On July 1, 2022, Slide UX turned 10 years old.

If you'd have told Brant or me 10 years ago that we'd be here today, we may have been absolutely wide-eyed with intimidation... or we may have laughed you out of town!

Back in 2012 when Brant made the bold decision to leave his full time job, we certainly did not have the skills to get to this point.

But thankfully, the lessons we needed have presented themselves along the way. We're still deeply flawed people but we have learned so, so much.

When you think of a designer, you might think of someone wearing cool glasses, clicking away behind a computer. But at its core, UX is very much a PEOPLE business. And most of my lessons this past decade have been around dealing with people.

Just this week, I was in a leadership discussion when I heard a manager mention a challenge he had raised many times before. This time, he phrased it in a new way. And It was a like a light bulb had turned on for me. I finally understood when he meant.

This was a perfect reflection of two of the skills I've really had to develop over this past decade: listening and patience.

Just like with design, it's tempting to rush to solve problems that we don't fully understand. And just like with design, we often overestimate how well we understand things.

I've learned that I really need to listen first. Whether I'm helping to solve problems for users, clients, or teammates.

And then, I often need to wait for things to marinate, and for trends to reveal themselves.

Listening to the same thing said different ways can seem pedantic... until all of a sudden, a switch flips and something now makes sense. Sometimes people don't phrase things exactly the way you'd understand them, the first time.

So in honor of our 10th anniversary, here's something to ponder: Where can you be a more patient listener? Where do you need to hold the space before jumping in to try and solve?

If you're interested in this topic, you might enjoy Indi Young's latest book: Time to Listen: How Giving People Space to Speak Drives Invention and Inclusion (Assumptions Aside). If you read it, let me know! Let's discuss!