My name is Tannen, and I have been doing UX since before I knew what that was. I did market research for my first entrepreneurial adventure when I was 8.

I found out, through numerous interviews, that most people in my neighborhood didn’t use the fruit from the trees in their yards. The area I grew up in had, at the time, a couple fruit trees in each yard on average. Most people I spoke with felt guilty for not using it. Many of them remarked that they liked the kind of fruit growing on the trees, and frequently, they just hadn’t taken the time to pick it for themselves.

I got permission from several neighbors to pick their fruit for my own purposes. The nearly $1000 I made in the next 4 days selling it back to them at my corner fruit stand was my first taste of what a user-centric approach could yield in business results.