• About
• Speaking

Cha-cha-changes

Over the past two years, my wife and I have been discussing moving to California. I have family in LA, where it’s always sunny and 72, and the center of the design/technology universe is in the SF Bay area. We discussed whether that move would include opening a west coast office for the design studio I founded and have helped run for over a decade, or if I would go and work for someone else. Each conversation ended with “when the time comes.”

Well, the time has finally come.

At the end of this month, my wife and our three children (yes, that’s right three), will be moving to the SF Bay area. No, we’re not opening a west coast office. I’ve accepted a Sr. UX Design position at Inflection and we couldn’t be more excited. I’ll be working for/with the legendary Peter Merholz. Together and with the rest of the already talented Inflection team, we’ll be tackling wicked big data problems and shaping the future of some really, really awesome products.

My decision to move on wasn’t something that happened overnight. It’s been growing for some time. Having the opportunity to lead the design of and launch a product of my own, a collaborative research app, was the driving force. I got bit by the product bug. Since then, while I’ve still enjoyed solving problems for clients, I’ve longed to be more invested in something, to have real stake in the game, to be part of a product company, and to see things through to completion rather than just hand them off to someone else.

In looking at companies, I wanted to find a place where design was not just part of the product, but part of the company culture. I wanted to find a place I could have real, measurable impact. I wanted to find a place that was doing something meaningful—I intentionally avoided talking to companies who were strictly in the social or gaming arena. No disrespect to those companies, they’re just not what I’m looking for at this stage in my career. I wanted to work with data—big data. And I wanted to work with, learn from, and mentor a talented team. I found all that and more at Inflection.

After more than two decades on the East coast, I’m heading West.

It’s the start of a new chapter and one that we’re really, really excited about.

Author name:

zakiwarfel

Publish date:

March 12th, 2012

Discussion:

No Comments

Categories:

Design

Tags:

About zakiwarfel:

Visit website