The Hired Guns Blog

We have a bumper crop of Hired Guns presenting their ideas at next month’s SXSW Interactive. Over the next few weeks we’ll be profiling them, so that you can get a taste of their ideas — whether or not you’ll be making it to Austin yourself. Today’s selection, Jeff Gothelf, will also be cochairing next week’s AgileUX New York City conference.

Demystifying Design:
Fewer Secrets, Greater Impact
Sunday, March 11, 5:00
Presenter: Jeff Gothelf

Your Twesume
(your resume in 140 characters or less):
Interaction designer, author of upcoming book on Lean UX (O’Reilly, June 2012), founding partner at Proof.

Why did you want to speak at SXSW?
SXSW offers an international audience of creatives and technologists with whom conversations about the web, design and technology are always interesting and diverse — plus it’s one hell of a party.

Who’s your talk for? (Who do you want to show up?) 
Designers of all flavors — visual, interaction, user experience, industrial. If you design and work with a team, this talk is for you.

What will people walk away learning from you? 
Those who attend my talk will be inspired to engage their teammates more effectively and collaboratively when they get back to work after SXSW. I will not only provide the benefits of being more open with design processes but I’ll provide specific ways to kick-start the process.

What do you hope you learn from your SXSW experience? 
What exactly goes into Stubb’s BBQ sauce. I kid. Only a little. I do hope to learn how to best engage such a huge, diverse and ever-morphing crowd of folks.

Any lessons learned from past years?
Pace yourself — with everything. There are so many sessions, parties, bars, people, meetups, and free food trucks that it can get overwhelming quickly. Make time for the things you really want to see and do. Everything else will still be there when you come up for air.

Any inside skinny on Austin (especially its nightlife) that you’d like to share? 
Regardless of how much you plan or RSVP, serendipity seems to rule in Austin. Last year I accidentally walked into a bar where Chris Cornell was playing on stage. No plans. No agenda. It just happened. See where the Austin evening takes you.

Any other panels that you’re especially looking forward to?
I haven’t had a chance to plot out my sessions attendance yet. . . . I’ll get to that on the plane down.

Take a look at our latest gigs and jobs in visual design and user experience / interaction design!