What you know can help you grow 🏔️ #3

Welcome to this week's newsletter. This week, I share my experience going to a executive training event, plus an upcoming webinar on Value Proposition.

I stopped everything ✋ #2

This past July, I stopped everything. Every ongoing project was wrapped up, sales were put on a pause, and marketing efforts were momentarily halted. I then went to the South of France for a family holiday.

Reset and create 💥 #1

Welcome to this month's newsletter. This is the first subscriber-only issue as I start to share more of what I'm doing and start to give you value.

Customers before culture

In business, success hinges on the ability to adapt, innovate, and meet the ever-evolving needs of the market. Many agencies place a heavy emphasis on building a unique and thriving company culture first, but that's come secondary to us building Skysoclear. That doesn't sound right, so please let me explain.

Embracing a journey of growth: my return to coaching facilitation techniques

I've always benefited from learning from others, and after a brief hiatus, I'm thrilled to announce that I've once again opened my doors to coaching clients. With an extensive background that spans over 200 workshops, I'm excited to share my experiences and insights with aspiring facilitators looking to enhance their

The impact of design on business revenue

Product design has emerged as a critical factor in the success of businesses in today's digital landscape. Beyond just creating visually appealing interfaces, design plays a pivotal role in shaping how customers interact with products and services. What's interesting about this is how it directly correlates with business revenue. Studies

How to start building for user needs

Understanding user behaviour is crucial for a product's success. Five tips to help you effectively understand users and build for their needs: Define Clear Goals and Metrics Begin by defining clear goals for your product. What actions or outcomes do you expect from users? Whether it's user engagement, conversion rates,

How I planned a podcast in 5 minutes

I just planned a podcast in the time it took to make my morning cup of tea. What!?

First year learnings from starting an agency

The plan for year 1 of Skysoclear was simple: Get through year 1! Most startups fail as they say, but suffice to say we're still here. We have some money in the bank, but more importantly, we've gained a tonne of learnings. Based on some of this journey, I've decided

How to hire great product designers

I recently advised a startup who were experiencing an ongoing problem. The founders didn’t have a design background and were struggling to understand how to evaluate the efforts of their product designer, especially from a UI perspective. They also were facing challenges when they approached product designer hires. I

Gaining business success through user-centered design

Today, user experience design is a crucial aspect of any business strategy. User-centered UX design focuses on designing products or services that meet the needs and expectations of users. It is essential to understand the importance of user-centered UX design, as it can have a significant impact on the success

The time of big budgets is over - now what?

The future of our agency projects will be scoped around more affordable and better solutions. Why do I say that? AI and data is re-writing the agency offer I first started exploring how data could assist and drive decision making back in 2021 at the Google Relay event. The problem

What I do when I lose

I'll have a difficult week. I'll lose a client, finances get tight and sometimes, there's not enough going on - especially in these early months. It's very easy for me to fall into a doom and gloom cycle and honestly, right now - it takes me a good day or

Fear of success

There's a fear of failure and there's a fear of success. Pick one. Jodie Cook put it beautifully in Forbes. "Fear of success is the concern that once we achieve something, there may be associated suffering. When you sabotage your efforts for seemingly no reason, when you keep yourself playing

3 considerations when starting an agency

I didn't aim to set out and create an agency last year. I got here through a mix of self discovery and the realisation that I didn't want to create a lifestyle business.

Create a proof of concept first

What's the best way to start an app these days? Say you have an idea for an app - maybe it's a new dog-walking service, or maybe a new kind of children's saving account. You know what it's about and the concept is relatively straightforward. What would you do next?

My journey

What I'm stopping and what I'm starting

Every December for the past few years, I stop some things and I start some things. I stop projects that aren't working out. I reduce a lot of interests and sometimes just kill some things that I've been thinking about for a while. Then I start some things. I wouldn't

Interview

State of flow with Raymmar Tirado

I had a conversation with Raymmar Tirado, fresh off the State of Flow event, which looked incredible. To be honest, I had massive FOMO and made me even more excited to be going to the Webflow conference in November.

Advice

Execution is the game

It’s impossible to have a good strategy poorly executed. That’s because execution actually is strategy.

My journey

My experience as a contractor

"What I needed was a situation where I could earn enough to cover the bills, create savings and all at a low effort whilst I put together the masterplan."

Notes

What excites me about No Code

The biggest agencies in the world are spending 16+ hours creating throwaway client presentations. What's the alternative?

My journey

Becoming an entrepreneur

I shared previously my story of finding it hard to accept that I was a designer. Later, it was about being comfortable being called a facilitator. Now, it's about coming to terms with a new role.

My journey

Why I quit

Two weeks ago, I called my employer to say that I was leaving. Here's why.

Work

Google Relay

Explore the future of sprints and accelerated collaboration.

Work

Hyper Island design principles course

In the UX Upskill course, students learn how to develop many of the hard and soft skills they will need in the fast-paced world of service and product design.

Work

WWF My Footprint App

How might we make it a cultural norm to reduce your impact on nature?

Work

We Find Venues

What if you could make finding event space better?

Work

Wiggle Checkout

What if we could improve the conversion rate by addressing customer doubts?

Advice

How to prepare for a Remote Design Sprint

A remote design sprint is a method of solving a critical challenge, as a team, in a remote context. Whilst it compresses months of work into just a few days, the clear benefit is that it capitalises on technology from the start. This enables teams to solve more complex problems

Advice

Adding structure to meetings

Activity lacking direction and decision-making? You need a leader. A few years ago, I was a Senior User Experience Designer at an eCommerce business. As part of my job, I would often get called into meetings for a ‘user point of view,’ as that was my key responsibility within the

Interview

The importance of UX research and design

Sharing here a conversation between myself and Misato Ehara for The UX Review, where we talk all things UX Research and Design. Listen to gain my perspective of the importance of user experience research (as a non-researcher!).

Advice

Building culture in a remote first company

From Day 1, obodo has been a remote first business. Whilst we are registered in the UK, our core team have been distributed in Europe - and it's worked. For those that don't know, our model right now is built upon freelance designers in Europe and LATAM. I believe freelancers