# nicolarushton.com > AI-optimized mirror of nicolarushton.com containing 39 pages totalling 25,207 words of clean markdown content, structured data, and semantic HTML. Original source: https://nicolarushton.com/. Last updated: 2026-06-12T11:48:14.549Z. Each page is available as HTML (with JSON-LD structured data) and Markdown (text-only, ideal for LLMs and RAG). ## Homepage - [Hi! I’m Nicola, a product designer who loves creating software for startups (and startups-at-heart).](/content/site-root.html): Hi! I'm a freelance product designer based in Amsterdam. I can help you use research and design to ship useful and usable products., Hi! I'm a freelance product designer based in Amsterdam. I can help you use research and design to ship useful and usable products. (242 words) ## Articles & Blog Posts - [about — nicola rushton](/content/about/index.html): Contact Nicola Rushton for design consulting, freelance UX/UI, workshops, learning user research, visual design for startups, and more., Contact Nicola Rushton for design consulting, freelance UX/UI, workshops, learning user research, visual design for startups, and more. (286 words) - [nicola rushton](/content/cart/index.html) (1 words) - [blog/how-to-asking-good-questions-in-a-user-interview/index.html](/content/blog/how-to-asking-good-questions-in-a-user-interview/index.html) (1 words) - [blog/the-lean-product-design-process/index.html](/content/blog/the-lean-product-design-process/index.html) (1 words) - [stories/the-year-according-to-my-top-songs-on-spotify/index.html](/content/stories/the-year-according-to-my-top-songs-on-spotify/index.html) (1 words) - [now (feb 2019)](/content/stories/now-feb19/index.html): The Cambridge Lodge, Stanmore, Sydney, Australia The now page is simply a place to point people who wonder what I'm up to now. Thanks to the magical  Cecilia Macaulay for the recommendation., (1,386 words) - [sitemap-xml.html](/content/sitemap-xml.html) (1 words) - [A research project: Gathering apartment data for the government](/content/snsw-strata-data/index.html) (1,172 words) - [A skincare tracking app with the power of big data.](/content/kinnd/index.html) (1,158 words) - [An NFT creation and management platform](/content/rcrdshp-creator-suite/index.html) (776 words) - [When is sorry the wrong thing to say?](/content/stories/when-is-sorry-the-wrong-thing-to-say/index.html): From the age of fourteen-and-nine-months, and for six years thenceforth, I worked at Franklins. Franklins (blessed Franklins) is no longer. In its heyday it was a discount supermarket to rival the best — wide aisles to fit any mobility vehicle, teetering stacks of Coke boxes placed right by the tro, (1,677 words) - [How to run a retro that doesn't suck](/content/blog/how-to-run-a-retro-that-doesnt-suck/index.html): Everyone should do retrospectives — not just agile software teams. Agile retrospectives. If they have a reputation at all, it’s not for being very exciting. Not many people think: You know what? I freaking love retro! It’s just a meeting, right? Wrong! Why? Because great retros make great tea, (847 words) - [on the tourist mindset.](/content/stories/on-the-tourist-mindset/index.html): Arches national park, Utah.  Right now, I am a tourist. I am travelling; I am spending time at locations designed specifically for tourists; I am amongst tourists. This means I am a tourist. I will not engage in travel snobbery - pontificate on the differences between travellers and to, (1,542 words) - [GameChanger: Video & streaming for youth sports](/content/gamechanger/index.html) (364 words) - [Stop doing user interviews. Start having conversations.](/content/blog/stop-doing-user-interviews-start-having-conversations.html): The case for relaxing in user research There’s something I’ve realised lately, that’s making my user interviews go smoother and getting deeper, more nuanced insights. I want to share it with you: The key is this: relax. Take a step back, for a moment. What is a user interview? If yours are l, (1,251 words) - [On compromise between design and engineering](/content/blog/on-compromise-between-design-and-engineering/index.html): This is what I send (and talk through) with any new engineering teams I’m working with. My goal is to make it clear that designs are a living document and there’s space for compromise throughout the engineering process. 🤠 Executive summary/TLDR Consistency and reusability are the goal! , (888 words) - [individualism and the built environment](/content/stories/individualism-and-the-built-environment-1/index.html): Sydney | Sunday 24 March 2019 I went walking around Stanmore. A peaceful leafy suburb, Victorian worker's cottages and flaking pastel terraces lined with footpaths shaded by Frangipanis and draped with pink flowering crepe myrtles. Coming towards the grey concrete roar of Parramatta road, , (1,346 words) - [Environments Shape Cultures](/content/stories/environments-shape-cultures/index.html): I've been thinking a lot about the effect environments have on behaviour. I'm uniquely placed, right now, to observe the impact environment has on my own behaviour. Over the last year, I've done life in a lot of different environments. When i say environment, we can take that to mean a few thing, (1,075 words) - [Hi! I’m Nicola, a product designer who loves creating software for startups (and startups-at-heart).](/content/work/index.html): Hi! I'm a freelance product designer based in Amsterdam. I can help you use research and design to ship useful and usable products., Hi! I'm a freelance product designer based in Amsterdam. I can help you use research and design to ship useful and usable products. (242 words) - [a design autobiography…](/content/stories/my-design-history/index.html): 👩‍💻 A few key moments in my design history… 2004 - My first Dolly magazine subscription - honestly, peak inspiration. ALL I WANTED as a rural teenager was to work there!, (388 words) - [now (march 2021)](/content/stories/now-march2021/index.html): Amsterdam, Netherlands Like it did for most of us, my 2020 disappeared into a series of similar days. For the first time in a very long time, I saw four seasons from the same window. At 31 I was forced to settle down . I slept in the same bed for 365 nights in a row. The good: Developing , (877 words) - [[a design autobiography…](/content/stories/my-design-history/index.html)](/content/stories/index.html): What I'm thinking about today. Frequently: design, community, travel, life planning, digital nomadism., What I'm thinking about today. Frequently: design, community, travel, life planning, digital nomadism. (158 words) - [Why the warm-up questions in a user interview are so important](/content/blog/why-the-warm-up-questions-in-a-user-interview-are-so-important.html): A few years ago I was walking down Glebe Point Road after a pleasant morning at the markets. Suddenly, a guy with a big microphone came up to me and asked if he could record a vox pop for his podcast. I said sure. He pointed the mic at me and asked me, right off the bat, “So. How has social me, (699 words) - [now (dec 2019)](/content/stories/nowdec2019/index.html): Paddington, NSW + Bushfire The now page is simply a place to point people who wonder what I'm up to now. nomadding ➡️ not nomadding I went to Madrid and ate menus del dia. And icy cold Lourdes and got dunked in holy water, meant to protect me from sickness. And promptly proceeded into one o, (891 words) - [now (july 2022)](/content/stories/now/index.html): Amsterdam, Netherlands The now page is simply a place to point people who wonder what I'm up to now. 2022 is better than 2021, and 2021 was better than 2020. The lockdowns - please god let me be right in saying this - seem to be over. Monkeypox and climate change and war in Ukraine ar, (701 words) - [The Future of Living](/content/uko/index.html) (340 words) - [:Different owner app](/content/different-owner-app/index.html) (71 words) - [Notes on taking notes (in user interviews)](/content/blog/notes-on-taking-notes-in-user-interviews/index.html): This is a note I send to anyone on my team who I’m asking to take notes in a user interview. If that’s you, thanks so much for your help! 💖 Being a note-taker in a user interview is an important role — perhaps more than you might initially think. Being asked to take notes in a normal meeting i, (650 words) - [a theory of change.](/content/stories/atheoryofchange/index.html): Orange, NSW Memory is hackable. Maybe change is the secret to a longer life.  My life, which is my memory, is broken up into chunks. The chunk where I was living in Leichhardt having baths every night listening to that one song by Chet Faker . The chunk when I was obsessed with Zumba , (622 words) - [[The lean product design process: A guide](/content/blog/the-lean-product-design-process/index.html)](/content/blog/index.html): Writing by Nicola Rushton on design process, product management, lean UX and agile user research., Writing by Nicola Rushton on design process, product management, lean UX and agile user research. (140 words) - [Speaking engagements](/content/speaking/index.html) (107 words) - [Property report customiser](/content/property-report/index.html) (54 words) - [Smart Help](/content/smarthelp/index.html) (26 words) - [Helping art galleries and museums jump onto the NFT trend](/content/patron-of-art/index.html) (94 words) - [UX + VISUAL DESIGN | 2018](/content/qualie-platform/index.html) (79 words) - [Contact — nicola rushton](/content/contact/index.html) (33 words) - [Postfacto](/content/postfacto/index.html) (24 words) - [The researcher as a facilitator of learning: Awkward Silences podcast](/content/blog/awkward-silences-podcast/index.html): I was lucky enough to be a guest on the UX research podcast Awkward Silences in 2020. Their write-up is here , and you can listen to it here ., , This week on Awkward Silences, we talked to pro UX designer and researcher Nicola Rushton. She's worked with teams large and small to facilitate fantastic research. She walked us through how she does it and how to think of researchers as facilitators of learning. Read all about it here: https://bit.ly/2VRwqSk (4,996 words) ## Resources - [Full Page Index](/index.html): Browse all cached pages with rich metadata - [About This Cache](/content/about.html): Methodology, technical details, and usage guidelines - [XML Sitemap](/sitemap.xml): Machine-readable sitemap for crawler discovery - [Robots.txt](/robots.txt): Crawler directives