Developing UX

As I mentioned earlier I was invited this month to be a judge at the Sabre Hack Day event. It was a huge honor and a lot of fun. I love these events, but even more I love the fact that Sabre’s senior management see the value in giving their employees the flexibility and freedom to participate is such a great event.

I’ve been to several companies where the theory de jure seems to be around developing a “COE” or Center of Excellence. Unfortunately, most of these COE’s end up being very self-serving and inwardly focused.

I’ve been an advocate of developing a different type of “COE” for a while now. Companies need to look for ways to develop “Cultures of Excellence” or “Communities of Excellence”. That’s the sort of COE’s that are important and that is the sort of thing that Sabre is helping to accomplish. In other words, COE’s need to be outwardly focused – raising the bar for everyone.

Today I’ll be out at the Sabre Holdings Southlake, TX office for another Hack Day. It actually started yesterday at noon, and will not end until 1pm today. (24 hours of pure coding with whom ever and on what ever you want to hack out) I attended the last one and it was a lot of fun. This year, my friend and global Hack Day organizer extraordinair, Jay invite me to participate as a Judge! (I’ve heard that Giovanni Gallucci will be there as well!) This is a true honor and very exciting for me. I can’t wait to see all of the crazy hacks that come out of today!

From last year: