Lauren Sinreich is a Principal of Design Research and Strategy at Coforma, with a cross-disciplinary background and seat on the Pragmatic Design Advisory Board. Recently, Lauren sat down with Shannon McGarity—Pragmatic Design instructor and one of the minds behind our design practice curriculum—for a fascinating designer-to-designer conversation that ranged from the connection between environmental studies and systems design, to the differences between consulting and in-house work, to the perils and promise of stakeholder communication. (Editor’s note: This conversation has been condensed and ..read more

I have a passion for working with people and building things, and my career has allowed me to explore the synergy between understanding people at a cognitive and physical level and creating things.  As I’ve advanced from being a researcher and practitioner to the CEO of a company offering consulting, staffing, and coaching in user research and design, I’ve learned that ensuring good UX relies on a well-rounded team. I look for four core capabilities when building a strong UX design team:       User focus       Facilitation skills       Executi ..read more

Lauren Sinreich is a Principal of Design Research and Strategy at Coforma, with a cross-disciplinary background and seat on the Pragmatic Design Advisory Board. Recently, Lauren sat down with Shannon McGarity—Pragmatic Design instructor and one of the minds behind our design practice curriculum—for a fascinating designer-to-designer conversation that ranged from the connection between environmental studies and systems design, to the differences between consulting and in-house work, to the perils and promise of stakeholder communication. (Editor’s note: This conversation has been condensed and ..read more

Pragmatic Institute Director of Design Practice Shannon McGarity has spent more than 20 years solving clients’ design challenges in roles ranging from head of product to UX director. Read our interview with Shannon to hear about her winding journey in design, her passion for empowering personal transformation and her excitement for the newly released courses at Pragmatic. Tell us about your background in design. I have been a designer of some sort for the past 20 years. I’ve had the benefit of working in a lot of different ecosystems and verticals. I started doing illustration, visual design ..read more

Strong communicators know the human brain is hardwired to respond to stories. Stories light up the brain’s sensory cortex. They also help ensure a message sticks with its intended audience.  In fact, cognitive psychologist Jerome Bruner said we are 22 times more likely to remember a fact when it’s shared within the context of a story. But stories aren’t just for remembering facts or figures; they have a place in design contexts as well. Without a story around your message, cross-functional partners and business stakeholders will create their own meaning. That’s why it’s important to be in ..read more

I’ve observed a real hunger among designers to get involved in strategic work throughout my 25+ years as a design practitioner, director and educator. That hunger is indicative of a growth mindset—a desire to tackle new challenges and a curiosity about the larger forces that shape our day-to-day work. For instance, visual designers might look to add skills like research and user experience design to their toolkit. UX designers often want to move beyond the flow of the screens they work on to take a broader perspective. And design managers often want to reshape their organization through organi ..read more

The power of measuring customer acquisition cost and lifetime value   Metrics in product marketing are how we can systematically demonstrate return on investment and the value of your team. So how do we show the impact we’re having using the metrics that matter?  We recommend focusing on two key metrics that will make a difference: customer acquisition cost (CAC) and the average customer’s lifetime value (LTV). CAC is the average cost to acquire a net new customer. And that includes all fixed and variable expenses, events, personnel, marketing and sales. The average customer’s lifeti ..read more

Products should solve market problems. Otherwise, all that’s been created is something neat, not something useful (or profitable).  How do companies evaluate market problems and build the right solution? The answer: listening and research. But, what does it look like to actually do this work?  The following are three case studies involving how organizations discovered market problems and designed effective solutions.  Case Study #1 The Market Problem: Career Path Uncertainty Project Management Institute (PMI), is a not-for-profit professional association, solving the problem of ..read more

Bridging the gap between data assets and realizing value for decision making and driving business is critical for organizations making significant investments in how they utilize data. There is wide recognition of this gap and to truly transform how an organization operates with data requires systems thinking with a multi-faceted programmatic solution for sustainable change in the DNA of the organization. Randy Bean’s recent Forbes article discusses companies struggling in their efforts to build data-driven organizations with only 24% reporting that they have forged a data culture. Becom ..read more

When I started at Pragmatic Institute two years ago, everything was changing. And, it was exciting to think about all the ways we could innovate to increase employee retention.  But then in 2020, shortly after my start date, the world stopped and everyone was thinking differently about what makes people love their work. Innovation was no longer a conversation about a competitive edge and marginal improvements when it comes to hiring and keeping the best talent. Now, it was about adapting to survive a deeply uncertain environment.  The pandemic coupled with the great resignation has l ..read more