profile

The Fountain Institute

The Fountain Institute is an independent online school that teaches advanced UX & product skills.

Featured Post

Innovation by Design with Cristina Colosi 🎥

Innovation by Design with Cristina Colosi Dear Reader, Last night, we heard an inspiring talk from Cristina Colosi, a service designer working on the innovation team at Rainforest Alliance. Many designers want to get involved in sustainability work, and Cristina is an example of how you can use your design skills to make a real impact on the climate. Cristina gave us a firsthand view of her innovation work with a case study about an NGO that involved farmers, corporations, and the entire...

7 days ago • 1 min read

Balancing Freelance Life with Maya McBeath Dear Reader, Last night, we had a roundtable with Maya McBeath, a human-centered designer, user researcher, and workshop facilitator. Maya shared how to maintain steady work without losing your soul. Freelancing can be tough, but Maya's human-first approach is a way to keep doing the work you love on your terms. The down-to-earth discussion includes: How Maya started freelancing Cultivating resilience by diversifying income streams Practical...

about 1 month ago • 1 min read

Is Poor Communication Hindering Your Projects? By Hannah Baker Dear Reader, Imagine you're in a brainstorming session, brimming with enthusiasm and ideas for a new project. Excitement fills the air as you share your vision with your team and stakeholders. However, as you dive deeper into the discussion, unexpected resistance emerges, derailing the flow of creativity and stifling collaboration. Tensions rise, misunderstandings abound, and suddenly, your project hits a roadblock. Sound...

about 2 months ago • 2 min read

Design Strategy vs. Design Vision: What's the Difference? by Jeff Humble Dear Reader, There's a rookie mistake that I see design strategists make over and over. They think that a vision is a strategy. But vision and strategy are wildly different. What's the difference, you say? Well, vision is more about where you want to be, while strategy is more about how to get there. Why don't I show just show you? Check it out below: Watch Vision vs. Strategy: Setting Goals & Reaching Them Share it on...

2 months ago • 1 min read

A Designer's Uncertain Path to Success By Hannah Baker Dear Reader, Navigating uncertainty is where great designers live. We have loads of data, insights, and experience to work with while trying to figure out the right solution to make our company all the money in the world and skyrocket our careers. Aren't those our only goals these days 🙃? We have pressure from our CEOs, managers, COUGH, and ourselves to get everything right. The anxiety of uncertainty is palpable, pushing us to strive for...

3 months ago • 1 min read
How to design a UX strategy, a free course on YouTube

A Belated Holiday Gift from Jeff Humble Dear Reader, I'll make this quick so you can get back to your family. I got you a little something for the holidays. 🎁 It's a FREE course all about UX strategy. The course is an hour-long YouTube playlist consisting of nine quick videos. You can watch it whenever your uncle starts talking about politics. Enjoy! 🎄☃️🦝 Take the Course on YouTube Source, shared by Linus Mimetz in the Guild ONLINE MEETUP: Designers' Collective DreamsEmbark on a journey of...

3 months ago • 1 min read
key areas of influence for DesignOps: impact & quality, efficiency & scalability, and motivation.

DesignOps vs. Design Management By Hannah Baker Dear Reader, Last night's meetup explored the world of DesignOps vs. Design Management, featuring the insightful Maria Karnahova as our speaker. Maria Karnahova is a seasoned senior DesignOps and is deeply passionate about design operations and facilitation. During the meetup, she provided valuable insights from her role at GetYourGuide. Maria is also a co-founder of Lead by Design, a Berlin-based community for design professionals and their...

4 months ago • 2 min read
business strategy and ux design

Finding the Overlap Is Your Job by Jeff Humble Dear Reader, Today is a micro-lesson in business strategy. I talk a lot about UX strategy, but UX and product strategies defer to the business strategy, so listen up. The business strategy is one of a designer's most important guiding artifacts. Still, I bet you think about your company's PowerPoint template more than you think about the business strategy. Image from Unsplash The business strategy at your company is essential to knowing if you're...

4 months ago • 1 min read

Unlocking 3 Years of UX Wisdom Highlights from our meetup talks! By Hannah Baker Dear Reader, We just passed the three-year mark of our virtual monthly meetup. As we celebrate three years of collaborative learning and growth, it's with immense joy that we reflect on the incredible journey we've shared. Whether you've been a longtime participant in our meetups or just discovered our community, we're thrilled to showcase the wealth of knowledge and experiences that have shaped our collective...

4 months ago • 1 min read

Usability Is the Last Thing You Should Be Testing by Jeff Humble Dear Reader, Here's a common scenario you might find yourself in: Somebody in leadership has been pushing for an idea for a long time, and your team finally gets a chance to tackle it. You want to do this by the books, so you design three versions and run a usability test with five users. You catch some problems early and start feeling pretty confident in your approach. The executives love the design, so everyone is happy. The...

4 months ago • 1 min read
Share this page