Consulting & Advising Testimonials
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Brian brings a very high floor in terms of end results. The worst possible end result they will get from him is so much higher than what most designers can provide at their best.
When you’re bringing on a consultant, there is always a level of uncertainty about results, and there’s nothing worse than ending up with solutions that aren’t feasible, workable, or usable at the end of the process. While Brian’s processes differed from what I was used to, and I didn’t always want to get into the level of requirements detail that he felt was necessary, the bottom line is that Brian brings a very high floor in terms of end results. Given how many different responsibilities I am juggling at any given time, it was extremely comforting to know that my goals for the [new Apptopia analytics] product would always be met, and that my bottom line was so high. I’ve recommended Brian to my peers because the worst possible end result they will get from him is so much higher than what most designers can provide at their best.
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[Brian is] the reference for a great designer
I always considered you as the reference for a great UX designer so your name still comes up from time to time.
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I can’t recommend Brian enough…
When Brian came on board, he helped us significantly accelerate our design efforts and meet our major enterprise clients’ expectations and deadlines. We have gotten a lot of mileage out of his work, and we've received good responses from our customers. I can’t recommend him enough.
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We needed Brian's approach…
I wondered at first whether Brian’s relative lack of experience in the patent/IP space would work with our team in the creation of a product like Legion, especially given the conservative, security-oriented corporate culture of Elysium. By the end, I realized just how much we needed Brian's approach, influence, and outside presence/energy to design a successful patent analysis tool. Brian made us think through the entire Legion product experience, and through this process, we learned to improve our own design skills. Today, our litigation consultants continue to use Legion regularly with clients. It has probably reduced collaboration overhead by 50% (which our clients love!) and allows consultants and clients to come together, using Legion’s data and analytics, to build shared understandings of patented inventions quickly.
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I have learned more about analytics from Brian than all the books, articles and thought leaders in the space…
I have learned more about analytics from Brian than all the books, articles and thought leaders in the space through his posts on LinkedIn and the amazing content from his website. Brian has a wealth of knowledge that can save you years of failed dashboard designs and a framework to help any user see the value of your product. I look forward to each session and growing the value of our product with his guidance.
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I wouldn’t hesitate to call Brian for design strategy…
Brian’s questioning of our business and user objectives for a new video analytics SAAS–prior to any discussion of design solutions–was a bit unusual for me. In fact, I’ve rarely met anyone with a process like his. That said, by the time we started negotiating with Brian, we had already decided to work with him. One of the key capabilities Brian brought to the table was the ability to help us distinguish between "vanity" analytics and "actionable” analytics, so that our service’s data was always presented in a way to help users actually make better business decisions. In the end, the prospects to whom we showed Brian’s designs were wowed by the extremely clean and elegant presentation of our video analytics, and we got excellent feedback that this design was much better than the existing, highly established players in this space. At that point, we knew our main business challenge would be sales access, and not product quality. If I needed to develop a design strategy for another analytics product or service in the future, I wouldn’t hesitate to call Brian first.
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I would tell everybody about this [Audit] service
Companies like us, we don’t have design eyes, right, or want to invest in a design group. Our biggest fear [going in] was that [the Interface Design Audit and Remediation Plan] wouldn’t necessarily be actionable. And, the good news was that it was actionable. Separate from being an expert, Brian was able to describe things in ways that really made us understand. I would absolutely tell everybody about this service. You should reach out to Brian because he does good stuff!
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Brian's designs and recommendations significantly shifted people’s excitement and expectations about our technology. He understands data.
A big concern when you’re introducing new technology to your staff and clients is making sure they will want to use it. We were concerned about the ease of use and appeal of a new survey data platform we were introducing, but Brian was really able to understand our challenges quickly. His design and recommendations significantly shifted people’s excitement and expectations around it. A big reason why we hired Brian is because he understands data, and the new design he created will only help reinforce GSG’s brand as being innovative and ahead of the curve. My team has been really impressed with Brian's ideas and the simplicity of the designs he created. I definitely recommend him!
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Brian’s discovery and planning absolutely needed to happen…
Until Brian came in to help us, nobody could see a strategic direction, or if they did they lacked the ability to articulate it in an actionable way. This discovery and planning absolutely needed to happen and it's been great. It's nice to have a plan we can get behind and finally feel like we're on the same train as the leadership team. Execution will be more satisfying because we're going to have a better sense of what stakeholders need to see and how that relates to what we get to work on.
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We appreciate your design audit…
We appreciate your UI design audit (watch video) of the Covid 19 Decision Support Dashboard, and the power of coming together with collaboration that raises the bar for everybody.
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I recommend his design services without reservation…
Initially, the FMC had no prior exposure to Brian’s design work, but in the end, the design strategy that he formulated with us enabled us to design a stunning data portal that exceeded our expectations. Timely delivery and transparent communication also helped us to manage expectations and plan well. Brian really felt like a thought partner for what we were trying to do, and I recommend his design services without reservation.
Seminar Testimonials
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Totally worth the investment. I would recommend Brian’s seminar if your team is looking for a solid structure to design better data products.
"Before Brian’s seminar, we had a very unstructured way of designing analytics tools for our internal stakeholders. We were just fulfilling as fast as possible, but weren’t developing the relationships with our stakeholders that we wanted. We needed a structure and playbook to design better user experiences for our analytics tools, and that’s what we got out of this. It forced me to think about the design of the deliverables instead of just delivering. I liked how our team got to discuss actual projects and got Brian’s outside, cross-industry perspective. I thought we had a lot of really great conversations. I would recommend Brian’s seminar if you’re looking for a solid structure for designing better data products."
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I would absolutely highly recommend Brian's seminar. Without a doubt.
“I hadn’t heard of Brian before, but I had been enjoying his podcast and way of thinking, and on a leap of faith, I decided to bring him in to train my data science and analytics managers and leads. And after completing our first training, I can safely say there is no risk associated with this seminar. One of my goals was to change my team’s mindset about putting users at the center of our work, and I am already starting to see a positive change, though a long journey ahead of us. You get some tangible, real-world tools that are practical and applicable, so it’s not just “theoretical.” My head of data science also now sees UX and design as a must-have in his team’s advanced analytics projects, not a nice-to-have. I would absolutely highly recommend the seminar without a doubt, and plan to have more of my team take the seminar in the future”
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Before the seminar ended, I had already seen direct results. It's totally worth the price.
“I remember the moment stopping dead in my tracks while on a run. I was listening to episode 49 of Brian’s podcast, Experiencing Data, and it suddenly clicked: THIS is what my data team had been missing. I knew data science and design needed to be integrated in order for us to build better data products for our customers, and this seminar helps you do just that. Before the seminar ended, I had already seen direct results: several of our clients commented on how they’d noticed a change in how our team engages them and that they really felt heard. Having your data teams incorporate a design mindset, and a general embrace of UX, is totally worth the price of Brian’s seminar. In fact, I’ve already set aside budget to enroll another person on my data team to a future cohort”
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Brian's process was holistic and internally consistent
"I never had fully appreciated the level of integration and the number of different disciplines required to arrive at a thoughtful piece of analysis that properly communicates the evidentiary support for my argument…What I like about Brian's seven step process is that it is holistic and internally consistent. Each piece builds off of the previous pieces…and Brian presents it as a repeatable process…There are a lot of things about designing UI things I just never would have thought of. I think the people who will probably get the most benefit out of Brian's seminar will be people who are more senior level people. Junior people are just not being asked to deal with the entire lifecycle, which is what the seminar is about."
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Switching my mindset from outputs to outcomes was a total game changer for me.
“Brian's more practical, targeted approach in this seminar has been very beneficial as it was focused specifically on designing data products with UX in mind. It’s not every time you can meet someone, ask questions and get useful responses, and I was able to do that in Brian’s seminar. In addition to realizing some of the common mistakes I had been making, I also had a big aha moment: understanding outcomes versus outputs. This is more valuable than some of the tactical things because you shift your frame of mind and it’s a total game changer. The way you interact with your users and develop and deliver a solution completely changes. That’s the power of that wisdom. I’ll be referring back to the content and videos from the seminar now and again, and I’d definitely recommend this seminar to other technical product managers.”
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The seminar was absolutely worth the price.
“When we were looking for analytics product design training, we saw lot of really good keywords on Brian’s seminar page, and that actually kind of tipped the scales for us, but we were a little worried that maybe it was just going to be a bunch of buzzwords. In the end, I told my boss that I think the seminar was absolutely worth the price. I have worked with a lot of people that just build something and say, 'let's just see if it works.' Hearing that we should talk to users first—and learning how exactly to do that—was really good confirmation of my suspicions about how to do things correctly. This seminar was really helpful for me to get out of the Tableau headspace, and to think much more broadly about good approaches to building tool agnostic, digital products that humans will use.”
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I would recommend this seminar. Brian gives really clear feedback and understands what we [as data scientists] deal with when trying to design effective data products.
“I would recommend this seminar. You clearly pinpointed us to specific things around keeping the actual needs of a specific user in mind. We also very much appreciated your input, which was really clear and would make us ask, ‘does this bring value to the user? What is the actual value?’ It's also good to have more than one person [in the seminar] if you're working as a team as it helps to do some sparring and to collect questions to bring back into the Seminar. Finally, I just really liked how you led through it and were able to jump between topics or send us some links afterwards for further study. I think you're pretty capable of putting yourself into the positions of others and have an understanding of what we are dealing with.”
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A very solid framework to get started on design for data solutions
It's a quick and accessible snapshot of how to think about user design for data solutions products. You can go deep in UX design, you can talk about data solutions, but how do you combine the two in a very digestible way? I think it’s a very solid framework to get started. I would definitely recommend the seminar.
Self-Guided Course Testimonials
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Finally there is now a method to make data products that folds together the problem solving, the UX, and then ties it back to money.
As a company, our people really need to get value from the data products that are being produced. We have had users who thought they knew exactly what they wanted from the data, but our solutions were not exactly solving their problems. Finally there is now a method to make data products that folds together the problem solving, the UX, and then ties it back to money. The simplicity of the curriculum has made it easy for me to reframe things in simple terms to the core stakeholder requesting the tools from my team. I absolutely would recommend this course.
Speaking & Other Testimonials
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One of the only email subscriptions I read
Your [list] is one of only a few email subscriptions I read. Super bright and always thoughtful.
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Brilliant presentation...[Brian's] deep expertise comes across loud and clear.
Brian, your UXPA-Boston conference presentation was brilliant! Outcome-focused, decision support, yes yes yes. And you're not just saying it, your own deep expertise comes across loud and clear.
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I don't know if Apple's Health designers used your CED Framework, but it is excellent
"The applicability of your CED Framework to data visualizations is excellent. In a presentation I did at Capco, I compared the effective application of your CED framework to visualization in our organization vs. visualizations found in Apple's Health app. I don't know if Apple's designers used your framework for their work, but they came to nearly the same conclusions as I did for how to create their visualization components. Thanks for your work in this space, it's very valuable!"
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An engaging speaker that created a clear, shared concept around design
"I had seen Brian speak at an analytics conference and sought him out to speak to our teams and lead a discussion. Brian is an engaging speaker and his talk created a clear shared concept between software engineers, designers, and IT. Having a shared foundational concept and language for how design can improve our data products and decision support applications will help us communicate together clearly in our work in digital transformation."
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Brian created real awareness…well-attended talk with solid interaction and attendance…I am certain we delivered value to our IIA clients and community members.
Brian has spoken several times for IIA, most recently as the key guest on a webinar we hosted on "AI Product Management". The topic is hyper relevant, so naturally it was a well-attended talk with solid interaction and excellent retention. Despite the challenges of Covid-19, "Zoom fatigue," and the summer time slot, over 80% of our registrants stayed until the end. Brian created a real awareness around the importance of product design and management as critical functions in the deployment of human-centered data products, AI solutions, and analytics. I also appreciated how he made the talk more engaging by allowing one of our clients from Steelcase to reflect on his own experience applying several of the strategies for which Brian advocated. In the end, I am certain we delivered value to our IIA clients and community members.
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Terrific…an effective change agent about design
It was terrific to have Brian speak to my Executive MBA students about design thinking, user input, and organizational engagement in creating business value from analytics. His experience, perspective, and passion really brought the importance of "beginning with the end in mind" home to my students, all of whom are working professionals who are being subjected to endless hype about killer dashboards and powerful Machine Learning algorithms. He's clearly an insightful analyst and an effective change agent.
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If clients are open to change, then they will be ready to benefit from experts like Mr. O’Neill
If clients know their business well, have a basic understanding of the subject area, are open to change, and spend wisely, then they will be ready to benefit from experts like Mr. O’Neill and Mr. Davenport, and maybe we can move that [value-delivery] needle up from 2 out of 10. (Article)
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Outstanding leadership in our field…
Thank you so much for your outstanding leadership in our field. We really appreciate your value-added materials and presentation that advance the product management profession.
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Brian’s session was great…
Data science practitioners need to have the non-technical skills to be effective collaborators with business/product stakeholders. Brian’s session was great, relevant, and on the mark for our audience of technical people and business sponsors."
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[Podcast Listener] found myself rewinding a few times to make sure it sunk in. …
I had the opportunity to listen to Brian as a guest on the latest UI Breakfast podcast this Saturday while I was cleaning up around the apartment, and I found myself rewinding a few times to make sure it sunk in. It was the first time in a while I have heard someone describe so succinctly the value of using data in a thoughtful and impactful way. The 86 number and doughnut example was felt all too close to home. I feel like a lot of my job is explaining and pitching the importance of not just using all the fancy design tools because it's cool and some organizations can (which is awesome, there's a lot of great design out there!) but really being thoughtful about these choices and making sure they bring value to the person at the end of the system making decisions or using the design. I'm a big proponent of simplicity. Altogether, it really spoke to me!
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One of the best webinars I have been a part of…
One of the best webinars I have been a part of in awhile. The presenter had more than a product to sell, and Brian gave us 9 pertinent questions to ask ourselves when designing analytics for our users. Great!
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Well-structured [webinar], informative, and easy to understand
Well-structured agenda, informative contents, and easy-to-understand speech and text on a relevant topic.
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Really cool presentation, including the participation game at the end…
Really cool presentation, including the participation game at the end.
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