JD recently had the opportunity to appear on MG Group's "Burn The Ships" podcast and chat about Sharpen's approach to product design and his view that politics and entrepreneurship share many of the same struggles when tackling "big ideas."

Today, we’re proud to share that the team behind Clutch and The Manifest recently announced that Sharpen is one of the most-reviewed branding & product-design agencies. This is a huge achievement for us and it is proof of our continued commitment to our clients!

2024 was a big year for Sharpen. But busy as we are, we have some availability for our Unicorn Invasion design sprints coming up in February and March. Companies and products—new and old—can benefit enormously from research-informed product-design services, especially when done quickly and with veteran expertise.

Grab one these spots before they fill up!

We're very excited to share co-founder Michelle Morgan's recent interview on Kristen Rocco's excellent Bold Moves Podcast! It’s a masterclass for the Bold Moves recipe and will inspire you to use the recipe to get going on your Bold Moves this year!

A few days ago, the co-founder of a staffing startup called and asked me what, on the surface, seems like a simple enough question:

“How do you do that affinity mapping thing you do?”

Oh, sure. Is that all?

Sharpen's co-founder JD Jordan was invited to speak at CX Forums Atlanta about how he and his wife have used design-thinking to redesign their careers, their lives, and their family. Check out three clips of JD's presentation.

Most of us struggle to identify the most important thing we need to do. We take inventories of what people expect from us, of what we’ve promised to do for others, of what’s fastest to complete and we prioritize our schedules around these needs.

But how do we prioritize a whole year‽

Experience Transformation is Sharpen’s tested and repeatable process for elevating both the user’s experience and the business’ results through the rigorous application of design-thinking principles and an omnichannel approach to tactical execution.

It’s pretty cool.

Need design help to take your project to the next level? Well, you’re in luck. Sharpen’s Unicorn Invasion gives you a team of veteran creatives who’ll join your squad for a one-week design sprint and level-up your project with a mixture of business analysis and user research all the way to information architecture and high-fidelity visual design.

Today, I’m thrilled to announce the formation of Sharpen Partners—an omnichannel experience-design agency whose nimble and diverse team of veteran creatives use empathy and design-thinking to create exceptional solutions for real problems.

The defining characteristic of UX design is its focus on user research and on an iterative, user-centered, approach to creating solutions. But what if we applied the user-centered design process to ourselves, our lives, and our careers?

What’s one thing you’re grateful for, today?

We answer this gratitude question every day during our daily standup. And this mindful habit has profoundly impacted our individual mental health and how we interact with one another.

We didn’t know we’d be working from home this long! So, as weeks turn into months, it’s time to put some best practices into effect to preserve our productivity and our sanity. Working from home wisely isn’t difficult. It just requires discipline and introspection.

Here are a few tips to help you optimize your WFH experience…

Given the seismic shift Coronavirus and Covid-19 have forced on the way we live and work, I’d like to suggest a new law (in addition to Murphy’s law, Newton’s laws, Hick–Hyman's law, etc). One that deals with the current crisis but which also speaks to long-unsolved user pain points: Covid’s law.

Four techniques and one tip to help you transform your business into one that’s more productive, profitable, and rewarding.

I don’t think this is being said enough: This crisis will end. All crises do. So, let’s reframe the current health and economic crises. And how we get to the other side. Because no one ever climbed a mountain in one step and no one will navigate this crisis by doing just one thing.

Watching the chaos Covid-19 wreaks on the economy, our public social and healthcare infrastructures, and my house (the kids have been home for SIX DAYS, OMG!), it’s hard not to think about the greatest analogous disruption of American and global life.

Most design books and conference talks take an internal-team, product-focused approach to talking about design research. An artifact-centric approach. “We have so much time and so much money and so many people and all the leadership committed to design thinking and customer experience. Let’s do all the things! Yay!”

That’s bullsh*t.

Simon Sinek's Golden Circle is a powerful tool for innovation and building trust. But it falls short of completing the circuit between the person who does and the person it's done for.