UX designer Jeff Gothelf puts his skills and knowledge to work at TheLadders.com. Previously, he has helped design at AOL, Webtrends, and Fidelity. Below, Jeff talks about the explosive growth in UX and the ways in which it can be a challenge for designers to keep up. Find out more below. . . .

The Stats:

Hometown:
Fair Lawn, NJ

Current ‘hood:
Glen Rock, NJ (right next door to Fair Lawn)

College/Grad School:
James Madison University, Bentley College

Current Job:
DIrector of User Experience at TheLadders.com

Where do you plan to take your column this year?
I plan on focusing on how design and user experience are evolving as a practice. With the influx of challenges that include Agile, Lean, and mobile, designers need to broaden their horizons and change the way they’ve been working.

What do you hope to accomplish with your Hired Gun posts?
I hope to make both designers and non-designers realize that there’s a whole lot more than pixel-pushing going on in UX. The breadth of the impact and influence that user experience has on products and sites breaks into the fields of product management and strategy. This is critical to understand and to promote.

Who should be checking you out?
UX folks, designers, product managers, startup founders, development managers, CEOs—the whole stack.

What makes you an authority on the subject?
I’ve been designing sites and products on the web for nearly 15 years now. In addition I’ve become recognized as a thought leader in the Agile/UX space, with a focus on Lean UX.

What do you wish you knew at 25 that you now know?
Two things: How important practicing your craft is to getting better and that through that practice you can achieve proficiency in skills you may have thought you were not “born” into.

What’s the last job you want to have before you retire? And why? How do you think you’re going to get there?
I’d like to own a rock ‘n’ roll venue. I was a touring musician for years before I started designing, and I always wanted to be on the other end, helping musicians get noticed and giving them a stage on which to play. I plan on getting involved with a company that sees explosive growth and cashing in my equity at some late stage to go buy my venue and run it.

Where do you plan on living when you ultimately do retire?
Paris. It’s just the place to be.

Best career advice somebody gave you that you now live by?
The worst thing you can do for your team is not ship.

What’s your passion outside of work?
I play music, piano specifically. Love it and want to do it forever. I also love my wife and kids, and spending time with them is something I look forward to every day.

Have you found any ways in which some “flavors” of UX have uses beyond what they were initially developed for?
It’s amazing the fields that UX is getting into. Service design is hot right now, as is cross-channel experience design. Ultimately, a company’s brand is defined by the UX of its entire offering. UX is everywhere.

What blogs and sites do you personally find the most inspirational–or just fun?
I read Smashing Magazine, A List Apart, and a whole lot of Twitter.