in a largely self-defined Principal level role for a revolutionary team ushering \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Design Thinking” into a 25 year old enterprise technology firm, Citrix\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwith 100% executive support from our CEO and SVP of Customer Experience. … Continue reading “Disrupting the dream job”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-stuff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghostinthepixel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghostinthepixel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghostinthepixel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghostinthepixel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghostinthepixel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=953"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghostinthepixel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/953\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":955,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghostinthepixel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/953\/revisions\/955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghostinthepixel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghostinthepixel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghostinthepixel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}