Back in a Bit

Work experience: does it work?

The amount of political “heat” surrounding the government’s Work Experience programme seems to be in inverse proportion to the amount of policy “light”. Critics describe it as akin to “slavery”, while the Secretary of State retorts by describing them as “modern day Luddites”. Not only is this exchange of insults neither sensible nor constructive, it obscures the more interesting and important issues.

Not the Treasury view: Work experience: does it work?

Raise Your Voice: How to have a bigger impact on your team

If you are a UX professional, you’ve probably struggled at times to get your voice heard. Between ladder-climbing product managers, cowboy engineers, and a workload that leaves you out of breath every day, rising above the shenanigans of corporate life can be a challenge. All you really want to do is design truly amazing experiences for your customers, but the politics and red tape of your workplace get in the way. Or do they? It’s easy to blame the “system”, but in reality, we all control our own destinies.

The following tips will help you take control, especially if you work on a product team in a corporate setting. Using any combination of these strategies will help you push past your day-to-day challenges to have an even bigger impact on your team.

Content Strategy Within The Design Process

While wrapping one’s head around content strategy might be difficult, the thing that makes it work is very simple: good communication. Sometimes a project moves along like a sports car on a superhighway. Other times, the road is so full of bumps and potholes that it’s a wonder we ever reach our destination. As we explore the relationship between content strategy and design, I’ll detail how I keep the channels of communication open and go over the workflow processes that I’ve used to support that effort. I hope that sharing my experiences (both positive and negative) will help you contribute to and manage projects more effectively and deliver better products to clients.

Pepsi’s Digital Fitness Bootcamp Keeps Employees Up To Date With New Technologies

PepsiCo has created the bootcamp to train everyone from executives to the finance and legal teams, PR and sales officers, in aspects of digital marketing. The program includes online classes and experiential sessions demonstrating how consumers and competitors use new technology.

The seven deadly sins CEOs won’t admit

Every week for the past year and a half, the Financial Times has asked business leaders 20 questions including: “What are your three worst features?”

By studying the replies, I’ve amassed a treasure trove of data that overwhelmingly supports a long-held pet theory of mine.

The three worst traits of chief executives are a lack of self-knowledge, a lack of self-knowledge and a quite extraordinary willingness to give themselves the benefit of the doubt.