Pavel Samsonov: Content-First Product Design Leadership – Episode 190

Content Strategy Insights

Pavel Samsonov Pavel Samsonov is a UX product designer with a deep appreciation of content. His content-first approach to design is driven by his observation that navigating digital experiences is about accessing content, not clicking buttons. Pavel has also cultivated a deep awareness of the semantic environments that he and his colleagues navigate and he uses that awareness to align and motivate stakeholders. We talked about: his design work at Amazon Web Services working on products for cloud clients his content-first approach to design his observation that the web is simply made up of containers for forms and forms to input the content his take on the "semantic environment" in organizations the five working backwards questions they use at Amazon how he uses workshops to get executives and other stakeholders to "entertain different views of the world" his take on the difference between validation and research the benefits he sees in working with low-fidelity deliverables the "synthesis process" that he uses to guide user research throughout the design and life of a product the importance of "working locally," starting small and focusing on influencing stakeholders close to you in the org Pavel's bio Pavel Samsonov is a New York-based UX leader exploring the applications of design as a decision-making framework for all areas of product development. He currently builds design practice and leads innovation engagements at AWS. His approach to product & design draws on his experience managing enterprise product teams at Bloomberg, design-driven rapid prototyping in the start-up world, traditional graphic design education, and an academic background in human-computer interaction. Connect with Pavel online LinkedIn BlueSky Medium Video Here’s the video version of our conversation: https://youtu.be/aXsY_4V0yO4 Podcast intro transcript This is the Content Strategy Insights podcast, episode number 190. When it comes to designing digital products, Pavel Samsonov takes a content-first approach, observing that navigating an interactive experience is about accessing content, not clicking a button. In addition to seeing content everywhere, he's deeply tuned in to the semantic environments that he and his colleagues navigate, and he uses that awareness, along with user research and workshops, to motivate stakeholders to entertain new ways of looking at the world. Interview transcript Larry: Hi everyone. Welcome to episode number 190 of the Content Strategy Insights podcast. I am really happy today to welcome to the show Pavel Samsonov. Pavel's a design leader based in New York City, Brooklyn specifically. Welcome to the show, Pavel. Tell the folks a little bit more about what you're up to these days. Pavel: Thanks Larry, it's great to be here. For the past couple of years I've been at Amazon Web Services, and I know what everyone's thinking. It's not really necessarily known for incredible UX design. So my role is a bit interesting. Pavel: I work with customers who are in the AWS Cloud, sort of as a consultant, helping them design new experiences in more efficient ways than they're used to. So we're effectively bringing a cloud native design culture to those customers, and it's combining a lot of the things Amazon is known for, like the working backwards process, with some of the design knowledge that I bring from my experience, both as a UX designer and also as a product manager, which was my role before doing this. Pavel: It's been really, really interesting, because unlike a lot of designers, we start really high up in the value chain. We're right there when the account managers are first talking to these customers about, "Well, you've done the what we call lift and shift. You've taken all your stuff, you've moved the existing apps into the cloud, and now what? What do you do next?" And by the time they're talking to me,