Ux trek 120506
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Jeremy Kriegel, a UX manager at CIDC, discusses taking a UX-focused approach when working with organizations. He emphasizes treating the team as a subject to understand, identifying allies and those who need to be allies, and selling UX's value in increasing revenue, avoiding costs, and improving service. Kriegel also addresses preparing for discussions with organizations by understanding their priorities and biases and identifying the most important problems UX can help solve.
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Ux trek 120506
- 1. UX Trek Jeremy Kriegel UX Manager, CIDC Boldly going where no UX has gone before
- 12. IRACIS
- 14. Treat your team as a subject
- 16. Friction Factor
- 19. Who are your allies? Who do need to be?
- 20. UX is a sales job
- 21. A few examples
- 24. User Knowledge
- 27. Why haven’t they had UX?
- 28. How do they expect the organization to change?
- 29. Where is UX on the priority list?
- 30. My bias
- 31. What is the next most important problem the business has that UX can help solve
- 32. Discussion
- 33. TANSTAAFL
- 35. spkr8.com/s/6396
Editor's Notes
- Thank you for coming. Given who I’m competing with on the schedule, I thought that there was a good chance I’d be speaking to an empty room. The Star Trek theme does not go through the whole presentation. Some of you are probably disappointed, while others are relieved. Imgsrc: http://dassel.home.xs4all.nl/
- I’ve been in UX for over 15 yearsIn many companies I’ve been the first UX person they’ve ever worked with. Some consulting, some internalEach scenario was a bit different, but as I look back on them, there are some patterns of success that I hope to shareThis presentation is a little different from usual.Usually presenters get up and hand down wisdomNEXT
- We come off as fairly authoritativeEither because we believe we have the one true wayOr more likely because 45 minutes is not enough time to delve into nuance.I want to be clear that this is based on my experience and my personality.There are many ways to tackle this and I’ll try to offer more options than prescriptions.
- It all starts with a magic moment.Someone who has never worked with a UX person before sees the lightThey have an awakening, an undiscovered need that they have chosen you to fulfillMaybe they have been struggling to satisfy their customers,Maybe someone had worked with UX before and said that they could help solve the problemsMaybe an executive has caught hold of the latest buzzword,Whatever the causeThis is very excitingYou have the potential to affect huge change on an organization, to change how they work and revolutionize the product
- You may feel like a white knight who will ride in and save the day By introducing things like user research, prototypes, and the prodigious use of sticky notes and sketches involving boxes arrowsYou may have experience at an agency that has a defined processOr you look forward to being able to finally do things right, the way they are laid out in your favorite UX bookSadly, my experience has tended to be a bit different
- The organization has existing momentumEstablished practicesPeople are reluctant to changeThis is normalAdding in UX practices is a significant change. It may not seem so to us because we already think this way.
- How difficult depends on the org, some more change oriented than othersNewer potentially better than older (unless people worked together elsewhere)Smaller potentially better than larger (unless you have a small independent team w/in org)
- Tendency when you arrive will be to do what you are comfortable with.Makes certain amount of senseGo with your strengthsThey hired you for ‘emYou have biases towards your passionsSitting here, you could probably see that this is not the best option, but under duress, we revert to our comfort zones
- You don’t hire a plumber because they have the best faucet puller in the neighborhood
- You hire them to fix your sink. It’s about the result, not the tools.
- Another way to think about ROI isNot the easiest acronym to remember, but it is more specific than ROI
- Everything you do has to tie back to one of these things in some tangible
- Understand how everything works firstUse all the research experience you have to understand the work environment and challengesSomething must have come up in the recruiting or sales processThere may be existing process doc (which may or may not be followed)Talk to people of all levelsListen and observeAfter a little of this, you’ll have a good idea of how you can add valueWill likely fall into one of two categories
- Ideally one and the same…You:You’re the expert and they brought you in for that expertiseWill likely have a bigger impactMay be inefficiencies that they take for granted- can’t convince someone to solve a problem they don’t think they have You’re not leveraging design industry best practices is easier sale than you really don’t understand your customersThem:Easier adoption
- High – requires more changeNeed buy-in all aroundStakeholder only and you have rebellionTeam only and you get squashedPotentially greater impact, you are the expertLow – easier integrationSmaller impactDemonstrate value quicklyGet permission to do more
- Above boardNeed resources (time or money) from othersLook for risk – seems more motivating than reward
- DL – something you can do on your ownI took what I heard and made this. Is anything missing?Did I get anything wrong?Subtle way of introducing something new
- Who are your current supporters?Who would you need to affect change?What would you have to do to bring them around?Active blockers? Spend time with them. Listen. Understand their concernsNeed approval? Do you have access to them? If not, an influencer?Find out what they value.This brings up what I think is one of the key concepts to understand to be successful at UX.
- It is an ugly truthSuccess is less about how great you are as a practitioner Then about how good you are at creating relationships with others and communicatingVery rarely (in my experience) does UX have a final say. Stakeholders will make their own decisions (everyone is a designer)Engineers can say it’s too hard. That will kill anything.You have to build relationships so people trust you and be able to communicate the value of what you are doingNot only to the business, but to the teamThat what you will do will make them more successful
- ConsultantProduct company, first UX personWas working with their services groupWould start engagements with their clients with a workshop to determine how product would be configuredA lot of variability in UIDevs would define and build, clients gave feedback, repeatVery time consuming, projects were often over budgetIntroduced light wireframes, could iterate much faster than devTypical of many places as WFs is almost always the first thing I ad.Often leveraging design best practices and minimizing dev churn gives the fastest return.
- With my current company, launching into a regulated market
- Working for a company where usage was poorly understoodThey wanted to learn, but were already swamped and would not take 4-6 weeks to participate in a study(I like to involve at least one stakeholder)Monthly visitsLow frictionLow early results, but each month we learned something more
- Once you’ve taken the first step and solidified yourself, you will likely be swamped as you will have created demand.Taking the second step is hardYou’ve fallen into a rhythm as has the teamNeed another push to make another changeRisk is a good motivatorNew table usability test
- One thing I still struggle a bit is to adequately assess the situation before I go in. Here are some things I at least try to assess.
- A tough question to evaluate, but at least you’ll have some context.
- It’s a hypothetical, and usually hiring managers haven’t thought about it,Will give you a sense of their expectations and how you might have to manage them
- As I mentioned in the beginning, it isn’t unusual to come into a new company expecting to change the world, Part of that has to do with the grand expectations that may have been set during interviewsWhen I have become frustrated at the lack of progress in some places, I’ve started to wonderDo these people really value their users?In the beginning, I thought, ‘no’, but my thoughts have become a bit more nuanced.
- Personally, I tend to go with the lower frictionSkunkworks activities firstI have more control and I’m able to show value quicklyThen I look for bigger changesTenure has been short, so more experience initiating than evolvingBut where I have, it is a repeat of the same process
- Any questions?Will welcome input from everyone, but will limit time on any one topic. Look around at who is talking about it and catch up during lunch or between sessions.
- There ain’t no such thing as a free lunchI’ve put many hours into preparing this presentation for youAnd before I get to questions, I want something in return
- There ain’t no such thing as a free lunchI’ve put many hours into preparing this presentation for youAnd before I get to questions, I want something in return
- I put a lot of effort and experience into this presentationIf you got some value out of it, I’ll ask you for something in returnI believe very strongly in my own continuous improvementAnd in order to do that, I need specific feedbackOf course, my preference is for face-face conversations,But if that isn’t yours, or there isn’t time, urlThank you for your time. Any questions?