I remember first meeting Peter in San Francisco in 2000. We met through a mutual friend when went to see a band at a small local venue. I remember the conversation we had about the web and tech culture and thinking he was on to something, and indeed he was.
7 years later, his rise to the top of this industry has been meteoric. In the Information Architecture, User Experience and Design communities, Peter Merholz is something of a Rockstar. The very term "blog" (shortened version of weblog) "was coined by Peter Merholz, who jokingly broke the word weblog into the phrase we blog in the sidebar of his blog Peterme.com in April or May of 1999." He is one of the founders of Adaptive Path, is in constant demand as a lecturer and criss-crosses the world giving workshops on user experience methods.
Peter took time out from his busy schedule to do this interview.
TECH-DESIGN:
Tell me a little bit about your background, and how that lead to you starting Adaptive Path.
PETERME:
Well, I've been a geek since birth. I had my first computer at 12, an Apple IIe. I quickly learned that while I liked computers, I had no desire to program for them... I was kind of the ultimate user of the tool. My B.A. is in anthropology from UC Berkeley, which is also where I was exposed to what was then called "multimedia," through a job I had on campus. I taught myself Photoshop, Illustrator, and Director (remember Director?), and parlayed that into a job at the Voyager Company, the pre-eminent multimedia CD-ROM developer and publisher. I was exposed to the best in interaction design, and also found myself managing Voyager's nascent website.
I left Voyager to return to the Bay Area, where I got deeply involved in web design, both at agencies and as a freelancer, and after a couple years started calling myself an interaction designer. A big break came for me when Epinions.com brought me on as Creative Director, and I lead a team that redesigned the site from top to bottom. I grew frustrated with having a boss, though, so I reached out to some friends to see if they'd be interested in starting a user experience consultancy. I had recognized that, even in a failing economy, the demand for user experience work was on the rise... It was a skill set, a competency, just getting widely appreciated.
Starting a company also gave us the opportunity to create the kind of company we wanted to work for, very much in response/reaction to what seemed typical in the industry. From the beginning, we've always been open with our ideas, we've respected a live/work balance, and we're committed to delivering great experiences that improve people's lives.
We launched in March 2001, at the very bottom of the Nasdaq.
TECH-DESIGN:
What about the Adaptive Path's organization structure? Is it broken down by design, technology, market, etc? And how do you determine what the company deliverables are?
PETERME:
Adaptive Path has nearly 30 people. We don't have much of an organizational structure. We do have one fundamental split, between folks engaged in the practice, and folks engaged in operations, but that's about it. Our practice is made up of one large pool of people working together -- designers, project managers, strategists, researchers. The job titles you see on our site, though, are not hard and fast. Designers do research; researchers do strategy; strategists do design.
The company has very few standard deliverables. Deliverables are determined in two ways: 1) First, in the sales process. Through conversations with the client, we put together a project plan, and that project plan typically specifies milestones and deliverables. 2) Once a project is in-flight, the nature of the deliverables is reconsidered to make sure we're doing what is best for the success of the project.
TECH-DESIGN:
When you look at roles like Information Architect, Interaction differences and what overlaps? In your opinion, how does a usability professional mind the gap when facing these over-lapping job roles?
PETERME:
I have tried, fruitlessly, to abolish job titles at Adaptive Path. At
our company, there is simply no way that a job title can accurately
describe someone's role and responsibilities.
I tend to look less at roles than I do at practices, at activities.
An Information Architect conducts a series of activities, such as
content audits, content analysis, metadata development, navigation
design, wireframe design, etc. And Interaction Designer might develop
personas, write scenarios, design wireframes, specify functionality,
design user interfaces. A design researcher might observe users,
analyze behavior, develop personas, write scenarios. As you can see,
activities may be performed be people with different roles, depending
on that person's comfortability with that task, and how suitable they
are to do it.
So, I try not to care too much about the differences and overlaps. I
try to make sure that the members of my team represent a wide range
of complementary skills and experiences, so that we can bring a
variety of approaches to solving problems.
I think it's the responsibility of the individual practitioner to
recognize their strengths and weaknesses, and to collaborate in ways
that contribute to a holistic approach.
TECH-DESIGN:
What do you see as the evolution of the usability profession? What do
you see as future trends in the industry?
PETERME:
Well, it's hard for me to speak of the "usability profession," as I don't consider myself a usability professional.
In terms of the user experience profession, I think the inevitable evolution is to grow beyond the World Wide Web, and to apply our approaches and mindset to experience challenges across a range of domains, platforms, and channels. We're seeing companies adopt "customer experience" roles for people to track how the customer engages with the entirety of an organization, ensuring consistency and quality at every step.
For more information:
http://peterme.com/
http://www.adaptivepath.com/
