I share the background, content, and outcomes of an on-the-job curriculum designed to cross-train product managers in user experience skills and methods.

1. UX CrossTraining
Derek Poppink
Cengage Learning
Ignite UX Michigan
October 24, 2013

2. The Opportunity
 Product
Management group reorganized
into functional responsibilities
 3 Product Managers offered positions as
UX Specialists
 Decades of domain and organizational
knowledge and user orientation, but no
formal training

3. The Proposal
 12

8


3



Week Training Program
Sep – Nov, 2013
Hours Per Week
Knowledge Training – Reading, Videos
Skills Training – Exercises, Projects
Broad Topics
UX Fundamentals (3 weeks)
UX Lifecycle (5 weeks)
UX at Cengage Learning (4 weeks)

4. The Readings
 Book

Design of Everyday Things
 User

Club
Experience Bookshelf
~120 books
 Core
topics: UX Research & Design
 Specialties: Accessibility, Mobile, Globalization
 General Interest: Gladwell, Pink, Shirky
 Safari
Books Online

5. The Videos
 Human
Computer Interaction
Online (Coursera)
 https://www.coursera.org/course/hci
 User

Interface Engineering Seminars
Virtual Seminar Program
 http://www.uie.com/events/virtual_seminars/

All You Can Learn
 https://aycl.uie.com/

6. Module 1: Needfinding
 Skill:
Active Listening
 Method: Contextual Inquiry
 Reading: Observing the User Experience
by Mike Kuniavsky
 Video: Coursera 2.1 & 2.2


Participant Observation
Interviewing

7. Module 2: Principles
 Skill:
Understanding Research
 Method: Heuristic Evaluation
 Reading: Designing with the Mind in Mind
by Jeff Johnson
 Video: Coursera 5.1 – 5.3


Heuristic Evaluation –
How and Why?
Design Heuristics

8. Module 3: Leadership
 Skill:
Facilitating
 Method: Affinity Mapping
 Reading: Rapid Contextual Design by
Karen Holtzblatt
 Video: Kevin Hoffman (UI 16)

Meeting Design for the
Meeting Process

9. Module 4: Stakeholders
 Skill:
Gamestorming
 Method: Stakeholder Interviews
 Reading: Gamestorming by Dave Gray
 Video: Gamestorming by
Dave Gray (UI 15)

Gamestorming

10. Module 5: Planning
 Skill:
Selecting Methods
 Method: Research Plan
 Reading: It’s Our Research by Tomer
Sharon
 Video: Designing with Agile
by Anders Ramsay (UIE)

11. Module 6: Users
 Skill:
User Advocacy
 Method: Personas and Scenarios
 Reading: Essential Persona Lifecycle by
Tamara Adlin
 Video: The Secrets to
Developing Successful
Personas by Tamara Adlin (UI 15)

12. Module 7: Prototyping
 Skill:
Sketching
 Method: Paper Prototyping
 Reading: Paper Prototyping by Carolyn
Snyder
 Video: Coursera 1.2, 3.1, & 3.4



The Power of Prototyping
Paper Prototypes and Mockups
Faking It: Creating and
Comparing Alternatives

13. Module 8: Reporting
 Skill:
Presenting
 Method: Research Report
 Reading: Selling Usability by John Rhodes
 Video: The Business Case For
(and Against) UX by
Brandon Schauer (UI 16)

14. Module 9: Agile
 Skill:
Iterating
 Method: Story Mapping
 Reading: The Wisdom of Experience by
Alan Cooper (slide deck)
 Video: Tying Agile and UX Together by
Jeff Patton (UIE)

15. Module 10: User Studies
 Skill:
Designing Tasks/Questions
 Method: User Studies
 Reading: Rocket Surgery Made Easy
 Video: Coursera 9.1, 9.2, & 10.1



Designing Studies You Can
Learn From
Assign Participants to Conditions
In Person Experiments

16. Module 11: Remote
 Skill:
Recruiting
 Method: Software Services
 Reading: Remote Research by Nate Bolt
 Video: Coursera 10.2

Running web experiments

17. Module 12: Content
 Skill:
Content Strategy
 Method: Interaction Map
 Reading: Letting Go of the Words by
Ginny Redish
 Video: Content Strategy by
Kristina Halvorson (UIE)

18. The Results
2
Trained UX Specialists
 UX Team & Methods Highlighted at
National Product Training Event
 Requests to Provide Similar Training Across
Company

19. The Retrospective
 Practice
Trumps Pedagogy
 Reading Takes Time
 Senior Leadership
Approval Matters