In November 2013, I attended GigaOm's Roadmap 2013 ("The Intersection of Design & Experience) in San Francisco. It featured high level talks with tech leaders, including the founders of Twitter, Tinder and Instagram. I also enjoyed a tour of Facebook HQ, thanks to a former student of mine. Rather than blog my findings, I decided to go visual and list them in a presentation.

1. MEMO TO ALL #COMMLEAD’ERS FROM @HRHMEDIA
10 NEW THINGS WE NEED TO KNOW
AFTER MY TRIP TO SAN FRANCISCO

2. 1. NEW DESIGN THINKING
EMERGES EACH TIME
THERE’S A NEW SOCIOECONOMIC SHIFT
• Technology’s “magic is
going, going gone. It’s all
plumbing & toasters now”
• “Design is what defines
relationship” — it’s the
interface between
companies and the
outside world
!
~Robert Bruner, chief designer
“Beats by Dr. Dre”

3. 2.THINK “EXPERIENCE DESIGN”
actions (the world of the body) +
emotions (cognitive science, the world of the mind) +
relations (the world of people) =confusion, opportunity
(or convergence of physical+digital+social)
!
~ John Maeda, Rhode Island School of Design

4. 3. COMMERCIAL
TRANSACTIONS CAN BE A
FORM OF ENGAGEMENT
• “From the early days we
saw the receipt as an
often-played down
communication channel”
• In this way, we can abstract
the “bad feeling” about
money away. Square is
trying to meet the
customers where they are
!
~ Jack Dorsey, Square (& Twitter)

5. 4. TRUST THROUGH “DROP DEAD SIMPLICITY” AND “DOUBLE OPT IN”
"The app is simple: You’re served a succession of photos of people who meet your age,
gender, and location criteria. You swipe right if you want to meet someone, and swipe left
if you don’t. If you both swipe right, you can message each other.” NYMAG.com 10/23

6. 5. WHEN 50 BILLION
MACHINES COME ONLINE,
WE’LL NEED TO MAKE
S E N S E O F A L L T H A T D A TA
• The Internet of Everything
needs data scientists: “We’re
embedding software with
our hardware”
• Engineers, UX designers and
marketers work in tandem.
GigaOm Jobs of the Future
!
~Beth Comstock, CMO GE

7. 6.“Instagram is a communications company, not a
photography one. The content shared is for
connecting.”
~@KEVIN

8. 7 . C O M B I N E D E S I G N A N D D A TA F O R A B E T T E R U S E R E X P E R I E N C E
Our Fit Quiz is like Cosmo, asking incredibly personal questions. An algorithm combines Quiz
inputs with inventory metadata, classifies them to 6,000 different body types. Then women receive
a “try-on” box, which is how we measure success (80% accuracy) ~ Michelle Lam True & Co

9. 8 . M O B I L E I S S E R I O U S LY I N F L U E N C I N G P R O D U C T D E S I G N
Our focus is on collaboration and mobile. ~ Bret Taylor, Quip
(AllThingsD: building a productivity suite for the mobile era)

10. 9. CREATIVE PEOPLE NEED
T O C O N S I D E R T H E M S E LV E S
BUSINESSES NOW
• “Kill everything that’s not
directly related to mission.
Be medium-agnostic.”
• “Ask about the problem
you’re trying to solve”
!
~Scott Belsky, Behance, Adobe

11. 10. EMBRACE TECH ENTREPRENEURIALISM, OR BEWARE TECH SOLUTIONISM
How San Francisco’s new entrepreneurial culture is changing the country (New Yorker Oct 14 2013)
The Internet Won’t Save Us (The Daily Beast Mar 5 2013)

12. Created by Hanson Hosein, Director
Communication Leadership graduate program at
the University of Washington ~ Nov 2013
– W W W. C O M M L E A D . U W. E D U