At Clinicient we have some pretty outstanding employees. So,
we decided to lift the veil and introduce our readers to the people who make a
difference around the halls, meeting rooms and Slack channels of Clinicient.

With the employee spotlight, we feature one outstanding employee a month with a blog dedicated to them. This month, our employee spotlight features a true expert in their field, Tristan Robinson, our Director of User Experience.

Tristan has been with Clinicient for seven months and leads the charge in making sure our customers have an overall positive experience when using our products. Fun fact, Tristan’s first day at Clinicient happened to fall during the Sales & Marketing offsite in January which – you probably guessed it – he was immediately told to pack his bags for. What a trooper.

Without further ado, let’s get into the spotlight.

Tristan, tell me a little about yourself and your role.

  • Title – Director of User Experience
  • Department – Product
  • Time at Company? – 7 months
  • Where are you located? – Portland, OR

3 Quick Ice Breakers:

1.     
Where is your favorite travel destination?

Our weekends tend to be pretty busy so my favorite vacation destination is someplace with sun and water. I love Palm Springs, Puerto Vallarta, and Maui. They’re all really relaxing and they’re easy to get to from Portland.

2.     
If you could pick anyone, who would you select
as a mentor?

I think Ray Dalio would be a great mentor. He pioneered
computer-driven investment advising back in the 1980s. In addition to that, he
takes a very systematic approach to everything in his life, both personal and
professional.

3.     
What are you currently watching on TV (or
listening to on a podcast)?

On Netflix I’ve been watching a series called Maniac that’s really great. Super suspenseful. On my commute, I usually listen to a podcast called Opt Out Life, which is really great interviews with entrepreneurs from all different types of business.

What does a typical day look like for you?

There are a few different forms that my days can take. It depends on where we are with a particular feature or design. Sometimes I’m exploring very generally with therapists, either in their clinic or on the phone. We might be talking about in-clinic communication so I can understand how things work today (or don’t work today) so that I can improve their experience moving forward. At other points I may be very heads-down working on the tiny details of a design. Maybe I’m tweaking a color or line width so I can nail down the exact details of how a new screen should be laid out. The third “typical” day would be a day full of meetings with other groups within Clinicient…conveying or discussing the research and design work that I mentioned above.

What’s your favorite part of your role here at
Clinicient? What do you like most about your job?

I love the part of the research/design process when we really start getting traction from our various collaboration groups. These groups are made up of Clinicient users and other therapists in the market and they provide feedback on new designs before we roll them out to our larger audience. At the very “fuzzy” initial part of the design, it can be frustrating and you feel like you’ll never get it right. But once we get the basics laid out correctly, I really like the iterative design process in which we chase down the details.

Don’t miss this blog: Which Type of Documenter Are You? The 7 Styles of Therapist Documentation

What’s the first thing you do when you start work
every day?

My desk is a clutter of yellow
post-it notes. So, my first act of the day is to review them to remind myself
of what I was working on the day before…to try to get focused on what’s
important for today. Ideally, I point to one main thing that I’m going to try
to accomplish in a day.

What’s the most challenging thing about your job?

The hardest aspect of my work is
trying to gauge the right amount of design work to prepare for the software
developers. If you don’t produce enough good design documentation, then they’re
stuck without enough to build. If you design too much, then it’s wasted work
because by the time the developers get to it, it’s outdated and needs to be
redesigned.

What’s your personal motto or mantra?

If things don’t seem to add up,
it’s because they don’t. When that happens, you don’t have the whole equation.
This reminds me to go and get more information when I’m puzzled by something.

If you could instantly pick up any skill, what
would it be and why?

I’d pick up Mandarin Chinese as my “instant skill.” China has such a rich history and an enormous economy that I think I could unlock a lot of adventures and business opportunities. Just imagine being able to communicate fluently with the 960 million native Mandarin speakers in the world. The possibilities could be endless.

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