Category: Blog

I’d like you to consider this a “yes … and” piece to complement Joe’s post. I’m not trying to reject any of what he’s saying but instead provide some awareness to projects and possibilities where AI can generate substantial differences for people with disabilities. To be clear, I’m not saying that there aren’t true threats or pressing problems with AI that need to be addressed—there are, and we’ve needed to address them, like, yesterday—but I want to take a little time to talk about what’s possible in hope that we’ll get there one day.

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Joe’s part spends a lot of time talking about computer-vision types generating other words. He highlights a ton of true issues with the current state of things. And while computer-vision concepts continue to improve in the quality and complexity of information in their information, their benefits aren’t wonderful. As he rightly points out, the current state of image analysis is pretty poor—especially for certain image types—in large part because current AI systems examine images in isolation rather than within the contexts that they’re in ( which is a consequence of having separate “foundation” models for text analysis and image analysis ). Today’s models aren’t trained to distinguish between images that are contextually relevant ( that should probably have descriptions ) and those that are purely decorative ( which might not need a description ) either. Still, I still think there’s potential in this space.

As Joe mentions, human-in-the-loop authoring of alt text should absolutely be a thing. And if AI can pop in to offer a starting point for alt text—even if that starting point might be a prompt saying What is this BS? That’s not right at all … Let me try to offer a starting point— I think that’s a win.

Taking things a step further, if we can specifically train a model to analyze image usage in context, it could help us more quickly identify which images are likely to be decorative and which ones likely require a description. That will help reinforce which contexts call for image descriptions and it’ll improve authors ‘ efficiency toward making their pages more accessible.

While complex images—like graphs and charts—are challenging to describe in any sort of succinct way ( even for humans ), the image example shared in the GPT4 announcement points to an interesting opportunity as well. Let’s suppose that you came across a chart whose description was simply the title of the chart and the kind of visualization it was, such as: Pie chart comparing smartphone usage to feature phone usage among US households making under$ 30, 000 a year. ( That would be a pretty awful alt text for a chart since that would tend to leave many questions about the data unanswered, but then again, let’s suppose that that was the description that was in place. ) If your browser knew that that image was a pie chart ( because an onboard model concluded this ), imagine a world where users could ask questions like these about the graphic:

• Do more people use smartphones or feature phones?
• How many more?
• Is there a group of people that don’t fall into either of these buckets?
• How many is that?

Setting aside the realities of large language model ( LLM) hallucinations—where a model just makes up plausible-sounding “facts” —for a moment, the opportunity to learn more about images and data in this way could be revolutionary for blind and low-vision folks as well as for people with various forms of color blindness, cognitive disabilities, and so on. It could also be useful in educational contexts to help people who can see these charts, as is, to understand the data in the charts.

Taking things a step further: What if you could ask your browser to simplify a complex chart? What if you could ask it to isolate a single line on a line graph? What if you could ask your browser to transpose the colors of the different lines to work better for form of color blindness you have? What if you could ask it to swap colors for patterns? Given these tools ‘ chat-based interfaces and our existing ability to manipulate images in today’s AI tools, that seems like a possibility.

Now imagine a purpose-built model that could extract the information from that chart and convert it to another format. For example, perhaps it could turn that pie chart ( or better yet, a series of pie charts ) into more accessible ( and useful ) formats, like spreadsheets. That would be amazing!

Matching algorithms

Safiya Umoja Noble absolutely hit the nail on the head when she titled her book Algorithms of Oppression. While her book was focused on the ways that search engines reinforce racism, I think that it’s equally true that all computer models have the potential to amplify conflict, bias, and intolerance. Whether it’s Twitter always showing you the latest tweet from a bored billionaire, YouTube sending us into a Q-hole, or Instagram warping our ideas of what natural bodies look like, we know that poorly authored and maintained algorithms are incredibly harmful. A lot of this stems from a lack of diversity among the people who shape and build them. When these platforms are built with inclusively baked in, however, there’s real potential for algorithm development to help people with disabilities.

Take Mentra, for example. They are an employment network for neurodivergent people. They use an algorithm to match job seekers with potential employers based on over 75 data points. On the job-seeker side of things, it considers each candidate’s strengths, their necessary and preferred workplace accommodations, environmental sensitivities, and so on. On the employer side, it considers each work environment, communication factors related to each job, and the like. As a company run by neurodivergent folks, Mentra made the decision to flip the script when it came to typical employment sites. They use their algorithm to propose available candidates to companies, who can then connect with job seekers that they are interested in, reducing the emotional and physical labor on the job-seeker side of things.

When more people with disabilities are involved in the creation of algorithms, that can reduce the chances that these algorithms will inflict harm on their communities. That’s why diverse teams are so important.

Imagine that a social media company’s recommendation engine was tuned to analyze who you’re following and if it was tuned to prioritize follow recommendations for people who talked about similar things but who were different in some key ways from your existing sphere of influence. For example, if you were to follow a bunch of nondisabled white male academics who talk about AI, it could suggest that you follow academics who are disabled or aren’t white or aren’t male who also talk about AI. If you took its recommendations, perhaps you’d get a more holistic and nuanced understanding of what’s happening in the AI field. These same systems should also use their understanding of biases about particular communities—including, for instance, the disability community—to make sure that they aren’t recommending any of their users follow accounts that perpetuate biases against (or, worse, spewing hate toward ) those groups.

Other ways that AI can helps people with disabilities

If I weren’t trying to put this together between other tasks, I’m sure that I could go on and on, providing all kinds of examples of how AI could be used to help people with disabilities, but I’m going to make this last section into a bit of a lightning round. In no particular order:

Voice preservation. You may have seen the VALL-E paper or Apple’s Global Accessibility Awareness Day announcement or you may be familiar with the voice-preservation offerings from Microsoft, Acapela, or others. It’s possible to train an AI model to replicate your voice, which can be a tremendous boon for people who have ALS ( Lou Gehrig’s disease ) or motor-neuron disease or other medical conditions that can lead to an inability to talk. This is, of course, the same tech that can also be used to create audio deepfakes, so it’s something that we need to approach responsibly, but the tech has truly transformative potential.
• Voice recognition. Researchers like those in the Speech Accessibility Project are paying people with disabilities for their help in collecting recordings of people with atypical speech. As I type, they are actively recruiting people with Parkinson’s and related conditions, and they have plans to expand this to other conditions as the project progresses. This research will result in more inclusive data sets that will let more people with disabilities use voice assistants, dictation software, and voice-response services as well as control their computers and other devices more easily, using only their voice.
• Text transformation. The current generation of LLMs is quite capable of adjusting existing text content without injecting hallucinations. This is hugely empowering for people with cognitive disabilities who may benefit from text summaries or simplified versions of text or even text that’s prepped for Bionic Reading.

The importance of diverse teams and data

We need to recognize that our differences matter. Our lived experiences are influenced by the intersections of the identities that we exist in. These lived experiences—with all their complexities ( and joys and pain ) —are valuable inputs to the software, services, and societies that we shape. Our differences need to be represented in the data that we use to train new models, and the folks who contribute that valuable information need to be compensated for sharing it with us. Inclusive data sets yield more robust models that foster more equitable outcomes.

Want a model that doesn’t demean or patronize or objectify people with disabilities? Make sure that you have content about disabilities that’s authored by people with a range of disabilities, and make sure that that’s well represented in the training data.

Want a model that doesn’t use ableist language? You may be able to use existing data sets to build a filter that can intercept and remediate ableist language before it reaches readers. That being said, when it comes to sensitivity reading, AI models won’t be replacing human copy editors anytime soon.

Want a coding copilot that gives you accessible recommendations from the jump? Train it on code that you know to be accessible.

I have no doubt that AI can and will harm people … today, tomorrow, and well into the future. But I also believe that we can acknowledge that and, with an eye towards accessibility ( and, more broadly, inclusion ), make thoughtful, considerate, and intentional changes in our approaches to AI that will reduce harm over time as well. Today, tomorrow, and well into the future.

Many thanks to Kartik Sawhney for helping me with the development of this piece, Ashley Bischoff for her invaluable editorial assistance, and, of course, Joe Dolson for the prompt.

7 Paths to a Powerful Startup written by Jarret Redding read more at Duct Tape Selling

The Duct Tape Marketing Podcast with Lori Rosenkopf In this instance of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast, I interviewed Lori Rosenkopf, Vice Dean of Entrepreneurship at the Wharton School and publisher of Unstoppable Entrepreneurs: Seven Paths for Unleashing Successful Startups and Creating Value Through Innovation. Lori’s research on entrepreneurship, business growth, and innovation has been ]… ]

7 Paths to a Powerful Startup written by Jarret Redding read more at Duct Tape Selling

The Duct Tape Marketing Podcast with Lori Rosenkopf

In this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast, I interviewed Lori Rosenkopf, Vice Dean of Entrepreneurship at the Wharton School and author of Unstoppable Entrepreneurs: Seven Paths for Unleashing Successful Startups and Creating Value Through Innovation. Lori’s research on entrepreneurship, business growth, and innovation has been published in top academic journals, and she has spent years studying what truly sets successful entrepreneurs apart.

During our discussion, Lori shared perspectives from her guide, focusing on the seven different paths to business success. She highlighted the importance of endurance, resilience, and business plan, emphasizing that there is no one formula for success. From bootstrapping a business to employing endeavor capital, each route offers unique opportunities and problems.

Important Takeaways:

• Startup victory isn’t one-size-fits-all – Entrepreneurs you achieve success through various pathways, including business development, tech startups, and company pivots.
• Bootstrapping builds endurance – Some powerful founders delay seeking business money, giving them more power over their perspective and business growth strategies.
• Recombination energy development – Entrepreneurs who mixture unique experience and expertise often discover discovery ideas that lead to business success.
• Mindset matters – A strong innovative mindset helps business owners understand business problems and acquire growth opportunities.
• Pivoting can lead to significant breakthroughs – The ability to adapt and change direction is a important characteristic of thriving small business owners.
• Funding isn’t the only way to scaling – While opportunity investment is one route, some startups accomplish business resilience by reinvesting profits and expanding carefully.

• Success takes time and persistence – The media highlights overnight success stories, but real entrepreneurship is about long-term strategy, innovation, and problem-solving.

Chapters:

• ]00: 09 ] Introducing Lori Rosenkopf
• ]00: 53] Telling Real Entrepreneur Stories
• ]03: 59] The Six R&#8217, s
• ]06: 33] The Realities of Disrupting the Market
• ]07: 37] Bootstrapping
• ]09: 58 ] Technology Commercializers
• ]11: 17 ] Accidental Entrepreneur
• ]15: 20] Defining Innovation

More About Lori Rosenkopf:

Check out Lori Rosenkopf &#8217, s Website
• Connect with Lori Rosenkopf on LinkedIn
• Read Unstoppable Entrepreneurs: 7 Paths for Unleashing Successful Startups and Creating Value through Innovation by Lori Rosenkopf

Always since I was a child, I’ve been fascinated with videos. I loved the heroes and the excitement—but most of all the stories. I wanted to be an actor. And I believed that I’d get to do the things that Indiana Jones did and go on fascinating experiences. I also dreamed up suggestions for videos that my friends and I could create and sun in. But they never went any farther. I did, however, end up working in user experience ( UX). Today, I realize that there’s an element of drama to UX— I hadn’t actually considered it before, but consumer research is story. And to get the most out of consumer research, you need to show a good account where you bring stakeholders—the solution team and choice makers—along and getting them interested in learning more.

Think of your favourite film. More than likely it follows a three-act construction that’s frequently seen in story: the layout, the fight, and the quality. The second act shows what exists now, and it helps you get to know the figures and the challenges and problems that they face. Act two introduces the turmoil, where the action is. Here, issues grow or get worse. And the third and final work is the solution. This is where the issues are resolved and the figures learn and change. I believe that this architecture is also a great way to think about customer study, and I think that it can be particularly helpful in explaining person exploration to others.

Use story as a framework to complete research

It’s sad to say, but many have come to see studies as being inconsequential. If finances or timelines are small, analysis tends to be one of the first points to go. Instead of investing in study, some goods professionals rely on manufacturers or—worse—their personal judgment to make the “right” options for users based on their experience or accepted best practices. That may get clubs some of the way, but that strategy is so easily miss out on solving people ‘ real problems. To be user-centered, this is something we really avoid. User studies puts style. It keeps it on trail, pointing to problems and opportunities. Being aware of the issues with your product and reacting to them can help you stay away of your competition.

In the three-act structure, each action corresponds to a part of the process, and each part is important to telling the whole story. Let’s look at the different functions and how they align with customer study.

Act one: layout

The layout is all about understanding the background, and that’s where fundamental research comes in. Basic research ( also called conceptual, discovery, or preliminary research ) helps you understand people and identify their problems. You’re learning about what exists now, the obstacles people have, and how the problems affect them—just like in the videos. To do foundational research, you can conduct contextual inquiries or diary studies ( or both! ), which can help you start to identify problems as well as opportunities. It doesn’t need to be a huge investment in time or money.

Erika Hall writes about minimum viable ethnography, which can be as simple as spending 15 minutes with a user and asking them one thing:”‘ Walk me through your day yesterday.’ That’s it. Present that one request. Shut up and listen to them for 15 minutes. Do your damndest to keep yourself and your interests out of it. Bam, you’re doing ethnography”. According to Hall, “]This ] will probably prove quite illuminating. In the highly unlikely case that you didn’t learn anything new or useful, carry on with enhanced confidence in your direction”.

This makes total sense to me. And I love that this makes user research so accessible. You don’t need to prepare a lot of documentation, you can just recruit participants and do it! This can yield a wealth of information about your users, and it’ll help you better understand them and what’s going on in their lives. That’s really what act one is all about: understanding where users are coming from.

Jared Spool talks about the importance of foundational research and how it should form the bulk of your research. If you can draw from any additional user data that you can get your hands on, such as surveys or analytics, that can supplement what you’ve heard in the foundational studies or even point to areas that need further investigation. Together, all this data paints a clearer picture of the state of things and all its shortcomings. And that’s the beginning of a compelling story. It’s the point in the plot where you realize that the main characters—or the users in this case—are facing challenges that they need to overcome. Like in the movies, this is where you start to build empathy for the characters and root for them to succeed. And hopefully stakeholders are now doing the same. Their sympathy may be with their business, which could be losing money because users can’t complete certain tasks. Or maybe they do empathize with users ‘ struggles. Either way, act one is your initial hook to get the stakeholders interested and invested.

Once stakeholders begin to understand the value of foundational research, that can open doors to more opportunities that involve users in the decision-making process. And that can guide product teams toward being more user-centered. This benefits everyone—users, the product, and stakeholders. It’s like winning an Oscar in movie terms—it often leads to your product being well received and successful. And this can be an incentive for stakeholders to repeat this process with other products. Storytelling is the key to this process, and knowing how to tell a good story is the only way to get stakeholders to really care about doing more research.

This brings us to act two, where you iteratively evaluate a design or concept to see whether it addresses the issues.

Act two: conflict

Act two is all about digging deeper into the problems that you identified in act one. This usually involves directional research, such as usability tests, where you assess a potential solution ( such as a design ) to see whether it addresses the issues that you found. The issues could include unmet needs or problems with a flow or process that’s tripping users up. Like act two in a movie, more issues will crop up along the way. It’s here that you learn more about the characters as they grow and develop through this act.

Usability tests should typically include around five participants according to Jakob Nielsen, who found that that number of users can usually identify most of the problems:” As you add more and more users, you learn less and less because you will keep seeing the same things again and again… After the fifth user, you are wasting your time by observing the same findings repeatedly but not learning much new”.

There are parallels with storytelling here too, if you try to tell a story with too many characters, the plot may get lost. Having fewer participants means that each user’s struggles will be more memorable and easier to relay to other stakeholders when talking about the research. This can help convey the issues that need to be addressed while also highlighting the value of doing the research in the first place.

Researchers have run usability tests in person for decades, but you can also conduct usability tests remotely using tools like Microsoft Teams, Zoom, or other teleconferencing software. This approach has become increasingly popular since the beginning of the pandemic, and it works well. You can think of in-person usability tests like going to a play and remote sessions as more like watching a movie. There are advantages and disadvantages to each. In-person usability research is a much richer experience. Stakeholders can experience the sessions with other stakeholders. You also get real-time reactions—including surprise, agreement, disagreement, and discussions about what they’re seeing. Much like going to a play, where audiences get to take in the stage, the costumes, the lighting, and the actors ‘ interactions, in-person research lets you see users up close, including their body language, how they interact with the moderator, and how the scene is set up.

If in-person usability testing is like watching a play—staged and controlled—then conducting usability testing in the field is like immersive theater where any two sessions might be very different from one another. You can take usability testing into the field by creating a replica of the space where users interact with the product and then conduct your research there. Or you can go out to meet users at their location to do your research. With either option, you get to see how things work in context, things come up that wouldn’t have in a lab environment—and conversion can shift in entirely different directions. As researchers, you have less control over how these sessions go, but this can sometimes help you understand users even better. Meeting users where they are can provide clues to the external forces that could be affecting how they use your product. In-person usability tests provide another level of detail that’s often missing from remote usability tests.

That’s not to say that the “movies” —remote sessions—aren’t a good option. Remote sessions can reach a wider audience. They allow a lot more stakeholders to be involved in the research and to see what’s going on. And they open the doors to a much wider geographical pool of users. But with any remote session there is the potential of time wasted if participants can’t log in or get their microphone working.

The benefit of usability testing, whether remote or in person, is that you get to see real users interact with the designs in real time, and you can ask them questions to understand their thought processes and grasp of the solution. This can help you not only identify problems but also glean why they’re problems in the first place. Furthermore, you can test hypotheses and gauge whether your thinking is correct. By the end of the sessions, you’ll have a much clearer picture of how usable the designs are and whether they work for their intended purposes. Act two is the heart of the story—where the excitement is—but there can be surprises too. This is equally true of usability tests. Often, participants will say unexpected things, which change the way that you look at things —and these twists in the story can move things in new directions.

Unfortunately, user research is sometimes seen as expendable. And too often usability testing is the only research process that some stakeholders think that they ever need. In fact, if the designs that you’re evaluating in the usability test aren’t grounded in a solid understanding of your users ( foundational research ), there’s not much to be gained by doing usability testing in the first place. That’s because you’re narrowing the focus of what you’re getting feedback on, without understanding the users ‘ needs. As a result, there’s no way of knowing whether the designs might solve a problem that users have. It’s only feedback on a particular design in the context of a usability test.

On the other hand, if you only do foundational research, while you might have set out to solve the right problem, you won’t know whether the thing that you’re building will actually solve that. This illustrates the importance of doing both foundational and directional research.

In act two, stakeholders will—hopefully—get to watch the story unfold in the user sessions, which creates the conflict and tension in the current design by surfacing their highs and lows. And in turn, this can help motivate stakeholders to address the issues that come up.

Act three: resolution

While the first two acts are about understanding the background and the tensions that can propel stakeholders into action, the third part is about resolving the problems from the first two acts. While it’s important to have an audience for the first two acts, it’s crucial that they stick around for the final act. That means the whole product team, including developers, UX practitioners, business analysts, delivery managers, product managers, and any other stakeholders that have a say in the next steps. It allows the whole team to hear users ‘ feedback together, ask questions, and discuss what’s possible within the project’s constraints. And it lets the UX research and design teams clarify, suggest alternatives, or give more context behind their decisions. So you can get everyone on the same page and get agreement on the way forward.

This act is mostly told in voiceover with some audience participation. The researcher is the narrator, who paints a picture of the issues and what the future of the product could look like given the things that the team has learned. They give the stakeholders their recommendations and their guidance on creating this vision.

Nancy Duarte in the Harvard Business Review offers an approach to structuring presentations that follow a persuasive story. ” The most effective presenters use the same techniques as great storytellers: By reminding people of the status quo and then revealing the path to a better way, they set up a conflict that needs to be resolved”, writes Duarte. ” That tension helps them persuade the audience to adopt a new mindset or behave differently”.

This type of structure aligns well with research results, and particularly results from usability tests. It provides evidence for “what is “—the problems that you’ve identified. And “what could be “—your recommendations on how to address them. And so on and so forth.

You can reinforce your recommendations with examples of things that competitors are doing that could address these issues or with examples where competitors are gaining an edge. Or they can be visual, like quick mockups of how a new design could look that solves a problem. These can help generate conversation and momentum. And this continues until the end of the session when you’ve wrapped everything up in the conclusion by summarizing the main issues and suggesting a way forward. This is the part where you reiterate the main themes or problems and what they mean for the product—the denouement of the story. This stage gives stakeholders the next steps and hopefully the momentum to take those steps!

While we are nearly at the end of this story, let’s reflect on the idea that user research is storytelling. All the elements of a good story are there in the three-act structure of user research:

Act one: You meet the protagonists ( the users ) and the antagonists ( the problems affecting users ). This is the beginning of the plot. In act one, researchers might use methods including contextual inquiry, ethnography, diary studies, surveys, and analytics. The output of these methods can include personas, empathy maps, user journeys, and analytics dashboards.

Act two: Next, there’s character development. There’s conflict and tension as the protagonists encounter problems and challenges, which they must overcome. In act two, researchers might use methods including usability testing, competitive benchmarking, and heuristics evaluation. The output of these can include usability findings reports, UX strategy documents, usability guidelines, and best practices.

Act three: The protagonists triumph and you see what a better future looks like. In act three, researchers may use methods including presentation decks, storytelling, and digital media. The output of these can be: presentation decks, video clips, audio clips, and pictures.

The researcher has multiple roles: they’re the storyteller, the director, and the producer. The participants have a small role, but they are significant characters ( in the research ). And the stakeholders are the audience. But the most important thing is to get the story right and to use storytelling to tell users ‘ stories through research. By the end, the stakeholders should walk away with a purpose and an eagerness to resolve the product’s ills.

So the next time that you’re planning research with clients or you’re speaking to stakeholders about research that you’ve done, think about how you can weave in some storytelling. Ultimately, user research is a win-win for everyone, and you just need to get stakeholders interested in how the story ends.

Between the dream of getting it right and the fear of it going wrong—like when we encounter “persofails” in the vein of a company constantly imploring daily consumers to buy more toilet seats—the personalization gap is true. It’s an particularly confusing place to be a modern professional without a map, a map, or a strategy.

For those of you venturing into customisation, there’s no Lonely Planet and some tour guides because powerful personalization is so specific to each group’s skills, systems, and market place.

But you can ensure that your team has packed its bags sensibly.

There’s a DIY formula to increase your chances for success. At minimum, you’ll defuse your boss’s irrational exuberance. Before the party you’ll need to effectively prepare.

We call it prepersonalization.

Behind the music

Consider Spotify’s DJ feature, which debuted this past year.

We’re used to seeing the polished final result of a personalization feature. Before the year-end award, the making-of backstory, or the behind-the-scenes victory lap, a personalized feature had to be conceived, budgeted, and prioritized. Before any personalization feature goes live in your product or service, it lives amid a backlog of worthy ideas for expressing customer experiences more dynamically.

So how do you know where to place your personalization bets? How do you design consistent interactions that won’t trip up users or—worse—breed mistrust? We’ve found that for many budgeted programs to justify their ongoing investments, they first needed one or more workshops to convene key stakeholders and internal customers of the technology. Make yours count.

​ From Big Tech to fledgling startups, we’ve seen the same evolution up close with our clients. In our experiences with working on small and large personalization efforts, a program’s ultimate track record—and its ability to weather tough questions, work steadily toward shared answers, and organize its design and technology efforts—turns on how effectively these prepersonalization activities play out.

Time and again, we’ve seen effective workshops separate future success stories from unsuccessful efforts, saving countless time, resources, and collective well-being in the process.

A personalization practice involves a multiyear effort of testing and feature development. It’s not a switch-flip moment in your tech stack. It’s best managed as a backlog that often evolves through three steps:

1. customer experience optimization ( CXO, also known as A/B testing or experimentation )
2. always-on automations ( whether rules-based or machine-generated )
3. mature features or standalone product development ( such as Spotify’s DJ experience )

This is why we created our progressive personalization framework and why we’re field-testing an accompanying deck of cards: we believe that there’s a base grammar, a set of “nouns and verbs” that your organization can use to design experiences that are customized, personalized, or automated. You won’t need these cards. But we strongly recommend that you create something similar, whether that might be digital or physical.

Set your kitchen timer

How long does it take to cook up a prepersonalization workshop? The surrounding assessment activities that we recommend including can ( and often do ) span weeks. For the core workshop, we recommend aiming for two to three days. Here’s a summary of our broader approach along with details on the essential first-day activities.

The full arc of the wider workshop is threefold:

Kickstart: This sets the terms of engagement as you focus on the opportunity as well as the readiness and drive of your team and your leadership..
1. Plan your work: This is the heart of the card-based workshop activities where you specify a plan of attack and the scope of work.
2. Work your plan: This phase is all about creating a competitive environment for team participants to individually pitch their own pilots that each contain a proof-of-concept project, its business case, and its operating model.

Give yourself at least a day, split into two large time blocks, to power through a concentrated version of those first two phases.

Kickstart: Whet your appetite

We call the first lesson the “landscape of connected experience“. It explores the personalization possibilities in your organization. A connected experience, in our parlance, is any UX requiring the orchestration of multiple systems of record on the backend. This could be a content-management system combined with a marketing-automation platform. It could be a digital-asset manager combined with a customer-data platform.

Spark conversation by naming consumer examples and business-to-business examples of connected experience interactions that you admire, find familiar, or even dislike. This should cover a representative range of personalization patterns, including automated app-based interactions ( such as onboarding sequences or wizards ), notifications, and recommenders. We have a catalog of these in the cards. Here’s a list of 142 different interactions to jog your thinking.

This is all about setting the table. What are the possible paths for the practice in your organization? If you want a broader view, here’s a long-form primer and a strategic framework.

Assess each example that you discuss for its complexity and the level of effort that you estimate that it would take for your team to deliver that feature ( or something similar ). In our cards, we divide connected experiences into five levels: functions, features, experiences, complete products, and portfolios. Size your own build here. This will help to focus the conversation on the merits of ongoing investment as well as the gap between what you deliver today and what you want to deliver in the future.

Next, have your team plot each idea on the following 2×2 grid, which lays out the four enduring arguments for a personalized experience. This is critical because it emphasizes how personalization can not only help your external customers but also affect your own ways of working. It’s also a reminder ( which is why we used the word argument earlier ) of the broader effort beyond these tactical interventions.

Each team member should vote on where they see your product or service putting its emphasis. Naturally, you can’t prioritize all of them. The intention here is to flesh out how different departments may view their own upsides to the effort, which can vary from one to the next. Documenting your desired outcomes lets you know how the team internally aligns across representatives from different departments or functional areas.

The third and final kickstart activity is about naming your personalization gap. Is your customer journey well documented? Will data and privacy compliance be too big of a challenge? Do you have content metadata needs that you have to address? ( We’re pretty sure that you do: it’s just a matter of recognizing the relative size of that need and its remedy. ) In our cards, we’ve noted a number of program risks, including common team dispositions. Our Detractor card, for example, lists six stakeholder behaviors that hinder progress.

Effectively collaborating and managing expectations is critical to your success. Consider the potential barriers to your future progress. Press the participants to name specific steps to overcome or mitigate those barriers in your organization. As studies have shown, personalization efforts face many common barriers.

At this point, you’ve hopefully discussed sample interactions, emphasized a key area of benefit, and flagged key gaps? Good—you’re ready to continue.

Hit that test kitchen

Next, let’s look at what you’ll need to bring your personalization recipes to life. Personalization engines, which are robust software suites for automating and expressing dynamic content, can intimidate new customers. Their capabilities are sweeping and powerful, and they present broad options for how your organization can conduct its activities. This presents the question: Where do you begin when you’re configuring a connected experience?

What’s important here is to avoid treating the installed software like it were a dream kitchen from some fantasy remodeling project ( as one of our client executives memorably put it ). These software engines are more like test kitchens where your team can begin devising, tasting, and refining the snacks and meals that will become a part of your personalization program’s regularly evolving menu.

The ultimate menu of the prioritized backlog will come together over the course of the workshop. And creating “dishes” is the way that you’ll have individual team stakeholders construct personalized interactions that serve their needs or the needs of others.

The dishes will come from recipes, and those recipes have set ingredients.

Verify your ingredients

Like a good product manager, you’ll make sure—andyou’ll validate with the right stakeholders present—that you have all the ingredients on hand to cook up your desired interaction ( or that you can work out what needs to be added to your pantry ). These ingredients include the audience that you’re targeting, content and design elements, the context for the interaction, and your measure for how it’ll come together.

This isn’t just about discovering requirements. Documenting your personalizations as a series of if-then statements lets the team:

1. compare findings toward a unified approach for developing features, not unlike when artists paint with the same palette,
2. specify a consistent set of interactions that users find uniform or familiar,
3. and develop parity across performance measurements and key performance indicators too.

This helps you streamline your designs and your technical efforts while you deliver a shared palette of core motifs of your personalized or automated experience.

Compose your recipe

What ingredients are important to you? Think of a who-what-when-why construct:

• Who are your key audience segments or groups?
• What kind of content will you give them, in what design elements, and under what circumstances?
• And for which business and user benefits?

We first developed these cards and card categories five years ago. We regularly play-test their fit with conference audiences and clients. And we still encounter new possibilities. But they all follow an underlying who-what-when-why logic.

Here are three examples for a subscription-based reading app, which you can generally follow along with right to left in the cards in the accompanying photo below.

1. Nurture personalization: When a guest or an unknown visitor interacts with a product title, a banner or alert bar appears that makes it easier for them to encounter a related title they may want to read, saving them time.
2. Welcome automation: When there’s a newly registered user, an email is generated to call out the breadth of the content catalog and to make them a happier subscriber.
3. Winback automation: Before their subscription lapses or after a recent failed renewal, a user is sent an email that gives them a promotional offer to suggest that they reconsider renewing or to remind them to renew.

A useful preworkshop activity may be to think through a first draft of what these cards might be for your organization, although we’ve also found that this process sometimes flows best through cocreating the recipes themselves. Start with a set of blank cards, and begin labeling and grouping them through the design process, eventually distilling them to a refined subset of highly useful candidate cards.

You can think of the later stages of the workshop as moving from recipes toward a cookbook in focus—like a more nuanced customer-journey mapping. Individual” cooks” will pitch their recipes to the team, using a common jobs-to-be-done format so that measurability and results are baked in, and from there, the resulting collection will be prioritized for finished design and delivery to production.

Better kitchens require better architecture

Simplifying a customer experience is a complicated effort for those who are inside delivering it. Beware anyone who says otherwise. With that being said,” Complicated problems can be hard to solve, but they are addressable with rules and recipes“.

When personalization becomes a laugh line, it’s because a team is overfitting: they aren’t designing with their best data. Like a sparse pantry, every organization has metadata debt to go along with its technical debt, and this creates a drag on personalization effectiveness. Your AI’s output quality, for example, is indeed limited by your IA. Spotify’s poster-child prowess today was unfathomable before they acquired a seemingly modest metadata startup that now powers its underlying information architecture.

You can definitely stand the heat …

Personalization technology opens a doorway into a confounding ocean of possible designs. Only a disciplined and highly collaborative approach will bring about the necessary focus and intention to succeed. So banish the dream kitchen. Instead, hit the test kitchen to save time, preserve job satisfaction and security, and safely dispense with the fanciful ideas that originate upstairs of the doers in your organization. There are meals to serve and mouths to feed.

This workshop framework gives you a fighting shot at lasting success as well as sound beginnings. Wiring up your information layer isn’t an overnight affair. But if you use the same cookbook and shared recipes, you’ll have solid footing for success. We designed these activities to make your organization’s needs concrete and clear, long before the hazards pile up.

While there are associated costs toward investing in this kind of technology and product design, your ability to size up and confront your unique situation and your digital capabilities is time well spent. Don’t squander it. The proof, as they say, is in the pudding.

One of the most exciting nations in the world of The Wheel of Time is that of the Aiel persons, who dwell in the desert to the south of the Dragonwall mountain range. Like those in the West, they have a prophecy about the Dragon Reborn, but to them he is the car ‘a’carn, or Chief ]… ]

The article The Wheel of Time Season 3 Visits the Aiel Waste With a Prophecy Reminiscent of Dune appeared first on Den of Geek.

It’s out it today. As all the rades are reporting, Sadie Sink, finest known for her breakthrough role as Max Mayfield in Stranger Things, may join the cast of Spider-Man 4. While Marvel Studios has yet to validate the media, fans are already speculating about which figure Sink may present in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s following Spider-Man history.

Obviously, just about every aspect of Spider-Man 4 is anyone’s best imagine at this time. However, Sink’s standing design, appearance, and Spider-Man’s current position in the MCU do suggest some interesting opportunities. With all things considered, and all disclosures applied, here are some of the most renowned personalities that Sadie Sink could perform in Spider-Man 4. &nbsp,

Jean Grey

One of the most common fan theories at the moment suggests that Sink did present Jean Grey in the future Spider-Man picture. Granted, that idea seems to be pushed hardest by those looking for big Marvel figures with dramatic red locks that Sink could sing ( hey, fan-casting isn’t always the deepest quest! ), but a closer look at this position reveals a more powerful discussion. &nbsp,

Kevin Feige has already said that he’s interested in incorporating X-Men figures into existing Device jobs as Marvel Studios builds toward their first appropriate X-Men pictures. If they are interested in casting Sadie Sink as Jean Grey in the long term ( which would seemingly be a pretty great choice ), then she certainly could debut in a Spider-Man storyline that has been rocked by multiverse shenanigans. That said, Jean Grey and Spider-Man team-ups have been fairly rare in the cartoons over the years. If Jean Grey is going to be introduced to the MCU via Spider-Man 4, then that drama may have to revolve around Spider-Man’s entry to the larger mutated area.

Kitty Pryde

Another X-Men casting chance, Kitty Pryde really has a well-established previous marriage with Peter Parker in several Marvel Comics legend. The two have complementary combat skills, matching attitudes, and even dated each other for a brief time in the Ultimate universe. &nbsp, &nbsp,

It’s that more intimate relationship which makes Kitty Pryde such a fascinating casting possibility for Sadie Sink. Given the hard reset Peter’s life took at the end of No Way Home, it’s easier to imagine Peter meeting Kitty Pryde in his new life, striking up some kind of relationship with her, and exploring new possibilities as well as being properly introduced to the entire mutant community. Sink’s age and character oeuvre to date make her a seemingly perfect fit for Kitty Pryde, though it’s reasonable to wonder if Pryde is enough of a major name to secure one of those coveted “X-Men cameo spots” that Feige hinted at.

Mary Jane Watson&nbsp,

If you subscribe to the” Sadie Sink must play a red headed character in the MCU” philosophy ( as many seem to do ), then you must consider the Mary Jane Watson possibility. &nbsp,

Yes, casting Sadie Sink as MJ in Spider-Man 4 would seemingly require the use of multiverse shenanigans or a small army of convenient plot points. Then again, these are the Spider-Man MCU movies we’re talking about! Multiversal shenanigans and convenient plotting is the name of the game! However it may happen, it’s hard to deny that Sink is seemingly a good fit for the classic Mary Jane role. It would be intriguing to watch Peter explore a relationship with another Ms. Watson now that he and Zendaya’s Michelle Jones-Watson have softly been split by the events of the previous film. That said … two MJs? In this economy? &nbsp,

Gwen Stacy

When you hear that a notable actress has reportedly been cast in a major role in an upcoming Spider-Man movie, it’s only natural to think” Gwen Stacy”. The death of Gwen Stacy is one of the most pivotal moments in Peter’s life, though the narrative evolution of the recent Marvel Spider-Man movies made it highly unlikely that we’d ever see Stacy in an MCU film outside of, perhaps, a cameo or No Way Home’s throwaway reference to the character.

Nowadays though, things are a bit different. If Marvel is interested in giving fans a full Gwen Stacy storyline, they would pretty much have to take advantage of this unique time when Peter’s life has effectively been reset and he’s free to explore a variety of possibilities that would have previously seemed impossible. It’s a stretch, but Gwen Stacy true believers have renewed reason to hope. &nbsp,

Black Cat/Felicia Hardy

Black Cat has to be one of the betting favorites for Sink’s Spider-Man 4 role. While there have been rumors of a Black Cat appearance in a Spider-Man movie for about as long as we’ve had Spider-Man movies, we’ve yet to see the formidable thief or her alter-ego Felicia Hardy in a live-action adventure. ( Sorry, Felicity Jones is never 100 percent confirmed to be Felicia Hardy in her blink and you miss The Amazing Spider-Man 2 cameo. ) Not only would now be a great time to bring Black Cat into the MCU, but Sink is seemingly in a fantastic position to potentially continue playing that character in future MCU projects. &nbsp,

If you subscribe to the idea that Sink is likely playing some kind of potential love interest who creates a complication in Peter’s life ( again, a safe bet given everything we suspect about Spider-Man 4 and this casting ), then Black Cat arguably makes the most sense. She would be the easiest addition to the movies from a logistical standpoint, and her antihero status could fit the darker direction that Peter’s adventures will likely take now that he has gone to great lengths to upend his life. &nbsp,

Spider-Woman 

This is seemingly the least likely casting possibility for Sadie Sink, but we should still talk about the Spider-Woman in the room. Bringing Spider-Woman into the MCU would not only give Peter Parker a new partner in crime-fighting but could open the door to bigger” Spider-Verse” storylines to come. If you also suspect that Sink may end up making multiple MCU appearances, then casting her as Spider-Woman would seemingly open the door to major future possibilities.

Whether or not Sink would play one of the existing lore versions of Spider-Woman ( perhaps Jessica Drew or the aforementioned Gwen Stacy ), or a new version of the superhero is another matter entirely. There’s also the issue of Sony’s Spider-Man pictures and their reported interest in a future Spider-Woman project. While it seems likely that the spell Strange performed at the end of No Way Home will have consequences that could create crossover potential from a plot standpoint, the legal rights may be far more challenging to navigate. So while this is one of the least likely possibilities, a Spider-Woman appearance would enable some fascinating storyline options in the long term.

The post Spider-Man 4: Who Is Sadie Sink Playing in the MCU? appeared first on Den of Geek.

The only thing more caring than being a student? Lowering one. That’s a take-home from new Netflix play Adolescence, which follows the aftereffects of a 13-year-old’s arrest on suspicion of murder. It’s an excellent four-parter driven by a hungry question: how could something so awful happen, and what is to responsible? Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham’s ]…]

The article Adolescence Episode 3 Is Amazing Television appeared second on Den of Geek.

It’s out it today. As all the rades are reporting, Sadie Sink, finest known for her breakthrough role as Max Mayfield in Stranger Things, may join the cast of Spider-Man 4. While Marvel Studios has yet to validate the media, fans are already speculating about which figure Sink may present in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s following Spider-Man history.

Obviously, just about every aspect of Spider-Man 4 is anyone’s best imagine at this time. However, Sink’s standing design, appearance, and Spider-Man’s current position in the MCU do suggest some interesting opportunities. With all things considered, and all disclosures applied, here are some of the most renowned personalities that Sadie Sink could perform in Spider-Man 4. &nbsp,

Jean Grey

One of the most common fan theories at the moment suggests that Sink did present Jean Grey in the future Spider-Man picture. Granted, that idea seems to be pushed hardest by those looking for big Marvel figures with dramatic red locks that Sink could sing ( hey, fan-casting isn’t always the deepest quest! ), but a closer look at this situation reveals a more compelling argument. &nbsp,

Kevin Feige has already said that he’s interested in incorporating X-Men characters into existing MCU projects as Marvel Studios builds toward their first proper X-Men films. If they are interested in casting Sadie Sink as Jean Grey in the long term ( which would seemingly be a pretty great choice ), then she certainly could debut in a Spider-Man storyline that has been rocked by multiverse shenanigans. That said, Jean Grey and Spider-Man team-ups have been relatively rare in the comics over the years. If Jean Grey is going to be introduced to the MCU via Spider-Man 4, then that movie may have to revolve around Spider-Man’s introduction to the larger mutant community.

Kitty Pryde

Another X-Men casting possibility, Kitty Pryde actually has a well-established prior relationship with Peter Parker in various Marvel Comics lore. The two have complementary combat skills, matching attitudes, and even dated each other for a brief time in the Ultimate universe. &nbsp, &nbsp,

It’s that more intimate relationship which makes Kitty Pryde such a fascinating casting possibility for Sadie Sink. Given the hard reset Peter’s life took at the end of No Way Home, it’s easier to imagine Peter meeting Kitty Pryde in his new life, striking up some kind of relationship with her, and exploring new possibilities as well as being properly introduced to the entire mutant community. Sink’s age and character oeuvre to date make her a seemingly perfect fit for Kitty Pryde, though it’s reasonable to wonder if Pryde is enough of a major name to secure one of those coveted “X-Men cameo spots” that Feige hinted at.

Mary Jane Watson&nbsp,

If you subscribe to the” Sadie Sink must play a red headed character in the MCU” philosophy ( as many seem to do ), then you must consider the Mary Jane Watson possibility. &nbsp,

Yes, casting Sadie Sink as MJ in Spider-Man 4 would seemingly require the use of multiverse shenanigans or a small army of convenient plot points. Then again, these are the Spider-Man MCU movies we’re talking about! Multiversal shenanigans and convenient plotting is the name of the game! However it may happen, it’s hard to deny that Sink is seemingly a good fit for the classic Mary Jane role. It would be intriguing to watch Peter explore a relationship with another Ms. Watson now that he and Zendaya’s Michelle Jones-Watson have softly been split by the events of the previous film. That said … two MJs? In this economy? &nbsp,

Gwen Stacy

When you hear that a notable actress has reportedly been cast in a major role in an upcoming Spider-Man movie, it’s only natural to think” Gwen Stacy”. The death of Gwen Stacy is one of the most pivotal moments in Peter’s life, though the narrative evolution of the recent Marvel Spider-Man movies made it highly unlikely that we’d ever see Stacy in an MCU film outside of, perhaps, a cameo or No Way Home’s throwaway reference to the character.

Nowadays though, things are a bit different. If Marvel is interested in giving fans a full Gwen Stacy storyline, they would pretty much have to take advantage of this unique time when Peter’s life has effectively been reset and he’s free to explore a variety of possibilities that would have previously seemed impossible. It’s a stretch, but Gwen Stacy true believers have renewed reason to hope. &nbsp,

Black Cat/Felicia Hardy

Black Cat has to be one of the betting favorites for Sink’s Spider-Man 4 role. While there have been rumors of a Black Cat appearance in a Spider-Man movie for about as long as we’ve had Spider-Man movies, we’ve yet to see the formidable thief or her alter-ego Felicia Hardy in a live-action adventure. ( Sorry, Felicity Jones is never 100 percent confirmed to be Felicia Hardy in her blink and you miss The Amazing Spider-Man 2 cameo. ) Not only would now be a great time to bring Black Cat into the MCU, but Sink is seemingly in a fantastic position to potentially continue playing that character in future MCU projects. &nbsp,

If you subscribe to the idea that Sink is likely playing some kind of potential love interest who creates a complication in Peter’s life ( again, a safe bet given everything we suspect about Spider-Man 4 and this casting ), then Black Cat arguably makes the most sense. She would be the easiest addition to the movies from a logistical standpoint, and her antihero status could fit the darker direction that Peter’s adventures will likely take now that he has gone to great lengths to upend his life. &nbsp,

Spider-Woman 

This is seemingly the least likely casting possibility for Sadie Sink, but we should still talk about the Spider-Woman in the room. Bringing Spider-Woman into the MCU would not only give Peter Parker a new partner in crime-fighting but could open the door to bigger” Spider-Verse” storylines to come. If you also suspect that Sink may end up making multiple MCU appearances, then casting her as Spider-Woman would seemingly open the door to major future possibilities.

Whether or not Sink would play one of the existing lore versions of Spider-Woman ( perhaps Jessica Drew or the aforementioned Gwen Stacy ), or a new version of the superhero is another matter entirely. There’s also the issue of Sony’s Spider-Man pictures and their reported interest in a future Spider-Woman project. While it seems likely that the spell Strange performed at the end of No Way Home will have consequences that could create crossover potential from a plot standpoint, the legal rights may be far more challenging to navigate. So while this is one of the least likely possibilities, a Spider-Woman appearance would enable some fascinating storyline options in the long term.

The post Spider-Man 4: Who Is Sadie Sink Playing in the MCU? appeared first on Den of Geek.

It’s out it today. As all the rades are reporting, Sadie Sink, finest known for her breakthrough role as Max Mayfield in Stranger Things, may join the cast of Spider-Man 4. While Marvel Studios has yet to validate the media, fans are currently speculating about which figure Sink may present in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s ]…]

The article Spider-Man 4: Who Is Sadie Sink Playing in the MCU? appeared primary on Den of Geek.

It’s out it today. As all the rades are reporting, Sadie Sink, finest known for her breakthrough role as Max Mayfield in Stranger Things, may join the cast of Spider-Man 4. While Marvel Studios has yet to validate the media, fans are already speculating about which figure Sink may present in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s following Spider-Man history.

Obviously, just about every aspect of Spider-Man 4 is anyone’s best think at this time. However, Sink’s standing design, appearance, and Spider-Man’s current position in the MCU do suggest some interesting opportunities. With all things considered, and all disclosures applied, here are some of the most renowned personalities that Sadie Sink could perform in Spider-Man 4. &nbsp,

Jean Grey

One of the most common fan theories at the moment suggests that Sink did present Jean Grey in the future Spider-Man picture. Granted, that idea seems to be pushed hardest by those looking for big Marvel figures with dramatic red locks that Sink could sing ( hey, fan-casting isn’t always the deepest quest! ), but a closer look at this position reveals a more powerful discussion. &nbsp,

Kevin Feige has already said that he’s interested in incorporating X-Men figures into existing Device jobs as Marvel Studios builds toward their first appropriate X-Men pictures. If they are interested in casting Sadie Sink as Jean Grey in the long term ( which would seemingly be a pretty great choice ), then she certainly could debut in a Spider-Man storyline that has been rocked by multiverse shenanigans. That said, Jean Grey and Spider-Man team-ups have been relatively rare in the comics over the years. If Jean Grey is going to be introduced to the MCU via Spider-Man 4, then that movie may have to revolve around Spider-Man’s introduction to the larger mutant community.

Kitty Pryde

Another X-Men casting possibility, Kitty Pryde actually has a well-established prior relationship with Peter Parker in various Marvel Comics lore. The two have complementary combat skills, matching attitudes, and even dated each other for a brief time in the Ultimate universe. &nbsp, &nbsp,

It’s that more intimate relationship which makes Kitty Pryde such a fascinating casting possibility for Sadie Sink. Given the hard reset Peter’s life took at the end of No Way Home, it’s easier to imagine Peter meeting Kitty Pryde in his new life, striking up some kind of relationship with her, and exploring new possibilities as well as being properly introduced to the entire mutant community. Sink’s age and character oeuvre to date make her a seemingly perfect fit for Kitty Pryde, though it’s reasonable to wonder if Pryde is enough of a major name to secure one of those coveted “X-Men cameo spots” that Feige hinted at.

Mary Jane Watson&nbsp,

If you subscribe to the” Sadie Sink must play a red headed character in the MCU” philosophy ( as many seem to do ), then you must consider the Mary Jane Watson possibility. &nbsp,

Yes, casting Sadie Sink as MJ in Spider-Man 4 would seemingly require the use of multiverse shenanigans or a small army of convenient plot points. Then again, these are the Spider-Man MCU movies we’re talking about! Multiversal shenanigans and convenient plotting is the name of the game! However it may happen, it’s hard to deny that Sink is seemingly a good fit for the classic Mary Jane role. It would be intriguing to watch Peter explore a relationship with another Ms. Watson now that he and Zendaya’s Michelle Jones-Watson have softly been split by the events of the previous film. That said … two MJs? In this economy? &nbsp,

Gwen Stacy

When you hear that a notable actress has reportedly been cast in a major role in an upcoming Spider-Man movie, it’s only natural to think” Gwen Stacy”. The death of Gwen Stacy is one of the most pivotal moments in Peter’s life, though the narrative evolution of the recent Marvel Spider-Man movies made it highly unlikely that we’d ever see Stacy in an MCU film outside of, perhaps, a cameo or No Way Home’s throwaway reference to the character.

Nowadays though, things are a bit different. If Marvel is interested in giving fans a full Gwen Stacy storyline, they would pretty much have to take advantage of this unique time when Peter’s life has effectively been reset and he’s free to explore a variety of possibilities that would have previously seemed impossible. It’s a stretch, but Gwen Stacy true believers have renewed reason to hope. &nbsp,

Black Cat/Felicia Hardy

Black Cat has to be one of the betting favorites for Sink’s Spider-Man 4 role. While there have been rumors of a Black Cat appearance in a Spider-Man movie for about as long as we’ve had Spider-Man movies, we’ve yet to see the formidable thief or her alter-ego Felicia Hardy in a live-action adventure. ( Sorry, Felicity Jones is never 100 percent confirmed to be Felicia Hardy in her blink and you miss The Amazing Spider-Man 2 cameo. ) Not only would now be a great time to bring Black Cat into the MCU, but Sink is seemingly in a fantastic position to potentially continue playing that character in future MCU projects. &nbsp,

If you subscribe to the idea that Sink is likely playing some kind of potential love interest who creates a complication in Peter’s life ( again, a safe bet given everything we suspect about Spider-Man 4 and this casting ), then Black Cat arguably makes the most sense. She would be the easiest addition to the movies from a logistical standpoint, and her antihero status could fit the darker direction that Peter’s adventures will likely take now that he has gone to great lengths to upend his life. &nbsp,

Spider-Woman 

This is seemingly the least likely casting possibility for Sadie Sink, but we should still talk about the Spider-Woman in the room. Bringing Spider-Woman into the MCU would not only give Peter Parker a new partner in crime-fighting but could open the door to bigger” Spider-Verse” storylines to come. If you also suspect that Sink may end up making multiple MCU appearances, then casting her as Spider-Woman would seemingly open the door to major future possibilities.

Whether or not Sink would play one of the existing lore versions of Spider-Woman ( perhaps Jessica Drew or the aforementioned Gwen Stacy ), or a new version of the superhero is another matter entirely. There’s also the issue of Sony’s Spider-Man pictures and their reported interest in a future Spider-Woman project. While it seems likely that the spell Strange performed at the end of No Way Home will have consequences that could create crossover potential from a plot standpoint, the legal rights may be far more challenging to navigate. So while this is one of the least likely possibilities, a Spider-Woman appearance would enable some fascinating storyline options in the long term.

The article Spider-Man 4: Who Is Sadie Sink Playing in the MCU? appeared primary on Den of Geek.

American writer-director Zak Hilditch knows exactly what to say when people ask what his next picture, We Bury the Dead, is on. ” Oh, it’s a Daisy Ridley monster movie”, he laughs while in an exclusive discussion at our Southwest workshop. But Hilditch even knows there’s a lot more to his new movie than that. ” There ]… ]

The article Daisy Ridley Is Reinventing the Zombie Movie appeared initially on Den of Geek.

It’s out it today. As all the rades are reporting, Sadie Sink, finest known for her breakthrough role as Max Mayfield in Stranger Things, may join the cast of Spider-Man 4. While Marvel Studios has yet to validate the media, fans are already speculating about which figure Sink may present in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s following Spider-Man history.

Obviously, just about every aspect of Spider-Man 4 is anyone’s best imagine at this time. However, Sink’s standing design, appearance, and Spider-Man’s current position in the MCU do suggest some interesting opportunities. With all things considered, and all disclosures applied, here are some of the most renowned personalities that Sadie Sink could perform in Spider-Man 4. &nbsp,

Jean Grey

One of the most common fan theories at the moment suggests that Sink did present Jean Grey in the future Spider-Man picture. Granted, that idea seems to be pushed hardest by those looking for big Marvel figures with dramatic red locks that Sink could sing ( hey, fan-casting isn’t always the deepest quest! ), but a closer look at this position reveals a more powerful discussion. &nbsp,

Kevin Feige has already said that he’s interested in incorporating X-Men figures into existing Device jobs as Marvel Studios builds toward their first appropriate X-Men pictures. If they are interested in casting Sadie Sink as Jean Grey in the long term ( which would seemingly be a pretty great choice ), then she certainly could debut in a Spider-Man storyline that has been rocked by multiverse shenanigans. That said, Jean Grey and Spider-Man team-ups have been fairly rare in the comics over the years. If Jean Grey is going to be introduced to the MCU via Spider-Man 4, then that drama may have to revolve around Spider-Man’s entry to the larger mutated area.

Kitty Pryde

Another X-Men casting chance, Kitty Pryde really has a well-established previous marriage with Peter Parker in several Marvel Comics legend. The two have comparable combat skills, matching behaviour, and yet dated each other for a short time in the Ultimate world. &nbsp, &nbsp,

It’s that more intimate relationship which makes Kitty Pryde such a fascinating casting possibility for Sadie Sink. Given the hard reset Peter’s life took at the end of No Way Home, it’s easier to imagine Peter meeting Kitty Pryde in his new life, striking up some kind of relationship with her, and exploring new possibilities as well as being properly introduced to the entire mutant community. Sink’s age and character oeuvre to date make her a seemingly perfect fit for Kitty Pryde, though it’s reasonable to wonder if Pryde is enough of a major name to secure one of those coveted” X-Men cameo spots” that Feige hinted at.

Mary Jane Watson&nbsp,

If you subscribe to the” Sadie Sink must play a red headed character in the MCU “philosophy ( as many seem to do ), then you must consider the Mary Jane Watson possibility. &nbsp,

Yes, casting Sadie Sink as MJ in Spider-Man 4 would seemingly require the use of multiverse shenanigans or a small army of convenient plot points. Then again, these are the Spider-Man MCU movies we’re talking about! Multiversal shenanigans and convenient plotting is the name of the game! However it may happen, it’s hard to deny that Sink is seemingly a good fit for the classic Mary Jane role. It would be intriguing to watch Peter explore a relationship with another Ms. Watson now that he and Zendaya’s Michelle Jones-Watson have softly been split by the events of the previous film. That said … two MJs? In this economy? &nbsp,

Gwen Stacy

When you hear that a notable actress has reportedly been cast in a major role in an upcoming Spider-Man movie, it’s only natural to think” Gwen Stacy. “ The death of Gwen Stacy is one of the most pivotal moments in Peter’s life, though the narrative evolution of the recent Marvel Spider-Man movies made it highly unlikely that we’d ever see Stacy in an MCU film outside of, perhaps, a cameo or No Way Home’s throwaway reference to the character.

Nowadays though, things are a bit different. If Marvel is interested in giving fans a full Gwen Stacy storyline, they would pretty much have to take advantage of this unique time when Peter’s life has effectively been reset and he’s free to explore a variety of possibilities that would have previously seemed impossible. It’s a stretch, but Gwen Stacy true believers have renewed reason to hope. &nbsp,

Black Cat/Felicia Hardy

Black Cat has to be one of the betting favorites for Sink’s Spider-Man 4 role. While there have been rumors of a Black Cat appearance in a Spider-Man movie for about as long as we’ve had Spider-Man movies, we’ve yet to see the formidable thief or her alter-ego Felicia Hardy in a live-action adventure. ( Sorry, Felicity Jones is never 100 percent confirmed to be Felicia Hardy in her blink and you miss The Amazing Spider-Man 2 cameo. ) Not only would now be a great time to bring Black Cat into the MCU, but Sink is seemingly in a fantastic position to potentially continue playing that character in future MCU projects. &nbsp,

If you subscribe to the idea that Sink is likely playing some kind of potential love interest who creates a complication in Peter’s life ( again, a safe bet given everything we suspect about Spider-Man 4 and this casting ), then Black Cat arguably makes the most sense. She would be the easiest addition to the movies from a logistical standpoint, and her antihero status could fit the darker direction that Peter’s adventures will likely take now that he has gone to great lengths to upend his life. &nbsp,

Spider-Woman 

This is seemingly the least likely casting possibility for Sadie Sink, but we should still talk about the Spider-Woman in the room. Bringing Spider-Woman into the MCU would not only give Peter Parker a new partner in crime-fighting but could open the door to bigger” Spider-Verse” storylines to come. If you also suspect that Sink may end up making multiple MCU appearances, then casting her as Spider-Woman would seemingly open the door to major future possibilities.

Whether or not Sink would play one of the existing lore versions of Spider-Woman ( perhaps Jessica Drew or the aforementioned Gwen Stacy ), or a new version of the superhero is another matter entirely. There’s also the issue of Sony’s Spider-Man pictures and their reported interest in a future Spider-Woman project. While it seems likely that the spell Strange performed at the end of No Way Home will have consequences that could create crossover potential from a plot standpoint, the legal rights may be far more challenging to navigate. So while this is one of the least likely possibilities, a Spider-Woman appearance would enable some fascinating storyline options in the long term.

The post Spider-Man 4: Who Is Sadie Sink Playing in the MCU? appeared first on Den of Geek.

Like a sky of candyfloss twirled around its stay, the sweetest, wispiest stuff can have a strong core, merely as individuals with the prettiest mindsets have often had the stormiest life. The same applies to Television displays. A program that seems quirky on the surface does turn out to have detail and steel beneath its ]…]

The article The Dog House Isn’t a Dog Dating Show, It’s Therapy appeared first on Den of Geek.

It’s out it today. As all the rades are reporting, Sadie Sink, finest known for her breakthrough role as Max Mayfield in Stranger Things, may join the cast of Spider-Man 4. While Marvel Studios has yet to validate the media, fans are already speculating about which figure Sink may present in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s following Spider-Man history.

Obviously, just about every aspect of Spider-Man 4 is anyone’s best think at this time. However, Sink’s standing design, appearance, and Spider-Man’s current position in the MCU do suggest some interesting opportunities. With all things considered, and all disclosures applied, here are some of the most renowned personalities that Sadie Sink could perform in Spider-Man 4. &nbsp,

Jean Grey

One of the most common fan theories at the moment suggests that Sink did present Jean Grey in the future Spider-Man picture. Granted, that idea seems to be pushed hardest by those looking for big Marvel figures with dramatic red locks that Sink could sing ( hey, fan-casting isn’t always the deepest quest! ), but a closer look at this situation reveals a more compelling argument. &nbsp,

Kevin Feige has already said that he’s interested in incorporating X-Men characters into existing MCU projects as Marvel Studios builds toward their first proper X-Men films. If they are interested in casting Sadie Sink as Jean Grey in the long term ( which would seemingly be a pretty great choice ), then she certainly could debut in a Spider-Man storyline that has been rocked by multiverse shenanigans. That said, Jean Grey and Spider-Man team-ups have been relatively rare in the comics over the years. If Jean Grey is going to be introduced to the MCU via Spider-Man 4, then that movie may have to revolve around Spider-Man’s introduction to the larger mutant community.

Kitty Pryde

Another X-Men casting possibility, Kitty Pryde actually has a well-established prior relationship with Peter Parker in various Marvel Comics lore. The two have complementary combat skills, matching attitudes, and even dated each other for a brief time in the Ultimate universe. &nbsp, &nbsp,

It’s that more intimate relationship which makes Kitty Pryde such a fascinating casting possibility for Sadie Sink. Given the hard reset Peter’s life took at the end of No Way Home, it’s easier to imagine Peter meeting Kitty Pryde in his new life, striking up some kind of relationship with her, and exploring new possibilities as well as being properly introduced to the entire mutant community. Sink’s age and character oeuvre to date make her a seemingly perfect fit for Kitty Pryde, though it’s reasonable to wonder if Pryde is enough of a major name to secure one of those coveted “X-Men cameo spots” that Feige hinted at.

Mary Jane Watson&nbsp,

If you subscribe to the” Sadie Sink must play a red headed character in the MCU” philosophy ( as many seem to do ), then you must consider the Mary Jane Watson possibility. &nbsp,

Yes, casting Sadie Sink as MJ in Spider-Man 4 would seemingly require the use of multiverse shenanigans or a small army of convenient plot points. Then again, these are the Spider-Man MCU movies we’re talking about! Multiversal shenanigans and convenient plotting is the name of the game! However it may happen, it’s hard to deny that Sink is seemingly a good fit for the classic Mary Jane role. It would be intriguing to watch Peter explore a relationship with another Ms. Watson now that he and Zendaya’s Michelle Jones-Watson have softly been split by the events of the previous film. That said … two MJs? In this economy? &nbsp,

Gwen Stacy

When you hear that a notable actress has reportedly been cast in a major role in an upcoming Spider-Man movie, it’s only natural to think” Gwen Stacy”. The death of Gwen Stacy is one of the most pivotal moments in Peter’s life, though the narrative evolution of the recent Marvel Spider-Man movies made it highly unlikely that we’d ever see Stacy in an MCU film outside of, perhaps, a cameo or No Way Home’s throwaway reference to the character.

Nowadays though, things are a bit different. If Marvel is interested in giving fans a full Gwen Stacy storyline, they would pretty much have to take advantage of this unique time when Peter’s life has effectively been reset and he’s free to explore a variety of possibilities that would have previously seemed impossible. It’s a stretch, but Gwen Stacy true believers have renewed reason to hope. &nbsp,

Black Cat/Felicia Hardy

Black Cat has to be one of the betting favorites for Sink’s Spider-Man 4 role. While there have been rumors of a Black Cat appearance in a Spider-Man movie for about as long as we’ve had Spider-Man movies, we’ve yet to see the formidable thief or her alter-ego Felicia Hardy in a live-action adventure. ( Sorry, Felicity Jones is never 100 percent confirmed to be Felicia Hardy in her blink and you miss The Amazing Spider-Man 2 cameo. ) Not only would now be a great time to bring Black Cat into the MCU, but Sink is seemingly in a fantastic position to potentially continue playing that character in future MCU projects. &nbsp,

If you subscribe to the idea that Sink is likely playing some kind of potential love interest who creates a complication in Peter’s life ( again, a safe bet given everything we suspect about Spider-Man 4 and this casting ), then Black Cat arguably makes the most sense. She would be the easiest addition to the movies from a logistical standpoint, and her antihero status could fit the darker direction that Peter’s adventures will likely take now that he has gone to great lengths to upend his life. &nbsp,

Spider-Woman 

This is seemingly the least likely casting possibility for Sadie Sink, but we should still talk about the Spider-Woman in the room. Bringing Spider-Woman into the MCU would not only give Peter Parker a new partner in crime-fighting but could open the door to bigger” Spider-Verse” storylines to come. If you also suspect that Sink may end up making multiple MCU appearances, then casting her as Spider-Woman would seemingly open the door to major future possibilities.

Whether or not Sink would play one of the existing lore versions of Spider-Woman ( perhaps Jessica Drew or the aforementioned Gwen Stacy ), or a new version of the superhero is another matter entirely. There’s also the issue of Sony’s Spider-Man pictures and their reported interest in a future Spider-Woman project. While it seems likely that the spell Strange performed at the end of No Way Home will have consequences that could create crossover potential from a plot standpoint, the legal rights may be far more challenging to navigate. So while this is one of the least likely possibilities, a Spider-Woman appearance would enable some fascinating storyline options in the long term.

The post Spider-Man 4: Who Is Sadie Sink Playing in the MCU? appeared first on Den of Geek.

This article contains spoilers for Daredevil: Born Again show 3. Marvel isn’t skimping on the horror when it comes to Daredevil: Born Once. Just three episodes into its nine-episode rookie season, the figure matter is now starting to pile up. Having already waved goodbye to Elden Henson’s Foggy Nelson, another major player bowed out early ]… ]

The article Daredevil: Born Again Episode 3’s Shock Death Sets Up a Major MCU Hero appeared second on Den of Geek.

It’s out it today. As all the rades are reporting, Sadie Sink, finest known for her breakthrough role as Max Mayfield in Stranger Things, may join the cast of Spider-Man 4. While Marvel Studios has yet to validate the media, fans are already speculating about which figure Sink may present in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s following Spider-Man history.

Obviously, just about every aspect of Spider-Man 4 is anyone’s best think at this time. However, Sink’s standing design, appearance, and Spider-Man’s current position in the MCU do suggest some interesting opportunities. With all things considered, and all disclosures applied, here are some of the most renowned personalities that Sadie Sink could perform in Spider-Man 4. &nbsp,

Jean Grey

One of the most common fan theories at the moment suggests that Sink did present Jean Grey in the future Spider-Man picture. Granted, that idea seems to be pushed hardest by those looking for big Marvel figures with dramatic red locks that Sink could sing ( hey, fan-casting isn’t always the deepest quest! ), but a closer look at this position reveals a more powerful discussion. &nbsp,

Kevin Feige has already said that he’s interested in incorporating X-Men figures into existing Device jobs as Marvel Studios builds toward their first appropriate X-Men pictures. If they are interested in casting Sadie Sink as Jean Grey in the long term ( which would seemingly be a pretty great choice ), then she certainly could debut in a Spider-Man storyline that has been rocked by multiverse shenanigans. That said, Jean Grey and Spider-Man team-ups have been relatively rare in the comics over the years. If Jean Grey is going to be introduced to the MCU via Spider-Man 4, then that movie may have to revolve around Spider-Man’s introduction to the larger mutant community.

Kitty Pryde

Another X-Men casting possibility, Kitty Pryde actually has a well-established prior relationship with Peter Parker in various Marvel Comics lore. The two have complementary combat skills, matching attitudes, and even dated each other for a brief time in the Ultimate universe. &nbsp, &nbsp,

It’s that more intimate relationship which makes Kitty Pryde such a fascinating casting possibility for Sadie Sink. Given the hard reset Peter’s life took at the end of No Way Home, it’s easier to imagine Peter meeting Kitty Pryde in his new life, striking up some kind of relationship with her, and exploring new possibilities as well as being properly introduced to the entire mutant community. Sink’s age and character oeuvre to date make her a seemingly perfect fit for Kitty Pryde, though it’s reasonable to wonder if Pryde is enough of a major name to secure one of those coveted “X-Men cameo spots” that Feige hinted at.

Mary Jane Watson&nbsp,

If you subscribe to the” Sadie Sink must play a red headed character in the MCU” philosophy ( as many seem to do ), then you must consider the Mary Jane Watson possibility. &nbsp,

Yes, casting Sadie Sink as MJ in Spider-Man 4 would seemingly require the use of multiverse shenanigans or a small army of convenient plot points. Then again, these are the Spider-Man MCU movies we’re talking about! Multiversal shenanigans and convenient plotting is the name of the game! However it may happen, it’s hard to deny that Sink is seemingly a good fit for the classic Mary Jane role. It would be intriguing to watch Peter explore a relationship with another Ms. Watson now that he and Zendaya’s Michelle Jones-Watson have softly been split by the events of the previous film. That said … two MJs? In this economy? &nbsp,

Gwen Stacy

When you hear that a notable actress has reportedly been cast in a major role in an upcoming Spider-Man movie, it’s only natural to think” Gwen Stacy”. The death of Gwen Stacy is one of the most pivotal moments in Peter’s life, though the narrative evolution of the recent Marvel Spider-Man movies made it highly unlikely that we’d ever see Stacy in an MCU film outside of, perhaps, a cameo or No Way Home’s throwaway reference to the character.

Nowadays though, things are a bit different. If Marvel is interested in giving fans a full Gwen Stacy storyline, they would pretty much have to take advantage of this unique time when Peter’s life has effectively been reset and he’s free to explore a variety of possibilities that would have previously seemed impossible. It’s a stretch, but Gwen Stacy true believers have renewed reason to hope. &nbsp,

Black Cat/Felicia Hardy

Black Cat has to be one of the betting favorites for Sink’s Spider-Man 4 role. While there have been rumors of a Black Cat appearance in a Spider-Man movie for about as long as we’ve had Spider-Man movies, we’ve yet to see the formidable thief or her alter-ego Felicia Hardy in a live-action adventure. ( Sorry, Felicity Jones is never 100 percent confirmed to be Felicia Hardy in her blink and you miss The Amazing Spider-Man 2 cameo. ) Not only would now be a great time to bring Black Cat into the MCU, but Sink is seemingly in a fantastic position to potentially continue playing that character in future MCU projects. &nbsp,

If you subscribe to the idea that Sink is likely playing some kind of potential love interest who creates a complication in Peter’s life ( again, a safe bet given everything we suspect about Spider-Man 4 and this casting ), then Black Cat arguably makes the most sense. She would be the easiest addition to the movies from a logistical standpoint, and her antihero status could fit the darker direction that Peter’s adventures will likely take now that he has gone to great lengths to upend his life. &nbsp,

Spider-Woman 

This is seemingly the least likely casting possibility for Sadie Sink, but we should still talk about the Spider-Woman in the room. Bringing Spider-Woman into the MCU would not only give Peter Parker a new partner in crime-fighting but could open the door to bigger” Spider-Verse” storylines to come. If you also suspect that Sink may end up making multiple MCU appearances, then casting her as Spider-Woman would seemingly open the door to major future possibilities.

Whether or not Sink would play one of the existing lore versions of Spider-Woman ( perhaps Jessica Drew or the aforementioned Gwen Stacy ), or a new version of the superhero is another matter entirely. There’s also the issue of Sony’s Spider-Man pictures and their reported interest in a future Spider-Woman project. While it seems likely that the spell Strange performed at the end of No Way Home will have consequences that could create crossover potential from a plot standpoint, the legal rights may be far more challenging to navigate. So while this is one of the least likely possibilities, a Spider-Woman appearance would enable some fascinating storyline options in the long term.

The post Spider-Man 4: Who Is Sadie Sink Playing in the MCU? appeared first on Den of Geek.