my personal hedgehog
I first blogged about my personal hedgehog back in 2008. After a few years, it's high time that I revisited it. This is my new, updated, more accurate personal hedgehog. What is the personal hedgehog, you ask? It's a tool for figuring out what you need to be happy in your career. It is easier to see the hedgehog illustrated:
The personal hedgehog takes into account three factors: what you're passionate about, what you can be best at, and what can support you financially. The target is to find where these three things intersect and use that to define your goal or "happy place." In 2008, my goals were very different. I haven't actually realized some of them just because my tastes have changed over time, and new opportunities have presented themselves that I hadn't yet considered. So below is my updated hedgehog; hopefully this should make my career goals a little clearer.
What am I passionate about?
I am passionate about:
- Delivering quality, usable software products that have real value for consumers/clients.
- Voicing my opinions on the direction of the products I'm working on.
- Working with complex, challenging designs that force me to grow and learn.
- Enjoying the high-paced, high-technology environment of entertainment software and e-commerce.
- Enabling other designers and developers to blossom into their roles.
- Seeing real-world results from my efforts.
What drives my economic engine?
My economic engine is driven by the quality of the user interfaces and software I deliver. My ability to thrive depends on my ability to produce results.
What can I be best in the world at?
I believe what I can bring to the table in any project is a unique blend of creativity, intuition, and technical acumen. I actually don't have a technical background (I was originally trained in graphic design), but I've learned enough of both the technical and creative worlds to bring a blend of those two disciplines together to create unique solutions to the problems that face me. Because of that, I have knack for taking product vision from the 40,000-foot executive view all the way down to the earth as an actionable plan, and I can drive a product forward on all fronts of business and technology.
What is my personal hedgehog?
My personal goal is to continue to grow as a leader in the technology space and to deliver products that I believe in, that I enjoy, and that bring the greatest value to the customer. To that end, I thrive in environments where I am allowed to take charge of a project and really own it from top to bottom, especially in regards to product design and functionality. I want to move into the strategic initiatives and further away from the tactical, but I can easily stride both sides of that fence. I would fit best in roles where I can oversee a product and the people that implement it.
