Nothing super high level this wee. Two weeks ago I mentioned how you need to have captions on your site. If you haven’t read that article yet, take a few minutes and do so.
This week we’re talking about captions in a live scenario. When we consider closed captions on a prerecorded video, we could send the video to a transcriptionist. The transcriptionist would then build our caption file. But what if you are doing a webinar or streaming?
Comments closedWhen I speak with people about my chronic illness, there is often confusion on it. Many people think, “your pain [or dizziness] is just in your head” and that I can just let it go or ignore it. Yes, my disabilities are invisible, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t very real. When we meet people who are deaf, we can’t see what is physically wrong with them, but we believe them when they say they can’t hear us. Why don’t we believe people with other disabilities?
While at a meeting recently with a group of parents, we conducted a mindfulness exercise. We meditated on an itch we had on our body. The goal was to sit with the stress an itch can produce and yet not let it bother us. We couldn’t scratch it either. For some parents, the itch went away. Others let it bother them. I enjoyed the sensation, but then I think I have an unfair disadvantage that the group leader knows about and agreed.
One of the parents was curious, and since I’m not exactly shy about speaking of my disabilities, I expanded on it being chronic pain and dizziness. This father blew off my feelings and experience right away saying “It’s all in you head” meaning that I was making it up. I countered that it is in my head, but very real and that if I could wish it away I would in fact to do that.
This began a discussion that had me communicating in a way that seemed to connect with the other parents. If you have seen my talk, UX of Stairs, you have heard me mention the idea of human hardware and software. We are all really complex computers. We are made up of two main systems that are fairly standard.
The first is our hardware. We are all initially connected with the components needed to grow our biological hardware the same, but due to environmental changes, sometimes that hardware doesn’t develop the way it should. After birth we encounter a gigantic world that too is going to influence our hardware. But for the most part we are born with 5 input systems (5 senses), and two output systems (oral and physical).
We also come with a base operating system. One that turns the hardware on and keeps it running. It can take input and translate it to output. But most importantly it can learn. It can combine the input with algorithms we call emotions and creates a new output that is a subclass that we call art. And art comes in many forms. For some it is a visual output like drawing and painting, others produce auditory output like music or language, and still there is the expansion of the core physical output in the form of dance or sports. With training, anyone can process any input through emotions and produce any of these types of output, but for some it comes more naturally than others.
Once in a while you encounter something in your life that affects your software just as it could affect your hardware. This could be a happy event, or perhaps a traumatic one. This experience alters your input, output, or algorithms in such a way that when you experience it again (or something that reminds you of it), your reaction won’t be the same as someone sitting next to you who hasn’t shared that experience.
For some people, this event can simply be suffering lots of pain. Over time, you develop a tolerance for that pain. Sometimes, you are stubborn, like me, and try to move through it when you can’t make it go away. Additionally, your hardware, nerves in this case, may be more or less sensitive causing the input, not the algorithm, to give you a different tolerance.
My dizziness is a matter of my software being rewritten. The vestibular system is made up of our inner ear system, ocular system, and our sense of spatial awareness. Together these form a kind of internal gyroscope. Thousands of points of data are coming in through these systems every second of every day. Your brain needs to clean that data up and process it.
You subconsciously apply a filter to the incoming data and remove the outliers and extremes. This reduces the data to an average that can be easier to work with. I think this is how my algorithm actually works, except that my filter needs new parameters of what to filter. Right now, it doesn’t filter much. A couple years ago, somehow my settings loaded a new configuration file that turned the filter off completely. Over the last 30 months, I’ve been slowly adding them back in through experience and direct training. This makes sense to me as I have been able to slowly tolerate more experiences.
So what happens when my filter is broken? Imagine you are making coffee in the morning. You have your filter in the pot with the coffee in. As you start to pour the water in it strains through the coffee first, then the paper. But the coffee and the paper can only take so much water at a time. If we pour too fast we begin to see the water backup, the coffee grounds float, and eventually the water/coffee combo flow over the sides of the pot. This is what is going in my head. With too much stimuli or when a filter isn’t working properly, I simply can not digest the data coming in. Something will get lost and a mess follows.
Most of the time this means I experience aphasia. Aphasia comes in two forms, receptive and expressive. Receptive aphasia means I literally won’t know what you are saying or doing (usually words). I won’t recognize the sounds, or that they are in fact words. Any I do catch will not register their meaning. “In one ear, out the other.” is probably the best description of this.
Expressive aphasia is when I’m the one doing the communicating. Typically I stop in the middle of a thought or sentence. I’ll wave my hands wildly and move my mouth, but nothing other than gibberish comes out. I can see the concept right in front of me, but I lack the proper words to express it.
While technically the software is in my head, anyone who has tried to program anything (even a VCR clock), knows that it isn’t always as simple as forgetting the current settings and putting in new ones. With learning systems, we can’t delete those files, otherwise we corrupt the whole system. We must slowly reteach things to overwrite the current configuration. The algorithm will never be the same as the original as it always retains the history of what it previously learned, but with enough training, we can get close to the original. This is my hope.
Humans aren’t copies of each other. We are each unique in our hardware and software. The next time you meet someone whose software isn’t running the same as yours, instead of blowing them off, take a moment and try to understand how and why they process things differently. It will help you empathize and understand them. It will also help you expand your algorithms to make you a better person and technologist.
Comments closedBut we do it to ourselves. I battle imposter syndrome every day. In fact I made a distinct decision back in 2009 to “fake it until I make it”. I got fired for poor performance (I was severely depressed at the time which affected my work). While out of work in a down economy, I specifically put on a new outward face that would pretend to be someone I’m not to land a job.
The reason we struggle with insecurity is because we compare our behind the scenes with everyone else’s highlight reel – Steven Furtick
I didn’t lie about my skills or abilities. I was actually quite humble about them. I didn’t lie about my background or education. It just wasn’t in my nature. What I did was pretend I was outgoing. I pretended I had something to talk about. I pretended I was interested in other people.
And it worked. I got a new job. I established myself as someone who cared about my team, and thus became a leader. I got on stage and presented my ideas to people. I taught others what I knew. Over the last six years I have turned that decision to fake it into quite a successful career. I’ve been invited to talk at conferences throughout the United States and even in Scotland. I’ve gotten to meet and work with some of my industry heroes. I get to hang out in Slack channels and tweet with people whose knowledge I built my career on (and they know who I am!). Something else happened, something I didn’t expect, I actually enjoy these things, have the skills, and I am interested in people.
But everyday, every time I try to do something, I feel it creeping in the back of my brain, “You don’t belong here. You don’t deserve it. You didn’t write a book. You don’t blog enough. They’re humoring you.” Its the voice of my lack of confidence. I was shy and bullied a lot when I was growing up. It is embedded in my psyche that I am insignificant.
I have a rational brain though. I can look at my history and see the success I achieved at other jobs, popularity in my blog posts, and the fact I keep getting invited to join groups of experts or to talk. I am skilled. I am successful. Yet the imposter syndrome still nags. I know I am not alone in this.
We need to stop comparing ourselves to others. Look inside and figure out what makes you happy and do it. I really like speaking and meeting others, so I’m trying to do more of it (need a speaker? Email me.). I like writing, so I’m working on a bunch of tutorials that could become a book with the right editor. I’m asking you to do the same, no, I’m begging you to find what you love.
Success is not what society tells us. You don’t need to own a home (I want to sell mine), or a fancy car. You don’t need millions in the bank. You just need to do what makes you happy.
I like to make art (but I’m way out of practice), I’d like to learn the guitar again, I want to travel the world, and I want to teach others (not just tech stuff either). So over the next two years I’m going to be focusing on setting up my life to do these things. Why two years you ask? Well, I have two kids in high school, I want to let them graduate before I sell the house and start traveling. Will you decide what makes you happy and try to set yourself up for that life?
Comments closedNegotiating is a tricky subject. Talking money seems to still be a taboo in polite society. Subsequently, we often over pay for things or get underpaid for the work we do. A friend asked about having a conference session on negotiating. I began working on a talk, but I’m not sure it is ready yet. This article is an attempt to get my thoughts out there so a discussion can be had to help me flesh out the talk.
Why should I write about negotiation? I’m not sure I should, but I’ve had some pretty good luck doing it. I’ve bought 2 cars at my asking price and one well below the dealer’s listed price. On several occasions I’ve negotiated significant pay increases with my employer or raised my salary by taking a new job. Not everything I do will work for everyone, but I hope it helps you improve you outcomes when you next negotiate.
The first thing we need to do is know which side of the negotiating table we are standing on, because after all, we want to make sure we play our best hand regardless of our role.
If you walk onto a car lot looking for a new vehicle, its pretty clear which side you are on. You are the buyer. However, some people forget what side they are on when it comes to negotiating a job. In this case, you are the seller.
Your goods are the skills you bring to the job and the work you promise.
The person with the money is always the buyer.
The person with the money isn’t always going to be the person with the power. In a car negotiation, the dealer has the power. In a job negotiation, the employer has the power. Every situation is different, but you need to tip the scales of power in your direction.
Do your research. Spend time before you head into the negotiation getting to know the product, person or company you will be working with. If it is a car, spend time on the auto websites learning the features and values on the models you might like to buy. Look up the company on GlassDoor and other job review sites to get a feel for what its like to work there. These are things most folks think of, but there is more work to do.
Research the dealership. See if anyone has posted online (Yelp has reviews on dealerships) on their experience negotiating and buying. If they mention a salesperson, look deeper into that individual. They may be a good person to ask for or avoid when you head in.
When applying for a job, research the position, but not just what the company posts. Look at the details of the job and find other roles with other companies and similar responsibilities. Namely, look to see the salary ranges they post. Check out industry websites. AIGA conducts an annual survey of the design industry calculate average salaries. Combine this with your skill set to find a fair wage for your efforts.
At one point in my career, I realized I was doing a lot more work than the company recognized with my salary. I did my research and discovered I was actually doing the jobs of 5 people making at least what I was making if not far more. It was definitely time to ask for a raise or find another job.
The trick to negotiating is to make everyone feel like they got a great deal. If you can’t make the other party feel like they did well in the deal, the deal won’t go through. This is why we prepare.
My position where I wore five hats is a great example. The jobs I was doing have salary ranges from $55,000 to $120,000. In theory I should be able to add them all up and that should be my salary. But that isn’t realistic. So I needed to find a realistic number.
Your base, or limit, is either the bottom as a seller or the top as a buyer for your negotiation. This is the point where if the number crosses it, you need to get out of the discussion. Otherwise you will be getting paid less, or spending more than you can really afford. Never cross your limits.
Your goal is your ideal number. The goal is what you get if your negotiation goes perfectly.
My base for that position was pretty easy to figure out. My current salary paid my bills, allowed me to buy a home, and I was able to save. But what was my value? I brought a lot to the table. To fill my shoes, the company would need to spend over 5x what I was making. But asking for that wasn’t realistic. I knew what my boss made. I knew what his boss made. My salary was already 85% of the range the company had for my role. I looked into what the industry standard was in the area, as well as in major metro areas like New York City, Chicago and San Francisco. It was realistic based on this research for me to make 40% more than I was.
Knowing I was severely underpaid and that my boss didn’t make what I should be, I looked for a new job with the goal of getting a 40% increase. Of course I could take less if I wanted and the position was right.
The goal is not your asking amount.
This goal number is halfway between your limit and the asking number. So how do we make sure our negotiation comes out in our favor? We go in with the right number, one which the other party will try to talk us off of but yet, will leave us with our goal.
This is not some sort of special secret sauce rule of great negotiators. This is my rule. It works for me, it may not work for you. But it will provide you with a how I think (which has worked out well for me) and allow you to structure your negotiation to suit you.
If I am the buyer, once I know my limit, I cut it by 20%. This is the number I use to start my negotiation with. Depending on how much I like the object I am buying, I’ll give on that 20% until I get it or hit my limit. This gives me room to work on the deal and make both parties feel good about it.
If I’m the seller, I ask 20% higher than my goal number.
When I decided to find that new job, I wanted to make that 40% increase. So I asked for more money than the 40% increase. I expected the new employer to offer a lower amount. I expected that I would say that wasn’t enough and we would both alter our numbers to meet in the middle. I asked for a number that was actually 73% higher than what I was currently making. This wasn’t the first time either. I previously had asked for a 50% increase over my previous salary.
If you are unwilling to walk away when you hit your limit, then you will not be happy about the negotiation’s outcome. In fact, to make sure both parties are happy, you need to be willing away to walk away sooner than your limit.
I’ve walked on deals several times. One deal I actually walked four times. In all those cases, the other party came back with another offer. An offer that I was able to accept and feel good about it.
I know what you’re thinking, “I need this job. How can I walk away from a job offer that’s less than what I deserve?” You’ve been working hard, or maybe you are unemployed, the prospect of getting an offer in hand and walking away from it is pretty scary. But if you aren’t willing to walk, you never had any power and didn’t really show up to negotiate. So the best thing is to look for a job when you already have one (this is easier said than done).
Before I started working for the five hat company, I actually walked away from the offer. I had been working as a contractor with them for about nine months. They wanted to bring me on full time. The offer they made was was 20% below what I was making as a contractor (thank you overtime!). If I had not accepted the offer, there was no guarantee of a job. They could cancel the contract and I’d be unemployed. Still, I said no. The HR person was shocked. The hiring manager was shocked. When I explained how much of a cut I was taking and that the number they offered was low for the industry (with data to back that up) they went back to see what they could do.
I got an offer that was 5% higher and took the job.
The more excitement you show, the more they know they hooked you. Keep calm, work on your poker face, be cordial but unimpressed. To hold the power, you need to get them to be more excited than you. I work hard to hold onto a facade of malaise and disinterest in all my negotiations. If you get excited, you lose the power.
If you are interviewing for a job, dress one level better than them until you hit the business suit mark. Never wear a ball gown or tuxedo to an interview. Of course, this is also dependent on who is doing the pursuing.
Most of the time I’ll wear a jacket and tie to an interview. What kind of tie and whether I wear jeans or slacks is determined by the company I’m headed to. For the five hat company I worked for, it was dress slacks & a conservative tie. For a startup, it was jeans and a tie with skulls & crossbones on it. However, in a recent “interview” I actually wore a flannel and jeans. The way that relationship began, I had all the power. Showing up in a flannel demonstrated that I had the power. I was listening, but I didn’t need the job, so this was going to be on my terms.
When I’m the buyer, I dress down. Way down. I get as frumpy and disheveled as I can. This gives a false impression to the seller. One that throws off their pricing model and when we can do that, we gain the upper hand.
If you are new to negotiating, you will need to practice. Study up on your topic and work with a friend or family member. You take your role and put your helper on the other side. Ask them to play hardball. Remember, we want to ruffle feathers, but maintain a calm experience. Talk it through, role play, and do it until you feel confident you can do it in the real situation.
You are probably wondering what happened during that negotiation for the new job with the 73% increase in pay. I didn’t get the deal I should have.
At the time I was talking to three different companies. All of them I asked for the same salary. One didn’t work out because of my not being willing to relocate. But I did get offers from the other two. I got great offers, both of which would hit the goal I was seeking.
But one was better than the other. I took that job, but I ended up leaving money on the table. I misjudged the market and my skills (I’m not perfect and this isn’t a science). When I asked for the larger amount, they paid it to me. They didn’t negotiate. I could have asked for more and maybe gotten it. I certainly would have had a negotiation. I got extremely lucky, but then again I’ve had lots of luck like this.
I once bought a car for 20% under my limit. I walked from the deal 4 times all well holding firm to my asking price and was even in the car driving off the lot when the salesperson came running up to tell me I got the deal.
Hopefully my tips and techniques will help you win that next negotiation.
Comments closedFor the last eighteen months, I have been working remotely from my home in Wisconsin for a startup located in San Francisco. This has been one of the greatest adventures I have had in my life; learning a tremendous amount about the world of startups, better coding practices, how to make a remote environment work, and about myself. Today I want to share what I feel are best practices for myself & the teams I’m on working with to get the most out of being remote.
We live in the information age. The majority of our work is dealing with information and finances. The average worker goes into an office and works on a computer located in that office. However, there is nothing about that office that requires the person be co-located with all the other employees. This is especially relevant in the world of creatives.
Designers, programmers, UXers, and writers are in a particular advantage of not needing to be co-located. The tools that have sprung up in the last few years allows them to collaborate real time from thousands of miles away. Meetings can be held and accomplished with cheap (if not free) video and audio conferencing, unlike a decade ago when it cost tens of thousands of dollars for a quality, yet unreliable rig from Cisco.
Recent studies actually show the trend in “Open Office” plans are actually harmful to productivity, primarily in creatives. Most of them need to get in a zone to produce their best work. The lack of office doors, intrusion of email and IM, and chaos of noise consistently pokes holes in a person’s ability to achieve this zone. Working remotely can actually remove these distractions and introduce more zone times, thus more productivity. So how can you make this work?
There has to be a commitment, not just on the immediate team, but from the executives on down to having successful remote employees. No matter how dedicated a manager is to having the truly best players regardless of location, if someone up the chain isn’t 100% behind the idea of remote workers, they will poison the whole thing.
It will likely start slow and unnoticed, but it does slowly creep its way in.
Since you are working from home, it becomes harder to look over your shoulder, across the aisle or walk around the corner to ask a question. The people just aren’t that close. Communication needs to find a channel where people can talk, not just one-to-one in IM, but in a team setting. Barriers need to be sought out to lower the friction of a quick check with a coworker to solve a problem.
This starts with a quality group chat application. It could be as simple as using IRC on Freenode, or using tools like Slack, FlowDock, and HipChat. These permit the one-to-one communication, but are really built to replace the shouting over desks that happens in the office.
When using your chat application, each team member needs to communicate with the rest of the team when they are available. There will be times when you need to log off chat, be it to get lunch, take a meeting, run an errand, but most likely to create a zone state. Instead of just dropping off or logging out, send a message first. Let your team know you are dropping off, why, and how long you expect to be. Greet them in the morning and say goodnight before you leave for the night.
This little courtesy will go a long way. The better you are at it, the more time you can take to be in the zone. If you have hours that you work the best during, block those out on your calendar & show yourself as busy. When those roll around, log off and focus.
Whenever possible, step up the communication from text to voice or better yet video. Daily standups or check-ins should be over video. Any meeting as well. Find a tool where you can screen share, like Hangouts, Slack, HipChat, or Webex. Whenever the discussion is not just social and more than a few quick volleys of text questions and answers, jump into a video chat. Let people see your face. Share screens and collaborate on the project, paid programming, design critiques, or joint editing all bond the team players and actually produce better results faster than passing them back and forth in email.
A hard thing to deal with as a remote worker is the lack of water cooler talk. The average worker spends 40 plus hours a week at work and an additional 10 commuting. If you sleep 8 hours a night, then you family and social time is reduced to 62 hours, and half of those are your weekend. If you’re like me, they get consumed running errands and doing work around the house. There isn’t much time to see friends or family.
This is why having social relationships with your workmates is important. With the amount of time we spend in work, we need to get along and share experiences. As a remote worker though, you are often working at home, alone. Having a communication with the team that is less formal than the rest of your meetings builds this bond. Set up an “Off Topic” room in chat where people can be themselves and let loose with the gifs, YouTube videos, and jokes.
One of the more successful teams I’ve worked with would do daily standups via Hangout, but every Friday after standup they would have a “Show & Tell”. One team member would put together a presentation, preferably not related to work, and share with the team. This gave everyone a chance to really get to know who they are and what they enjoy. I learned how to make a roux, how to grow hops and even a bit about hockey.
If your team is split remote and in the office, make sure to only throw team events that can be shared by everyone. This doesn’t mean you can’t go out and have dinner or get drinks after work to celebrate, but make sure to create an event where the remote teams are able to participate.
Needs some ideas of how to include remote workers in a celebration event? Try some of these:
Now that we eliminated the problems of going remote and staying in tune with the team, there are two things prevent remote workers from being productive at home. Good remote workers know how to limit distractions. They also know how to balance their time. When the you don’t have to leave the building, it becomes easy to get drawn back into work.
Set a routine up. Every morning I get up with my kids, get them out the door to school and feed the cats. Then I shower. Sure, I could work in my PJs, or even without pants, but by showering, I’m setting a stake in the ground saying, “My day starts now.”
I’m not good at taking breaks. So I started using the Pomodoro technique. I set a timer for 25 minutes. During that time I work. No Twitter, Facebook or Youtube. I’ll mute chat and email. When the 25 minutes are up, I’ll take a ten minute break to do some stretching, get a drink or food, head to the restroom. When I come back, I start another 25 minutes. Every few work slots I dedicate to catching up on chat, email, or any other communications I need.
I also have an alarm set to remind me to eat lunch. If I get in a flow, or worse and have a bunch of meetings in a row, I forget to eat. Taking care of yourself first is the most important thing when working remote. I have another alarm set to end my day. Yes, occasionally I run over, but I try to keep my work day under 10 hours. When I hit that, I shut down anything work related, help my family with dinner prep, and enjoy a nice evening with them.
If you have a problem staying off social media, set filters on your hosts file or your router that prevent you from going to those sites during work hours.
Remember you are working. Don’t do house chores unless you are on your 10 minute break. And if you have little kids or pets, get a door and close it.
One more thing I try to do daily is go out for a walk. It’s hard in the Wisconsin winter, especially for someone who is already unstable, but getting out for 20-30 minutes can really refresh you brain and your body.
Last piece of advice I have for remote workers, find an excuse to leave the house for at least an hour every couple of days. It’s best if you can meet with friends. Just don’t let yourself become accidentally agoraphobic.
Comments closedI’m pretty lucky. I have a solid career and reliable income. I also have health insurance through my employer, unlike millions of other Americans. However, something happened this week that scared the hell out of me. I caught pneumonia.
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