Author and Speaker Scott Berkun
After 9 books and 20 years of writing and speaking it’s time for me to come up with a new plan. While I am working on book #10, now is a great time to ask you for your thoughts. SInce you care enough to follow my work, I want to know what I do that Continue Reading »
20 years ago my first book, Making Things Happen: Mastering Project Management, was published and sold over 100k copies, launching my career as an author. I’m grateful to everyone who has bought the book and supported my work over all these years. As thanks: here in one short list is the best advice from that Continue Reading »
Why Design Is Hard was published a year ago and since then I’ve given dozens of talks about the ideas from the book. I’m always grateful to be invited to speak and that there are folks who want to hear what I have to say. The good folks at CanUX agreed to record my keynote talk about Why Design Continue Reading »
One of my most popular books is The Myths of Innovation. It was published years ago but I’m still regularly asked to talk about the core themes of tech-hype, survivorship bias, the flaws of tech-determinism and what true innovation looks and feels like. Recently I was invited to give a talk called Beyond The Myths Continue Reading »
For my tenth book, about wisdom, I’ve been experimenting with Substack, posting draft ideas each week. In a recent video update I explained I’m now starting phase two: revising these shorter, informal pieces into a complete first draft. What does this mean to you? I don’t know! My ambition for this project is to capture the best ideas about Continue Reading »
For the launch of my latest book, Why Design Is Hard, I did weekly office hours every Thursday on Zoom. Anyone could show up, ask a question, get advice, or dig in on a topic I’ve written about before. Sometimes 10 people showed up. Sometimes just 2. But it was always fun, with lots of Continue Reading »
My latest book, Why Design Is Hard, launches next week. This is a sequel to How Design Makes The World, but it’s written primarily for designers. The core message of the book is that designers have the power to reframe their biggest frustrations into solvable problems. Instead of complaining and waiting we can take action. Continue Reading »
I’m in NYC for Leading Design 2022, and I’m livebloging the event (taking notes in real time, updated for each talk). You can alos see my notes from the 2021 and 2016 events. Comments in brackets [] are mine. 1. Kat Vellos – Better Than Small Talk Vellos is the author of the excellent book, We Should Continue Reading »
This is my first blog post in almost six months, the longest lapse I’ve ever had. Hi! How have you been? I’ve had a rough year but I’m doing better now and wanted to catch you up on some things. In June of last year my right vocal chord was paralyzed. During a simple surgery Continue Reading »
These last three months have been a wild ride. If you’re on my newsletter you’ve been getting updates about what has happened. My voice was injured during a routine surgery making it harder to speak, which was rough. Fortunately, after two months, my voice did recover. Which has been great news! Yet I’ve felt over Continue Reading »
Excited to announce the audiobook for How Design Makes The World is now available on most platforms. I worked with a great narrator, Keith McCarthy, to craft an excellent listening experience for you. The book is about how design applies to everything, but it’s already in the top #10 audiobooks for architecture on Amazon and Continue Reading »
Two weeks from today tune in for this live presentation on the greatest design lessons I know. It’s a free event and all are invited. There are many important lessons to learn about good design but I’ve picked the five most important and powerful ones. This interactive session is aimed at everyone who makes things Continue Reading »
Remote work expert David Tate wrote that when fearful CEOs talk about workplace culture, they’re really talking about workplace control. Their insecurities demand that the way work is done by employees is always visible, highly regulated and uses the methods executives prefer, rather than what’s best for everyone’s productivity. Remote work is seen as a Continue Reading »
We know that designers are hired to change things, as no one hires a designer to keep everything the same. The challenge is that we want those changes to happen on our terms, using our ideas, methods and beliefs. This is a big problem, as the way we understand design is different from how ordinary Continue Reading »
Do you wonder why we obsess about categories and labels for things? It goes back to Plato, Aristotle and the birth of Western philosophy. They pioneered ways to use language to understand the world, but there were some unintended consequences. Richard Farson wrote: “The great contribution that Eastern philosophies can make to our own thinking Continue Reading »
Do you wish you had more influence on product decisions? Or that more of your talents were put to effective use on projects? This is for you. The tech world often uses the term evangelism but you should avoid it. No one likes to be on the receiving end of evangelism. The self-righteousness inherent in Continue Reading »
Did you enjoy the book? Or own it but haven’t read it yet? This session is for you. To help you get as much value from the book as possible, this session will give you a fresh perspective on what you learned. I’ll give a quick recap on the core ideas, with new advice on Continue Reading »
“self-limiting – an organism or person that limits its own growth by its actions.” Do you want to make plans or decisions? There is no wrong answer, and perhaps you want both, but the question is rarely asked. The profession of design is rooted in craft, with one person working with their hands and ideas to Continue Reading »
If you’re familiar with my my books and talks, you know I’ve written about many subjects, including creativity, leadership, public speaking, and philosophy, but back in 2000 I mostly wrote about design. Before I became a full-time writer, I worked for years as a PM on UX projects like Windows and Internet Explorer, and eventually Continue Reading »
Here are my notes from Leading Design Festival 2021, liveblogged (recorded in real time and updated as I go). My notes from the 2016 LD event can be found here. Comments in brackets [] are mine. 1. Julie Zhou – The Many Facets of Design Leadership. [Note: I was disappointed design ethics did not come Continue Reading »