Christina Wodtke, Author at Boxes and Arrows

Author: Christina Wodtke

An established thought leader in Silicon Valley, Christina is a “curious human” with a serious resume. Her past work includes re-design and initial product offerings with LinkedIn, MySpace, Zynga, Yahoo! and others, as well as founding three startups, an online design magazine called Boxes and Arrows (that's us!), and co-founding the Information Architecture Institute. She is currently a Lecturer at Stanford in the HCI group in the Computer Science department. Christina teaches worldwide on the intersection of human innovation and high-performing teams. She uses the power of story to connect with audiences and readers through speaking and her Amazon category-bestselling books. Christina’s work is personable, insightful, knowledgeable, and engaging. Her books include Information Architecture: Blueprints for the Web, Pencil Me In, and The Team that Managed Itself. Her bestselling book is a business fable called Radical Focus, which tackles the OKR movement through the powerful story of Hanna and Jack’s struggling tea startup. When the two receive an ultimatum from their only investor, they must learn how to employ OKRs and radical focus to get the right things done. To connect with Christina or to get more information on how to become a whole-mind, high performing team, visit http://cwodtke.com/ or http://www.eleganthack.com.

Articles by this author:

Leaving the Autoroute

Posted by Christina Wodtke

By committing all their attention to a single craft, often literally over hundreds of years, each town in France has received the renown that comes with great work. But what happens when you leave the autoroute, lured by one of those signs proclaiming the town’s mastery and claim to fame?

June 1, 2002 Foundational Thinking / From the Editors / Workplace and Career

Fear of Design

Posted by Christina Wodtke

Not so long ago, on my personal site I posted a little entry on design. And a comment was made: “IA is not design.” This sentence has sat vibrating in my head for months. It speaks of bravado in the face of fear. But why should Information Architects fear design?

April 9, 2002 Learning From Others / Process and Methods / Workplace and Career

Unraveling the Mysteries of metadata and taxonomies

Posted by Christina Wodtke

Recently Boxes and Arrows caught up with Samantha Bailey, formerly at Argus and current lead IA for Wachovia Corporation’s Wachovia.com website. She talks about the transition from being a consultant to an “innie” IA, unravels the mysteries of metadata and taxonomies and shares her vision of the future of IA.

April 1, 2002 Foundational Thinking / From the Editors

Speaking in Tongues

Posted by Christina Wodtke

In last month’s welcome, I set out to describe Boxes and Arrows purpose and goals. On a line by itself I stated this is not a place for jargon. I felt that was important enough to call out. I certainly am being called to task for that.

March 11, 2002 Foundational Thinking / From the Editors

Welcome to Boxes and Arrows

Posted by Christina Wodtke

Many months ago, we started with a crazy dream of a magazine that would tear down the fences we so hastily built between our crafts. An intelligent and jargon-free meeting place for practitioners that would make us all a bit smarter.