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If you haven't heard of EchoUser, they're a SF-based experience agency who solve client problems through design and user-centric research. We wanted to get to know them a little better, so we talked with president and co-founder, Mick McGee…
EchoUser is working with some major players – like Google, NetApp and Oracle. What’s it like dealing with the leaders of Silicon Valley?
It’s awesome. We get to work on some of the biggest UX experiences in the the industry. Really helps when we go to the startups, who all want to grow up to be one of those big players. The big guys also want to tap into the startup vibe. Bouncing back and forth from startup clients to the tech titans gives us a lot of perspective. But it’s the biggest UX experiences, which the biggest companies provide, that I personally find really interesting to work on. Not everyone likes to design within constraints, and when you’re designing for a big company, you have a lot of ‘side’ constraints to account for (old business goals, new business goals, existing customer base, existing brand, various versions of a product, big company politics, process & policy, etc.). If you can design in an environment like that, you can probably design anywhere.
What’s the biggest UX challenge that everyone is trying to solve these days?
The first thing that comes to mind is how everyone wants to be ‘sexy’. That’s easy to do when you’re Apple (or Jennifer Lawrence). Harder to do if you’re an enterprise “command prompt” company (or a plumber). And, yes, there are still plenty of users in certain industries who would prefer a command-line driven UI. Being ‘sexy’ has become the knee-jerk way of saying you want to provide a better user experience. But then you need to figure out what that really means for you and your company/product. Your command prompt users really want to feel in control (and that is “sexy” to them). Your plumber wants… a better plunger? Anyway, it’s about knowing what your users really want and need, and then providing it, and then exceeding expectations, that really gets users excited. No one says you can’t have a product that looks great, but most importantly it needs to work great to really achieve the success that people really want.
What’s the one thing that you wish more brands understood about UX?
Knowing who you’re creating the product for. This one is trickier than it seems. It’s not uncommon that we see a company or a marketing team invent a user base that they would love to sell to (e.g., soccer moms, young techies, etc.), instead of employing well-proven methods for investigating the actual wants and needs of users. For startups it’s almost legendary to create a product for yourself, and if you do that well, everyone else will want that product too. But that can get you down a narrow rabbit hole very quickly. I’ve seen the same issue in big companies. This design genius myth can be hard to overcome. For example, there are a LOT of designers that work at Apple. It wasn’t all Steve Jobs. And I doubt many of you had any idea who Jony Ive was before Steve Jobs passed away. Apple is a great company, obviously, but there are and have been a lot of great people doing rigorous design and research work there to make that legend happen.
Tell us more about “Any Experience.”
Any Experience is the idea that we can design for ANYTHING. And we probably should be. If you’ve ever complained about something, or thought of how something could be improved. You’ve thought like a designer. Have you ridden the BART and ever complained, or had an idea of what could be improved? How about a restaurant you visited lately? Could they have designed their layout better, or serving process, or look of the food on the plate? Or how about the the bagel you got at a corner store? Did it give that ‘authentic New York’ experience and taste? All of those are projects that we’ve explored for evaluating and recommending design for better experiences. The toolbox of skills that we use for tech companies is easily transferrable to any defined experience that can be perceived. I’ve yet to encounter a human experience (or non human?) that I couldn’t think of in an ‘any experience’ design way. Even answering these interview questions!
You guys have been growing. What are some of the challenges that come from such rapid growth?
I learned to not worry too much about culture a long time ago. By that, I mean worry about culture a lot, but mostly when you’re hiring. Then encourage and get out of the way when the team carries the culture forward without you. That is spoken somewhat in jest. The biggest challenge I feel personally as we grow is the sense of responsibility for every person within the company. Culture is great, but all companies are made of individuals. As we grow, it’s been harder to maintain that balancing act of meeting everyone's individual desires as employees of EchoUser, but also maintain ourselves as a business. But I wouldn’t be doing this if that balancing act wasn’t also one of my biggest drivers that takes me to work every day. It’s a fun challenge to always chase.
Where do you get your creative inspiration from?
For me, it’s always the people around you. I’ve always tried to work and play in environments that have great people. The Bay area in particular has been a phenomenal creative inspiration from day 1. An interview with Oracle over 10 years ago brought me to the Bay area. When I went out and about after the interview, I was struck by how many buzzing conversations I overheard by people obviously very passionate about whatever it was they were doing. There are a ton of passionate people here, whether you’re throwing rocks at a Google bus, or working on world-class projects at Google. It’s kinda part and parcel of what makes up the Bay area.
Give us three nuggets of advice that every creative should hear.
Be a little bit good at everything. Be a lot good at one or two things. Then know what kind of environment you’re getting into. A startup needs more of the jack of all trades. A larger team with bigger goals will need specialization, generally looking for the best of the best.
Design is a craft. Always work on it. There are universal principles, but the field is still emerging. We’re in the ascendent spotlight now with the success of Apple. Our field can’t help but change over the coming years with the increased scrutiny.
Get outdoors! Or at least out of the office. There is so much to do and experience by living in the Bay area. Being a good designer is often about perspective. No better way to gain that than to live an active, involved life.