Three and a half years ago, I moved to Chicago and started work at what was then called Motorola Labs. It had been a difficult summer for me personally, and my first project there was basically a failure. As if that weren't enough, the company was well into its much-publicized decline due to slumping mobile phone sales and innovative new offerings from competitors. Layoffs and departures were rampant, and my department shrank by nearly two-thirds. Even the manager who hired me, a longtime Motorolan, left for greener pastures. So any opportunity to escape a situation like that would be welcome, right? Not exactly.
In the intervening years, I had the opportunity to work on some interesting and fruitful projects ranging from social television to law enforcement. Our group's work generated patents, a string of publications at venues like CHI, press in places like the Chicago Tribune, and attention from Motorola's business groups and customers alike. The group, specializing in user experience research, earned a reputation for quality work not just internally, but to the greater research community.
But those professional bright spots were not the best part of the last few years. Far more important was the privilege of working with a group of motivated, bright, and collegial people who helped me grow as a researcher and endure several periods when our future as a research lab seemed uncertain. I count many of them as friends outside of work, and plan to maintain those friendships long after this Friday, my last day at the company. I have to make a special mention regarding my manager Crysta, who has taught me so much about qualitative research both in terms of its methods and how to make it work within what is essentially an engineering company. I will also miss my officemate Frank's technical brilliance, his keen grasp of both the visible and tacit aspects of the company's processes, and his enthusiasm for research even in the face of skepticism and negativity from the powers-that-be.
In March I will start as a user experience researcher at Google in Mountain View, CA. Google is a company I admire for its encouragement of creativity at all levels and roles, and for its stated goal of having a positive impact on the lives of the millions of people it serves globally. Despite also being an engineering company, they have a strong commitment to the user experience as the most important aspect of the products they make. Additionally, and unbeknownst to me prior to investigating opportunities there, they do a fair amount of qualitative research in addition to the oft-publicized metrics-based approaches that drive some of their design decisions.
Only time will tell if all these perceptions are correct, but it all points to being a fun, new, and interesting challenge, all in a location where I already have a number of close friends and hope to make even more. I will miss Chicago; I love the city and will almost certainly return here yearly to visit the friends I am leaving, but I look forward to my new home in San Francisco and a whole new set of favorite restaurants, hangouts, and venues. I'm quite excited about it, and can't wait to get started.
Congrats, Joe, and best of luck at the new gig!
Posted by: Steve Voida | January 19, 2010 at 11:51 AM
Congratulations, Joe! It sounds like you did a nice job of making the most out of what seems like a challenging situation. Your expression of gratitude about the professional accomplishments and personal relationships is inspiring - it's amazing how sometimes the most challenging contexts can lead to the strongest friendships. Best wishes for new accomplishments and relationships at Google!
Posted by: Joe McCarthy | January 19, 2010 at 04:09 PM
hooray for new opportunities!
Posted by: dana | January 24, 2010 at 12:19 PM