I spent the last decade in higher education preparing students for digital and new-media careers by teaching in an interdisciplinary, full-service Communication and Interactive Digital Media department at a private liberal arts college. In my opinion, classic rhetoric training is among the best foundations for understanding UX design because the universal and architectonic structure of rhetorical studies provides a supra-framework for understanding interaction design (IxD). In a broad sense, almost every human being is engaging in some kind of discourse with technology every day. When you think of "rhetoric," it's easy to think Aristotle, not Apple. I jumped at the chance when my department asked me to start teaching classes that included digital media, design thinking and UX. Teaching led to a growing private practice which led to full-on career change during the midst the pandemic.
I'm passionate about bootstrapping lean projects on scrappy, interdisciplinary teams that have big ideas. I thrive in a work environment that enables hyper-focus on the completion of highly analytical, time-boxed, discrete tasks in the context of an iterative design thinking framework. My closest colleagues would tell you that I have a knack for getting people to warm up to me so that they tell me stuff they don't tell other people— a near-magical UX skill. As a general principle, I think you should work until you get it right and practice until you can’t get it wrong. I'm self-aware (nearing imposter syndrome), accolade-averse, not precious about receiving critical feedback. I believe in strong positions weakly held because I've spent most of my life trying to understand how often-inaccurate mental models impact human decision making.
<aside> 🏆 Read about my background as a Nationally Recognized Argumentation and Debate Coach and Author
</aside>