3 questions I hear the most
(about UX leadership)
@kimgoodwin
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What if I don’t want
to be a leader?
1
@kimgoodwin
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Leadership is not management
@kimgoodwin
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Leadership is influencing others
to achieve shared goals
@kimgoodwin
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Most “design”
Corporate goals
Terms of service
Security policies
Revenue models
Technology stack
Employee training
Employee incentives
Algorithms & training data
user
experience
@kimgoodwin
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@kimgoodwin
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delivering great UX
make the organization better at
@kimgoodwin
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• Clarifying vision & goals
• Influencing values & culture
• Building skills & systems
@kimgoodwin
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Management is optional.
Leadership is not.
@kimgoodwin
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How do I influence
other people?
2
@kimgoodwin
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New leaders
may need skills
@kimgoodwin
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Often, the problem is context
@kimgoodwin
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Sometimes we can work with the context
@kimgoodwin
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Decision styles
@kimgoodwin
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Dynamic
Stable
Simplified from Cameron & Quinn 2011, based on earlier works
Internal
External
Competing Values Framework
@kimgoodwin
Dynamic
Stable
Internal
External
All have pros & cons for UX. How can you flex?
@kimgoodwin
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@kimgoodwin
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@kimgoodwin
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We’re all more suited to certain contexts
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Company or team life stages
Childhood
Learn how
to survive
Adolescence
Shape who
they’ll be
Adulthood
Prosper (health
& wealth)
@kimgoodwin
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They require leaders to be great at:
Instigating
• Vision
• Persuasiveness
Building
• Systems thinking
• Delegation
Optimizing
• Evidence focus
• Relationships
See also: Simon Wardley “pioneers,
settlers, town planners” concept
@kimgoodwin
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Growing UX capability is similar
• Interest
• Survival
• Value
• Scale
• Pervasiveness
• Efficiency
@kimgoodwin
• Finding quick wins to prove value
• Identifying gaps in skill & process
• Designing teams & processes
• Hiring strong people
• Giving them clear goals
Building UX capability involves
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• Improving the right metrics
• Improving efficiency
• Growing new leaders
• Building long-term relationships
…without losing sight of the vision
Optimizing UX involves