Cows Have the Right of Way

It's been too long since I last chronicled my sabbatical adventures, so it's time for an update. I'll write this in multiple parts so each post doesn't get excessively long.

My last week in Seattle was a blur of activity -- all good. I shifted my focus to gather research for my book on design pedagogy. Drew Paine, a Human Centered Design & Engineering PhD student at the University of Washington, was my academic guide. I first met Drew during a visit last year to Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Indiana, where he was a graduating senior in Computer Science and student of Professor Sriram Mohan (Sriram was a former student of mine at IU). Drew impressed me by his intelligence and drive, and I encouraged him to apply to our HCI/d graduate program; he did, but to the doctoral program where the competition for entry is fierce and limited. We offered him admittance to our master's program, but his offer into the doctoral program at Washington trumped ours (Washington's win, IU's loss). Drew became my connection to the inside scoop on UW (pronounced U-Dub) faculty and he even set up a dinner meeting with fellow graduate students. Drew also introduced me to the best burger place on the planet: Uneeda Burger.

I met with three UW faculty from Engineering and the i-School. All were extremely helpful, insightful, and encouraging -- James Parnell (an engineer and part-time furniture designer and craftsman), Andy Ko (energetic and perspicacious), and David Headry (thoughtful and creatively insightful).

Later in the week, Troy Church arranged for me to meet with designers at Adobe to discuss how they "play the whole game" of interaction design, and we had an engaging hour-long conversation. I was pleased to learn that how we prepare students for industry is not far off the mark -- or as Dane Petersen said to me a few weeks earlier when I was in San Francisco -- "HCI/d students are trained for jobs that will be relevant a few years in the future." "Better," I replied, "than training our students for jobs that were relevant a few years in the past!"

Troy is one of those stellar, gentle individuals that we are proud graduated from our program (in the "early days"). He's now a lead designer at Adobe, responsible for the interactive design of Adobe After Effects. I'm certain that many of the good features of this software are due to him.

It turns out that Troy is not the only designer in his family. His wife, Jodi, is a supreme cook, baker, and super-mom. Her chocolate cake is famous. I remember it from many years ago when I was invited over to their home in Bloomington. I could not pass up a repeat invitation for dinner in their Seattle home with their two daughters and baby son. It was a snowy evening (yes, it does snow in Seattle, and when it does the city shuts down; think "ice on steep hills"). Jodi did not disappoint me; the delicious dinner was only surpassed by the divine chocolate cake, even better than Shapiro's Delicatessen's chocolate cake in Indianapolis. It was my first home-made meal in a month. As my daughter Mara would say, "Sooo gooood!"

Two more meetings and meals with former students occurred before I left Seattle -- one with Vasudha Chandrasekaran, and another with Shruti Bhandari. I picked up Vasudha at her Kirland, WA home and she took me to a wonderful Italian restaurant where we talked about her time in graduate school at IU, the impact of my class on her work at Microsoft, and the challenges of being a mother and wife while excelling at her stress-filled job. It was a heart-felt discussion, sharing life's insights, and we both enjoyed it greatly. Vasudha is such a good person and so very smart; I enjoyed our precious time together and later that evening with her husband, KB (a senior manager at Amazon.com), and their young daughter, Diya, a sweet and energetic child who reminds me of Olivia in the Ian Falconer book with the same name.

I met Shruti and her fiance, Edgar, at Smith Pub, a place she suggested for brunch. Again, the food was superb, but catching up with Shruti and meeting Edgar was even better. There were two women named Shruti in our program -- one tall, and one short. Shruti Bhandari was "tall Shruti," a very attractive woman who now works at Microsoft. We had wonderful reminiscences when she was a student at IU, and she spoke fondly of her professors, especially Shaowen Bardzell and Eli Blevis.

Finally, before I left town I scheduled a meeting with Rebecca Norlander, an ex-Microsoft developer of 19 years, senior engineering manager who was introduced to me by David Krane of Google Ventures. I felt awkward talking to her because of how my Glerb plans had totally changed. But I couldn't turn down the opportunity to speak to her; perhaps she'd have some good advice moving forward. It was an extraordinary meeting; we had one of those instant "mind and heart" connections over our two hour conversation. She wanted me to pursue Glerb, thought the concept was a very good one, and asked me to put together a short document that we would use to help raise $300,000 to move forward. I asked her if she wanted to play a significant role in the company. She told me that her life was in transition but she didn't rule out the possibility.

I like possibilities...

...

I left Seattle on February 28th, a cold, snowy day. The darkness reflected my mood, feeling failure in getting Glerb off the ground. But I knew that I had to put that behind me and perhaps the drive east would put the experience in perspective and help me develop another plan. (It's about process, I tell my students.) I had a book to write, more research to gather, and an assignment from Rebecca.

The most direct route to Boise, Idaho from Seattle is through the Snoqualmie Pass on I-90. There were severe weather reports, blizzard conditions that day, and although it was "passable," snow chains would be required -- something that I did not own. (You can rent them, but it's a $125 expense every time you need to put them on and take them off.) Given that I was in no particular rush, I took the "long way" (just three more hours) to Boise by going south to Portland, OR, and then along the Hood and Columbia rivers (dividing Washington and Oregon) and heading into Pendleton, OR where I stayed the night. The rock formations along the river were breathtaking and I encourage others to explore this region of the country. It follows the Lewis and Clark Trail, and given the snow, rain, and ice I felt a bit like an explorer myself. Nevertheless, it was good to reach sunny Pendleton (where the original wool mills are located), leaving the bad weather behind me. The sunshine and a veggie pizza lifted my spirits considerably.

The next day I drove to Boise, Idaho and I had lunch with one of our HCI/d graduates, Breanne Kunz, who works for HP. She suggested a Thai restaurant and we each ordered the same thing -- Pad Thai with chicken, complete with "bubble tea." It was so good to see Breanne. I remember when she was a student at IU some years ago -- quiet, focused -- and always talking about and missing Boise. "I'll get there one day, Breanne." And now I was there. We talked about her work at HP -- ePrint -- and some of the challenges of being an interaction designer in an environment heavily dominated by engineers. Nevertheless, this quiet, focused, creative woman has found her place among the engineers and won their respect. I love to see our students turning into design leaders in their companies. We shared life's challenges, and then we departed. My parting words were that I had a great intern for her and that this person would be in touch; I'm always advocating for our IU students, particularly when I think there's a good match.

My next stop was to spend a couple days with my dear friend Joy Kopp and her husband Jim Reinken (or simply "Reinken," as Joy refers to him). I first met Joy while working at the Minnesota start-up, Authorware, in 1990 (Authorware merged with Macromind to become Macromedia and then was absorbed by Adobe); I was the Director of Professional Services and Joy was co-founder of ICONOS and consultant to Authorware. Her forte is writing, project management, information architecture, and so much more. I think of Joy as 911-woman; if you have a complex project you need to get done, call Joy. It will get done and brilliantly so.

Have you ever met a person with whom you're instantly attracted -- like she could be your long-lost sister, confidant, and reader of your mind? That's Joy for me. And even if I don't speak to her or see her for years, within minutes we're talking as if I had just spoken to her yesterday. Reinken, is something else entirely; he defies easy description, but if you ever want to explore the dark side of government or organizational structure, begin a conversation with Jim. Be prepared to settle in for a mind-exploding, conspiratorial discourse, complete with footnotes (be careful, too, about mentioning the name "Harvard")! Oddly, Joy and Jim's marriage appears to work well.

Our days and nights were filled with non-stop conversation, laughter, and some great food! The first night we shared a savory and wonderfully spiced chicken and long-grain rice and mushroom soup that Joy prepared, complete with crusty French baguettes and butter. Later that evening, feeling virtuous from eating "only soup" for dinner, we drove into town to have a hot-fudge sundae at a family-run chocolate, candy and ice cream store named "Goody's" (I learned that evening that one of the base ingredients of hot-fudge is caramel). It was a sundae "to die for." The second night we abandoned virtue and headed to Boise's famous pizza establishment, Flying Pie Pizza. Have you ever been to a pizza joint with a mission statement? I suspect not, but Flying Pie has one:

Flying Pie Pizzaria is dedicated to creating repeatably excellent experiences, often centered around a pizza meal. We show our integrity and practice of life-long learning via 'A better idea always wins.' We celebrate our imperfect results while looking for ways to improve them. We create an environment in which employees contribute, feel valuable, and invite customers into our inclusive community. Above all, we recognize that what we do takes place in the overlap between all of our interests.

A mission statement is a benchmark for the things we experience. At Southwest Airlines they say: 'If a policy or practice appears to violate the intent of the mission or is inconsistent with its values, people are expected to speak up.' At Flying Pie, that group of participating people includes you.

This owner sounds like a graduate of the HCI/d program, and the pizza we shared was an example of sublime culinary design -- a brilliant blend of six meats and four veggies: pepperoni, sliced ham, Italian sausage, Italian salami, ground beef, linguiça (a Portuguese pork sausage), sliced mushrooms, green pepper, onions, and olives. Mamma mia, was that good!

My friend and former long-term colleague at WisdomTools (the company I co-founded and chaired), Brian Bothwell, joined us at Joy and Jim's home. We got caught up on our lives and reminisced on the good times at WT in Bloomington. I really missed Brian; we can talk about anything from "geek" to movies to business to personal relationships and never get bored; we used to have amazing weekly lunch dates and I was greatly disappointed when he left Bloomington for Boise. No one provided better computer system and security support than Brian. He was a model of providing what Craig Wortmann, WisdomTool's CEO, called "customer delight" -- externally and internally.

The next day I was to head out to Orem, Utah. Joy and I agreed to have breakfast at a local bakery. That evening she shared with me the first few chapters of a manuscript she was writing -- a book about her father who had passed away about two years earlier. As I lay awake in bed, I read the first chapter. I was moved by her words; they awakened deep feelings about my own father's life and his relationship to me.

The next day in the bakery, enjoying our sugary delights and hot tea, Joy and I talked about my visit, what our friendship means to each other, and the emotions her book evoked about my own father. I had not thought about my dad during my entire trip. I looked into Joy's eyes and the tears flowed.

...

As I got in my car to head to the "land of Joseph Smith," and pulled out of the bakery's parking lot, Joy shouted, "Don't forget that in Idaho cows have the right of way!" I laughed through my tears and steered my car eastward.