UX Strategy

Foreword

When I was 21 years old and taking the train into Manhattan from Brooklyn to fix laser printers and dream of a career in “multimedia,” I would read about Jaime Levy’s work hoping that one day I would get to meet her.

In the early 90s, we didn’t have the Web, but we did have bulletin board systems (BBS), and new media was evolving fast. Computers had just begun offering built-in modems and CD-ROM drives, but we were a couple of years away from web browsers and broadband.

Jaime got to the digital revolution before all of us, having made a floppy-disk magazine series from 1990 to 1992—WIRED debuted its print magazine in 1993. That same year, she did this crazy interactive press kit for Billy Idol that he distributed with his album Cyberpunk.

At that time, I started a “zine” called CyberSurfer, my screenname online, and published five issues. The folks at PAPER Magazine gave me a gig writing a column for them called “CyberSurfer’s Sillycon Alley,” and I would cover Jaime’s work often—primarily because she was the only person actually doing work!

She never got rich, but she made great art and followed her vision of what the interactive world should be. In fact, she turned down her chance at being a billionaire as the third co-founder of Razorfish.

In 1996, I hosted a pitching contest called “Ready, Set... Pitch!” at Josh Harris’ famous loft for Pseudo.com. Jaime pitched Electronic Hollywood, a studio that would make cartoons and interactive experiences for the Web.

She saw casual games and YouTube a decade before they hit, and before anyone used the terms “UX” and “IA,” she was teaching all of us about “experience” and “flows.”

I’ve been lucky enough to build or invest in over 100 Internet businesses, from Uber to Engadget, and I can tell you that if you want to build a product that changes the world, the first place you should begin is where you are right now—in Jaime’s hands.

Listen and consider what she says in this book deeply. This is the “missing manual” for the Lean Startup and Lean UX techniques that you’ve always wanted.

Nondesigners especially should continue reading, because Jaime takes the time to explain the oftentimes intimidating jargon and processes that designers throw around, effortlessly and clearly for you, the reader.

Late one night, when we were kids in our 20s dreaming about the Internet and what it might become and how to be successful with it, Jaime explained it to me concisely: “It’s all about the experience.”

There is not better advice for building product, or living your life. It’s all about the experience.

JASON MCCABE CALACANIS

APRIL 2015