💎 Friday Gems #33 (Critical Thinking, User Disengagement, Rebuilding Trust After Layoffs)

Plus a reader poll!

Oct 13, 2023

Hello / Annyeonghaseyo

I hope you’ve had a great week so far with opportunities to get out of your comfort zone and into your stretch zone, where all the growth happens.

I recently read a timely post by author Junot Diaz, Protect Your Reading, in which he shares the importance of setting aside time to read every day. Reading helps us improve our critical thinking as we gather ideas and evaluate them to help us form our own ideas. Junot shared that he has books lying all over his place as he reads them whenever he feels like it, and yes, in the bathroom as well. I haven’t reached that level of dedication yet, because my first goal is to keep my phone out of the bathroom, which is a challenge in itself.😅

Enough about that; on to this week’s gems!

💎 How to Improve Your Critical Thinking Skills

Have you had the urge to use AI to quickly do your thinking and writing for you? Ok, I admit, it has crossed my mind, but I keep pushing back that urge, and this article makes it clear why we need to resist the urge to rely too much on AI tools.

In this article, Tara Well shares interesting insights into the dangers of relying too much on technology for critical thought, how writing can enhance and safeguard our critical thinking, and the potential benefits AI can provide in learning and skill development with the caveat that AI needs to be used intentionally and thoughtfully.

Personally, I have been hesitant to rely too much on AI, so it is good to know what benefits we are getting from doing our own reading, writing, researching, analyzing, evaluating, problem-solving, revising, and editing. and how writing helps us enhance our critical thinking skills.

Yes, there are challenges of using AI if we rely too much on doing the critical thinking for us but AI can be helpful if we approach it with intention such as finding relevant information fast, doing complex tasks such as providing data, explanations, and examples.

The key takeaway here is to use AI tools to augment and facilitate our critical thinking and writing instead of replacing our critical thinking altogether.

Source: Psychology Today

💎 To read or not to read: product content and user disengagement

In the product design world, there is a thirst for “user engagement”, meaning keeping the user locked in and hooked within the app. When growth at all costs is the mission, then intruding into people’s lives by designing software to keep them locked in and steal their attention becomes the only answer with little regard for the user.

But there is a better, more humane way to build products that respect the user’s time and attention; it is the concept of “user disengagement” which is the belief that users need to spend less time in the apps and experiences we design and more time doing the things that are important for them.

One example from the article is how the Mews team, creators of a hospitality property management system, had a hunch that allowing guests to check in at their kiosks using only their last name could speed up the check-in process. Their hunch paid off, and they were able to see a 61% (86-second) reduction in time spent finding a reservation.

Although this may seem like a simple change any company could make, it gets to the heart of user disengagement because it gets people away from the product and back into living their lives. This was a result of a conscious choice to follow the guiding principle of user disengagement.

If we say we are practicing user-centered design and we want to be the voice of the user, then user disengagement needs to be one of our core guiding principles so we can create products that help our users spend their time away from the screens and back into their lives.

Source: MEWS

💎 How Leaders Can Rebuild Their Teams’ Trust After A Layoff

Layoffs suck. They are painful milestones in our careers, especially for those who are laid off. Those who are spared have a lot to deal with as well because they end up dealing with guilt, anxiety, and insecurity as they try to get back to work and be productive.

As someone who recently experienced layoffs, I feel seen after reading this article on how to rebuild trust, overcome survivor’s guilt, and regain motivation to move forward.

We can never get back to the way things were, but we can take small steps forward. Although this article is geared towards leaders and how they need to respond, it is a good reminder of the steps we all can take to help each other out, including our leaders.

Source: Fearless Culture