Leadership Obstacle Course - Big D talk 2016

Leadership Obstacle Course
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LEADERSHIP STRATEGIES FOR OVERCOMING OBSTACLES
OBSTACLES

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OBSTACLES
CAN BE CHALLENGING
I have faced my fair share of challenges like:
• time, money, resources, process, org structure
• team cohesion, conflicts, drive, performance
• corporate red tape, politics, budget constraints
• lack of understanding of what UX is and does
And, I’ve studied ways to help maneuver around and over some
of these obstacles.
I DO NOT have this mastered…
What are some of your challenges?

3
TYPICAL DAY
What a typical day for me looks like
DAY IN THE LIFE
5:30 AM WAKE, GYM, EAT & GET DRESSED
Starts off pretty good, fresh start, healthy day, until I
open email and begin processing…
7:00 AM CHECK MAIL (OPEN HELL’S GATE)

4
Sr Leader need help with decks (RFP, etc)
UX is seen as only ‘making things pretty’ and I educate and
advocate we really do and value - constantly….
Broken/old corporate systems & processes
Drop everything and come to this meeting?
Focus is disrupted because someone else needs
something and I’m ‘supporting’ best I can.
Employee performance, drive, personalities
Keeping people motivated, growing, challenged and
encouraged… best part of my day.

5
The product direction changed, we forgot
to tell you and it doesn’t align to strategy
Executive product design decisions affect strategically
planned outcomes …
Office politics may not be this obvious….
Work late to get caught up
Due to being interrupted at the office frequently, I can’t
get work done and end up working at home late at night.
Our developers can make changes to the interface
While this seems like a good idea at first, it ends up
being a rescue job later…

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Between stimulus and
response there is a space. In
that space is our power to
choose our response. In our
response lies our growth
and freedom.
Viktor Frankl

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STIMULUS RESPONSE
FREEDOM
to
choose
REACT RESPOND
THINK

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• Understand they are RESPONSE-ABLE, don’t
blame genetics or circumstances or conditions
for their behavior.
• Have BOUNDARIES and PRIORITIES so they
are focused on the important vs. urgent tasks.
• Use PROACTIVE LANGUAGE (I can, I prefer, I
will).
• They DON’T REACT to or WORRY about
conditions over which they have little or no
control. Instead they focus their energy on things
they can control.
REACTIVE
L E A D E R S
PROACTIVE
L E A D E R S
•They are AFFECTED by external environment (if
the weather is good, they feel good, if the weather
is bad it affects their performance and they blame
the weather).
•Don’t make BOUNDARIES and DON’T
PRIORITIZE.
•Believe they are NOT RESPONSIBLE for what
they say and do – they have no choice.
• They DON’T FOCUS on priority items, they do
the urgent, exciting, or fun things ﬁrst.

9
Effective leadership is
putting first things first.
Effective management is
discipline, carrying it out.
Stephen Covey

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Proactive people focus their efforts on their Circle of Influence.
They work on the things they can do something about.
S T E P H E N C O V E Y
HABIT 1
BE PROACTIVE

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CONCERN
INFLUENCE
CONTROL
Company
Product
Team
My Actions

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WHAT IS
YOUR FOCUS?

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EMPOWERMENT 
TRIANGLE
Creator
CoachChallenger
Anxiety based, problem focused,
responsibility imbalance
DRAMA 
TRIANGLE
RescuerPersecutor
Victim
Passion based, outcome focused,
clear boundaries

15
RESEARCH
What are some of your top challenges/obstacles?
Jesslyn Beattie, UX Director
Universal Mind
Steven Ray, Chief Creative Officer
Dialect
Peter Merholz, UX Guru
Author
Jeremy Johnson, VP of Customer Experience
Projekt 202
Stephen Anderson, Chief Experience Officer
BloomBoard
Elisa Miller, Transformation Coach
CA Technologies
Brian Sullivan, Director of UX Operations
Sabre
Adam Polansky, UX Strategist
Bottle Rocket
Tracey Nolte, XD Lead
Slalom Consulting
Joe Dyer, Director of Experience Strategy & Insight
Projekt 202

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DESIGNING VS. LEADING DESIGNERS
Doing less design, but when you have to take over, being
cautious of not demoralizing team members.
6 out of 10
MULTI-TASKING / TASK SWITCHING
Frequently having to context switch to ensure priories are handled on time.
4 out of 10
EDUCATING THE VALUE OF UX / ADVOCACY
Must prove the value and constantly educate in order to get
funding, resources and respect.
9 out 10
SYSTEM VIEW vs. FEATURE VIEW
Vacillating between a holistic view and a micro view to ensure cohesion, flow,
consistency and overall good experience.
5 out of 10
TALENT: RECRUITING, KEEPING PROBLEM FOCUSED & ENGAGED
Finding true UX professionals is hard, but keeping them energized with challenges is really
hard. Make sure your team focuses on falling in love with the problem, not solving too fast.
6 out of 10
UX CUT TO SAVE TIME/MONEY
Defending quality of experience when time and budget is the priority and
teaching that our process is fundamental to saving time and money long-term.
8 out 10
TOP THEMES
After interviewing 10 UX leaders and executives at this event

17
COACHING on the solution vs. taking over.
SCHEDULING BUNDLES of like work to reduce context switching.
DESIGN, BUILD & LAUNCH campaigns
(emails, posters, lunch and learns, meetings).
SCHEDULE regular intervals for reflection and ‘get away’
from the deep feature digging and focus on big picture.
Finding true UX professionals is hard, but keeping them energized with challenges is really hard.
Make sure your team focuses on falling in love with the problem, not solving too fast.
EDUCATE RECRUITERS, DEEPLY CONNECT with your team,
know what they want to do and guide them - frequent 1 on 1s
with creative feedback/coaching.
Defending quality of experience when time and budget is the priority and teaching that our
process is fundamental to saving time and money long-term.
COMPSE PREDICTIVE ANALYTICS around impacts and
outcomes (e.g. saved time x salary = X).
SOLUTIONS
How I’ve approached these challenges

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DON’T CARE … what I think.
HONEY BADGER
What do you think are ways to solve
some of these obstacles?

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6 out of 10
4 out of 10
9 out 10
5 out of 10
Finding true UX professionals is hard, but keeping them energized with challenges is really
hard. Make sure your team focuses on falling in love with the problem, not solving too fast.
6 out of 10
Defending quality of experience when time and budget is the priority and
teaching that our process is fundamental to saving time and money long-term.
8 out 10
TOP THEMES
After interviewing 10 UX leaders and executives at this event

20
BIBLIOGRAPHY
References used in this deck
20

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TRACEY NOLTE
XD Global Community Lead
SLALOM CONSULTING
 
traceyn@slalom.com
@traceynolte
www.SlalomXD.com

Leadership Obstacle Course - Big D talk 2016

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