Description:

Hosted By: Lou Rosenfeld

It's all about risk versus confidence. The business world constantly worries about risk. And to reassure themselves, business leaders ask for any sort of proof that an idea is going to be a good investment. Cue the numbers come marching past. Numbers seem to represent "reliable knowledge." Business leaders look askance at words, stories, and descriptions—these seem to be open to interpretation. Unreliable. Not worth the time to gather. And thus many organizations go about their business half-informed. The human half of the picture is missing. Practical empathy helps fill in the missing knowledge. It leads to even greater confidence and clarity of direction.

In this webcast you will learn:

• The valuable way to practice empathy, and it goes far beyond being a hot buzzword
• If your org does not embrace the human side of the picture very well, you'll learn how to persuade those around you to explore empathetic mindset
• Learn how traditional interviewing for needs, preferences, and opinions don't go deep enough to build empathy.

About Indi Young

Indi Young is an independent consultant. She helps teams with person-focused research, design strategy, interaction flow, communications, and information architecture. She has been a trailblazer of experience design since the dot-com boom, using her roots in computer science to help people adopt a neutral, well-considered mindset. In 2001 she was a founder of Adaptive Path, the San Francisco experience design agency. In 2008, her book introducing mental model diagrams was published. She writes articles, conducts workshops and webinars, and speaks about the importance of pushing the boundaries of your perspective. You can follow her on Twitter @indiyoung and on her blog at www.indiyoung.com.

About Lou Rosenfeld

Lou Rosenfeld is founder of Rosenfeld Media, a leading source of user experience books and expertise. He is an author of the best-selling Information Architecture for the World Wide Web (O'Reilly; 3rd edition 2006) and Search Analytics for Your Site (Rosenfeld Media, 2011), co-founder of the annual Information Architecture Summit and the Information Architecture Institute, and a former columnist for Internet World, CIO, and Web Review magazines. As a consultant, he's helped AT&T, Ford, PayPal, Caterpillar, and many other large, highly-political organizations grapple with their information headaches.