Workshop #1: UX Career Development Plan by Ashwin Umathay & Aunindra Kumar Sinha

Career Development Plan
Ashwin Umathay
Senior Manager of Experience Design at Intel Security
Aunindra Kumar Sinha
Senior lead User Experience Designer at Intel Security

Illustra(ons by freepik.com

AGENDA
•  Background
–  Introductions
•  UX Roles
–  Career Options
•  Self development
–  Understanding Strengths &
Development areas
–  Gathering Feedback
–  Creating a Development Plan
•  UX Organizational structure
•  Tea Break
Ashwin Umathay | Aunindra Kumar Sinha

Background
ASHWIN UMATHAY
15+ years of work Experience
Education
MBA, General Management
University of Illinois, Urbana–Champaign | June 2008
MS, Industrial Engineering (HCI specialization)
Clemson University, Clemson | December 2000
MSc, Economics
BE, Mechanical Engineering
BITS Pilani, Rajasthan | June 1998

Background
AUNINDRA KUMAR SINHA
10+ years of work experience
Education
B.Tech, Information and Communication Technology
DAIICT, Gandhinagar | May 2006

TELL ABOUT YOURSELF
Where do you work?
–  Start up?
–  Design agency?
–  Self-employed?
–  Mid to large company?
What is your specialty? What is your main
objective of attending
the workshop ?

MY CAREER MOTTO
USABLE
EFFECTIVE
DIFFERENTIATED
DESIRABLE
EFFICIENT
USEFUL
Deliver Value &
Delight for Users
through creation of
products which are:

WHAT I DO - DESIGN MANAGEMENT
Create products by Orchestration of People, Process, Tools & UCD Methods
Today’s Topic
PEOPLE PROCESS TOOLS UCD METHODS

If the ladder we take isn't leaning against the
right wall, every step we take just gets us to the
wrong place faster.”
- Steven Covey

UX TEAM
USER RESEARCH
How it could be better for users
INTERACTION DESIGN
How it works
BUSINESS ANALYSIS
Technical details of design specifications
VISUAL DESIGN
How it looks
VOICE (WRITING)
How it sounds
Typical UX team consists of Business Analysts, Interaction Designers,
Visual Designer, User Researcher & Content Writer.
Other Roles include: Prototyper, UI developer, Anything else ?

CAREER OPTIONS
GRADES TITLE YEARS OF
EXPERIENCE
MANAGEMENT
PATH EQUIVALENT
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
I
II
III
Senior
Lead
Architect
Principal
Fellow
0 (Master’s degree)
2 to 3
5-6 (a poten(al fork in the road)
7-8 (a poten(al fork in the road)
8+ (a fork in the road)
10+
12+
15+
N/A
N/A
Entry Level Manager
Manager
Senior Manager
Director
Senior Director
VP / Chief Design Oﬃcer

CAREER OPTIONS
INDIVIDUAL CONTRIBUTOR
DESIGN PROJECT LEAD
MANAGER

EXAMPLE COMPETENCIES
Innovation Quality
Working with
Teams
Technical
Expertise
Operations People
Crea(ve skills
Defining UX
strategy
Adaptability
Brainstorming
Visioning
Producing
End user focused
Customer
Advocate
Valida(ng
Fixing
A]en(on to detail
Reducing errors
Working with Others
Verbal
Communica(on
Wri]en
Communica(on
Conflict Management
Crucial Conversa(ons
Communica(on in
groups
Managing Design
Feedback
Leading Ini(a(ves
Domain exper(se
Func(onal
exper(se
Researching
Analyzing
Project
Management
Evangelizing UX
Process
Project planning
Task Management
Understanding of
Business needs
Organizing
Mentoring
Coaching
Nego(a(ng
Influencing
Developing people
Managing

EXERCISE -1 (5-10 MINS)
TAKE A FEW MINUTES TO REFLECT
–  Your Strengths
–  Development Areas
WHAT ARE YOUR TOP 3 STRENGTHS?
WHICH 3 AREAS WOULD YOU LIKE TO IMPROVE
UPON ?
CREATE AN ACTION PLAN FOR EACH OF THE 3 DEVELOPMENT
AREAS IDENTIFIED

GATHERING FEEDBACKS
Purpose
- Reconcile perspective ( Yours vs. Others)
Importance of Feedback
- Essential for Self Development
Gathering feedback
-Through Email
-Simple forms
-Through Managers
-Peer Feedback

FEEDBACK FORM ELEMENTS
Set the Context
-Guidance on evaluation
-Encourage to be honest ( Anonymity option)
-Should not take more than 10 min to complete
Information to gather
-Name of person ( For follow-up)
-Capacity in which feedback is provided ( Project, Function)
-Areas of Development & strengths ( Open ended )

FORM ELEMENTS – DO’S & DONT’S
Do’s
-Send to a wide variety of folks
-Keep form simple ( Pay attention to UX, Content !)
-Send Reminders
Don’ts
-Politeness Bias
-Watch out for Reciprocity

CREATE A DEVELOPMENT
PLAN
Purpose
-Documented IDP ( Individual Development
Plan)
Elements of IDP
-Where do you yourself in 1 year, 3 years, 5 +
years (Vision)
-Strengths
-Development Areas
-Peer Feedback
-Possibilities (Career Options)
-Action Plan to address Development areas
with timelines
Good practices
-Action Plan should be SMART
-Have Periodic Discussions with your Manager
(Quarterly)
-Revise the Development Plan as needed ( 6 -
months)
-Identify 1-2 mentors
•  Mentors can be outside your function
•  Mentor Relationships are helpful in long run
•  Requires time investment and commitment

1. Define a time for each of the action
plans identified in Section 1
EXERCISE -2 (5-10 MINS)
2. Document where do you see
yourself in 1 year, 3 years & 5 years
3. Review your Development Plan
with your table Partner and get
feedback

REFERENCES
h]ps://www.paulolyslager.com/how-to-be-ux-expert/?
utm_content=buffera5920&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twi]er.com&utm_campaign=buffer

h]p://www.freepik.com/
h]ps://www.linkedin.com/pulse/five-ways-fast-track-your-promo(on-jack-welch?trk=hp-feed-ar(cle-(tle-editor-pick
h]p://hexaco.org/hexaco-online
Personality Tests
h]ps://www.amazon.com/Discover-Your-Strengths-Marcus-Buckingham/dp/0743518144
h]p://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mb(-personality-type/mb(-basics/
h]p://www.basadur.com/howwedoit/thebasadurprofile/tabid/83/default.aspx

§  Centralized and dedicated business function
§  Dedicated function within individual product / engineering teams.
§  Centralized team but aligned to different business units. Kind of a matrix structure
§  Dedicated and centralized team for each business unit in organization
UX Organizational structure

§  Understand the UX set up in your company
§  How is the user experience placed in the overall organizational goals/ strategy? Is it a support team or a key value
differentiator?
§  How UX team works with business leaders, marketing, IT, Product management and clients/ users?
§  Current process and methodologies followed. How it collaborates/ aligns with product/ business verticals – Agile/
Lean UX/ waterfall model etc.
§  Identify the barriers in delivering a great user experience – people/ process/ ownership/ research
§  Understand how effective is your UX team with business teams and end users.
§  How you can restructure the team. Think of the pros and cons.
How is your UX organization

§  Build a strong UX advocacy within the organization and ensure everyone understands the need of UX and
take ownership for right user experience.
§  Collaborate with the cross-functional teams, make them participate in the brainstorming sessions, user
research and share the user testing findings.
§  Aim for gradual change to start with. Perception and focus might not change overnight.
§  Work towards substantial and measured contribution to any assignment
§  Demonstrate ROIs and share case studies.
§  Quote your customer’s review for any significant UX contribution highlighted by them.
Cultural shift in your organization

§  Clear vision for the UX team
§  Design principles for the UX team
•  Strong design leadership team
•  Understand how the UX goals translates into the organizational goals
§  Create an experience center or design inspiration environment
Strong UX foundation

Design environment fostering creativity

§  Build a strong team of UX professionals.
§  Look for people who are passionate for UX and have empathy for end users needs and goals.
§  UX team needs to be focused towards building a great experience for users. Build a culture of user research and
testing.
§  Adapt to organizational changes and needs - Business demands and process shifts.
§  Influence everyone in the organization to adapt to user experience and own it.
Building an awesome UX team

•  Understand the motivation and career goal of every UX professional in your team.
•  Definite career path for the team. Use IDP.
•  Build a culture of brainstorming, effective collaboration and user empathy.
•  Create a design studio/ experience center.
•  Invest time and money in conferences, workshops and other avenues of learning
•  Respect every designers opinion and design philosophy.
•  Inculcate a culture of consensus building and help them articulate well.
•  Help them learn the art of storytelling. It helps create compelling experiences
that build human connections.
Retain talents

Time for some activity

§  Do you have a creative workspace and environment? Share your experience.
§  How do you evaluate/ test your design?
§  Is your company innovative?
§  How is your current UX organization set up?
Lets hear from you

Return on Investment
Business has various yardsticks to measure need, effectiveness and success of any function.

Return on Investment (RoI) is a industry wide norm to evaluate any function and more so in case of User
experience.

Few examples –

§  Apple
§  Walt Disney

REFERENCES
h]p://stratabeat.com/roi-of-ux/

h]ps://www.usability.gov/how-to-and-tools/methods/organiza(on-structures.html

h]ps://www.interac(on-design.org/literature/ar(cle/i-m-a-business-manager-how-do-i-become-a-ux-designer

h]p://www.userzoom.com/selling-ux-internally/the-apple-effect-proof-that-ux-is-worth-every-penny/

h]p://freshome.com/2011/10/02/work-environment-promo(ng-comfort-and-crea(vity-fraunhofer-offices-portugal/

h]p://maya.com/blog/strategy-for-culture-change

h]p://cdn.home-designing.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/adobe-office-concept.jpg

h]p://retaildesignblog.net/2012/12/16/crea(ve-offices-ogilvy-mather-office-by-m-moser-associates-jakarta-2/

h]p://freshome.com/2011/10/02/work-environment-promo(ng-comfort-and-crea(vity-fraunhofer-offices-portugal/

Workshop #1: UX Career Development Plan by Ashwin Umathay & Aunindra Kumar Sinha

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (20)

Viewers also liked

Viewers also liked (20)

Similar to Workshop #1: UX Career Development Plan by Ashwin Umathay & Aunindra Kumar Sinha

Similar to Workshop #1: UX Career Development Plan by Ashwin Umathay & Aunindra Kumar Sinha (20)

More from ux singapore

More from ux singapore (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Workshop #1: UX Career Development Plan by Ashwin Umathay & Aunindra Kumar Sinha