me, it is not always positive. Through this direct learning, I get to iterate on the original idea with real people. The complete feedback loop is what makes it the most interesting product. 6. What are the some challenges of conducting strategy in different work environments (for example, startups versus agencies versus enterprises)? Politics are always tough, and politics always come with the territory of any business that has more than three people. So with all kinds of enterprises and large clients, politics play a big role. You often deal with the budget that comes from a marketing department, and they have their own agenda. Often you are really building a product that’s informed by the business/product group, but then the business group is not actually involved in the strategy conversations. In that case, the challenge is to navigate all of that to make everybody play together. A startup can have its own issues. It can be a little lonely. If you start small, there are only a handful of people you see and work with, 24/7. It can become too focused and sometimes you just wish, “Oh maybe we are tired and just need a fresh opinion.” Ultimately, until you start making a profit or get funded, the resources are always constrained. You don’t have people focusing on what they are best at, only. We all wear many hats. I think that’s why agencies have the best balance. If you’re in the right group of people where you have the diverse and qualified team, you have feedback from the UX strategist, the business analyst, and all the different types of people that make your team well-rounded. When there is proper time to think and enough different perspectives, it fosters an environment where you are able to have enough points of view to really bring out great ideas. 7. Have you ever conducted any form of experiments on your product or UX strategy, whether it be trying to get market validation on a value proposition or testing prototypes on target customers? How do you get closer to the truth while you are conducting strategy? The best example I can talk about is what I’m working on now, which is a mobile productivity app. I’ve done a number of tests with focus groups at different stages of development, from ideation, to prototypes, to the final product. We had an initial group of 20 people, a mix of potential users defined by background, needs, and behavior, that we showed our paper prototypes to