Welcome, Jill Murray! Tell us about your career to date
Jill Murray: I’ve had a fun journey on the path to my current role at Mindset Consulting as a User Experience Strategist. I started my professional career in the classroom teaching 4th grade. A few years into teaching (many moons ago), I started exploring how to incorporate technology and web tools into the classroom which triggered an interest in an Educational Technology Master’s Degree and a new adventure as an Integration Technology Specialist. I stayed in this role shortly until another new adventure came my way in the edtech space where I jumped feet first into a Product Developer (ie. Product Management) role. It was in this role that I learned all things software development. Most importantly, I learned how essential connecting and collaborating with the end user is to creating solid experiences.
After spending some time getting acquainted with agile and how to integrate ux best practices, I had the opportunity to transition to another company where I was a UX evangelist and built a user experience team. During this time, I loved seeing this company expand with increased customer engagements. And, throughout the entire product development lifecycle. I loved mentoring a team and seeing the team grow. Fast forward to the past month where I couldn’t be more excited to see what this new adventure at Mindset has in store.
Tell us about your personal life
Jill Murray: I am a Midwest gal! When not chasing my four kiddos around loves to travel, read, camp, hike, bike, garden, paint, cook, move, and shake things up when I can. In my house, you cannot turn a corner without being scared or pranked by someone. So, if anyone has any good ideas, I’m all ears. My best one yet was to take on a bet that my 9 year old son gave me. It was getting 200+ people to ‘floss’ during a presentation I gave. It was on the value of UX at a conference in Seattle, Washington in 2019. At the end, the audience not only learned to floss (which was really darn funny) but yelled “Hi Miles” for me. I’m still winning.
What attracted you to Mindset that made you want to join the team?
Jill Murray: I was impressed by how prominent design thinking and user centered design is to Mindset. To work for a company that heavily prioritized and committed to the design thinking process was very appealing. As I learned more, the people, the process, the vision, the culture, and the end goal of helping solve problems for various different companies seemed like a great next adventure.
What are you most looking forward to learning/developing to grow your career?
Jill Murray: For the past several years, I stepped away from the design and research work that I loved. I focused on growing and leading a UX team. I am looking forward to getting back to collaborating directly with end users through design thinking best practices.
What is a quote that captures your spirit?
Jill Murray: “Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive.” –Elbert Hubbard
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