Human-Centered Design: Bridging Brand Strategy & Digital Experience - David Poteet - S2 Episode #10

In this episode, we are joined by David Poteet, President of NewCity, an interactive design agency. With nearly three decades of expertise in human-centered design, strategy, and user experience, David is a visionary leader driving innovation and excellence. His passion for teaching and coaching, coupled with his captivating public speaking skills, has made him a sought-after conference speaker.

Discussion points - 

Q1. What is the bogus strategy, myth, or misconception that you would like to set the record straight on? 1:55

Q2. How do you define human-centered design? 5:37

Q3. As an agency, how do you approach conducting research and incorporating human-centered design into your process? Can you open up the wizard curtain? 10:16

Q4. What type of work have you focused on while using a human-centered approach? Has that made any difference to you? Has it helped you in your positioning? 18:00

Q5. How did you structure your team together? 25:27

Q6. How do you ensure effective communication and cohesiveness between your strategists and engineering team during the feedback and review process before presenting the solution to the client? Are there one or two tools that you have found? 29:17

Q7. How do you find the balance between making sure your team is learning the new technologies and also being productive at the same time? 36:15

Q8. How do you figure out what works for you? 42:36

Q9. What’s exciting you about the future? 49:26

 

Show notes - 

• Part of the practice of human-centered design is learning how to conduct research in a way that you get enough insights from a cross-section of your user base that you can triangulate a solution that is going to be the optimal solution for the most people that you're serving. 6:37
• The people who are naturally better at human-centered design are the people who have some direct interaction with a customer on a regular basis. 7:55
• We do one of the exercises that is called the ad hoc personas. So, we create personas that are based on what the leaders within the organization think they know about their customers. 11:31
• It was an uphill climb for a while to persuade institutions to invest in research. 21:43
• Along the way, we recognized how much people wanted to have more of a seat at the table and be involved in that process. 26:56
• A lot of the innovation happens as you build, you're figuring things out, you're realizing things that do or don't work, you're coming up with new ideas, and it continues to evolve. 
• We've designed experiences that the team has at key junctures in the project, where you bring people together intentionally to make sure everyone's fully engaged and is really picking things and thinking together. 27:27
• We've got a lot of tinkerers on the team, people that do like to try to figure out a better or faster way to do something. 37:41
• One of the challenges that you have, as any business owner, is that you will see all kinds of different models and approaches to doing the work. 42:58
• We are trying to bridge these two worlds - what's happening in digital and what's happening in the real customer service experience, bringing that expertise together and helping teams bridge and create a real-life and digital melding of strategy. 50:14

 

Myth Busted - Brand strategy and digital experience are separate entities and can exist independently.

 

Links -
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidpoteet/ 

Company website: https://www.insidenewcity.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidpoteet 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidpoteet/

 

Show Credits - 

Host - Varun Bihani & Jessie Coan

Produced by Bobby Soni 

Edited by Priyanka Sharma 

Content by Aakash Damani, Yashika Neekhra, and Juhie Bhardwaj