This document discusses growing a successful UX practice within an organization. It emphasizes assessing skills across teams to identify gaps and priorities for development. Teams should determine goals, needed capabilities, and skill levels. An assessment compares current skills to norms and desired levels, calculating gaps. This helps determine where to focus development efforts, such as opening opportunities for others to contribute to UX or challenging teams to integrate UX into their work. Hiring should follow the same strategic framework to find inspired talent that fits the team's needs.

2. growing a UX practice well
is more important and
challenging than ever
user/customer experience
now a core component of
success
organizational focus vs.
collection of individuals
beyond role-based
constraints

3. Strategy is about inspiring before hiring

4. Context
Capability

5. Boyd’s OODA Loop

6. Orient
Assess
Question
Hypothesize

7. Context
what are our goals,
values, and principles as
a company?
what do we need to get
done?
why? how much?

8. running a
successful
business
enabling
great
experiences
maintaining
strong
teams
engineering
leading
technology

9. go beyond hiring and career skills growth
shape and align teams with business goals
aim for impact, scope, scale, diversity, resilience, sustainability

10. Capability
what do we need to be
good at?
how good?
not who…yet

11. complementary
strengths vs. equal
development
breadth and depth of
skill across people
increased participation

13. what and why?
who and how much?
how and when?

14. sthetics: type, color, line, shape, sound asset creation Motion principle/guideline creation, compliance, validation global design branding branding
mpliance creative direction brand strategy for visual identityframeworks for visual design language brand/product positioning layout &
mposition information architecture content de interaction design NUI and multimodal navigation and command universal designmu
annel design cross-product design conceptual design & modeling Persona development exploration of design options question definition identify
evant outcomes and necessary data methodology selection and tradeoffs emergent methods method development data analysis report writi
communication and catalyst for action data synthesis latent need identification insight triangulation storytelling sketching
prototyping techniques modeling Iteration generation and refinement creative production problem-solving use and cre
am processes and methodologies measurement and metrics competitive differentiation process contribution and improvement tool
ntribution and improvement integration with team processes and tools continuous iterative improvement insight generation product design ser
sign effective meetings stakeholder selection and management managing interpersonal style differences working across organizational boundaries
transparency communication strategy team dynamics role model coaching succession planning pride in work personal accountability
abstraction from personal experience engineering system mechanismsidentify issues resolve, escalate, or find owners for issues describe discoveries
om behavior or observation identify latent needs and new product/service priorities integrate expected new usage patterns address experience and behavioral
ributes address attitude and emotional attributes describe opportunities relative to competition / trends identify opportunities relative to competition
nds create action plan relative to immediate needs create action plan consistent with future needs contribute to product strategy contribute to cross-product
oss-org strategy employ divergent thinking to influence engineering peers apply work across engineering lifecycle contribute to go-to-market campaig
d messaging develop formative, generative, naturalistic research propose and create consensus for needed human and product centered approach def
ccess criteria and needed deliverables against multiple research objectives innovate new research approaches formulate systematic multi-stage approach
adapt research program to respond to organizational need reduce data to form actionable outcomes enable problem identification apply data
ea finding, problem finding, and problem definition synthesize data for idea finding, problem finding, and problem definition create compelling data summaries
deliver compelling research artifacts create compelling communication via emotional connection to user and context convey real user stories create com
derstanding of usage, reaction, feedback, or needs predict usage and customer reaction contribute real customer stories, insights, and data for go to market
orts inspire new thinking by leveraging expressed needs inspire new thinking by leveraging latent needs propose and guide solutions throughout cycle app
propriate business domain knowledgedefine measurable conditions for success create measurable conditions for success build consensus for success
finitions align success definitions to goals or org definitions create alignment of success definitions to goals or org definitionsintegrate success definitions
o design research process create integration of success definitions into design research process leverage insight on needs to inspire new thinking and
proaches create insight on needs to inspire new thinking and approaches propose and guide solutions align solutions within or across product areas / scena
create alignment of solutions across product areas / scenarios discover and understand root causes to experience issues iterate analyses and
erpretation of data to discover superior solutions create and direct analyses and interpretation of data to discover superior solutions tune designs based
ntinuous iteration tune research approaches to address changing needs provide data and research artifacts that validate success outcomes create and
ect research processes to provide data and research artifacts that validate success outcomes Design for non-US markets Specific tool expertise (Visual Studio
dobe, etc.) Full range of analog & digital prototyping business model and execution considerations Microsoft Design Principles Microsoft Design
nguage Application Windows 8 and Windows Phone Competing OS expertise HTML/CSS/Javascript multidevice, responsive design native apps v. brow
data visualization and interaction design sensors and other small devices problem discovery build, measure, learn (Lean Startup / Lean UX) facilitation

15. Skill Name
Skill 1
Skill 2
Skill 3
Skill 4

16. Skill Name
Color, line,
shape
Latent need
identification
Brand
integration
Non-code
prototyping

17. UX leaders and ICs UX enthusiasts
Product owners Vested interests (may need
education)

18. Skill Name Current Level Desired Level Priority
Color, line,
shape
Latent need
identification
Brand
integration
Non-code
prototyping

19. Skill Name Current Level Desired Level Priority
Color, line,
shape
3 5 5
Latent need
identification
2 2 1
Brand
integration
5 3 3
Non-code
prototyping
1 4 5

20. Skill Name Current Level Desired Level Priority
Skill 1 3 5 5
Skill 2 2 2 1
Skill 3 5 3 3
Skill 4 1 4 5
Skill Name Current Level Desired Level Priority
Skill 1 3 5 5
Skill 2 2 2 1
Skill 3 5 3 3
Skill 4 1 4 5
Skill Name Current Level Desired Level Priority
Skill 1 3 5 5
Skill 2 2 2 1
Skill 3 5 3 3
Skill 4 1 4 5
Skill Name Current Level Desired Level Priority
Color, line,
shape
3 5 5
Latent need
identification
2 2 1
Brand
integration
5 3 3
Non-code
prototyping
1 4 5

21. Skills
Assessment of Skills and Knowledge Assigned
Prty
Assigned
Gap
Normed
Gap
Perceived
Gap
Normed
Perceived
Gap
Current Level Norm Desired Level Norm
Color, line, shape 85 7.1 110 9.2 4.6 25.0 2.1 114.8 9.6
Brand integration 86 7.2 94 7.8 4.0 8.0 0.7 32.0 2.7
Non-code prototyping 65 5.4 88 7.3 4.1 23.0 1.9 94.2 7.8
Ethnographic analysis 77 6.4 97 8.1 4.1 20.0 1.7 82.6 6.9
Lo-fi usability 61 5.1 85 7.1 3.8 24.0 2.0 90.5 7.5
Latent need identification 60 5.0 78 6.5 3.6 18.0 1.5 63.9 5.3
Skill 7 60 5.0 75 6.3 3.7 15.0 1.3 55.0 4.6
Skill 8 69 5.8 85 7.1 4.1 16.0 1.3 64.8 5.4
Skill 9 58 4.8 75 6.3 4.0 17.0 1.4 67.2 5.6
Skill 10 70 5.8 84 7.0 4.1 14.0 1.2 57.5 4.8

22. Skills
Assessment of Skills and Knowledge Assigned
Prty
Assigned
Gap
Normed
Gap
Perceived
Gap
Normed
Perceived
Gap
Current Level Norm Desired Level Norm
Color, line, shape 85 7.1 110 9.2 4.6 25.0 2.1 114.8 9.6
Brand integration 86 7.2 94 7.8 4.0 8.0 0.7 32.0 2.7
Non-code prototyping 65 5.4 88 7.3 4.1 23.0 1.9 94.2 7.8
Ethnographic analysis 77 6.4 97 8.1 4.1 20.0 1.7 82.6 6.9
Lo-fi usability 61 5.1 85 7.1 3.8 24.0 2.0 90.5 7.5
Latent need identification 60 5.0 78 6.5 3.6 18.0 1.5 63.9 5.3
Skill 7 60 5.0 75 6.3 3.7 15.0 1.3 55.0 4.6
Skill 8 69 5.8 85 7.1 4.1 16.0 1.3 64.8 5.4
Skill 9 58 4.8 75 6.3 4.0 17.0 1.4 67.2 5.6
Skill 10 70 5.8 84 7.0 4.1 14.0 1.2 57.5 4.8
averagesum average x2
subtraction priority x normed gap

24. Skills
Assessment of Skills and Knowledge Assigned
Prty
Assigned
Gap
Normed
Gap
Perceived
Gap
Normed
Perceived
Gap
Current Level Norm Desired Level Norm
Color, line, shape 85 7.1 110 9.2 4.6 25.0 2.1 114.8 9.6
Brand integration 86 7.2 94 7.8 4.0 8.0 0.7 32.0 2.7
Non-code prototyping 65 5.4 88 7.3 4.1 23.0 1.9 94.2 7.8
Ethnographic analysis 77 6.4 97 8.1 4.1 20.0 1.7 82.6 6.9
Lo-fi usability 61 5.1 85 7.1 3.8 24.0 2.0 90.5 7.5
Latent need identification 60 5.0 78 6.5 3.6 18.0 1.5 63.9 5.3
Skill 7 60 5.0 75 6.3 3.7 15.0 1.3 55.0 4.6
Skill 8 69 5.8 85 7.1 4.1 16.0 1.3 64.8 5.4
Skill 9 58 4.8 75 6.3 4.0 17.0 1.4 67.2 5.6
Skill 10 70 5.8 84 7.0 4.1 14.0 1.2 57.5 4.8

25. company
average
team A
team B

26. Strategic Action
are teams good
enough?
In what areas do
they need help?
how important is it
to get help?
what kind of help?

27. who plays a part?
what do your colleagues want to be good at?

28. open up
opportunities
issue the
challenge to
add UX into
everyone’s job
let people find
their point of
contribution

29. Oh, yeah. Hiring.

30. same strategic framework
involve the team to determine fit and talent
hire the inspired

31. Good luck!
Phillip Hunter
Microsoft
Engineering Excellence
phunter@microsoft.com
@designoutloud