Hunting Unicorns - What makes an effective UX Professional

Patrick Neeman, Director of Product Design, Apptio
@usabilitycounts | www.usabilitycounts.com
Hunting
Unicorns
What makes 
an effective  
UX Professional{

@usabilitycounts
About The Speaker
Patrick Neeman has 20 years of
UX and Web Experience
Runs UsabilityCounts.com and
UXDrinkingGame.com
Built several UX teams
Drinks Whiskey

@usabilitycounts
What makes an effective  
UX Professional?

@usabilitycounts
Be A Unicorn
Thank You!

@usabilitycounts
Why do I have to even  
think about this?

@usabilitycounts
I have to build teams

@usabilitycounts
Some Articles I Found…
Nine Essential Characteristics of Good UX Designers
http://userexperience.evantageconsulting.com/2009/07/
characteristics-good-ux-designers/
And about nine other articles linking to Fred Beecher’s article…
Essential and Desirable Skills for a UX Designer
http://uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2010/12/essential-and-desirable-
skills-for-a-ux-designer.php
Which a laundry list of skills that is unachievable…
And a bunch of short articles.
Fred Beecher

@usabilitycounts
Why is it hard to deﬁne what an
effective UX Professional is?

@usabilitycounts
There is no front door to UX
That’s part of the problem

@usabilitycounts
For example…
Patrick Neeman
Former print designer
Has a great goatee and hair
Deals with IT Managers
Presentation has funny photos
Drinks less whiskey to lose weight (Yay!)
Troy Parke
MSCE
Civil Engineering
Good looking
Great public speaker
Drinks Diet Coke (Boo!)

@usabilitycounts
T-Shaped Skill Set
They have a principal skill
that describes the vertical leg
of the T — they’re mechanical
engineers or industrial
designers. But they are so
empathetic that they can
branch out into other skills,
such as anthropology, and do
them as well.”
Tim Brown, IDEO CEO
“

@usabilitycounts
They want us to be unicorns…
…dammit.

@usabilitycounts
The Job Description:
What are the hard skills?

@usabilitycounts
There are no UX Designers. There are UX Generalists.
User Research 
and Analytics
Understanding the
users through
observations and
data
Content  
Strategy
Planning for the
creation, delivery and
governance of usable
content
Information
Architecture
Organizing
information in a
product or website in
a usable way
Interaction 
Design
Designing interactive
behaviors with a
specific focus on their
use
Visual 
Design
Designing the visual
qualities in an
aesthetically  
pleasing way
Front End
Development
Building the
interactive behaviors
to be used by the end
user
http://www.nickfinck.com/blog/entry/ux_career_progression_finding_a_niche_building_a_personal_brand/

@usabilitycounts
Interaction Designer
User Research 
and Analytics
Content  
Strategy
Information
Architecture
Interaction 
Design
Visual 
Design
Front End
Development

@usabilitycounts
Visual Designer
User Research 
and Analytics
Content  
Strategy
Information
Architecture
Interaction 
Design
Visual 
Design
Front End
Development

@usabilitycounts
Content Strategist
User Research 
and Analytics
Content  
Strategy
Information
Architecture
Interaction 
Design
Visual 
Design
Front End
Development

@usabilitycounts
But…
Is it really about the hard skills?

@usabilitycounts
What is designer being about?

@usabilitycounts
About Design Decisions
The ability to effectively articulate
design decisions is critical to the
success of a project, because
the most articulate person
usually wins.”
Tom Greever,  
Articulating Design Decisions
“

@usabilitycounts
Over
50%of your job is 
not pushing a pixel

@usabilitycounts
What are the soft skills?

@usabilitycounts
So what are those soft skills?
Empathy Curiosity Systematic
Fearless Self Aware Articulate
Pragmatic
Passionate

@usabilitycounts
Empathy
Curiosity
Systematic
Pragmatic
Fearless
Self-Aware
Articulate
Passionate

@usabilitycounts
How do you use those 
soft skills in an organization?

@usabilitycounts
I have to convince my developer to build a feature…
Pragmatic
Passionate

@usabilitycounts
I want to understand user needs…
Pragmatic
Passionate

@usabilitycounts
I want to analyze user data…
Pragmatic
Passionate

@usabilitycounts
I want to sell design thinking within an organization…
Pragmatic
Passionate

@usabilitycounts
Every situation demands different soft skills

@usabilitycounts
What’s the point of this
presentation?

@usabilitycounts
UX needs to better
deﬁne who we are so
others get us

@usabilitycounts
Soft skills are what companies really need,
and they turn us into superheroes

@usabilitycounts
Further Reading
The Unicorn Designer Dilemma, and How to Avoid It
http://www.usabilitycounts.com/2013/07/24/the-unicorn-designer-dilemma-and-how-to-avoid-it/
Eight Organizational Challenges for UX Professionals
http://www.usabilitycounts.com/2012/05/02/eight-organizational-challenges-for-ux-professionals/
Six Things Misunderstood About User Experience Designers
http://www.usabilitycounts.com/2011/03/14/six-things-misunderstood-about-user-experience-designers/
How to Get Started in User Experience for People I Want to Hire
http://www.usabilitycounts.com/2011/10/18/how-to-get-started-in-user-experience-seven-tips/

@usabilitycounts
• Portfolio Review: $99 
http://www.usabilitycounts.com
• I’m hiring at Apptio: 3 UX designers
• UX Career Paths — May 2 
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/career-paths-of-ux-
designers-tickets-24466909184
• Evolve UX: June 14-16 in San Francisco, CA 
Promo Code: EVOLVEPN20 — 20% Off 
http://www.evolveuxconf.com/san-francisco-2016/

Patrick Neeman, Director of Product Design, Apptio
@usabilitycounts | www.usabilitycounts.com
Thank you!

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