It was a balmy July night in Bneid Al-Gar, a neighborhood in Kuwait City overlooking the Persian Gulf. Kuwait could be oppressively hot in the summer but I recall summer evenings being tolerably warm and sometimes nice. I loved Kuwait at night. …

From the perspective of a UX research manager — Over the past year, I’ve written a lot about preparing for interviews for UXR positions. Here’s one spot where you can find all that content: UX research interviews: what to expect (part 1) UX research interviews: what to expect (part 2) What to expect from technical UX research interview questions …

I returned yesterday from a ten day field research trip to Helsinki. It was my first field research trip since September 2019 and my first in-person study since January 2020. I’m not sure I’ve ever had a hiatus from field work this long in my career. …

How you respond to organizational changes at work can help you learn and grow in your career — When I first started working in tech more than a decade and a half ago, I recall getting org-wide emails announcing some executive’s departure and the trickle down organizational changes. It seemed like a lot of people wanted to spend more time with their families or figure out their next…

A big part of success is showing up. — I had a couple of conversations at work this week about what I call saying yes/raising your hand. I’ve found that so much of being successful at work is really just as simple as saying yes when opportunities arise. It could be as simple as helping someone plan a fun…

The relationship you have with your manager is critical to your career growth and happiness. — A few years ago, a friend mentioned how early in her tenure at a job her manager at the time told her that she needed to make herself easy to manage. We both found the request really funny, mostly due to its bluntness. …

Fireplace progress, painting, and a fabricated bathroom countertop. — I’m less than 10 days away from moving in and this past week was a flurry of progress. I made a trip to the house almost every day this week to approve various decisions. The most exciting thing to see come together this week was all the progress on the…

Hello again! It’s time for me to update you on my home renovations in extraordinarily minute detail. It’s been two weeks since my last update … mostly because week 13 was very quiet but last week was very eventful. Week 13: August 2, 2021 With all the delays in materials due to the pandemic, scheduling…

Painting closets, cleaning the chimney, and installing bathroom tile. — We had a busy couple of weeks and the bathroom is slowly starting to look like a bathroom and not a construction zone. Here are updates from the last two weeks of renovations: Week 11: July 19, 2021 This week, the crew removed the old mailbox and installed a new one. The contractor had suggested…