Senior Product Designer, Denton Bishop and his team are working to make the MFour platform the first to consolidate all tools for market research into one digital environment. They take product requirements and turn them into elegant digital solutions imbued with humanity. Denton’s team looks at how MFour can elevate traditional B2B market research tools to a B2C level by focusing on human-computer interaction and universal design principles. Outside of work, you can find him following his other passions – skateboarding, reading, and spending time with his family.
1. What is your role at MFour?
Senior Product Designer
2. How did you get started in this industry, and what led you to your current position?
I have a fine arts background focused on drawing and painting in oil. I started my professional career illustrating graphics and creating identity systems for the skateboard industry which led to designing web and mobile experiences.
3. What projects or tasks are you currently working on, and what excites you about them?
I’m working on several exciting projects at the moment – Crosstabs, Derived variable creator (survey & behavior), Report builder and we have a lot more on our roadmap. Our platform is evolving into a holistic solution for the market research industry unifying all research and analysis tools within one digital environment.
4. Can you share a memorable team success story or collaboration experience?
A new approach that my product partners are taking to elevate our collaboration and communication of requirements has been to articulate quick visual mockups alongside our traditional written requirements. This approach allows the designer to have a unique angle into the visual perspective of their product partners. This process has resulted in increased speed when creating design artifacts for development and a decrease in meetings and revisions.
5. How do you foster innovation in your role?
We apply a goal-directed design methodology to our experiences to promote innovation. We do this by focusing on our users’ goals first and the tasks and activities required to accomplish them second. This results in an experience that aligns with our user’s mental model as opposed to a reflection of our implementation process. We foster innovation by imagining the UI as a magic presentation layer where the user effortlessly accomplishes their goals independent of technical or business parameters.
6. What’s your favorite MFour Studio™ feature?
At the moment I would say Crosstabs. We are focused on building a crosstab tool that anyone can use without any training, documentation, or coach marks.
7. How have your career goals evolved, and what have you learned from the journey?
The evolution of my career has been organic – I didn’t set out with a specific goal or dream job. I was an art nerd who was lucky enough to have opportunities that allowed me to apply my creativity to the design industry. I’ve learned so much from my professional journey in design although I think the most important thing I’ve learned about goals and success comes from skateboarding. To have success in skateboarding you must become comfortable with falling, getting back up, and then passionately doing the same thing that resulted in the fall again. I think that is a great analogy for the kind of relentless persistence that it takes to master any discipline.
8. Share a fun fact or hobby that your colleagues might not know about you.
I am a lifelong skateboarder.
If you’re interested in joining our team, we’re hiring! Check out available opportunities at mfour.com/careers.
