XD Thinking

When a design tests poorly it can feel pretty defeating, especially when it seems like you’ve already exhausted your options. Your UX team may go through a process similar to grieving: They might deny that feedback is valid, then perhaps experience anger, then progress through bargaining and depression, and finally move into acceptance. Based on firsthand experience, here are some strategies for dealing with each of these five stages, which will hopefully enable the group to move past initial reactions and get down to the work of addressing the UX design challenges at hand.

As brands and agencies seeks to deliver unprecedented volumes of content, many struggle with maintaining the content quality that savvy consumers demand. In this special two-part podcast, marketing strategist Steve Mudd speaks with two very special leaders who are transforming how content is delivered. In part 2, we speak with Charita Lucas, Ogilvy's director of digital content delivery. Charita shares how her personal journey has made her more agile, how diversity influences creativity, and how her team scaled from delivering 380 content assets a year to 14,000.

Armed with a data-backed approach to understanding your customers, I hope you’re feeling steadier, calmer, and more directed in the customer understanding lifecycle. A monolithic understanding of our customers and their ever-changing behaviors must always be built on a solid foundation of initial understanding. And that foundation must be constantly tested. So, next time you’re feeling anxious about an outside market factor that you can’t control, remember that there is always more to know about your most valuable asset—your customers.