Architecting Your UX Career: Interview and Presentation Techniques to Land Your Dream Job (Amanda Stockwell, Heather Young)

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Approaching a job search can be a daunting task for any professional, but the UX world has a unique set of challenges. Our field is still relatively new, job titles and responsibilities are fuzzy, and there are varying understandings of what we can and should provide. There is no one clear path or set of experience that sets us up for success. Deliverables are often collaborative, covered by NDAs, and it can be hard to capture the many facets of UX expertise into a small set of documents. So how do we navigate the world of resume-writing, portfolio-creation, and interviewing to find a job that will be the best fit for the skills we currently have and allow us to grow into the practitioner we want to become? Get the inside scoop from a current UX consultant and former interactive designer, both of whom are experienced with vetting UX talent.

Architecting
your UX Career
Amanda Stockwell, UX Consultant
@MandaLaceyS
Heather Young, UX Community Manager
@Heathery321
July 24, 2014
#UXCareer
Presentation tips to land your next UX gig

About Us
@MandaLaceyS @Heathery321 #UXCareer
7 years in UX
User research
Usability analysis
Competitive research
UX Consultant
12 years in interactive
User-centered design
Marketing communications
UX community manager
UX talent agent
AMANDA STOCKWELL HEATHER YOUNG

@MandaLaceyS @Heathery321 #UXCareer
3500
Candidates reviewed
20%
Skills are adequately represented

Job Search Challenges
Fuzzy deﬁnitions
@MandaLaceyS @Heathery321 #UXCareer

Job Search Challenges
Ideal experience set
@MandaLaceyS @Heathery321 #UXCareer
Strategy
Requirements
Personas
Site maps
Work ﬂows
Wireframes
Prototypes
Visual design
Research
Testing
Task Analysis
Analytics

Artifacts don’t always
demonstrate expertise
@MandaLaceyS @Heathery321 #UXCareer
How do you know which deliverables to share?
Job Search Challenges

•  Fuzzy UX deﬁnitions
•  No ideal experience set
•  Artifacts don’t always
demonstrate expertise
@MandaLaceyS @Heathery321 #UXCareer
Job Search Challenges

User Experience Tenets
@MandaLaceyS @Heathery321 #UXCareer
User Research
Content Strategy
UI Design
Usability Testing
Interaction Design

@MandaLaceyS @Heathery321 #UXCareer
User Experience Process
Research Concept Design Evaluation Implement
Interview
Ethnography
Competitor
Analysis
Persona
Task Analysis
Storyboarding
Journey Maps
Sketches
Wireframes
Visual Design
Prototyping
Testing
Expert Review
Performance
Measurement

Know the interviewer
Research
They may not have a solid understanding of your niche
They are busy
Know your audience

@MandaLaceyS @Heathery321 #UXCareer

@MandaLaceyS @Heathery321 #UXCareer
Big Idea
Know your audience and position
yourself in a relatable way.

Which artifacts to share?
Content Strategy
Show your design process – not just the outcome
Demonstrate how your work impacted the business
Quantify its value (when possible)
@MandaLaceyS @Heathery321 #UXCareer

PAR
Content Strategy
Problem > Action > Result
@MandaLaceyS @Heathery321 #UXCareer
Problem Action Result
Customer calls to call center up due to a
site map that’s not intuitive
Reviewed user activity through site
analytics. Re conﬁgured naming
conventions for navigation, realigned
content
Calls to the call center reduced
Sales are down. Customers are not
completing the check out process.
Recommended shorter form requiring less
time. Enhanced microinteractions for a
better experience.
Customer conversion rate
increased and sales are up

Keep track of your work
Content Strategy
@MandaLaceyS @Heathery321 #UXCareer

Talent seekers care more about your
process than your ﬁnal product
@MandaLaceyS @Heathery321 #UXCareer
Big Idea

Highlight the most
important pieces
UI Design
@MandaLaceyS @Heathery321 #UXCareer
Quality over quantity
Find a way to make it presentable

It doesn’t have to be pretty, but it
needs to be memorable
@MandaLaceyS @Heathery321 #UXCareer
Big Idea

Feedback is critical to
anyone trying to improve
Usability Testing
@MandaLaceyS @Heathery321 #UXCareer
Rehearse walking through your portfolio pieces

Testing your delivery is just as important as
testing a new feature or product
@MandaLaceyS @Heathery321 #UXCareer
Big Idea

Successful UX pros
demonstrate more than their
artifacts and end results
(Personal) Interaction Design
@MandaLaceyS @Heathery321 #UXCareer
They establish personal connections.

UX super stars have the communication
skills of a pro negotiator and the
patience of a kindergarten teacher
@MandaLaceyS @Heathery321 #UXCareer
Big Idea

Recap
@MandaLaceyS @Heathery321 #UXCareer
User Research
Content Strategy
UI Design
Usability Testing
Interaction Design
Some examples ...

E X A M P L E: PAR (Problem Action Result)

Biggest Idea
These techniques can open the door
to opportunities you didn’t know existed
@MandaLaceyS @Heathery321 #UXCareer

@MandaLaceyS @Heathery321 #UXCareer
Questions

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UXPA 2023: Start Strong - Lessons learned from associate programs to platform...

UXPA International

Imagine creating experiences for your rookie designers’ first couple years that are rewarding, enriching, and full of learning — without taking all your time or energy to manage. We’ll share techniques any team leader can put into practice using real-life examples from associate programs, apprenticeships, and internships. Topics include onboarding, varied work challenges, developing multiple capabilities, buddy systems, group sharing, guest speakers, time with executives, and mentorship. We’ll also share how to operationalize learning, soft skills like communication and collaboration, setting boundaries, time management, achieving deep work, and more skills we all wish we were explicitly taught early on. We’ll focus on modern-day associate programs, but even if you can’t create a full-fledged program, you’ll leave this session with ideas to use with your fledgling professionals. The benefits go beyond efficiency; it’s a foundation for culture, camaraderie, autonomy, and mastery.

UXPA 2023: Disrupting Inaccessibility: Applying A11Y-Focused Discovery & Idea...

UXPA International

Digital advances are being made at a rapid-fire pace, yet disability inclusivity continues to fall short of the digital revolution. As the number of people living with disabilities rises, the time to take digital accessibility to the next level is now. Let’s disrupt inaccessibility together! Come hear about a multi-part discovery research and ideation project informing foundational UX designs for our customers. You’ll get insights from our unique study, which are widely applicable across industries, and walk away with tips and inspiration to kick off your own accessibility-focused discovery and ideation. Only YOU can prevent inaccessibility – are you in?

UXPA 2023 Poster: ESG & Sustainable UX

UXPA International

UXPA 2023 Poster: The Two Tracks of UX Under Agile: Tactical and Strategic

UXPA International

UXPA 2023: Data science and UX: Smarter together

UXPA International

User experience can be drastically elevated by combining data science insights with user-based insights from research. Data analytics on its own can make themes and correlations difficult to explain and to provide accurate recommendations. For example, themes identified via large global surveys and usage data can be better understood with UX insights from focused user research, such as user interviews and/or cognitive walkthroughs. This presentation will highlight the complimentary nature of data science and UX and will focus on the benefits of bringing the two disciplines together. This will be buttressed with practical examples of enterprise projects and applications that combined data and skills from the two disciplines, guidance on how the two disciplines can better work together, and the skills needed to improve as a UX professional when working with data science teams.

UXPA 2023: UX Fracking: Using Mixed Methods to Extract Hidden Insights

UXPA International

Users do not always accurately describe what they mean or feel. There are many reasons for this, ranging from politeness to poor introspection, to lack of sufficient technical vocabulary. Fortunately, UX researchers have tools in their trade to deduce what was really meant. We call this UX Fracking, a mixed methods approach that is optimized for extracting hidden user insights. We will illustrate the dangers of inadequate, superficial research, and how this may lead to outcomes incapable of addressing the users’ core issues. We will explore ways to avoid these pitfalls by leveraging mixed research methods to test hypotheses about the users’ intent and needs. This starts with a thorough understanding of who the user is, their goals, and how they work today, to an approach that combines surveys, interviews, and comment analysis with behavioral observation, and finally, validating the newly discovered user insights with the users themselves.

UXPA 2023 Poster: Are virtual spaces the future of video conferencing?

UXPA International

UXPA 2023: Learn how to get over personas by swiping right on user roles

UXPA International

This session walks through the concept of user roles as an alternative to personas as a means to generate and disseminate user insights for product development teams. We will describe the tools and methods used to create a research database organized by user roles, along with examples and short exercises to help attendees think through user roles within their own context. By the end of the session, attendees should be aware of tools and approaches for: Organizing user research information in a database Disseminating user role information to product and design teams Managing a user roles database as part of a long term UX Research program If you’re ready to ditch personas but don’t know how, this session is for you!

UXPA 2023: F@#$ User Personas

UXPA International

We will present a case study that details our approach for replacing user personas with user roles for a multi-national SAAS company. We will take the audience on a journey that starts with an executive request for personas, travels through the tribulations of realizing personas suck, and concludes with convincing others to accept a new and innovative way to understand the people who use the product. Our key message is that personas lack real value for organizations that already understand the importance of empathizing with users. Building user-centered products requires easily accessible and well organized user insights. We will discuss defining users through a process of stakeholder consultation and content review, and structuring data around Jobs to Be Done and product interactions. We will also discuss the dissemination of user roles in our organization using relational databases, interactive dashboards and online wikis. Spoiler alert, our stakeholders loved user roles!

UXPA 2023 Poster: Pocket Research Guide - Empower your Solution and Foster Cu...

UXPA International

UXPA 2023: Experience Maps - A designer's framework for working in Agile team...

UXPA International

Agile Methodology refers to software design and development methodologies centered around the idea of iterative design and development, where requirements and concepts evolve through collaboration between self-organizing cross-functional teams. Thus, Agile enables teams to deliver value faster, with greater quality and predictability, and greater aptitude to respond to change. With evolving product features every design sprint, designers & researchers find it difficult to follow the design process. This sometimes leads to designs delivered in haste or sub-par design artifacts which result in UX debt. UX debt is accumulated when design teams take actions or shortcuts to expedite the delivery of a piece of functionality or a project which later needs to be refactored. It is the result of prioritizing speedy delivery of design to the development team over a perfect experience journey. Experience Maps is a great tool to practice UX in Agile as well as manage UX Debt.

UXPA 2023 Poster: Atomic Research in Practice: Using a Feedback Repository to...

UXPA International

UXPA 2023 Poster: Leveraging Dial Testing To Measure Real-Time User Frustrati...

UXPA International

UXPA 2023: UX Enterprise Story: How to apply a UX process to a company withou...

UXPA International

How to build a UX Department from scratch, in an environment they think UX people do social media posters and posts! An agile implementation just started, and people are moving from a waterfall and ad-hoc mindset to agility. In this session, I will talk about my Journey to establish a UX Department for a company that is part of a global brand, but this local branch just started the digital transformation movement. Challenges like: spreading awareness and educating people about UX, hiring the right team, defining the right team structure, establishing workflow and day-to-day operations, and applying localization (non-western culture).

UXPA 2023: High-Fives over Zoom: Creating a Remote-First Creative Team

UXPA International

I started my current job in March of 2020. Many of us remember something clearly about the month that COVID started to shut things down. I remember being surprised to hear that my new on-site-only job would be starting in my living room over zoom. How do you lead a design team when none of the team members live near each other and creativity is highly collaborative? Taking from over a decade of working in HR software, I knew whatever I did needed to put people first. That what employees love about a job is often deeper than the work, it’s the culture, the relationships and people they work with. It’s the feeling that their work has value, and their contribution matters. In this talk I will walk though some of the rituals and best practices I have learned over the last two years building a remote-first creative team.

UXPA 2023: Behind the Bias: Dissecting human shortcuts for better research & ...

UXPA International

As humans, we are biased by design. Our intricate and fascinating brains have developed shortcuts through centuries of human evolution. They reduce an unimaginable load of paralyzing decisions, keep us alive, and help us navigate this complex world. Now, these life saving biases affect how we behave with modern technology. Understanding some of the theories and reasons why these biases exist is the key to unlocking their power. In this workshop we will cover some theories around how the brain works. We will review some of our mental shortcuts, take a look at some common biases, and learn how they affect our users, our research, and our designs. Lastly we will review some advantages of biases, and ways to identify and reduce bias. This workshop is targeted for designers who do their own research, and researchers looking to learn more about removing bias from their studies.

UXPA 2023 Poster: Improving the Internal and External User Experience of a Fe...

UXPA International

UXPA 2023 Poster: 5 Key Findings from Moderated Accessibility Testing with Sc...

UXPA International

UXPA 2023: Lessons for new managers

UXPA International

Are you new to UX management, or thinking of getting into management? Then this talk is for you. After reading countless books, attending countless trainings, mentoring and being menteed, nothing quite prepared me for management like my first year. I’ll share with you what I wish they’d told me. I’ll also share my process for generating team research roadmaps, establishing team values, keeping employees motivated, and not burning out.

UXPA 2023: Redesigning An Automotive Feature from Gasoline to Electric Vehicl...

UXPA International

Join us for an interaction design case study from the automotive industry. We created a Human-Machine Interface (HMI) for a vehicle feature that provides household-levels of power in electrical outlets for our customers to use at work and play. This case study will reveal: · Our debate of re-using version 1.0’s HMI vs designing a new user interface for the electric vehicle—when to break with consistency and why? · User research we conducted to guide our early design concept. · Paper prototypes we created to support our usability testing of the concept with vehicle owners. · How we solved internal debate over the interaction design in moving from internal combustion vehicles to electric vehicles. * Advice to help you evangelize user-centered design that is also brand-centered for a new product.

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