074 - Why Your “Why” Isn’t Cutting It And How to Dig Deeper

In this episode, Sophia gets real about the tension between OOUX in theory vs. the messy reality of the real world. Learn how to ask those jaw-dropping, scope-shifting “why?” questions without annoying leadership. She breaks it down into four pro-level steps so you can bring more clarity, alignment, and confidence to your work.LINKS:Join the UX Level-Up free on OOUX.com/levelup! Join the conversation on the OOUX Forum

In this episode of the podcast, Sophia announces a rebrand of the OOUX Podcast: The UX Level-Up! Going forward, the show will center around the five Level-Ups (featured in The UX Level-Up). She also asks a game-changing question that reframes the purpose of our OOUX work, and gives her own answer to that question, laying out an ambitious vision for OOUX and the ORCA process going forward.LINKS:Join the waitlist for The UX Level-UpJoin the waitlist for OOUX Foundations

Frameworks don’t kill creativity — they set it free.In this episode, we're breaking down why UX designers who jump into UI too soon miss the real opportunity for innovation.I’ll show you how ORCA (Objects, Relationships, Calls-to-Action, Attributes) gives you real material to build with — fueling true creativity, better ideas, and a serious competitive edge.🎧 Tune in to rethink your brainstorming, unleash deeper innovation, and start sketching systems, not just screens.LINKS:Join the waitlist for OOUX Foundations!

In this more personal solo episode, Sophia shares how she uses OOUX to help her learn and understand complicated things faster, why it's important to budget for and invest in self improvement, plus why OOUX is great for helping you step away from the screens to embody what you're trying to understand. Join us for OOUX Foundations!

The UX job market is rough. Veterans are being laid off, juniors are struggling to find jobs, and yet, digital experiences are clunky and getting worse. What gives?In this raw and honest solo-episode, Sophia explores why UX has been set up to fail — why big problems remain unsolved, and why leadership often undervalues UX work. You'll hear how we've been pushed into pixel-pushing and spackling over the cracks of complexity instead of tackling structural solutions. And why that's not good enough anymore.But there’s hope. UX can evolve, and we can take back our craft. Discover the Five Core Level-Ups that will empower you to redefine your role and bring deeper meaning into your work.If you are ready for a deep dive into Sophia’s practical how-to, Join our  90-minute, totally free training: The UX Level-Up. You'll learn 20 actionable strategies to start leveling up immediately—yes, right after the training.👉 Register here: https://www.ooux.com/levelupLet’s stop spackling. Let’s build better.

In this solo episode of the podcast, Sophia discusses, "AI: A Guide for Thinking Humans" by Melanie Mitchell professor at the Santa Fe Institute. Are world models the answer to creating human-like intelligence in AI? What are the arguments for and against world models in training AI? And can OOUX help in creating these models? LINKS:Join Melanie's SubstackRegister for UX Level-UpOOUX for AI Course

As president of Catbird Content, Torrey Podmajersky helps teams solve business and customer problems using UX and content. She has written inclusive and accessible consumer and professional experiences at Google, OfferUp, and Microsoft, and now for clients of Catbird Content. She wrote the best-selling Strategic Writing for UX, and teaches at schools and conferences in North America and Europe.In this episode of the podcast, Sophia and Torrey talk about why people tend to be biased toward stories they understand, how facilitating with sticky notes helps level the playing field for ideas, and how Torrey used OOUX to untangle the “spaghetti” of requirements, system objects, and team vernacular at a large company we all know. Follow Torrey on ⁠LinkedIn⁠ Afflilate link to Torrey's book⁠, "Strategic Writing for UX" ⁠Early release second edition of Strategic Writing for UX⁠ Learn about Catbird: ⁠www.catbirdcontent.com⁠ Early release chapters (so far) of UX Skills for Business Strategy⁠ Sign up for UX Level-Up!

In this episode, Sophia and Allie get clear on what exactly OOUX is, how the ORCA process works, and why everyone is talking about it! If you have heard about OOUX and were wondering what it can do for you in your UX practice, or if you find yourself faced with intense digital complexity and need a way to break it down, this video is for you! Check out these articles for more on the cognitive science of OOUX: "Don't Dead Him - Why Verbs Are Hard and What It Means For the UX Process" -   / dont-dead-him-why-verbs-are-hard-and-what-...   "UX For Lizard Brains" - https://alistapart.com/article/ux-for... "The Object-Oriented User" - https://blog.prototypr.io/the-object-... 👻 Get on the waitlist for the Four UX Fails Mini-Course: https://www.ooux.com/offerings/fourfails A deep dive into how to detect and prevent these unsavory flavors of unintuitiveness! ⭐️ Join the waitlist for the OOUX Masterclass: https://www.ooux.com/spmcwaitlist A 22-hour online course that will help you have more confidence in the face of complexity, design more elegant and resilient digital systems, reduce rework while also having more fun, and overall level-up as an advanced, high-value UXer.

Raktim Chatterjee is a Certified OOUX Strategist and the Lead UX Consultant at Xebia, a global IT consultancy. In this episode, Sophia and Raktim talk about how to get buy-in on OOUX with stakeholders by reviewing headaches from previous projects through an OOUX lens and by meeting people where they are, why OOUX becomes exponentially beneficial when all team members know the fundamentals, and just how much OOUX it's possible to do in just 45 minutes. This is a great conversation on the nuts and bolts of getting started with OOUX at work. Enjoy! LINKS: Connect with Raktim on LinkedIn Or email Raktim at [email protected]. He'd love to talk to you about your OOUX questions. Join the waitlist for Cohort 11 of the OOUX Certification Program Join the waitlist for the new and improved Self-Paced OOUX Masterclass Join the vibrant OOUX Community over on the OOUX Forum! It's free to join.

The Self-Paced OOUX Masterclass is coming off the shelf at midnight on Friday, September 27, 2024. In this solo episode of the podcast, Sophia talks about why she's taking the course off the market, when it will be back, and why you should get this "life-changing," "mind blowing," "career-saving" course today before it's gone, plus two big lessons she's learned over 10 years of entrepreneurship! LINKS: Invest in your future. Join the Self-Paced OOUX Masterclass.