All UX Jobs Are (Not) Created Equal
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Doing user experience design work at a digital agency is very different from doing it at a startup or small product company. I should know: I spent the first 15 years of my career in and running agencies and for the past year have been leading the UX effort at a small (50ish) but successful startup called Recurly in San Francisco. (You may have heard of us.) In this talk, I’ll be sharing my experiences on both sides, the strengths and weaknesses of each, and sharing a few recommendations for the UX designer just starting out or thinking of making the leap from one to the other.
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All UX Jobs Are (Not) Created Equal
- 1. ALL UX JOBS ARE (NOT) CREATED EQUAL ⚠ Madison+ UX July 11, 2014
- 2. Director, User Experience at Recurly San Francisco, CA @mntgmry Andy Montgomery ⋆
- 3. 1998 2004 2012 Software Engineer UX Designer UX Director Interactive Director 2007 A brief history. Director, User Experience at Recurly San Francisco, CA @mntgmry Andy Montgomery ⋆
- 4. A brief history. Director, User Experience at Recurly San Francisco, CA @mntgmry Andy Montgomery ⋆ AGENCIES T R I C Y C L E STARTUPS
- 6. Team. Visual Designer UI Designers (2) Front-End Engineers (2) UX Designer / Design Director (me) Philosophy. Everything is UX (and UX is Everything) Work. Product Marketing You name it DESIGN AT RECURLY
- 8. DESIGN AT AGENCIES 🌄 What is an Agency? Work for hire: Client services, Consulting, Freelance Paid to produce something, and then hand it off External to company and product Short-term relationship with the client and the product (usually) Some environments are better than others
- 9. DESIGN AT AGENCIES 🌄 How does it work? Focus on billing hours and producing deliverables Waterfall process Estimated and then billed by the hour Multiple clients and projects at once More specialized skill set and defined roles related to waterfall Less iterative, more sequential Hard(er) Deadlines
- 10. DESIGN AT AGENCIES 🌄 Why does it work this way? Traditional Ad Agency Model (think Mad Men) Clients pay for “deliverables” Deliverables have to look good (PSDs, not sketches) Resource management is hard
- 12. DESIGN AT AGENCIES 🌄 Cons. Model is sorta broken Clients Stressful Not (usually) iterative Combative relationships
- 14. What is a Startup? A company with a product or service Creating or improving quickly with a goal of acquisition or IPO Design for an internal team helping to create or improve the product Long-term relationship with the product and customers Some environments are better than othersDESIGN AT STARTUPS 🚀
- 15. How does it work? Focus on improving the product to meet customer needs Process is collaborative (sometimes) and lean (hopefully) Broader skill set required Flexible deadlines (sorta) DESIGN AT STARTUPS 🚀
- 16. Why does it work this way? Build faster Learn faster Customers, not clients Product effectiveness DESIGN AT STARTUPS 🚀
- 17. Pros. Focus Purpose Collaborative relationships Failure is valuable Highly iterative (hopefully)DESIGN AT STARTUPS 🚀
- 18. Cons. Slower, deeper learning on one product Riskier (sometimes) Customers Sometimes boring? Limited portfolioDESIGN AT STARTUPS 🚀
- 19. so... WHAT TO DO? %
- 20. It depends. There are upsides to both Start at an agency, move to a product company Think about what you like to do most and focus there Consider lifestyle you want Look for somewhere that appreciates UX from the top down Never stop learning Keep skills current Design A LOT Volunteer Share your work (early and often) so... WHAT TO DO? %
- 21. Questions? ❓
- 22. Questions? ❓ @mntgmry Additional Reading. ! UX Design at Digital Agencies is F*cked (Part 2 & a Response) Lean UX in an Agency World How I’ve Come to Love Agile UX Design The Agile Mindset – Perceptions around Failure How I Learned to Become a Failure The McDonald’s Theory Lean UX: Getting Out Of The Deliverables Business 10 Most Common Misconceptions About UX Design Konigi: User Experience Definitions When To Apply UX Apple's Design Approach “Your Brain Is Hooked on Being Right” Thinking, Fast and Slow Insights on Collaborating with Steve Jobs This Advertising Life Tweets. ! @mntgmry