In April 2024, Jesse and I recorded what proved to be a pivotal episode of Finding Our Way. Titled "The Phase Shift," we explored how UX/Design leaders found themselves in this uncertain territory, between the familiar state of steady progress the field had experience for 20+ years, and the discombobulation that began in 2023 with layoffs, tech shifts, and what was only just beginning to emerge with AI.
Since then, we've interrogated this space, expanding our guest pool beyond UX/Design leaders to include product management leaders, business school teachers, consumer-packaged-goods and brand design consultants, and industry analysts. Through those discussions, Jesse and I were able to put some shape on the concept of The Phase Shift, culminating in our joint keynote presentation at the Service Design Global Conference.
Toward the end of the presentation, we shared this slide that sums up what we called the "Perspective Shift" necessary to navigate the Phase Shift:
To be clear, these "To"s are not end points, because, at this stage, we don't know where things are heading. These "To"s are what we heard to be the necessary mindsets and practices that will better enable success.
The birth of Liminal
Another concept that I've been digging into is what I call "Mediate the Membrane." UX/Design leaders have a unique challenge in their organizations, as they straddle two spaces with conflicting values:
The membrane protects the UX/Design team so it can operate as it does best, but does not shield them from what's going on in the rest of the organization. When UX/Design operates as a black box, it fails, so it's imperative that leaders act so that worthwhile ideas, practices, and solutions pass through that membrane. These leaders are acting not only as an interface, but an interpretive layer, helping their team understand the implications of broader business decisions, while helping the rest of the business appreciate the positive impact their team can have.
Another area of distinction is how the human-centered mindset of UX/Design inclines the team to operate more horizontally, with a focus on the holistic experience along the customer's journey, while most businesses are set up to execute vertically; and it's up to the UX/Design Leaders to manage both of these orientations.
And then there's this image which I created a few years ago (with a subtle change in the past year) that depicts what it feels like for my UX/Design leaders, particularly at the Director level:
As Jesse and I pondered the state of UX/Design Leadership at the end of last year, we hit upon how UX/Design leaders find themselves in the middle of a variety of opposing or contradictory forces, and that these conditions, identified separately, were actually aspects of a broader theme, which we labeled "Liminal," that uncomfortable and uncertain state of being where you're no longer what you were, but you're not yet what you're going to be.
Hitting upon "Liminal," opened up new understanding for us—including how it feels like not only design, not only product development, but technology, geopolitics, and, well, society appears to be in a more heightened liminal state. And that framing providing a rich vein to tap to better understand just what is happening.
So, this past weekend, we dropped the first episode of "LIMINAL", a kind of mini-series within Finding Our Way. Titled "The Liminal Moment" (Apple Podcasts; Spotify; any podcatcher; website with complete transcript) we begin our public journey tackling this theme, with a hope that it triggers your own reflections and realizations. We'd love to hear your liminal experiences.
