As I’ve mentioned before, professional development is a big deal at SEP. I love learning with other people. We’ve recently kicked off a new way (for us) to learn with other people: Study Groups.
What are Study Groups
The idea is to go through an online course, class, book series, or other structured or self-directed educational content as a group. This could take place over the course of a few weeks or months.
Here are a few of the reasons I love learning with other people:
- Battle procrastination – social commitment makes it more likely for you to show up
- Learn faster – bounce ideas off your study group
- New perspectives – hearing someone else’s understanding of a concept may fill in gaps in your own understanding
- New learning methods – maybe you’ll pick up a new method to learn when discussing content with your study group
Getting Started
Here are the study groups that found critical mass and are getting started up. Some are very technical and highly structured while others are less technical and loosely structured.
- React Native – The Complete React Native and Redux Course
- Microservices + Kubernetes – Scalable Microservices with Kubernetes
- Design Deep Dive – Book series
- The Design of Everyday Things, Don Norman
- Badass: Making Users Awesome, Kathy Sierra
- Don’t Make Me Think!, Steve Krug
- Well Designed, Jon Kolko
- 100 Things Every Designer Should Know, Susan Weinschenk
- Machine Learning: Generative Models – A self-study, self-directed dive into generative models. (for, ya know, generating fun wolfenstein levels)
- Customer Experience Deep Dive – Book series
- Getting Naked, Patrick Lencioni (101 level)
- Great Customer Experiences, Matt Watkinson (101 level)
- Outside In, Harley Manning, Kerry Bodine (201 level)
I’ve already been enjoying this so much I’m looking forward to kicking off the next round. Let me know (@jon_fuller) if you have any favorite online classes or deep dives!
