The only way we'll get a seat at the table is if we act like we deserve to be there. In this talk, I explain how to stop waiting for permission, build your power base, and change the company culture to effect a UX takeover at your organization.
The theme from all the talks at An Event Apart Conference in Washington, DC 2018 was how to design inclusively for the web. This presentation covers 3 areas where your business can improve its process in order to design with people, not for people.
Designer vs Developer - A Battle Royal v1.0Nicole Maynard
SharePoint Fest Chicago 2013 - Can designers and developers work together to create a frictionless solution? Often times barriers exist between designers and developers. Let's look at what UX really is, not hearsay and learn some interesting ways devs can help. And bring peace to this historical battle field, by showing the two factions can work together amicably when supported by a well-defined process. Content covered will center around web, desktop, mobile, and yes a little bit of SharePoint. Discussion topics will include a brief history of user experience (UX) design, a "concept to deliverable" process involving designers and developers, and finally a short demo highlighting covered concepts.
UX Strategy - the secret to long-term business success instead of one-shot wo...Eric Reiss
UX strategy is about analyzing an organization’s business strategy and outlining what needs to be done from a UX perspective to ensure that the goals of the business strategy are achieved. In brief, UX strategy is the glue that binds the company vision (goals) with the day-to-day UX tactics (execution). Without a clear UX strategy, it is entirely possible to design killer UX concepts – for games, apps, and beyond - yet fail miserably in the marketplace, even after an initial “one-product” success.
Surprisingly, most companies – particularly game and app publishers - don’t have a UX strategy. At best, they have a vague idea as to the desired UX of their “official” digital offerings, but may have left out other key parts of the user experience including landing pages, social-media messaging, advertising, etc. As a result, very few companies are able to create experiences that demonstrate much consumer value beyond that of a single, introductory product. “Just sprinkle some of your UX pixie dust on our crappy product and make it wonderful” – and this is exactly what many designers do; a short-term solution that more often than not guarantees failure in the long run.
UX Strategy - the secret sauce that defines the pixie dustEric Reiss
My opening keynote at UX Riga, 2016
UX strategy is about analyzing an organization’s business strategy and outlining what needs to be done from a UX perspective to ensure that the goals of the business strategy are achieved.
In brief, UX strategy is the glue that binds the company vision (goals) with the day-to-day UX tactics (execution). Without a clear UX strategy, it is entirely possible to design killer UX concepts, yet fail miserably in the marketplace. That happens a lot.
This talk aims to help companies and designers avoid costly yet easily avoidable pitfalls.
NoVA UX Meetup: Product Testing and Data-informed DesignJim Lane
These are the slides for the January 2013 NoVA UX Meetup in Vienna, VA. VP of UX Jim Lane shared tips, tools, and research strategies that the AddThis has used to develop publisher products used on over 14 million websites.
The theme from all the talks at An Event Apart Conference in Washington, DC 2018 was how to design inclusively for the web. This presentation covers 3 areas where your business can improve its process in order to design with people, not for people.
Designer vs Developer - A Battle Royal v1.0Nicole Maynard
SharePoint Fest Chicago 2013 - Can designers and developers work together to create a frictionless solution? Often times barriers exist between designers and developers. Let's look at what UX really is, not hearsay and learn some interesting ways devs can help. And bring peace to this historical battle field, by showing the two factions can work together amicably when supported by a well-defined process. Content covered will center around web, desktop, mobile, and yes a little bit of SharePoint. Discussion topics will include a brief history of user experience (UX) design, a "concept to deliverable" process involving designers and developers, and finally a short demo highlighting covered concepts.
UX Strategy - the secret to long-term business success instead of one-shot wo...Eric Reiss
UX strategy is about analyzing an organization’s business strategy and outlining what needs to be done from a UX perspective to ensure that the goals of the business strategy are achieved. In brief, UX strategy is the glue that binds the company vision (goals) with the day-to-day UX tactics (execution). Without a clear UX strategy, it is entirely possible to design killer UX concepts – for games, apps, and beyond - yet fail miserably in the marketplace, even after an initial “one-product” success.
Surprisingly, most companies – particularly game and app publishers - don’t have a UX strategy. At best, they have a vague idea as to the desired UX of their “official” digital offerings, but may have left out other key parts of the user experience including landing pages, social-media messaging, advertising, etc. As a result, very few companies are able to create experiences that demonstrate much consumer value beyond that of a single, introductory product. “Just sprinkle some of your UX pixie dust on our crappy product and make it wonderful” – and this is exactly what many designers do; a short-term solution that more often than not guarantees failure in the long run.
UX Strategy - the secret sauce that defines the pixie dustEric Reiss
My opening keynote at UX Riga, 2016
UX strategy is about analyzing an organization’s business strategy and outlining what needs to be done from a UX perspective to ensure that the goals of the business strategy are achieved.
In brief, UX strategy is the glue that binds the company vision (goals) with the day-to-day UX tactics (execution). Without a clear UX strategy, it is entirely possible to design killer UX concepts, yet fail miserably in the marketplace. That happens a lot.
This talk aims to help companies and designers avoid costly yet easily avoidable pitfalls.
NoVA UX Meetup: Product Testing and Data-informed DesignJim Lane
These are the slides for the January 2013 NoVA UX Meetup in Vienna, VA. VP of UX Jim Lane shared tips, tools, and research strategies that the AddThis has used to develop publisher products used on over 14 million websites.
Going from Here to There: Transitioning into a UX Careerdpanarelli
A lot of people are curious about transitioning into the field of User Experience Design (UX). In this talk, I talk about a few different ways that you can transition into a UX career, be it grad school, night classes, or the ol' school of hard knocks, backed up by case studies. This talk was given at NoVA UX Meetup in the offices of AddThis, hosted by organizer Jim Lane.
Creating User Experience for Applications involves multi various skill sets & is on vogue.
Know what UX is all about & Pixel Studios Design Process in this presentation.
From insight to idea, to implementation.
Design Thinking helps us create value-driven innovation.
Lean UX secures success through testing and iterations.
These key ingredients make up a winning combination.
Lillian Ayla Ersoy, BEKK
A Lean Design Process for Creating Awesome UXAnnie Wang
Lean UX is a proven approach for lean startup environment. My lean UX process is based on a commonly 6 step cycle ux process. In my practice with a few startups, I found it worked better for me to split the first step “concept” into 2 steps: discovery and wireframe. Thus my process is 7 steps – discovery, Wireframe, prototype, validate internally, test externally, summarize, iterate.
January 2016 Event: UX Strategy & SimplificationUXPA MN
Have you ever worked a project where the size of scope and size of support are imbalanced? Many projects end up this way and many don’t know how to overcome the obstacles created by this situation.
Time Leisio and James Schmittler from Thomson Reuters take a look at what happens when scope gets out of control, the benefits of keeping a manageable scope, and how designers can employ strategy and simplification to get a project back on track.
UX@AddThis
At AddThis we design products that are used on over 15 million websites, loaded over 1.1 trillion times annually and reaching 1.9 billion people monthly in 70 languages all over the world. As a small company, we’ve had to get creative to scale product design that evolves quickly with customer needs and a rapidly changing technology landscape.
In this session you’ll learn how we’ve taken ideas from agile development, lean UX methodologies, and organizational design strategies to come up with our own flavor of rapid design and product development.
In this talk Jim will touch on team structure, project process, designing for scale, putting data to work, iterating on process design, and tools, tips and tricks for making things work smoothly.
About Jim
Jim is Vice President of User Experience at AddThis. He founded NoVA UX in 2012 to provide learning and networking opportunities for UX students and professionals in the Northern Virginia/DC metro area.
Design a UX resume that will get you hiredKim Bieler
In this talk I illustrate with examples common pitfalls in UX resumes and give you insight into what the UX hiring manager is looking for. I show you how to make your resume truly stand out—not by expounding on your design philosophy or visualizing your career as an infographic—but by listing concrete accomplishments that demonstrate your business value.
Going from Here to There: Transitioning into a UX Careerdpanarelli
A lot of people are curious about transitioning into the field of User Experience Design (UX). In this talk, I talk about a few different ways that you can transition into a UX career, be it grad school, night classes, or the ol' school of hard knocks, backed up by case studies. This talk was given at NoVA UX Meetup in the offices of AddThis, hosted by organizer Jim Lane.
Creating User Experience for Applications involves multi various skill sets & is on vogue.
Know what UX is all about & Pixel Studios Design Process in this presentation.
From insight to idea, to implementation.
Design Thinking helps us create value-driven innovation.
Lean UX secures success through testing and iterations.
These key ingredients make up a winning combination.
Lillian Ayla Ersoy, BEKK
A Lean Design Process for Creating Awesome UXAnnie Wang
Lean UX is a proven approach for lean startup environment. My lean UX process is based on a commonly 6 step cycle ux process. In my practice with a few startups, I found it worked better for me to split the first step “concept” into 2 steps: discovery and wireframe. Thus my process is 7 steps – discovery, Wireframe, prototype, validate internally, test externally, summarize, iterate.
January 2016 Event: UX Strategy & SimplificationUXPA MN
Have you ever worked a project where the size of scope and size of support are imbalanced? Many projects end up this way and many don’t know how to overcome the obstacles created by this situation.
Time Leisio and James Schmittler from Thomson Reuters take a look at what happens when scope gets out of control, the benefits of keeping a manageable scope, and how designers can employ strategy and simplification to get a project back on track.
UX@AddThis
At AddThis we design products that are used on over 15 million websites, loaded over 1.1 trillion times annually and reaching 1.9 billion people monthly in 70 languages all over the world. As a small company, we’ve had to get creative to scale product design that evolves quickly with customer needs and a rapidly changing technology landscape.
In this session you’ll learn how we’ve taken ideas from agile development, lean UX methodologies, and organizational design strategies to come up with our own flavor of rapid design and product development.
In this talk Jim will touch on team structure, project process, designing for scale, putting data to work, iterating on process design, and tools, tips and tricks for making things work smoothly.
About Jim
Jim is Vice President of User Experience at AddThis. He founded NoVA UX in 2012 to provide learning and networking opportunities for UX students and professionals in the Northern Virginia/DC metro area.
Design a UX resume that will get you hiredKim Bieler
In this talk I illustrate with examples common pitfalls in UX resumes and give you insight into what the UX hiring manager is looking for. I show you how to make your resume truly stand out—not by expounding on your design philosophy or visualizing your career as an infographic—but by listing concrete accomplishments that demonstrate your business value.
Designing with Empathy: How user research can help you make better productsKatie McCurdy
[Talk presented at UX Burlington in June, 2015]
You're under the gun. You have deadlines, developers are waiting on you, and even though you know you should probably talk to your intended users at some point, it just doesn't feel possible to fit into your workflow. And hey, if Henry Ford had asked his customers what they wanted, they would have said 'a faster horse,' right?
Ouch! There are a lot of misunderstandings about what user research actually is, how to do it, its cost, and the value it brings to the product design process. In this talk, Katie covers these basics and presents some specific, interface-level examples of how up-front user research and mid-project usability testing have helped improve designs and create products that people love. You'll walk away with tips for advocating for and incorporating user research into your next project in a cost-effective way, and you’ll understand the powerful difference between building empathy with your customers, and ‘doing what they say.’
Participatory Design Workshop at the UX Strategies Summit 2015Katie McCurdy
Susan Dybbs and Katie McCurdy co-led a workshop to help attendees at the UX Strategies Summit learn about Participatory Design. We led the group through exercises intended to help them understand what it is like to be a participant in a participatory design session, and then we helped them understand what went into that exercise and how to plan their own session. I've captured resources about participatory design, for anyone who is interested, here: http://katiemccurdy.com/participatory-design/
Using Data and Customer Insights to Drive DesignKatie McCurdy
Andy Campbell and I presented on how we at the UVM Medical Center have used quantitative and qualitative data - analytics, heatmaps, interviews, surveys, and usability testing results - to make design changes and help set our team up well for a total redesign. We give specific examples of how what we learned translated to design tweaks, and we do a deep dive on how we've used personas and design principles in our process.
Essi Rentola (STM): Perustulo ja vapaa liikkuvuus. Esitys seminaarissa "Perustulo globaalissa maailmassa" 13.4.2016 Helsinki, Kelan päätalo. / Presentation in the seminar "Basic income in a global world" held in Helsinki 13 April 2016. More info: http://www.kela.fi/perustulo-globaalissa-maailmassa
UX Jiu Jitsu is a talk about how UX can reshape itself in an organization with little UX exposure. Use these tips to increase your ability to deliver UX to your business.
Business sees a high level value in UX because it's where the money is, but something in our process is breaking down. Get some practical advice on UX process with UX Jiu Jitsu.
This is my closing plenary from World Usability Day in Tallinn, Estonia on November 10, 2016.
User experience has been around since the dawn of time. But for most
people and their employers, UX is something that happens on a
two-dimensional interface – a laptop, a tablet, a smartphone. As a
result, our talents, as UX professionals, are limiting our career
opportunities. Service design is part of UX. So is product design. As
our discipline matures, we need to move beyond the digital interfaces
and demonstrate how our skills can be applied to many other areas. And
we need to adopt a clear, easy-to-understand definition of UX that
relates to an understandable, easy-to-implement design process. I’d
like to share this with you.
I made my first product design improvement at the age of three (I will
provide photographic proof). And I have been thinking about user
experience throughout my life. I would like to share some stories with
my friends in Estonia that I hope will help them grow their careers,
strengthen their community, and enhance their national presence on the
international scene.
24 Hours of UX, 2023: Preventing the FutureJoshua Randall
On our current trajectory, the future of UX design will look much like the present, only worse. The gold rush mentality towards UX design as a “career” combined with Gresham’s Law (“bad money drives out good”) applied to design combined with automation from software platforms means we are increasing the pace at which bad designs proliferate. In this talk Joshua Randall will cite data from larger research companies like Baymard and Nielsen Norman Group as well as draw on examples from his career to paint a picture of the coming dystopia.
Lightning Talk #10: Creating a Design-Centered Culture in Organizations: Lear...ux singapore
It’s not easy to introduce a UX culture within an Organization. There are ways, however, to slowly introduce the culture and get buy-in from other teams. It involves regular meet-ups and getting small wins.
Join Elymar as he shares his journey on how he created a UX Community in the Philippines, and how he brought his learnings into the corporate setting and promoted a Design-Centered culture.
What is the User Experience profession anyway and why are we doing this work? I want to help people make products people love. Some of us in the field are making products people love - what are they doing differently? What is Agile and how do we fit in? How do we rethink our profession in this world where technology and implementation move so fast? Get back to the core of what we do: connect customers and companies; understand our users (not just the ones who use the product, but those who use our services) and focus on the value we offer. Not the value of the test or the report, but the value of the intelligence we provide. The landscape has changed: people have higher expectations about the products and service they use. Things should just work, they shouldn't be hard. How can we help companies and product teams get there? This talk would be my take on the subject, I would love to hear yours too.
How can an industry that places empathy at the core of its practice ignore the big problems facing South Africa and the continent? In a rapidly changing design landscape will UX designers even be relevant in the future? UX designers exist at a unique interdisciplinary juncture and it gives us the opportunity to create inspiring responses to these questions. With the maturity of design thinking, social innovation, and lean startup, we are uniquely placed to re-apply our skills to find new relevance and greater impact in doing work that matters. But taking action is not easy, even if it can be known what is to be done. In this talk David will explore the new mindsets, skills and attitudes UX designers need to adopt to shift from merely doing design to becoming design activists.
User Adoption Strategies for Collaboration Software Central Desktop
Learn how to make stronger, more effective decisions about your User Adoption strategy in this webinar presented by Michael Sampson, renowned Collaboration Strategist.
We are proud to announce our twenty-seventh Innovation Excellence Weekly for Slideshare. Inside you'll find ten of the best innovation-related articles from the past week on Innovation Excellence - the world's most popular innovation web site and home to 5,000+ innovation-related articles.
We are proud to announce our fifteenth Innovation Excellence Weekly for Slideshare. Inside you'll find ten of the best innovation-related articles from the past week on Innovation Excellence - the world's most popular innovation web site and home to 5,000+ innovation-related articles.
Midwest UX 2014 - Pay It Forward: How To Mentor Your UX Co-Workers Without Th...Naa Marteki Reed
Want to be a mentor in the UX field, but you’re not sure where to start? Feel like you want to give back and help strengthen our industry, but running low on time and resources? You’re in luck: this presentation will not only reveal your personal secret UX superpower to you, but it’ll also show you how to use it on your co-workers to grow your mentoring skills, improve their careers, and build up the UX industry as a whole.
From Konami Code to Peter Principle - Leadership Responsibilities (EuroIA 2020)Peter Boersma
In this talk, presented at EuroIA 2020, I share leadership tips & tricks for when your responsibilities change, no matter in what direction:
moving in: trying out mentoring and leading
moving up: you got promoted; now what?
moving left and right: adding skills, broadening your horizon
moving down: adjusting and going for principal
moving out: changing environments, freelancing
What the UX? – Confessions of a DesignerThomas Gläser
UX - two magic letters which seem to attract a lot of hopes and desires. People hiring UX Researcher, UX Prototyper, UX Designer, UX Manager and UX Developer. People buy books about Agile UX and Lean UX. UX is everywhere, but what‘s really behind that thingy? This talk is for those who want to know more about the practical side of User Experience Design and also those who already know about it but have problems integrating it in to their everyday work. This talk will cut the hocus pocus and replace it with down to earth examples. So what? What the UX?
Session at Mobile Tech Conference 2015 in Munich:
https://mobiletechcon.de/2015se/sessions/what-ux-confessions-designer
Want to move your career forward? Looking to build your leadership skills while helping others learn, grow, and improve their skills? Seeking someone who can guide you in achieving these goals?
You can accomplish this through a mentoring partnership. Learn more about the PMISSC Mentoring Program, where you’ll discover the incredible benefits of becoming a mentor or mentee. This program is designed to foster professional growth, enhance skills, and build a strong network within the project management community. Whether you're looking to share your expertise or seeking guidance to advance your career, the PMI Mentoring Program offers valuable opportunities for personal and professional development.
Watch this to learn:
* Overview of the PMISSC Mentoring Program: Mission, vision, and objectives.
* Benefits for Volunteer Mentors: Professional development, networking, personal satisfaction, and recognition.
* Advantages for Mentees: Career advancement, skill development, networking, and confidence building.
* Program Structure and Expectations: Mentor-mentee matching process, program phases, and time commitment.
* Success Stories and Testimonials: Inspiring examples from past participants.
* How to Get Involved: Steps to participate and resources available for support throughout the program.
Learn how you can make a difference in the project management community and take the next step in your professional journey.
About Hector Del Castillo
Hector is VP of Professional Development at the PMI Silver Spring Chapter, and CEO of Bold PM. He's a mid-market growth product executive and changemaker. He works with mid-market product-driven software executives to solve their biggest growth problems. He scales product growth, optimizes ops and builds loyal customers. He has reduced customer churn 33%, and boosted sales 47% for clients. He makes a significant impact by building and launching world-changing AI-powered products. If you're looking for an engaging and inspiring speaker to spark creativity and innovation within your organization, set up an appointment to discuss your specific needs and identify a suitable topic to inspire your audience at your next corporate conference, symposium, executive summit, or planning retreat.
About PMI Silver Spring Chapter
We are a branch of the Project Management Institute. We offer a platform for project management professionals in Silver Spring, MD, and the DC/Baltimore metro area. Monthly meetings facilitate networking, knowledge sharing, and professional development. For event details, visit pmissc.org.
The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Modern Society.pdfssuser3e63fc
Just a game Assignment 3
1. What has made Louis Vuitton's business model successful in the Japanese luxury market?
2. What are the opportunities and challenges for Louis Vuitton in Japan?
3. What are the specifics of the Japanese fashion luxury market?
4. How did Louis Vuitton enter into the Japanese market originally? What were the other entry strategies it adopted later to strengthen its presence?
5. Will Louis Vuitton have any new challenges arise due to the global financial crisis? How does it overcome the new challenges?Assignment 3
1. What has made Louis Vuitton's business model successful in the Japanese luxury market?
2. What are the opportunities and challenges for Louis Vuitton in Japan?
3. What are the specifics of the Japanese fashion luxury market?
4. How did Louis Vuitton enter into the Japanese market originally? What were the other entry strategies it adopted later to strengthen its presence?
5. Will Louis Vuitton have any new challenges arise due to the global financial crisis? How does it overcome the new challenges?Assignment 3
1. What has made Louis Vuitton's business model successful in the Japanese luxury market?
2. What are the opportunities and challenges for Louis Vuitton in Japan?
3. What are the specifics of the Japanese fashion luxury market?
4. How did Louis Vuitton enter into the Japanese market originally? What were the other entry strategies it adopted later to strengthen its presence?
5. Will Louis Vuitton have any new challenges arise due to the global financial crisis? How does it overcome the new challenges?
1. I want a seat at the table.
I want to be taken seriously.
I want to prove that UX can solve
all kinds of problems.
I want UX to be at the center of
the organization.
I want a UX takeover!
16. Jeff Gothelf (“LeanUX”) suggests:
Post your work in a public place
so people can see and talk about
it. Send out a newsletter.
Demystify the design process.
23. Phillip Hunter (Microsoft):
“Too many of us have the attitude,
„call me when you need design.‟
We need to show up and say, „I‟m
willing to do whatever.‟”
So what’s the problem? Why don’t we have those things already?We’re just “creatives” not business people, so we don’t get any respectNobody knows what UX is, so they don’t understand what we doPeople think we just make things look prettyAnd that seems like something you do at the end of the project, or maybe not at all if you don’t have the budget
Historically, our strategy to deal with this has been to get better at communicating the value of UX.If people understand what we do, they’ll respect us and give us the resources we need to do good UX design.Here’s the problem: it’s not working. Nobody wants to hear about the value of UX.
Whether conscious of it or not, this is how many of us think we’re going to get that seat at the table.Communicating the value of UX until we get respect -- When people will understand what we dowe’ll get those design opportunities -- Then we can prove that UX really works!The problem is we’re stuck in step 1 – explaining and debating, getting nowhere, waiting like wallflowers to be asked to dance. I call this the “external validation model” – because it puts success out of our control and into the hands of our clients, bosses, or managers. We need to break out of this cycle. Stop talking, stop explaining, stop debating, stop trying to define the damn thing. Start DOING UX.
We need to prove it.You want to convince business owners to spend money on UX? Prove that it’s worth the investment.You want to get buy-in for that user research? Prove that user research works.You want a seat at the table? Prove that you deserve to be there.Without the intimate, first-hand experience that comes from doing UX, how can we ever hope to be persuasive? Without the confidence that comes from that experience, how can we ever hope to convince people to part with their money and resources?
The internal validation model means we’re always arguing from a position of weakness.We need to have the conversation about value AFTER we’ve proven that the UX process works, not before. Think about the difference between saying, “Please give me resources to do 3 days of user research because it’s really, really, really important.” Versus, “Here’s the result of some quick, informal research. We think we’ve uncovered 3 major usability issues so I’d like to talk to a few more users to validate these results.”We don’t want to be supplicants asking for handouts. We want to make the argument for resources from a position of power. As equals. With something of value to bargain with.
That calls for a new model. Here’s how I think it’s going to work:First, create your own opportunities to do UX – How? I’ll get to that.When you have results, you can demonstrate value – not just to others, but to yourself.Demonstrated value will earn respect from clients and managers.That respect and trust will open doors to more opportunities and greater influence at the company, or with your clients.
The best invasion plans always have prongs. Here are the 3 prongs of the UX takeover.First: Not going to wait for permission – ignore the org chart, act like we’re in charge, and find opportunities to do UXSecond: Build a power base – find our natural allies and win hearts and minds by improving user experiences at the workplaceThird: Change the company culture – by replicating our values and processes as widely as we can
Don’t wait for permission. Stop waiting to be asked to dance. Get out there and dance by yourself if you have to.If you’re a consultant, it means getting out there and doing user research or usability testing however you can, even if the client won’t pay for it. You’re going to have to demonstrate value first, then work with them to find the resources to do it properly next time. Or use those results to persuade the next client.We have to stop being hung up on doing things properly, or by the book. Any research and testing is better than none. Even if you fail, knowing when something doesn’t work, is just as useful as knowing when it does.
You can’t argue with results. Especially in business.What’s the worse thing that could happen if you went off and did user interviews without getting permission from your boss? You might get in trouble, but chances are, you’re going to uncover some issues or insights that the team wouldn’t have known about otherwise. If you do get in trouble, here’s your excuse: I did it because I thought it was important for the project. Nobody can argue with that, they can only argue with your methods. And now you’re having a different conversation – about why you had to sneak around to do your job in the first place.
There’s nothing more powerful in business than being the sort of person who doesn’t wait to be told – the sort of person who acts and is willing to accept the risks associated with those actions. As long as your actions are justifiably what’s good for the project and the company, you will always have the moral high ground. And think about this: Who would you rather work with – someone who plays by the rules and keeps their head down, or someone who occasionally takes chances but who gets results and pushes for change? If you’re that second person, guess what? You’re going to attract a following. But that’s the next prong.
Maybe it’s because I spent 13 years running my own business before I went in-house, but I still think of myself as a consultant. I’m just consulting for a single client now. If you think about it, if you’re doing UX in house, you’re essentially a service provider within the company. And unlike being an independent consultant, you’re basically a free resource. In that respect, UX is a lot easier to sell in-house.If you decide you’re outside the org chart, then nothing is off-limits. You can look for work anywhere. Suddenly you’re not pigeonholed by the group that you’re nominally a part of, you can forge your own identity with the rest of the company, your own relationships. And more importantly, forge an identity for UX.
If we want a takeover, we’re going to have to have an army. Who are our best allies?People who want change –usually that means less bureaucracy and better managementPeople who want a chance to be creativeImpatient people – they want results, actions, progressThose at the bottom of the food chain Poor communicators who have trouble advocating for themselvesPeople who care about usersRisk-takers – people who want to TRY things
How do you find them? Network, network, network. Make friends with everyone, ask them what they’re working on. Be nosy as hell. Here’s an example: I happened to overhear that one of our products was going in to a 6-month code rework. I approached the CTO and suggested that this would be a perfect time to do some usability testing so we could think about making some design changes at the same time. I gave him a budget and a description of how I would approach it. He agreed and I ended up doing about a dozen user interviews, wrote a usability report that resulted in more work doing task analysis and design.You can’t chase the work you want, if you don’t know it exists. Keep your ears to the ground. Sit in on meetings you’re not invited to. Attend the brown bags outside your department.
I’m in this cube farm where it’s easy to get isolated and not talk to anyone all day. When I first got to the company, I noticed this funny post-it on the hot water machine in the kitchen. So I took a picture and posted it outside my cube with this #uxfail tag on it. Whenever people walked by, they’d see the picture and stop, then laugh when they realized what it was.Great conversation starter.We do have to communicate the value of UX and evangelize, but we don’t want to do it at the point when we’re asking for something. Do it all the rest of the time, with a light touch, so people don’t even notice you’re doing it. I had another post-it outside my cube that said, “ask me what I’m working on.” Half the time people would. So I’d get a chance to talk about UX, run some sketches or wireframes by people. To this day…
Let other people into your process so they can experience the satisfaction that comes being creative and solving problems.Getting feedback on wireframes from one of our consultants, and he said, “you have the best job in the company.” I totally agreed with him. He was envious because I get to solve design problems all day. So yeah, share the wealth. Why should we have all the fun?
Another way to think about having a light touch is – lower your sights. Start small. Instead of proposing a giant redesign, do a heuristic review and find the cheap, low-hanging fruit. Don’t always try to do your whole process, look for quick wins that make an impact.If you propose something small, you’re making it easier for managers (or clients) to say yesQuick wins allow you to demonstrate value that much fasterYou’re also telling people, I’m flexible and easy to work withOnce people see the value, they’ll start coming to you.
You want to win hearts and minds in your company? Find ways to improve the user experience at the workplace. Dysfunction = design opportunities. I’m sure all of us can think of a few dysfunctional experiences at our workplace that could use a little design love. What about those terrible meetings? Maybe there’s no documentation for your timekeeping application, or it’s impossible to find anyone in your cube farm, or people are always blaming each other for not cleaning up in the kitchen.How many of us feel like we don’t get enough access to users? For these kinds of problems -- users are all around you. They are sitting in the next cube.
We need to make the company our project. The way I see it, if we want a seat at the table, we can’t be like everyone else in the company – the people who complain that the process is broken, the managers don’t know what they’re doing, people on the team aren’t pulling their weight. We can’t complain because we have the tools to fix it. More importantly, the company needs you and me to be the person who can rise above it all and tackle some of these problems. Because really, who else is going to do it?
Christian Crumlish and Gabi Moore gave a fascinating talk at last year’s IA Summit about a project they did at AOL called “Broken Experiences.” It was a website and browser widget that AOL staff could use to report problems with AOL web properties – kind of an internal crowdsourcing of quality assurance. People could report typos, broken links, poor usability, style guide problems, anything they thought was wrong. But here’s the fascinating thing: It didn’t take long before folks started reporting other broken experiences – at the company, not just on the web. Doors with confusing signs, running out of milk for coffee, location of nap rooms. The UX team took these just as seriously as everything else, and tried to fix them all.How’s that for an incredible proof of the value of UX? And winning hearts and minds? If we can fix the everyday experiences people have at the workplace – or even be seen as having made the attempt – that changes how we are perceived and valued.
This is where I started: Meetings. Meetings are a great opportunity to improve the user experience because 1. Everyone hates meetings, and 2. There’s actually plenty of information out there about how to run good meetings, it’s just that nobody can be bothered to follow it. Let’s take your typical planning meeting – there are always too many people, the agenda is something like: “let’s get in a room and figure out this out,” and there’s never any structure to it. What this meeting needs is a facilitator. (POINT) Volunteer to facilitate meetings. This is win-win all around.Relieve the meeting organizer of an onerous duty. Ensuring the meeting is more successful and satisfying for all participants. Get to use your UX techniques, like K-J method, gamestorming, whatever you’ve got. You’re standing at the head of the room looking important. You’re in the room when all the important decisions are getting made.
You want to be the one-eyed woman in the land of the blind? Learn how to run effective meetings. You’ll be like a god among ants.There’s nothing people appreciate more than a well-run, productive meeting that ends early – where everyone knows exactly what they need to do, and when they need to do it by. I’ve made meeting facilitation a service that UX provides to anybody who wants it at my company, just like usability testing, IA, wireframes, or design. It’s working. I’ve been asked to facilitate meetings for projects that I’m not even involved in. Product managers want me to train up my team so they can all do meeting facilitation.
Everybody I talk to about this subject agrees that we have get out of our chairs, step away from the wireframes, and find other opportunities to do design in the company. Phillip Hunter had this example: Your HR department sends out a mass email saying, we’re investigating a new a process for insurance enrollment and we need volunteers. “Designers should jump at this” he says. Once you’re on the committee or the working group, then you’ve got an opportunity to facilitate, to use UX techniques to brainstorm, sketch, test – whatever.Luke Wroblewski says we should be looking for opportunities to apply our pattern recognition skills to business data: analytics, biz metrics, consumer insights. Help executives visualize data and communicate the story that it tells.There’s no shortage of design opportunities -- if we just broaden our definition.
In business jargon, this is what you’d call a “stretch goal.”
Isn’t that what we’re talking about? If we want people to understand the value of UX, then we’re asking them to change their values. If we’re pushing to do good UX practice, then we’re telling the company it needs to change its behaviors. Values and behaviors are fundamental aspects of culture.We already talked about changing the meeting culture. That’s a good first step.
We can’t be everywhere all the time. And if we’re successful, we’re going to be so overrun with work, we’ll never be able to do it all. We have to teach others how to facilitate meetings, how to do K-J method for their own projects, how to run a usability test. We need to teach people to fish. We need to disseminate our knowledge and techniques and values and replicate them across the company.
Especially in a big, slow-moving company, you’ve got to take the long view. Understand that a lot of the time, you’ll be planting seeds that only bear fruit months or years down the road. One of my most satisfying experiences this past year was – I worked with a product manager who was allergic to post-it notes. He had learned other ways of getting requirements out and was really uncomfortable with what looked like a really unstructured ad hoc method. But I kept using them every time we had to brainstorm something, one day he came to me after one of those “get in a room and talk it out” planning meetings and he said: “We should have used post-it notes.” What a huge win! My definition of success is when I don’t have to advertise – people come to me. And when they internalize UX thinking to the point where it seems like their idea.I have another idea for changing the company culture… which you’re going to hate…
We spend so much energy trying to find ways to communicate the value of design to managers and getting managers to understand us. Wouldn’t that be a whole lot easier if we WERE the managers? This isn’t totally crazy. At Yahoo and Microsoft, some UXers have become product managers. Wouldn’t it be great to have a product manager who came out of UX? Stop wishing and start being that person.
My job won’t be any fun – I’ll be in meetings all dayEXCEPT – we already fixed the meetings so they don’t suck.
EXCEPT – we already know that there’s TONS of user experiences to fix at the company level. You might not be doing wireframes any more, but really do you want to be doing that your whole life anyway? Really, anyone can do wireframes.
People management sucks because it’s HARD and a lot of people are bad at it. This is a place where UX could make a huge difference because people management means listening and having empathy, it means bringing folks along and giving them the tools they need to be successful and fulfilled at work. People management NEEDS enlightened and caring leaders.Organizations are made up of people. If we don’t concern ourselves with how to make those people effective, we’re ignoring a fundamental problem of business.
Goes on to say: “We don’t have enough of US in positions of executive authority. We need more vice presidents.”But of course, we’re not going to get handed a VP position because we’re really great at UX. We need to prove that we’re concerned with things outside our domain, too.That means:Asking ourselves, what does the organization need me to do?Taking responsibility for the business as a wholeActing with confidence, and owning mistakesI believe it means tackling the tough problems that no one else wants to deal with
A lot of people I know are they’re always shopping around for a shinier opportunity, always looking for a better gig. That’s one strategy.Or… you could invest the time and energy to make the place you are NOW the place you’d like to work. You could start a UX takeover from within. That’s my strategy. Who’s with me?