Ways to work together

Startups and teams inside big companies call me for the same reason: they've built something powerful, and their users are struggling with it. Here's how we usually work together.

Understand your users

Interviews, observation, and analysis of your usage data, combined to show what people are really doing with your product, and how they address their issues today.

You get: A short report and interview notes
Takes: a few weeks

Example: Automation at Moment, how Moment decided who its product was for.

Design the data experience

Interactive visualizations that let your users explore their data and find answers, designed from first sketches to working prototypes on your real data.

You get: Working prototypes your engineers can build from
Takes: two to four months

Example: BubbleUp, how Honeycomb helps on-call engineers find what makes bad requests bad.

Level up your team

Strategy sessions with leadership, a workshop to get your team started, or a standing hour when they need a second opinion.

You get: A workshop or a standing hour
Takes: a day, or a few hours a month

Much of what I teach is in Making Data Visual, with Miriah Meyer.

How a project goes

A first call

You tell me what you're building and who it's for; I ask a lot of questions.

Scoping

I write up a short proposal: the question we're answering, what you'll get, and when.

Measure, design, try

Learn what users need, design for it, and test the simplest version that will tell us something. Repeat.

Hand off

As the design settles, your engineers take over and I step back.

“When Liz Fong-Jones and I created the Honeycomb SLO feature, we kicked it off with three days of intense meetings in a Seattle co-working space. We looked at existing user feedback. We sketched possible UIs. We mocked up the core algorithms and equations, first in a spreadsheet, then a Python notebook.”
From Growing into Production, 2023

The details

You'll work with me directly. More about me.

Based in: Seattle. I work remotely, but can arrange to travel to you.
Pricing: A fixed fee per project, or monthly for advisory engagements.
Teaming up: I also partner with other consultants, on joint bids or as a subcontractor.
Talks and more: I enjoy giving talks and joining podcasts.

Schedule a meeting

Contracts are with Fisher Insights LLC.