Career Design

Why do some writers and creators become known for a term, a phrase, or even an entire category, while others (talented as they might be) fade away? Because the most memorable writers and creators become known for a niche they own. And, more importantly, they invented new language to help them show the world how and why they are different.

On October 23, 2001, Apple Computer, a company known for its chic, cutting-edge technology, if not necessarily for its dominant market share, launched a product with an enticing promise: you can carry an entire music collection in your pocket. It was called the iPod. What happened next exceeded the company's wildest dreams. Over 50 million people have inserted the device's distinctive white buds into their ears, and the iPod has become a global obsession.

If you've ever sought a job or hired someone, applied to college or guided your child into a good kindergarten, asked someone out on a date or been asked out, you've participated in a kind of market. Most of the study of economics deals with commodity markets, where the price of a good connects sellers and buyers. But what about other kinds of "goods," like a spot in the Yale freshman class or a position at Google?

"I know what I should do. I just don't know why I don't do it." This phrase captures a universal human experience - we can't always get ourselves to do what we know is best for us. In Well Designed Life, you will learn that the solution to this stumbling block resides in coupling two disciplines: brain science and design thinking. Brain and behavior sciences have exploded in recent years. This catalyzes new insights into why we do what we do - and how we can change. We are living in the age of design - and designers are the new rock stars.

Renowned designer and professional hell-raiser James Victore wants to drag you off your couch and throw you headfirst into a life of bold creativity. He'll guide you through all the twists, trials, and triumphs of starting your creative career, from finding your voice to picking the right moment to start a project (hint: It's now).

Combined with the power of design thinking, these extensively researched best practices from some of the world's best design teams will help you nail the fundamentals of product design and do great work. This book includes: learn what the best teams know - that customer research is the base of successful products and companies; how product stories, journey maps, storyboards, and personas can build empathy and understanding; and more.

This book is a practical guide that explores how startup entrepreneurs and business leaders, who hold no design degrees, can integrate service design into their development cycles to create sustainable, desirable, and profitable new services.

Human Permaculture is a powerful, forward-thinking guide that uses permaculture principles of ecological design rooted in people care, Earth care, and fair share for redesigning your life and community to align with the resources available on the planet. As climate change, ecological decline, and social breakdown start to bite, people expect that governments will solve our problems. Yet this belief has proven to be false. Rather than looking to others, changes must come from the inside out: transforming the "I" to "we", changing the world by changing ourselves.

You’re not imagining it. If it feels like you made it through design school without learning exactly how to run your business, you are not alone. Even with the best education available, designers are not taught the essential systems, procedures, protocols, and strategies needed to operate a successful interior design business. Until now. Business of Design® is your most reliable, trusted resource. These may seem like lofty goals, but experience has shown us that all of this and more is attainable with Business of Design®.

UX Management Methods is a guide for how to lead your UX team to greatness. Learn proven methods for hiring, managing, motivating, and aligning your UX team. Use these insights to focus your team with a road map of key deliverables, present actionable findings to stakeholders, and measure your team's success and return on investment with analytics. If you want to sharpen your user experience leadership skills and build a strong team of talented experts, then you can begin learning UX management methods today.

How often do you walk away from a conversation feeling really heard? That it moved the people in it forward in some important way? You’re not alone. In his practice as a designer, Fred Dust began to approach conversations differently. After years of trying to broker communication between colleagues and clients, he came to believe there had to a way to design the art of conversation itself with intention and purpose, but still artful and playful.

Learn competitive business strategy from the best. According to strategic planning expert Dr. Chuck Bamford, business strategy is a mixture of instinct and instruction. You already have the instinct - let Bamford provide the instruction you need to hone your business and leadership traits, and lead your organization into a bright future. Bamford’s work stands out from other business leadership audiobooks by providing in-depth processes in a practical format that allows the listener to use the material immediately.

Design offers so much more than an aesthetically pleasing logo or banner, a beautification add-on after the heavy lifting. In Reimagining Design, Kevin Bethune shows how design provides a unique angle on problem-solving—how it can be leveraged strategically to cultivate innovation and anchor multidisciplinary teamwork. As he does so, he describes his journey as a Black professional through corporate America, revealing the power of transformative design, multidisciplinary leaps, and diversity.

Embrace financial independence and generate consistent income with this strategic guide for entrepreneurs and investors looking to level up. If you’ve already built a profitable business but you’re ready to free up your time without sacrificing growth, this book is for you. In Scaling Smart, Rich and Kathy Fettke distill more than twenty years of business strategy into the perfect guide for entrepreneurs ready to scale a successful enterprise.

Whether interviewing, selling, networking, or leading a team, brainstorming with the boss or delivering a presentation, success in business depends on connecting with other people. Nicholas Boothman, the best-selling author who consults with Fortune 500 companies, now brings his system of forging instant relationships to the world of business. Beginning with the simplest of tools (face, body, attitude, and voice) he shows how to make a dazzling first impression.

Need to design training in a flash? This step-by-step guide to designing training will help you on your way in record time!

Inclusion, Inc.: How to Design Intersectional Equity into the Workplace moves beyond having tough conversations to deliver an innovative and proven approach to organizational diversity. Eschewing the "mindset-first" approach taken by many diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs, author and GEN founder Sara Sanford focuses on countering the systemic barriers that abet inequity by adjusting "cultural levers" to facilitate organization-wide change. The book offers sustainable and cost-effective solutions that yield real, measurable returns.

Real critique has become a lost skill among collaborative teams today. Critique is intended to help teams strengthen their designs, products, and services, rather than be used to assert authority or push agendas under the guise of "feedback". In this practical guide, authors Adam Connor and Aaron Irizarry teach you techniques, tools, and a framework for helping members of your design team give and receive critique.

People Operations explains how leaders at small- and medium-sized businesses can stop spending time on HR administration - "paperwork" - and start focusing on the "peoplework" that truly fuels employee growth and productivity. Authors Jay Fulcher, Kevin Marasco, and Tracy Cote provide listeners with a playbook for creating a massive competitive advantage by eliminating antiquated approaches to HR. The book takes a look at how work has changed and what companies need to do about it, and the new approach they must take to processes, systems, and best practices.

How many of us have been told after we graduated that what you studied in books is one thing, and how it works in reality is something different! This audiobook is a complete guide that takes you through all phases of a project.