#WeAreArity Wednesday: Jon Hensley
When my friend asks me what it is that I do again, I say..
At Arity, I work with product teams and leadership on UX strategy and vision and help the company put humans at the center of everything we do.
In your own words, what is Arity?
Arity was created to explore innovations in transportation and insurance and that’s what we do every day. Arity allows me to promote and practice human-centered design every day – from partnering with clients to understand their needs, to talking to people to empathize with their challenges, to teaching multidisciplinary groups how to use design thinking in their everyday work.
What is your work for home set up like?
I’ve been sitting at the dining room table for the past 6 months! Luckily, the chairs are comfy, but when I need a break from it, I sit on the couch or on my back patio and work.
We all commuted into the office prior to COVID, how are you spending the extra time?
The best part is having more time with my family. My wife worked from home before COVID and my daughter is doing school virtually so we’re all able to eat lunch together and generally see more of one another since I’m also not commuting or going to meetups and other events. Also, I’m getting a bit more sleep. 🙂
Most people don’t know I…
Since COVID has kept me indoors more, I’ve become a genealogy junkie. I’ve discovered tons of fantastic details that I didn’t know about my ancestors, including getting to know my great-great-great-grandfather, Fretwell Goolbsy Hensley, who fought in the Civil War.
The theme song of my life is…
I’ve always been partial to the theme song of 2001 A Space Odyssey as a good backdrop to most events!
Would you get in a self-driving car? Why or why not?
Absolutely. I’m typically an early adopter of new tech so I would definitely get in them and often. As a matter of fact, I can’t wait for this to become the norm. The majority of crashes in the U.S. are due to human error and autonomous vehicles have the potential to save thousands of lives a year.
Favorite innovation pioneer?
This is a tough one as there are so many! Steve Jobs, Nikola Tesla, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Neil Armstrong, Michael Jordan are top for me. I go through little “innovation pioneer” crushes though. Currently, it’s Sakichi Toyoda of the Toyota Motor Corporation who invented the 5 Whys, among other innovations, a process that gets at the root cause of a problem by continuously asking why until the problem, and potential solution, become clear.
