A Flow of Words

I’m pretty sure that if you are a writer of some sort (even just blogging), you will be able to relate to what “writer’s block” is. Oh, I can tell you that we are both very well acquainted. As someone that has enjoyed writing for so many years, you might assume that writing is something that comes naturally to me. Well, it’s in part true actually. But I too have moments when my mind just couldn’t find the words to put together. I think part of being a really good writer is also to accept and acknowledge that there would be times when we experience “a constipation of words”. To me, the joy of writing isn’t just about putting out random sentences as they come to mind. It’s about being able to fully express myself in a way that not only makes me feel like I have said everything I wanted to say but also knows that I’ve been able to express it in a way that those reading it will be able to understand my message.

“It’s not so much about what you say, but how you say it.”

– I actually cannot remember where I read this.

So that’s really what it’s like for me. I could go days, sometimes weeks without anything to update/share. And then I would get this sudden inspiration of words, and I would want to get them out while they remain fresh inside my mind. I know that if I don’t get it down somehow, I would lose them eventually.

Most times, I would just have this tiny notebook/pad. This could be during a meeting, or when I’m in the middle of a commute. Wherever it may be, once the words start coming, I would start to note them down in point form. Depending on the situation, I might not be able to put everything that I’m feeling/experiencing down at that moment, but capturing those key phrases and words would often help me to recollect what I was thinking about an hour or two ago.

It’s called, “a flow of words”.

One final small piece of thought I wanted to add here. Over the years, numerous people have told me about how they thought I was a gifted writer. But the more I thought about it, I sincerely have my doubts about whether what they were saying is accurate/true. Sure, they could actually be right, and that writing is really a natural gift. And no, I’m not trying to hide behind some kind of false humility. If I know that I’m really good at something, I’m usually the kind of guy who will own it.

At the same time, the more I thought about it, the more I think they might have been referring to my natural ability for self-expression. Not sure if self-expression can be regarded as a gift, but I do think it’s one of the best ways to avoid miscommunications, don’t you think so? I for one cannot stand the idea of “misinterpretation”. While we can’t always control what others will think or say, I do think it is possible for us to be more conscientious and deliberate with what we say, and yes, more importantly, how we say it.

Alright, let’s get on with it, shall we?

No Longer an “All-in-One” Kinda Guy

One of the very first things that I wanted to talk about this week is my experience and journey of going from a “do-it-all” guy to my decision to finally specialize in something.

It’s really important that I provide you with some proper context. I didn’t set out to become a jack-of-all-trades when I first entered the workforce at 23. To be honest, I don’t think I had any clear idea of what my future would hold for me. What I can do today, and who I can be in the years to come, that would’ve been totally foreign to that 23-year-old me.

In the first few years of entering the workforce, I had already started working in what would be considered in today’s lingo, “a start-up environment”. For the first 5-8 years of my professional life, I worked mostly in small tech agencies that had experienced the “DOT.COM” boom of the early 2000s. Under that context, you could say that they are pretty much start-ups of the mid-2000s and early 2010s.

Due to the working environment and what was required of me, I very quickly adapted myself (mostly I think I needed a job, and I was trying way too hard to fit in), and before I realized it, I had become a jack-of-all-trades. In recent years, we have started witnessing folks coining the term, “a generalist”. But that’s just a better word to market folks like me.

Okay, let’s face it though, in spite of my brief periods of success as a generalist over the years, I’ve never really been able to truly stand out. Now, for a period of time, I might have even felt proud about who I used to be, and the fact that I was this, “do it all” kinda guy, I thought it was something to take pride in. But the reality was, I wasn’t exactly that great. Sure, I am still happy that I have developed so many different skills over the years. If nothing else, by acquiring that many skills, what I’ve done is that it provided me with many different perspectives of looking at a problem (i.e., how to solve them more effectively). It’s exactly like the hammer and nail analogy. You know, the saying goes, “if all you have is a hammer, everything will look like a nail.”

The positive side of being a generalist aside, I was never truly great at anything. Well, actually I was. But because I was trying to stretch myself so thin by trying to take on many different things at once, I failed to recognize that I was actually much better at one area of skill over all others. Yeap, I’m referring to UX.

It took a journey of following my passions and self-discovery for me to realize that I was actually naturally gifted in the field of UX. What started as just purely UX for software design grew into something more in the latter years of following my passions. It progressed from UX to CX (customer experience), and then it just kept growing into other more recent areas like “Product Experience(PX)” and “Learning Experience(LX)”.

To really solidify my understanding of who I can be, and what I can potentially do to add value to any team/company, I received my first recognition as a thought leader within the field back in 2016. I have been recognized as a thought leader in the field ever since then.

Post-pandemic Demands & Trends

To make things even more interesting, it was during the height of the pandemic when everybody (those of us that have the option) had to work remotely, and we had to change our lifestyle choices, that the term “User Experience” took center stage.

For the first time in a long time, I would come across news anchors and interviewees talking about the challenges of digital platforms and products that didn’t have the right UX. Because we (the consumers) had to do so much online shopping and remote collaboration, it suddenly become an existential crisis for many companies and businesses because they finally realized that without a positive UX, they will lose their customers (even some that had been loyal to their brand for years) in an instant. These customers (us) were in such desperate need to shop for things online, we didn’t have the patience to really wait when a website/app is unresponsive. The problem became even much clearer when customers tried to make a payment online, but because of the overwhelming load by hundreds/thousands of people trying to access the site at the same time, the site crashed at the payment screen. So as most layman customers that aren’t versed in tech, they have to wonder, “what happened to my payment?!?”, “Did my payment go through??”.

During the entire pandemic, I became aware of just how widespread the problem was (and frankly, still is). I say that it is still a present challenge because companies are frantically trying to hire more UX/UI professionals. There was a massive drive to hire more manpower during the pandemic. But the downside of trying to do a mass hiring is that you often aren’t thinking too much about the quality.

Towards the end of 2022, it start becoming clear that companies had to be more conscientious about who they are bringing into the team. Sure, the demand for good UX professionals hasn’t died down yet. I estimate that this demand will hold steady till…2025. The reason is that existing UX professionals need time to gain more experience and to get better at their skills. Part of becoming really good at UX is about observation and experience. The more you see and observe, the better you become over time. There’s just no way to rush the process.

For me personally, this is where things get really interesting. Looking at the current market and industry hiring trends, it seemed like the perfect timing for me to make that choice to become a specialist. After the past 8 years of discovering who I can be, what I can, and the kind of value and insight I can bring into the field, I knew that it was the perfect time to step into this role/position. Add to that, companies all over the world are beginning to realize that in the immediate moment, while there has been a flood of new UX professionals in the field, there’s still a major lack of UX leadership. Those that are experienced enough to help coach/mentor and lead the next generation of UX leaders.

And so this is where I find myself today. After years of trying to fit in, then spending years trying to do everything (being different, but nothing great), I am finally ready to not just be different from the crowd, but also to stand out. It’s the first time that I can finally say, “Perhaps, I might be great at something. Maybe even better than many in the same field.”

Do You Believe in Such a Thing as a “Realistic Dream”?

I obviously already knew that I wasn’t going to finish this entry yesterday. I actually start working on this entry in the mid to late afternoon, so by the time I was done writing about the last section, it was already dinner time. So I thought I would take a break for the evening, and finish up this entry today.

The very last topic that I want to talk about today has to do with “dreams”. Now, there was a time in my life (all of my 20s actually), when I read the book, “The Magic of Thinking Big”. Some of you may or may not be aware of the book, but that’s okay. It’s one of those inspirational/motivational/self-help books that I read cover-to-cover. Multiple times over. I didn’t just have that one book, but I think over the course of a decade, I probably bought a few. I lend the first few to friends in church and at work, and they never came back. My books were filled with highlighted areas and scribbled side notes. Oh yeah baby, I was S..E..RIOUS with this whole self-improvement and self-help thing for a period of my life. There was even this one year where I read an average of at least 2 self-help books per month. I called it, “food for the soul”.

Sorry, I got sidetracked again, didn’t I? Haha.

Anyway, I had for a very long time held this kind of blind faith, if you will call it that, when it came to reading these self-help books. Now, I’m not going to sit here and say that they haven’t been helpful. Truth is, many of those books have helped me a lot. But it didn’t really help me to grow until I decided one day that this useful information won’t remain just that, useful information inside my head. You see, I have been reading so much, but I haven’t been applying most of what I’ve been reading. My mother used to nag me about it. She said that I read a lot, and preach a lot, but if I actually lived 20% of it, I would’ve been a much different person. Man, our mothers can sometimes say really harsh things in the moment, but boy are they always so on point.

So one day, I decided to just stop reading those books. I began to compile together the things I have learned, and then I went on a mission to figure out how to actually apply those lessons/principles into my daily life. It’s been close to a decade since I’ve made that decision. I like to think that I have grown quite a lot since then, which is good. But I also know that I still have a lot to work on.

I Kinda…Stopped Thinking Big

To be honest, I can’t recall when it actually happened. But there was a point in my life when I finally decided that it was time for me to stop having these lofty, unreachable dreams. I’m not sure I should say that dreaming about something is a bad thing and that we should all stop dreaming. But I do think we need to manage our dreams. Nope, I am not talking about setting big goals either. Goals are things that we can make an action plan for. You know the steps that you can actually take to turn it into a reality. So that technically doesn’t qualify as a dream.

Personally, I see dreams as something that is somewhat out of reach but may somehow become a reality if there is some kind of divine intervention. The closest real life example of what I would consider a realistic dream is my previous dream career of working for a company called “Telerik”. They are in the business of making these 3rd party UI controls that developers can easily integrate into their projects. Most of my peers were dreaming of working with companies like Facebook, LinkedIn, Amazon, Google, etc. For me, I dreamt about working with Telerik.

For me, that often felt like a dream that is just out of my reach. They were not based in Singapore and I often wondered, if the opportunity does come, will I need to relocate overseas to one of their satellite/regional offices? It was by pursuing my passion in UX in 2014 that eventually led to an opened door. Progress (known as Progress Software at that time), had decided to acquire Telerik. It so happened that Progress has a Singapore office (in charge of the APJ region). As a Telerik Developer Expert (or MVP if you prefer that term), it made it such that the company needed a product expert in the region, and so they approached me and offered me an opportunity to work for them. Now that really felt like a dream come true moment for me.

Where I Dream of Seeing Myself (2023 Edition)

So, here, now, in 2023, where do I see myself if I can have anything (professionally speaking), but also within reason?? I would imagine that it would be possible for me to find a full-time gig working for companies that make STEAM Education related products. Yeap, I am looking at companies like Arduino, Raspberry Pi Foundation, Lego (Lego Education), Sphero, and more. I had previously attempted to make a career switch, going from being a practitioner to an educator. But after everything that has transpired in the past few years, it has caused me to reevaluate my best options. In the most ideal circumstances, I would imagine being able to practice Experience Engineering/Design for those companies (or similar companies). I’m almost confident that they would need someone with my particular set of talents.

I consider this a dream because currently, there’s just no possible way for me to actually get into those companies. I’m not even sure how because there’s a good chance they are hiring locally. In my vision of what this dream would look like if it were to materialize, I would imagine myself doing the occasional relocation. Maybe spend a few months to half a year overseas (working locally at the HQ), and then I would spend the rest of the year working remotely at home. I can actually see it happening, so I say there’s that element of possibility. It’s just a little out of my reach at the moment.

On the positive side, I am at least well connected on LinkedIn with plenty of people who currently or previously work for those STEAM-related companies. I am hoping that by proactively reaching out, while also attempting to be thick-skinned about marketing my talents, it would help to garner some eyeballs, and maybe, just maybe it might lead to something.

The other way I think might be possible is to keep writing. I have plans to use this site to write about my passion and interests in UX and STEAM-related topics. It might take a while before anybody takes notice, but I’m going to believe that all things are possible.

Back to Reality

Honestly, it felt good to be able to consider what my future circumstances could look like (and feel like). But I have to get back to reality, unfortunately.

I am holding on to that hope, and I will still occasionally think about that future. Holding onto that vision of what my future could be like has been how I always motivated myself in the years of following my passions.

Okay, you know what, I’ve officially run out of things to say [for now]. So I’m going to sign off, enjoy the rest of my week and check back again next week (if I feel like I have something to share).