Building a good product inevitably requires interacting with other people. In their talk, Julia and Stephan would like to look at the team work from different angles and elaborate on how to work with people from other disciplines, backgrounds, countries and time zones. https://www.meetup.com/AmsterdamUX/events/229297772/

1. “Can we all get along?”
How to stay happy and sane working in a team
Julia Malyk, Stephan Stipdonk AmsterdamUX, 5 October 2016

2. Who are those people?
And what are they talking about?

3. Culture clash Yang Liu, East Meets West

4. Saving face

5. Saving face

6. Cultural clash:
Takeaways
● Be authentic and humble
● Grab luck with both hands
● Be patient, flexible and serendipitous
● Make a positive out of a negative
● We had this closed provincial culture
● Running gag: Dayton is center of the
universe
● Joke was on us, but we fixed it

7. Talking the talk
Source
Source

8. Talking the talk
Source
I think your design is ugly

9. Talking the talk:
Takeaways
● Not to get defensive right away
● Ask why
● Consider other person’s thinking and
intentions behind it
● Try not to take it personal (it can be hard!)
● Find something useful in the feedback (for
yourself or the project)
● Say how you feel if the situation allows

10. Talking the talk:
Takeaways
● Dig in
● Can be just a matter of taste or personal
opinion
● Designers might not value the dev
feedback
○ Get / give quality feedback
○ Valid arguments
● Other perspectives are important

11. Just business

12. Just personal
Always Personal
Never Business

13. Just business:
Takeaways
● Often you don't have little influence
○ Don't take it personal
○ Comes with working in a big organization
● Always get something out of it
○ Personal growth
○ Skills
○ Experience
○ Meeting different people and cultures
● Politics are part of the game
○ Accept it, understand it
○ Try avoid to be part of it
● "Prediction is very difficult, especially if it's
about the future." Niels Bohr

14. Just business:
Takeaways
● People with influence can get in the way
● You should learn from the failures
● Taking part in political games is optional
○ But if you want it, you have to know the
rules!

15. Team building
Source

16. Team building
Source

17. Team building:
Takeaways
● Try to get in the same place as much as
possible
● Change of scenery helps building
relationships
● Personal bond → good work relationship
→ good quality product
● Team building activities are just fun :)
● Bonus:
○ Drinking improves your foreign language skills

18. Summary

19. Summary
● Teamwork is about people
● But company interests matter, too
● Keep politics in mind
○ You don’t have to get involved, though
● Communication skills are essential
○ Ask questions
○ Try not to take it personally
○ Think about the end goal
● Cultural differences should be taken into
account
● Personal relations can improve work
relations and quality of the product

20. Thanks!
Julia
http://juliamalyk.com
Stephan
https://nl.linkedin.com/in/stipdonk