Ways We Make: Beth Connor
Beth Connor
Leader in UX Research and Strategy
We continue our series highlighting members of our design community with a Q&A with Beth Connor. Beth is ex-Meta, having directed global UX research for AI Glasses and Developer Platform, but started her career in architecture. Followers will know that our Ways We Make series is designed to unearth some interesting insights and surprising truths about what makes great designers, and designer-adjacents, great.
How do you stay creatively nourished?
Creative Discipline. One of the go-to books on my shelf is Twyla Tharp's "The Creative Habit". It's my bible of how to get into the mindset of being creative and to make time for creative practice every day. Tharp frames creativity like going to the gym, I very much believe that, too. Lately, my favorite workouts have involved kicking the tires on AI, figuring out if I can make it a super human-centric tool and balancing that with analog embroidery and painting. There's so much humility and joy in knowing how much effort it takes to make a line of beading look great on a skirt.
What’s a belief about design you hold that others might find surprising?
A unique phrase I say sometimes is, "I feel something good here, we just need to shake it." The design title I've had most of my career has been "researcher," but what I really, really love doing is figuring out how to turn good product ideas into world-changing ones. The ‘shaking the idea around’ bit refers to leading a bunch of smart people to do some serious critical thinking work. We like to skip this step in business because it's messy, but it's always, always the place where the strong value propositions and product seeds are born.
Is there a particular product or object whose design has influenced your approach or philosophy?
When I was in school, I drew the lucky lot to intern at Steelcase, aka the company that, at the time, had a majority stake in IDEO. Their Gesture Chair had just been released and I got to see all the research that went into it. They made crazy charts of all the new modern work postures, like leaning forward to look at your phone, and then built the chair for them. It was also designed to fit 99% of human bodies on first release. It's my beacon for human-centered design and shows why doing the upfront research and design work really mattered. This chair is designed to literally move with the person instead of the person adapting to fit into it.
How do constraints — like regulation, materials, or data privacy — shape your creativity?
I come from an architecture background where we like to embrace constraints because they help us shape our design. When I was younger, I sometimes thought of constraints as something to need to workaround, but as my career has progressed, I've learned that constraints are an opportunity for community. I've led early product formation workshops where legal, privacy, and health & safety have worked along with design, product, and engineering. The earlier we all start together and feel like a team, the more opportunity for creativity. We don't always like to think lawyers and privacy officers are creative, but I've had a number of great product features and pivots happen because these people were in the room concepting and sketching.
What's your favorite podcast, book, or film?
My husband and I are planning a move to Scotland, so he's given me a shelf full of history books (Robert the Bruce!). My current favorite is Clare Hunter's "Embroidering Her Truth: Mary Queen of Scots and the Language of Power." If you thought today's social media was catty, our friends in the 1500s took it to a whole new level with embroidered subterfuge and symbolism. It's a good reminder for me to look into the past for clever inspiration.
What's a piece of advice you give often, but find hard to follow yourself?
I like to insist the people on my team have at least one "selfish project" -- someone they really, really want to do. Ninety percent of the time it's something that's good for the product. It's always good for kindling job love, morale, drive and wanting to be at work. Every time I've been happiest at work, I've had one of these and that has not been often enough. I'm realizing I don't have one now… I guess I know what I'm off to brainstorm this afternoon!
You have a background in business and in art. How do those things work together? Do they ever cause internal conflict?
Sometimes, but for me it's usually a clue I'm not working in the right place or on the right project. For me, business and art are both about serving humanity, we put things out there that help people.
I recall being at Capital One, conducting extensive research on twenty-somethings and saving money. Of course, the bank had a business goal of driving bank deposits, but there was a concerted effort to find a ""win-win"" solution with customers, as the company deeply cared about them and sought ways to foster long-term customer relationships. Savings build safety nets, make vacations possible with friends, and enable marriages, babies, and homes to happen. The bank's building of tools to help our customers not only benefited them but also helped us. It's how I believe business works best -- it's so sustainable.
I think working in design for so long has actually changed my art. When I was in art school, there was a certain "genius with the brush" attitude that was somewhat lonely. The service design, with the servant leadership inherent in the design cultures at places like Capital One, made me realize it's all about creating things to help people: we need the beauty found in poems, books, and paintings just as much as we need elegant nudges to help us save money.