<figure class="ko kp kq kr ks kt kl km paragraph-image">
<div class="ku kv go kw bg kx" tabindex="0" role="button">
<div class="kl km kn"><picture><img class="bg ky kz c" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:700/1*UvNMQiSHQDSwTfuDATKFVQ.png" alt="" width="700" height="394" /></picture></div>
</div>
</figure>
User experience (UX) plays a pivotal role in determining the success of a website or application. A seamless and intuitive user interface can lead to increased engagement, customer satisfaction, and ultimately, business growth. One valuable tool in optimizing UX is the UX audit. In this blog post, we’ll explore the process of a UX audit, drawing insights from a YouTube video, guidance from a senior UX professional, and the experience of conducting UX audits to improve our skills while teaching a fellow UX intern.
<h1 id="9ac1" class="ly lz ev be ma mb mc md me mf mg mh mi mj mk ml mm mn mo mp mq mr ms mt mu mv bj" data-selectable-paragraph="">Understanding UX Audit</h1>
A UX audit is a systematic evaluation of a website or application to identify areas of improvement and optimize the overall user experience. It involves analyzing various aspects, including usability, accessibility, visual design, content, and functionality. By conducting a UX audit, we can uncover potential pain points, optimize user flows, and enhance the overall interface.
<ol class="">
<li id="7ec1" class="la lb ev lc b ld le lf lg lh li lj lk nb lm ln lo nc lq lr ls nd lu lv lw lx ne nf ng bj" data-selectable-paragraph="">Learning from YouTube: To gain valuable insights into the UX audit process, I watched an informative YouTube video titled “UI UX Audit Process — How to Stop Skipping Them” on the Headway channel. The video provided a step-by-step approach, highlighting key elements to consider during the audit. These elements included user research, user journey mapping, usability testing, visual design analysis, and content evaluation. By following this structured process, a comprehensive review of the user experience can be ensured. 
Headway UX Audit Process link: <a class="af nh" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDhfwGkuTIM&amp;list=LL&amp;index=22" target="_blank" rel="noopener ugc nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDhfwGkuTIM&amp;list=LL&amp;index=22</a></li>
<li id="d502" class="la lb ev lc b ld ni lf lg lh nj lj lk nb nk ln lo nc nl lr ls nd nm lv lw lx ne nf ng bj" data-selectable-paragraph="">Guided by a Senior UX: To improve my skills, I sought guidance from my senior UX who had experience conducting UX landing page audits. His expertise helped me understand the nuances of analyzing user interfaces, identifying usability issues, and recommending effective solutions. His mentorship provided invaluable insights into best practices and industry standards, enabling me to conduct more UX landing page/system audits.</li>
<li id="3bee" class="la lb ev lc b ld ni lf lg lh nj lj lk nb nk ln lo nc nl lr ls nd nm lv lw lx ne nf ng bj" data-selectable-paragraph="">Conducting Free UX Audits: To further enhance my skills, Our Design department decided to offer free UX audits, allowing me to gain practical experience. These audits allowed me to put my knowledge into practice and refine my ability to identify pain points, suggest improvements, and communicate my findings effectively. The experience of conducting real-world audits enhanced my understanding of the UX audit process.</li>
<li id="740a" class="la lb ev lc b ld ni lf lg lh nj lj lk nb nk ln lo nc nl lr ls nd nm lv lw lx ne nf ng bj" data-selectable-paragraph="">Learning by Teaching: To solidify my knowledge and contribute to the growth of the design team, I took the opportunity to teach a fellow UX researcher intern about the UX audit process. By explaining the concepts, sharing insights, and guiding her through the steps, I not only reinforced my own understanding but also developed my communication and mentoring skills. Teaching someone else benefits not only the learner but also the teacher, fostering a collaborative learning environment and promoting knowledge sharing.</li>
</ol>
The journey of improving our UX skills through the UX audit process has been enlightening and rewarding. By leveraging resources such as YouTube videos, online templates, guidance from seniors, conducting free audits, and teaching others, we have deepened our understanding of UX audit methodologies. Through this iterative process of learning and applying our knowledge, we have grown as UX professionals, equipped with the ability to optimize user experiences and drive meaningful results.

Enhancing User Experience through the Art of UX Audit

As a <a href="https://wordpress.highoutput.io/what-its-like-working-at-hov/">fully-remote company,</a> HOV has faced unique issues in recruiting or hiring new employees. Finding the right people to fill the much-needed roles is crucial to the business&#8217;s success and survival; imagine doing that entirely via your computer.
It is no secret that the corporate world has drastically changed over the past two years. Former companies with physical offices had been forced to operate remotely and from a technology point of view, these have advanced at an unprecedented rate and adopted new tools in a matter of a few weeks or months. This article is about the challenges of remote hiring from the perspective of a company that&#8217;s always been remote.
<h3>Huge Numbers</h3>
One of the most significant benefits for remote companies is increased access to talent. You don&#8217;t have to commute to a single place, so you don&#8217;t have to hire someone who lives near your office. This is great news for employers who now have access to <a href="http://movetowestsweden.com/why-should-you-recruit-global-talent">talent around the world.</a>
<img class=" wp-image-2232 alignleft" src="https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/shutterstock_1687381000-Converted-min-300x165.jpg" alt="" width="360" height="198" srcset="https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/shutterstock_1687381000-Converted-min-300x165.jpg 300w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/shutterstock_1687381000-Converted-min-1024x563.jpg 1024w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/shutterstock_1687381000-Converted-min-768x422.jpg 768w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/shutterstock_1687381000-Converted-min-1536x845.jpg 1536w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/shutterstock_1687381000-Converted-min-2048x1126.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 360px) 100vw, 360px" />This increased talent pool is arguably positive, but it does pose some logistical challenges. One example is the significant increase in the number of applications that need to be processed before finding the ideal candidate. Remote jobs can attract hundreds or even thousands of applicants for a single role— all of this requires the attention of the recruitment manager.
Remote recruitment managers are strongly encouraged to create a streamlined recruitment process focused on excluding unqualified applicants. As with all positions, there are a large number of applicants who do not qualify for a certain position. Remote roles often attract people who are interested in a remote work lifestyle, regardless of position requirements. These are generally the easiest to work through, but may still be time-consuming.
<h3>Timezone</h3>
Remote work allows companies to utilize a global team which, for the most part, can be hugely beneficial. However, this, of course, comes with differing time zones which can sometimes be challenging to manage. In the day-to-day workflow, it’s relatively easy to overcome this by implementing asynchronous communication strategies, access to online resources, and scattered teammates, ensuring no one is working alone. Unfortunately, the act of hiring doesn’t always fit seamlessly into established processes, particularly if you only have one or two hiring managers.
Interviewers or recruiters have to learn how to manage time zones. Doing eight interviews a week of about an hour each plus note-taking, all at random times— it can be very emotionally and mentally draining. Learning how to manage your time like only opening up your calendar for interviews on three out of five days in the week, and only during specific times could come in handy.
Sharing the load with other recruiters also has the added benefit of speeding up the hiring process and having more input. You don’t always know what your own biases are so it&#8217;s always useful to communicate and get input from another recruiter within the company to get a second opinion.
<h3>Logistics</h3>
If you’re already a remote company, you’ll likely be set up for remote interviews. Technically it&#8217;s already similar to any regular meetings you already do. However, this may not be the case for the candidates. It can be a foreign language or foreign cultural experience to interview with a remote company.
Helping guide candidates through that process should be a top consideration. Reaching out to them ahead of time with instructions could save time and confusion later. Say you’ve scheduled an interview, a follow-up to let them know where to find the link and what technology platform to be using is going to be helpful.
While most people will say interviewing from the comfort of your own home is generally more appealing than traveling to an unknown location, there are still things candidates will need to do to prepare. In this case, they can’t just show up to a location, they’ll have to make sure to have the right programs installed, test microphones and speakers, and generally know their way around scheduling programs and video call software like Zoom. Having helpful instructions to guide through this process will help minimize any confusion.
<h3>Technology</h3>
Sometimes, no matter how much you prepare ahead of time, technology simply doesn’t work, and it’s important not to let these unavoidable mishaps cloud your judgment of the candidate. Imagine this: you’re talking through a microphone but your voice is muffled, so the candidate can&#8217;t hear clearly &#8211; or maybe their earphones aren’t working.
This can sometimes lead to questions being misunderstood or answered incorrectly, which skews the interview process. Sometimes, with all the other aspects of noise, interviewers have to infer what they’re trying to say because you can&#8217;t always hear every word. You kind of pick up the main words and try to string them together and hope that what you&#8217;re understanding is actually what they’re trying to say.
When this happens, it can be difficult not to let it influence how you thought the interview went. Sometimes candidates may misunderstand the question, does that mean they’re not listening carefully? Are they not understanding, or is it technology that’s not working out? This is where including multiple opportunities for communication comes in handy.
<h1>In Conclusion</h1>
Recruiters need to be creative in order to attract new talent and get back on track for growth. However, one thing is for sure — there has been an immense increase in virtual contacts with people even more present on social media, especially millennials. Social media recruitment campaigns on platforms such as Facebook are a successful strategy to attract the attention of job seekers and ultimately recruit new talent.
Recruiters are also operating in that ambiguous, fast-changing environment. But there are many tools available that empower hiring teams to find, evaluate, and hire candidates in the new world of work.

Challenges of remote hiring

We cannot stop disasters but what we can do is to avoid or prepare for one.
Working closely this quarter with different projects and teams has gotten me into a new routine, thrill, and reflection. Projects on their own have different features and ideas that get pushed into releases each week, ideally. Teams on another hand, work on their target goals per week, and individuals under it want to achieve something on a daily basis. In between this repetitive course, we encounter some hard blocks that put a project or team to a test. A project&#8217;s survivability depends on how resilient we are in dealing with issues and reflecting on what needs to be improved for a better next release week. 
Below are some things I&#8217;ve seen throughout a project cycle that hinder it from getting pushed to business expectations.
Transparency &#8211; when working with developers they tend to be robotic: take a task card, develop, test, push, approve, check, move card —&gt; boom done, no extra words needed right? Fast and efficient. Here comes the hard part of our introverted pattern: the more you grow into the role the faster you do things. Now we need to slow down again and do things we usually avoid like documentation, writing steps, talking to peers/seniors, communicating with other teams. Communication throughout each thing you do is really tedious to squeeze in when you&#8217;re in the zone, but it makes the process more transparent and how you did things gets more recognized, it can also be acknowledged by team members which in turn gives a morale boost to how efficient and strong you are as a core team member. So communication in form of writing and speaking can really help push and see the commitments of a person into a team or project.
Overcommitment and Under-commitment &#8211; as developers, we tend to overshoot our goals sometimes, I mean that&#8217;s not a bad thing to be optimistic and think of better ways ahead but that&#8217;s a lot of energy and time wasted on something that might be rejected. Under-committing, on the other hand, is a much safer road compared to overcommitment since it gives you that small increment towards bigger targeted goals. To keep it simple just have something compact then ask for feedback and then work again on another batch of increments. Clarified goals and making it smaller / simpler for an easier push (the same applies to PRs).
Let it be &amp; technical debts &#8211; now above we mentioned to keep things simple but on that account we do acquire technical debts from time to time. We let things be for now and process what we can move forward to in the meantime. Hence, these technical debts accumulate over time and people do tend to forget about them until those debts create a ripple on the entire development process. The best way to address it is to list and discuss it on a weekly basis, review what you have postponed at the moment and reprioritize it later if it still has no impact on the current and next phase of release.
Too Focused; Less Attention &#8211; while team members are in their zone routine, they often get stuck on one thing every now and then. That&#8217;s why communication is important for them to address the issues that block them from their progress. A lead role must also take an initiative to unblock these members and address it better instead of saying &#8220;let&#8217;s just focus on pushing this thing right now&#8221; when in fact it has been dragging someone for days/weeks. There may be core processes here like data analyzed improperly or flows that aren&#8217;t getting through one another, bigger scope, unforeseen impacts, etc. If something is drawing too much time on a core member without getting any progress then it&#8217;s better to sit and give it attention as to what really is happening in it that needs to be addressed.
No Compromise is a Compromise &#8211; team negotiations should be part of the process. People tend to just take everything that is given to them only to realize later the issues they face when something is already in development or close to production push. So in the early stages of planning, it is better to give some feedback and thoughts on how a release or feature gets implemented. It’s okay to say we cannot do this but let&#8217;s just do it this way instead and present better ideas if you see something that will hinder your goal targets. Accept feedback and give feedback because silence in a team is deadly.
Who do you call? &#8211; identifying roles in the team is very crucial especially if you have juniors inside these team setups. Juniors rely mostly on senior or lead roles for major decision makings and getting approval of their PRs. Establishing a fallback lead role if the main one is not available also helps to get these new guys settled in faster so they can just work their way up the ladder with how they communicate concerns, issues, clarifications. One scenario that happened was that the lead role was not around and neither was the line lead, so the data structuring got stuck with juniors and mid-level. Decisions were not happening in the team immediately so it blocked major progress to the release. It’s definitely better to set a fallback person into teams if ever they run into situations.
Red Light, Green Light &#8211; with all blockers happening across releases much like in the popular Netflix series (Squid Game), green light makes the releases move fast. What happens in between blockers is a red light in team personnel, and if nothing moves when something is blocked that&#8217;s a dead spot for a release. What we should do in blocking states is having a nonfunctional to do tasks, improvement work or having personnel do sub work on another project. That way some movements are done incrementally across boards and behind releases that will improve later on implementations.
With all pointers listed above, these are just a few that we&#8217;ve experienced and thought of in this quarter&#8217;s retrospective. There is still a lot of room for improvement on how we handle teams/projects and despite having setbacks and overhead in each development-release cycle we always reflect on it and improve our workflow for the next cycles to come. Change is inevitable, so it&#8217;s good to have reliable teammates as we face the quarterly challenges.

Common project management disasters to avoid

&#8220;Be positive!&#8221; How many times have we heard these two words from people with whom we&#8217;ve shared our troubles? You see, there&#8217;s nothing wrong with being positive in life. According to studies, having a positive outlook in your daily life makes handling things better and is highly recommended because it leads to happier and healthier living.
Today&#8217;s generation of young adults are engrossed with the idea of self-love, self-care and mental health and are active in promoting positivity online. However, the same generation experiences higher rates of depression and anxiety. Despite more people being well-informed on how to offer support, their ways or use of language often doesn&#8217;t give enough reason for a vulnerable person to come forward with their struggles. Instead of helping someone realize that they can overcome the anxiety that cripples them, they are told that &#8220;their problems aren&#8217;t big enough&#8221; and to be grateful for other things in life. Instead of receiving comfort, the vulnerable person receives blanket statements or affirmations that sound more like toxic positivity than genuine empathy.
Now, in today&#8217;s world of positive culture, a person is more likely to feel the burden on his/her shoulder. They will feel that their struggles aren&#8217;t validated and are merely the product of their pessimism. They will be guilty for not being strong enough to handle things. As a result, instead of overcoming whatever problems they are facing, they are pushed further into their deepest sorrow.
Learning to validate someone&#8217;s pain and properly addressing it is a highly undervalued skill. Anyone can say phrases that they think might help uplift someone but it will show if they genuinely don&#8217;t care. It&#8217;s not like people are looking to others for solutions to their problems, but most do need someone to ease their negative feelings by helping them realize that there is hope and that this too shall pass. Helping someone realize that their emotions matter, regardless of what the reasoning might be is extremely important&#8230; It&#8217;s important to open up their eyes to see that they in fact have a choice to let go of the things that they cannot control and to stop blaming themselves. This will encourage them to accept where they are and talk their heart out instead of just bottling it up inside.
One must learn that there is no wrong emotion &#8211; That everyone is capable of feeling several different emotions, from happy to sad and everything in between and often also all at once. It is common for any one person to feel hopeless and tired every now and then. The thing you must never forget? It&#8217;s perfectly OKAY to feel whatever you&#8217;re feeling and to never be ashamed for being overwhelmed by stressful situations.

Resiliency vs toxic positivity

Most of us have heard about <a href="https://www.aerosmith.com/">Aerosmith</a>, one of the most iconic bands in music history.&nbsp;



The band has quite a few rituals – some pre-show, some post-show, and others revolving around the music they create. Among these, there is one that is particularly interesting.



The band holds a weekly meeting where each member presents a new idea, even if they themselves think it’s bad or embarrassing. Most weeks the ideas put forward are really terrible and nine times out of ten they are thrown out the window on the spot.



Every once in a while though, that one time out of ten, an idea comes along that makes everyone respond ‘You know what? This could work!’ And these are the ideas that have led to some of their greatest hits such as ‘<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3Yrhv33Zb8">Love in an Elevator</a>’ and ‘<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nf0oXY4nDxE">Dude Looks Like a Lady</a>’.



They call this weekly meeting &#8216;<a href="https://college.berklee.edu/commencement/2003/tylerq.html">Dare to Suck</a>&#8216;.



<a href="https://www.edsheeran.com">Ed Sheeran</a>, widely regarded as one of the best songwriters of our time, describes his songwriting process in a similar vein. In a documentary about the singer, we are told that there is no real mystery around the process; he just writes everything that comes to mind. The start is not too impressive, but soon, almost as if someone has flipped a switch, the magic begins.



<a href="https://twitter.com/neilhimself?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor">Neil Gaiman</a> (#1 New York Times bestselling author of more than 20 books) alludes to an almost identical process in his Masterclass.



If we follow the pattern, we see that a lot of the top creative minds produce their work in this fashion. When they sit down to write, they let all their ideas flow without self-judgment or criticism. Initially, the ideas they write down are muddy, unrefined and quite frankly bad by even their standards. But once these impurities are allowed to be flushed, suddenly a point comes when strong ideas begin to flow and that&#8217;s when their genius comes out.



Often when we are working on something, we don&#8217;t allow our mind to clear itself before it can produce high quality output. This applies in all scenarios; an important presentation, creating marketing content, or the desire to learn something new. If we resist our bad ideas and don&#8217;t let the fog clear, we can never reveal our best work.



In fact, this is also the reason why we don’t start most things. We think our ideas are not refined or not good enough and instead of letting them out in order to uncover our deeper thoughts, we keep them locked up and use them as an excuse to delay the activity.



So next time you&#8217;re working on something, begin by writing down every single thought you have, unfiltered and without restriction. Remember that to get to the gold, you have to dig through the dirt. Remove all distractions, remove any self-criticism and self-judgment, and just let the ideas bleed.



Continue doing this regularly and see if you get to the point where novel ideas start pouring out &#8211; and I bet you get to that point sooner than you think! I bet you come up with things that you didn’t know were hiding in a dark corner or crevice in your mind. I bet you discover another part of yourself. Because we all have those novel ideas inside us, buried under the messy input we receive from the outside world every second of every day.



Just let yourself be terrible first. Dare to suck.

Dare to Suck

<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">The essence of positioning is sacrifice. You must be willing to give up something to establish that unique position.<cite>Al Ries</cite></blockquote>



Human beings have thrived as a species by recognizing patterns. We base these patterns on the richness of our past experiences. While this heuristic helps us tremendously in how we interact with the world, it does come with its drawbacks. 



Those rapid snap judgements not only influence how we see others, but it also has a significant impact on how we see ourselves. As an example: When I meet people, and I tell them I studied economics and psychology at college, they have a challenging time reconciling what I do for a living. 



What people are trying to do is follow a linear train of thought which usually helps them get to a logical conclusion. This line of thought works a majority of the time because most people only colour inside the lines. We identify with labels that society bestows upon us and do very little during our lives to break away. 



To truly get onto a path of high performance, we need to position ourselves differently. We need to think, speak and act differently. If you are to break away from the status quo, we have to find a way to forge our path. Otherwise, the world around us will position us based on what suits them rather than giving yourself the ability to choose. 



We all can choose how to position ourself. 



It is only a matter of whether we have the self-belief, courage and most importantly, the self-awareness to do so. 



Positioning yourself requires you to understand what your strengths are, what makes you different, who is the target audience you want to lead and clearly outline the benefits that your audience would gain by following you. 



All of the above requires you to have clarity and where you want to take your life. 



While discussing strategy and marketing, the word positioning comes up a lot. However, when the intent isn’t authentic, most people will be able to sniff that out quickly. 



With the proliferation of technology, this topic is going to be critical to becoming anti-fragile. When you are positioned without consent, you are opting in to becoming fragile. 



The highest performers will be those that can blaze their own path. Those who will be brave enough to colour outside of the lines when necessary. They will have a point of view of how the world is unfolding and be clear on the role they will play within it. 



High-performance is not something you miraculously achieve. It takes dedication, perseverance and most importantly, the will to break away from the tried and tested path. 



So either you will be able to position yourself into it or find yourself positioned, which will ultimately limit the extent of your growth. 



The decision is yours to make.

Position or be Positioned

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, most of the activities and businesses have become online based. Even the never ending thirst for knowledge could not be suppressed during restrictive mode of lockdown because of active participation in online media. The new normal era has introduced a new term; “Webinar&#8221; (though the term has not been coined recently and has always been there ineffectively or less effectively). All these online workshops, e-classes and virtual training are different forms of webinars.&nbsp;



In this gruesome situation, the rise of webinars has given us a safe way to develop our educational and professional skills by maintaining social distancing at the same time. It should be no surprise that in these pandemic times, working from home, isolating, avoiding infection… learning and development options that don’t require face to face contact or travel are becoming increasingly popular. Cue the rise of the webinar!&nbsp;



Webinars have given us a safe way to keep our professional engagements going and socially distance at the same time. Now that digital-first events are the new normal, we’re seeing webinars happening nearly every minute across the world.&nbsp;So it’s safe to say there’s been a noticeable shift in the number of webinars happening on a day-to-day basis. Consequently, there’s also been a shift in webinar trends. Some of the most significant advantages of a webinar are that it is cost-effective and less time-consuming than other media. They are location flexible, allowing people from all over the world to attend and interact in real-time. Plus, it provides room for higher engagement and better relationship-building.&nbsp;



Webinars remain one of the most important marketing tactics in the manufacturing sector, and your target audience has high expectations for such events. In 2020, you will need to up your game in the following ways to create an effective and memorable audience experience and to continue driving results. Not only because of the current global crisis, webinars are shaping up to be a popular learning tool in the future. Expect to see more interactive tools and techniques emerging, to further increase the engagement options for participants. Expect to see more webinar&nbsp;series, with linked micro topic events being used to provide a consecutive sequence of bite sized learning that when taken together are anything but ‘micro’. Finally, expect concerns about online security to influence the choice of webinar platforms and tools.&nbsp;



A webinar is great if it is conducted in the right way. It is the future platform for sharing knowledge and expertise. Some webinars cost an amount of fee and some are free. However, both are effective, modern and skill-based. Therefore, let’s celebrate the rise of webinars and never stop chasing knowledge!&nbsp;🖥

COVID Webinars: A new world for knowledge sharing

Good public speaking skills aren’t something most people are born with, they have to be learnt.



<h2>How did I prepare for my upcoming talk?</h2>



<figure class="wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<iframe title="A journey to public speaking" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZQlDa-gDvv0?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div></figure>



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



At some point, we tend to shy away when it comes to public speaking.&nbsp; It’s something we want to do, but we&#8217;re too scared of the&nbsp; &#8220;what if&#8217;s.&#8221; &#8220;What if I say something wrong?&#8221; or &#8220;What if someone from the audience asks me a question that I can&#8217;t answer?&#8221; and so on. We&#8217;re also worried that <a href="https://learndigital.withgoogle.com/digitalgarage/course/public-speaking">[1]</a> &#8220;It will have a negative impact on how we’re perceived at work.&#8221;



Thinking that we&#8217;re going to embarrass ourselves in front of everybody, we might have stage fright; butterflies in your stomach, and a heartbeat so fast that you&nbsp;can almost hear it. The important thing to note is that you are never alone with regards to those feelings.



In this article, I will be sharing my personal experiences on how I overcame public speaking jitters. That is to say, I still feel nervous and that will always be a part of it! But it is one of the challenges you can overcome to some extent. 



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">&#8220;The ultimate test of your knowledge is your capacity to transfer it to another&#8221; <cite>Thomas Oppong</cite></blockquote>



<h2>Developing interest</h2>



For as long as I can remember,&nbsp; I hated being the center of attention. I&#8217;ve been in several organizations and talked to so many people whilst organizing events but I always feel uncomfortable when it comes to talking in front of many strangers. I loved my comfort zone so much that I never thought of becoming a public speaker.



I started by joining different competitions like broadcasting, script writing, declamations, dancing and reading contests, I also joined a church as a catechists teacher until I got into hosting small events, school parties and ceremonies.



But despite those experiences, I never thought of myself as someone with potential to become a public speaker and to eventually share knowledge learnt over the years with other students and professionals.



If i’m honest, it’s definitely scary. I&#8217;m paranoid too! All the what if&#8217;s in my head start becoming louder and louder.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">&#8220;But for some reason, I was drawn to public speaking. And so I studied and I learned&#8221;<cite><a href="https://medium.com/@JasonShen">Jason Shen</a></cite></blockquote>



I practiced, read articles, listened to podcasts. I read real life experiences and stories from other people, watched public speaking videos like TED, and I learned. I am always nervous whenever I have an upcoming talk to do but I never thought of it as a task to be checked off on my list. I thought of it as a learning opportunity and a process that I could make use of long-term.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">&#8220;Teaching others what you know is one of the most effective ways to learn, remember and recall new information. Psychologists, call it the “retrieval practice”. It’s one of the most reliable ways of building stronger memory traces&#8221;<cite><a href="https://medium.com/@alltopstartups">Thomas Oppong</a></cite></blockquote>



<h2>The preparation</h2>



Some quick points:



<ol><li>Create an outline of your speech or topic</li><li>Work on you vocal variety</li><li>Body language</li></ol>



Before doing the above, you should make sure you know your audience who are the primary reason you’re preparing your talk! Always avoid boring them: 



<ul><li>Know your audience <ul><li>Age range</li><li>Students? Professionals? Both?</li><li>Number of attendees</li></ul></li><li>If you have enough information on your audience, select a topic that you think will be suitable for everyone. Determine the level of difficulties of your topic based on your audience:<ul><li>Entry </li><li>Beginner </li><li>Intermiddiate/Junior </li><li>Advance/Senior </li><li>Experts</li></ul></li></ul>



For a mixed audience, select a level of difficulty between beginner and junior levels and for the last part of your talk, add very quick details for senior level.



<ul><li>Lecture-focused talks are overrated except when you&#8217;re only given a 5-20 minutes time slot. If you&#8217;re given 30 minutes and above, however, I recommend activities, workshops, and/or code-labs to increase interaction between you and the audience.</li></ul>



If you plan to host activities, never surprise your audience with them. Give the attendees a quick overview on what to expect during the talk. This gives them added motivation to follow through on your discussions.



<ul start="4"><li>If you have a slide deck presentation, avoid overloading it with text. Big images with fewer text always attract more attention. (From google slide deck tips: whenever we have an event in GDG, Google Design Team provides us with slide deck templates).</li><li>Lastly, if you have an activity, give the organizers a heads up about the materials required or bring them yourself.</li></ul>



I recommend you have your speech prepared a month before the event. You can read this article, <a href="https://medium.com/better-humans/how-to-dramatically-improve-your-public-speaking-skills-cd26b7d08a96">How to Dramatically Improve your Public Speaking Skills</a> by Jason Shen to know more about why it is important and essential to prepare months before your event.



Now, here&#8217;s how I prepare on the day of the event:



<ol><li>Be at the event area 30 minutes before the talk</li><li>Feel the stage and get myself settled and comfortable with the venue</li><li>Warm up and go through the slide deck once more</li></ol>



After your talk, it is essential to ask for feedback from your audience. This way, you will be able to assess yourself and make improvements. Some speakers send feedback forms via email after the event, but based on my experience this never works.



<h2>Tips on asking for feedback</h2>



Make use of technology! Make it paperless and accessible. Right after your talk, include a shortened readable link at the last part of your slide and dedicate 5 minutes to getting feedback from the audience. Pro tip: Add a QR code where attendees can easily scan and access your feedback form. There are a lot of free QR code generators on the internet you can use. Keep the questionnaire as minimal as possible. A yes or no and scaling selection would be helpful.



I use google forms but you can also check this template from jotform as your reference: <a href="https://www.jotform.com/form-templates/speaker-evaluation-form">Speaker Evaluation Form Template | JotForm</a>



Every public speaking event is scary. I always feel nervous but I learned to embrace it. The important thing is to have a strong mindset. Cheer yourself up and think happy! 😄



A final point I would like to make is to enjoy your talk. If you appear to be enjoying your talk, feeling happy and passionate about what you are delivering to the audience, the audience will feel the same. Be confident. Remember that public speaking is a long-term learning process and a skill that can definitely be learned by anyone.



Drink water and keep yourself hydrated!



<h2>Useful resources to improve your public speaking skills</h2>



I joined a Beginner&#8217;s Android Study Jam back in 2015 where we were asked to present a proposal on what mobile application we wanted to build by the end of the sessions. We used Guy Kawasaki&#8217;s <a href="https://guykawasaki.com/the-only-10-slides-you-need-in-your-pitch/">The 10 Slides Pitch</a> which is very helpful and I believe it&#8217;s still a relevant template.



For more public speaking references, I recommend these courses and videos, that are short and won’t bore you:



<a href="https://learndigital.withgoogle.com/digitalgarage/course/public-speaking">How to speak in public &#8211; Courses &#8211; Google Digital Garage</a>: In this free module, you will learn to define the objective of your speech, organize content and even master important body language skills that can help you become a better public speaker. Plus, you’ll discover how to prepare and tailor a speech so that it’s perfect for each audience.



<a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNBb8OktVDKt_WpKsIdpQPayDmj8haJqA">Public Speaking Pro Tips &#8211; YouTube</a>: This youtube series is created by Women Techmakers. It shows you different techniques and warm up exercises for your public speaking. It’s also really&nbsp;fun to watch!



<a href="https://medium.com/the-mission/9-places-to-learn-public-speaking-skills-for-free-8dd608a7f7a5">9 Places to Learn Public Speaking Skills for Free</a>: If you’re one of those people who would rather curl up in a ball and simply die than speak in front of a crowd, you definitely need to check out these 9 places you can learn public speaking skills absolutely free.



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



<h3>Disclaimer</h3>



Writing this article doesn&#8217;t make me an expert on public speaking. I am not a TED level kind of speaker and I&#8217;m still learning. I only write these tips based on my experiences and I hope it helps! If you have any other methods that work best for you then go for it, and share more with us too! Don&#8217;t limit yourself. Have more faith in you 🤩



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



Source:



<a href="https://learndigital.withgoogle.com/digitalgarage/course/public-speaking">*</a><a href="https://learndigital.withgoogle.com/digitalgarage/course/public-speaking*">https://learndigital.withgoogle.com/digitalgarage/course/public-speaking*</a>



<a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNBb8OktVDKt_WpKsIdpQPayDmj8haJqA">*</a><a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNBb8OktVDKt_WpKsIdpQPayDmj8haJqA*">https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNBb8OktVDKt_WpKsIdpQPayDmj8haJqA*</a>



<a href="https://medium.com/better-humans/how-to-dramatically-improve-your-public-speaking-skills-cd26b7d08a96">*</a><a href="https://medium.com/better-humans/how-to-dramatically-improve-your-public-speaking-skills-cd26b7d08a96*">https://medium.com/better-humans/how-to-dramatically-improve-your-public-speaking-skills-cd26b7d08a96*</a>



<a href="https://medium.com/personal-growth/6-habits-of-super-learners-63d466a254fd">*</a><a href="https://medium.com/personal-growth/6-habits-of-super-learners-63d466a254fd*">https://medium.com/personal-growth/6-habits-of-super-learners-63d466a254fd*</a>



<a href="https://medium.com/the-mission/9-places-to-learn-public-speaking-skills-for-free-8dd608a7f7a5">*</a><a href="https://medium.com/the-mission/9-places-to-learn-public-speaking-skills-for-free-8dd608a7f7a5*">https://medium.com/the-mission/9-places-to-learn-public-speaking-skills-for-free-8dd608a7f7a5*</a>

How to Overcome Performance Anxiety

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img width="220" height="165" src="https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/tenor-1.gif" alt="" class="wp-image-1369"/></figure>



HOV is a remote company.&nbsp;Yes, we don’t have an office. In this advent where remote work is becoming more mainstream, we as a company have been distributed from the very beginning. This means being remote is entrenched into our culture and core beliefs. While other companies are still undergoing the trial and error process of creating their own remote playbooks, our processes are already streamlined for this upcoming work paradigm. We&#8217;ve developed skin in this game far longer than others, and are continuously improving.



So how do we make this “remote work” thing work so well?



Let&#8217;s start with the values that are central to our culture. As our company has grown over the last year, we’ve been working on establishing clear expectations about what it means to work on our team. At the core of these expectations are our 5 values.



<ol><li>Learning machines &#8211; We are continuously learning and sharing with others. In our company we have what we call the &#8217;90/90/1&#8242; where each of us is working on a side project, or anything that has a learning outcome &#8211; which can then be presented as a deliverable at the end of each month and ultimately culminated each quarter.</li><li>Epic work &#8211; We pride ourselves on the quality of the work we do using the concept of “Work Superpower”. In short, it’s one thing people can rely on you to have an expertise in.</li><li>Never give up &#8211; We work on challenging problems and often find ourselves in difficult situations. This requires us, as individuals and as a team, to be ready to face these hurdles, technical or otherwise, and overcome them.</li><li>We have each other&#8217;s back &#8211; Teams can move faster and produce more value than single individuals. We cultivate a culture where everyone stands to contribute strongly individually, but is also willing to reach out if a team member needs a hand.</li><li>Challenge the status quo &#8211; At its core, HOV is not only an accelerator but also a Tech company. At the intersection of these two domains, innovation and creativity is paramount. This means we like to hear great ideas and cultivate them. Either this is an innovation to our own processes or an idea for a project the company can work on. We are not afraid to experiment.</li></ol>



These are the 5 values that form the core to our work culture, and we don’t take them for granted.



Next, come the work strategies and tools.



Communication and visibility is paramount to remote teams. Because we work remotely, one of the things you have to show for your day is not the number of hours you worked but what work you’ve actually gotten done. This kind of visibility , which is tailored specifically for remote teams, is one of the things our internal tool Identifi provides.



We are continuously iterating and improving our tool where its ultimate goal is to improve/enhance connectivity of individuals in remote teams.



Some of the other well known tools we use are:



<ul><li><a href="https://slack.com/intl/en-pk/">Slack</a>: For day-to-day chatter</li><li><a href="https://www.notion.so">Notion</a>: For discussions, video logs, team goals, and various Documentations</li><li><a href="https://zoom.us">Zoom</a>, Slack video: For weekly video chats, or one-on-one chats, standups</li><li><a href="https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira">Jira</a>: For team project management</li></ul>



At HOV we distinguish team members as either a manager or an individual contributor. Each manager has a 1:1 with their direct reports once a week; this interaction is also facilitated by our internal tool Identifi.



Don&#8217;t forget the activities!



The entire company attends a weekly town hall to discuss updates of various company projects. This makes a huge difference as it gives everyone an idea as to what’s happening on other projects in the company as well as build alignment across teams.



There&#8217;s also the annual company outing where we meet, stay, and relax for a week at a chosen destination. The goal is to have that much needed in-person time that remote teams obviously lack. Unfortunately this year&#8217;s meetup is cancelled due the current unforeseen events.



Heres a photo of our last company outing (fun, right?):



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-style-default"><img width="655" height="575" src="https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/remotework1.png" alt="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/88e3c28c-4832-4615-9989-33daf3be1abd/Untitled.png" class="wp-image-1236" srcset="https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/remotework1.png 655w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/remotework1-300x263.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 655px) 100vw, 655px" /></figure>



There&#8217;s always room for social interaction, even in a remote setting. We hold icebreakers once in a while to get know each other and we like to goof around in other ways too like building some silly apps that we use internally for fun.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-style-default"><img width="1024" height="1024" src="https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/icebreaker-1024x1024.jpg" alt="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/cda430c9-2954-4da0-89fa-dfe36eae39f7/icebreaker.jpg" class="wp-image-1238" srcset="https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/icebreaker-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/icebreaker-300x300.jpg 300w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/icebreaker-150x150.jpg 150w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/icebreaker-768x768.jpg 768w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/icebreaker-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/icebreaker.jpg 2040w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-style-default"><img width="1024" height="748" src="https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/flywheel-1024x748.png" alt="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/8f6d4cfe-e912-4fbd-8e96-d74fe0d57003/Untitled.png" class="wp-image-1239" srcset="https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/flywheel-1024x748.png 1024w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/flywheel-300x219.png 300w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/flywheel-768x561.png 768w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/flywheel.png 1186w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



This is just a glimpse of how we work at High Output Ventures, and how we run the show. If you have comments or thoughts, we&#8217;d love to hear! 



P.s; We&#8217;re always looking for more people to join the team! If you&#8217;re interested, visit our career section to know more (who knows where we travel to next).

Life at HOV

I’ll tell you 6 specific things to stop doing and win at life. Could be offensive.

With the ongoing Covid-19 Pandemic, many companies have shifted to remote work in order to continue their operations. While many would think of this as temporary, the whole situation has opened doors for opportunities and possibilities making remote work a viable option to a lot of companies moving forward.



Whether in our own home or mobile, we get to see the benefits of working remotely. There is more freedom and better control of time allowing more flexibility and amount of work hours and thus increasing productivity. This is just but one example from a long list of perks of remote work. Working from home may sound easy to some but it&#8217;s not always a rosy picture being in this kind of environment.



Here are some things you need to consider and watch out for in a remote work setup:



Distractions



Since our homes are not designed specifically for work, a lot of factors come in that will hinder us from becoming effective. Things that provide comfort in our homes are ironically the very things that decrease productivity. House chores, pets, neighbors, people you live with.. there are distractions everywhere.



What you can do to work around this problem is to dedicate a certain place in your home just for work. Treat it as your office. This will establish a barrier between you and the distractions around you.



Work-life Imbalance



Getting in to work requires only so much effort that coming out of it becomes really difficult, if not impossible. People who are hardworking and love what they do will find it really hard to disconnect. Because work is so accessible more than ever before, other priorities are oftentimes forgotten or even neglected. The idea of &#8220;life outside of work&#8221; becomes vague and seems to be somewhat ineffectual or even pointless. This is perhaps one of the most damaging aspects of working from home. It is really hard to detect as it is developed subconsciously. You can think of it as a process of forming a habit and combining that together with good results like some promotion will make individuals think they&#8217;re doing perfectly well. When left unaddressed, this imbalance can result in serious health problems.



While it brings a lot of advantages to have easier access to work, it is still very important to establish a clear separation between life and work. Things start to get out of hand when you start to merge these two things together and it requires a certain level of awareness to see it.



Awareness in this area can be increased by monitoring the time spent for both life and work. Once the imbalance is clear, changes can be gradually applied to correct it. Increase the activity in the area where you think you&#8217;re failing. Be open about it, to others and more especially to yourself. Talk about it with your partner, your family, or your friends. More often than not, this issue spirals out of control because some people just find it insignificant.



Difficulty in Communication and Collaboration



A factor seen to increase performance is that of collaboration. The ability to work well with others allows individuals to provide tangible impact and effective contributions to the team and company. A very crucial component necessary for collaboration to happen is communication; be it verbal or written, it boils down to how to how effectively individuals relay information. In a remote setup, however, situations are more often presented in a somewhat unprecedented way.



When you speak with someone, there will be times that you won&#8217;t get as much feedback or response. Somehow, people seem to be afraid or shy to raise questions — a situation that gives you mixed signals. One part of your brain tells you that they understood, the other tells you that the silence is a manifestation of confusion. Let alone the technical difficulties that happen consistently such as power shortage and internet connection problems.



To communicate effectively, individuals must be really clear about what they really want to gain in a conversation. When things are not clear, ask questions. When a solution is hardly derived, give suggestions. Dealing with crucial conversations is one great way of eliminating false assumptions across the team.



These are a few of the prevailing challenges in remote-first companies. The efforts to address these issues require effort from both, employee and employer. Cohesion is achieved when the right foundations are built among individuals and throughout the company. So if you think your company can do more to address some of these challenges, raise your concerns to ensure maximum productivity and collaboration thereby creating a better remote work environment!