<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" version="2.0"><channel><title><![CDATA[Vanessa Kirby]]></title><description><![CDATA[Vanessa Kirby]]></description><link>https://www.vanessakirby.co.uk/blog</link><generator>RSS for Node</generator><lastBuildDate>Sun, 08 Nov 2026 15:56:28 GMT</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://www.vanessakirby.co.uk/blog-feed.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><item><title><![CDATA[Everyone's a product builder]]></title><description><![CDATA[Sometime back, someone coined the phrase "everyone is a designer". It sidled in with Design Thinking, and it really did help spearhead creativity. Everyone was part of the process (coming along for the proverbial journey), and it showed the business the power of design. Now, everyone's a product builder. And they really are. You don't even have to type. This week I looked at a prototype built from spoken instructions, finished in three hours at a hackathon. So the question from the business...]]></description><link>https://www.vanessakirby.co.uk/post/everyone-s-a-product-builder</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6aef6219c2ee3e3a7f2cb4db</guid><pubDate>Sat, 07 Nov 2026 18:09:34 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/e8a0a5_651bf9c0c9854ea2b54d93a14a639e3f~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Vanessa Kirby</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Everything should be an experience]]></title><description><![CDATA[I'm painting my hallway this weekend. Dark walls, in a dark hallway. It's made me think about why I do things the way I do. Everything I do has to be an experience. It's true in life. The way my home feels. My dinner parties. My travel, and where I've lived. I've lived in 19 towns and cities across 9 countries, and travelled to 58 countries. Always thirsty for experiences. I genuinely believe the more variety you experience, the more you can bring to creating experiences for others. And it's...]]></description><link>https://www.vanessakirby.co.uk/post/everything-should-be-an-experience</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6aef6219c2ee3e3a7f2cb4dc</guid><pubDate>Sat, 31 Oct 2026 09:00:00 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/e8a0a5_0d08a919687c42fa9395ac762b99f7a0~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Vanessa Kirby</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Gamify everything - life's too short]]></title><description><![CDATA[If I have a mantra, it's "everything should be an experience". And if there's an example of a very dull experience, it's meetings. No one will die saying "I wish I'd had more meetings". But they are necessary. So how do you make them more enjoyable? Gamify them. Turn them into a workshop. You can gamify anything. Ever asked your team in a retro who they'd like to celebrate this sprint and why, only to get nothing but crickets? People don't want to speak up, or they feel forced to think of...]]></description><link>https://www.vanessakirby.co.uk/post/life-s-too-short-for-meetings</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6aef6219c2ee3e3a7f2cb4dd</guid><pubDate>Sat, 24 Oct 2026 09:00:00 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/e8a0a5_9cb0e6f80e9645c0bb7549cb1012d723~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Vanessa Kirby</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[The messiest service blueprint was the most useful]]></title><description><![CDATA[There's an interesting contrast between large enterprises and startups. When a startup launches an MVP, there's a lot going on under the hood that's more manual than it should be. You're making a bet. You probably haven't had the validation or effort a larger company can afford, so you get it out and test it rather than wait for perfection. The upshot is that more often than not, it works. Life is great and you move on to the next feature. Meanwhile the manual processes pile up. That means...]]></description><link>https://www.vanessakirby.co.uk/post/the-messiest-service-blueprint-was-the-most-useful</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6aef6219c2ee3e3a7f2cb4de</guid><pubDate>Sat, 17 Oct 2026 09:00:00 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/e8a0a5_b7edb361c6b344ebbdacb8bf362be279~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Vanessa Kirby</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Empower them, they said]]></title><description><![CDATA[The leadership books and social media are full of it. Empower your team. Let them do their own thing and they'll flourish. Mostly, they're right. But in any role, people are the most difficult part. And the textbook doesn't cover what happens when you try to course correct - but it just doesn't work. The bit that works I'm a pretty good manager. I have a competency framework for every discipline in UX - AI, visual design, copy, research and the rest. Roles have two routes. People with a craft...]]></description><link>https://www.vanessakirby.co.uk/post/empower-them-they-said</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6af021b3b1d034bcdf088870</guid><pubDate>Sat, 10 Oct 2026 09:00:00 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/e8a0a5_3c5470b19bc34ace995c52ebdba5938e~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Vanessa Kirby</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[I built a thing]]></title><description><![CDATA[I've been a trustee at Wimbledon Windmill Museum for a few years now. And it's been one of those roles that has given me something rather different from my day job.  Its a fascinating and quirky museum - the only museum dedicated to Windmills inside a Windmill. It has its own unique backstory - from working windmill, influencing the laws of Wimbledon, converted into 6 cottages and now restored and a museum. I spend much of my working life thinking about customer experience, digital products,...]]></description><link>https://www.vanessakirby.co.uk/post/i-built-a-thing</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6af0162ac2ee3e3a7f2dd4bb</guid><pubDate>Sat, 03 Oct 2026 09:00:00 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/e8a0a5_6d25be7974894b6abd9da8d737cc5d6e~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Vanessa Kirby</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Make a geek your BFF]]></title><description><![CDATA[I started out in software development. It didn't take long to realise how rubbish I was at coding. Ever since, I've made sure I have a close relationship with engineering. For designers, these are the people who can make your dreams come true - or dash them all to hell. It helps if you find a bit of a rebel. Usually it's someone who's a tiny bit frustrated at being hamstrung by the status quo, and who'll go the extra mile to help you out. Sometimes you can't be rebellious. Legacy systems in...]]></description><link>https://www.vanessakirby.co.uk/post/make-a-geek-your-bff</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6af01bacb1d034bcdf087f8c</guid><pubDate>Sat, 26 Sep 2026 09:00:00 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/e8a0a5_2cece949f1f64c528eb3dbc0066166b7~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Vanessa Kirby</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Speak their language]]></title><description><![CDATA[UX is a discipline that preaches consistency. It's also a devil for changing its own names. Human factors. User centred design. Customer centred design. Human centred design. UX. XD. We can't even agree whether it's HCI or CHI. So imagine how it sounds to everyone else. A small glossary Site map (noun) - an architecture diagram. User journey (noun) - a fancy flow chart. Lo-fi prototype, hi-fi prototype (noun) - um. A prototype. Information architect (noun) - the chap who wireframes. Not the...]]></description><link>https://www.vanessakirby.co.uk/post/speak-their-language</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6af04efac2ee3e3a7f2e26ea</guid><pubDate>Fri, 10 Jul 2026 09:00:00 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/e8a0a5_92e7c3a4cde94b718721a63114dbd375~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Vanessa Kirby</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[You must have a fantastic camera]]></title><description><![CDATA[A photographer went to a dinner party in New York. As he arrived, the host said "I love your pictures - they're wonderful. You must have a fantastic camera." He said nothing until dinner was over. Then: "That was a wonderful dinner. You must have a terrific stove." That story (from the photographer Sam Haskins) has stuck with me for years. The tool isn't the talent Ten years ago, the promise was that a new design tool made design easy. One article actually said "design isn't hard to learn". I...]]></description><link>https://www.vanessakirby.co.uk/post/you-must-have-a-fantastic-camera</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6af04efac2ee3e3a7f2e26e9</guid><pubDate>Fri, 12 Jun 2026 09:00:00 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/e8a0a5_5e0c02a0d2e543158f47197ae2de5848~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Vanessa Kirby</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[I don't hire unicorns]]></title><description><![CDATA[Ten years ago I gave a talk at Interact called "Unicorns - legend or fable?". The question was whether a designer should be able to do everything. Research, information architecture, visual design, copy, front end code. All in one person. My answer then is my answer now. I don't hire unicorns. At the time, the internet was full of ways to become one. Become a UX unicorn in five easy steps - for $23 a month. A LinkedIn post promising to "embed UX in every organisation"... with a one-day...]]></description><link>https://www.vanessakirby.co.uk/post/i-don-t-hire-unicorns</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6af04efac2ee3e3a7f2e26e8</guid><pubDate>Fri, 15 May 2026 09:00:00 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/e8a0a5_d28426a507a240828ffd269cd5491d65~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Vanessa Kirby</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[The history of UX]]></title><description><![CDATA[Something I put together a long time back - probably not very readable.... and definitely not updated. But...]]></description><link>https://www.vanessakirby.co.uk/post/the-history-of-ux</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6af0554cb1d034bcdf08d1ec</guid><pubDate>Fri, 17 Apr 2026 09:00:00 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/e8a0a5_d86f753b37f34e34bd2354d1d60c2ef2~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Vanessa Kirby</dc:creator></item></channel></rss>