Advice from Don Norman The Author of The "Design Of Everyday Things"

Today I gate crashed an Illinois Institute Of Technology alumni event at the IDEO offices in Palo Alto at the invitation of @enricgili. When I walked in, there was a gentleman with the name tag "Don Norman". I shook hands with him and he asked me what I do for a living. I told him that I am a product manager at SAP and I am designing this cool new thing called Career OnDemand. He said "Good that you are with the product team because corporate design teams don't work.". The dean of the design school talked to the group after a while and he said "Many of you (the design school alumni) do not have the term design in your title....and that is a good thing"...implying that designers need to move away from dedicated teams and embed themselves into product teams where people who build the products are.

After meeting a few more cool people, I said to Enric, "The name Don Norman sounds very familiar. Who is he?". He said "He is THE Don Norman, the author of the book "The Design Of Everyday Things". I then realized that the Professor just taught me a very important lesson in under 30 seconds with simple worlds. Did i tell you that conversation is the best learning technology on earth. You just have to make sure you are at the right place at the right time with the right people.

Here is a video of Don Norman delivering a TED talk.