UX14 - Building a Strategic UX Team (Sarah Bloomer)

Assessing the strategic impact of a UX team isn’t a one size fits all. Your strategy needs to be determined by several factors including culture, UX maturity and your business. Culture, for example, heavily influences your potential impact. Are you engineering, marketing or design centric? Which business you are in will drive how to build internal influence, and UX maturity. Are you a software company, where UX impacts the end product, or an enterprise in which you’re building software to run your business? Are you designing applications or websites? Are you a team of one, or a team of many? Are you co-located or distributed?

This workshop is for UX team managers or UXers building a UX practice. We’ll explore the challenges different teams face by looking at these factors, the role of a UX capability maturity model and talk about the different approaches taken by existing teams. We’ll spend most of our time in discussion with short breakout activities. You’ll leave with a sense of how to assess your team together with tactics for achieving your goals.

Transcript

1. BUILDING A STRATEGIC UX TEAM Insights from effective UX teams Sarah Bloomer UX India | 9 October 2014 SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 1
2. Our goals for today Part 1- Assessing your Team • Your issues Part 2 – Your world • Company culture • Business goals Part 3 – High performing teams • Team models • The attributes of high performing team Part 4 – UX leadership • Leading vs managing SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 2
3. Who is Sarah? SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 • Usability Engineering • User Centered Design • User Experience Designer • UX Director • Coach & Mentor • Mom 3
4. Who are you? Stand up if: • You are a UX team manager • You are a UX team of one • Your team is brand new (less than a year old) • Your team is more than a year old • Your team is global and spread across different countries SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 4
5. First let’s define organizations… SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 Software Enterprise Creative Agency The software is the business Software to support the business Website or webapps to deliver services Work with software companies and enterprises to help them design user experiences 5
6. What you’re creating • Commercial software • GUI • Web app • Internal software • GUI • Web apps • Enterprise apps • Websites • eCommerce • Marketing • Informational SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 Single platform Multi-platform 6
7. What is your biggest team challenge today? SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 Discuss with your table: • Write down the top challenge you are trying to solve Tell your table: • Your company • The type of organisation: Software, Enterprise or Agency/Consulting • Your team size • How long your team has been set up Do you have a shared challenge or are they all different? 7
8. The Big Stumbling Blocks • Wrong focus—no alignment to business goals • Team lacks direction or cohesion • Lack of communication • No champion or stakeholder support • Being unaware of your corporate culture SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 UX teams and UX strategies fail when…. 8
9. Your team lives in a bigger world SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 People Methods Location Vision Your UX Team Your world Culture UX Maturity Interaction 9
10. What is a UX Strategy? SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 UX Team Acceptance Product Vision Integrated CX strategy Business Goals Brand Strategy Market Share 10 There are many different types of UX strategies
11. What makes a UX team “Strategic”? 11 IMPACT EFFORT SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014
12. Five tactics for teams big and small Communicate Share, knowledge share, integrate Educate Enable others Adapt Change, try it out, improve Leverage Find allies and opportunities Facilitate Help others, integrate SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 12
13. YOUR WORLD How corporate culture impacts UX SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 13
14. Each situation is unique SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 Business goals / drivers Product(s) & Team Process What How Who When and and Constraints Company culture The sum of the parts will help determine the best approach 14
15. Start with your company culture "the specific collection of values and norms that are shared by people and groups in an organization and that control the way they interact with each other and with stakeholders outside the organization." SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 Charles W. L. Hill, and Gareth R. Jones, Strategic Management. Houghton Mifflin 2001. • Myths • Values • Barriers • Opportunities 15 Culture drives the values and norms that drive actions K. Goodwin: Leading UX UX London, April 2011
16. Identify barriers and opportunities A barrier may prevent or undermine the adoption of UX • UX is new to the organization • No skilled people • Design research is under valued An opportunity may help with acceptance of user experience activities • New senior manager with previous UX experience • Initiative to reduce the calls to technical support • Developers don’t have time to design and code SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 16
17. Identify myths and values A myth is a belief held by your stakeholders • UI design is subjective and cannot be measured or engineered • If we design for ourselves, it’ll be fine A value is a belief that defines the culture through actions • Developers are rewarded for rescuing failing projects • Pleasing senior management is good regardless of solution • We’re a consensus driven organization—everyone gets a say in the design SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 17
18. Discussion Small groups: • Pick one barrier and one opportunity at your company from the list presented • Tally the similar barriers and opportunities • Discuss them with each other: why? Together: • What are the shared experiences? SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 18
19. Barriers • UX is new to the organisation • Not enough UX resources • Difficult to hire skilled UX people • Not enough time to do research or evaluation • Product management “owns” the user interface design • Big egos / lots of politics • Limited access to users • Lack of trust between Development and Product Management • Short sprints cause Development to change design to meet deadlines • Design research is under valued • [your own] SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 19
20. Opportunities • Well accepted user experience team • Senior management willing to ‘champion’ usability • Other staff are interested in user experience (eg QA, tech writers) • Starting a new product • A company reorganization • New funding for more resources • A huge product failure • Initiative to reduce the calls to technical support • Developers don’t have time to design and code • [ your own ] SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 20
21. Another angle on culture Design centric Engineering centric SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 Paul Sherman. Changing Processes and Cultures. Nov ‘07 Creative approach to design Tend to design for designers—visually oriented Technology driven Have always owned the user interface Believe they know their customers Features over usability or user experience Sales & Marketing centric Find ways to collaborate that match the values of the culture 21
22. Increase acceptance by meeting half way • Engineers like: • Rules, standards and patterns • Deadlines • Designers like: • Wireframes with latitude to do their own thing • Opportunities to be innovative • Sales & Marketing like: • Feature lists • Research SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 22
23. Analyzing the culture SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 Engineering/ Development: Process: Design decisions: Performance: User Experience: Formal or informal? Requirements driven? Technology driven? Deadline/budget driven? Creates nice pictures? Critical to success? Communication: User research and feedback UX Vision Yes or no? Coordinated or fragmented? Shared and understood or not? Product Definition: Ownership: Design decisions: Product managers? Marketing? Engineering? User Experience Team? Feature driven? Competitor driven? 23
24. Be strategic by understanding culture Barrier: Small UX team Design research is under valued Myth: If we design for ourselves, it’ll work fine Value: We have to adopt Agile because everyone else is Communicate: Start small design research activities focusing on strategic design issues Educate: Demonstrations of effective designs Usability testing Facilitate: Bring groups together, don’t work in isolation Provide tools and resources Leverage: Collect user experience data from customer facing groups Adapt: Embed yourself with key scrum teams Opportunity: Adopting a new approach SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 24
25. UX STRATEGY Move into a position of influence SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 25
26. What is a UX Strategy? SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 UX Team Acceptance Product Vision Integrated CX strategy Business Goals Brand Strategy Market Share 26
27. 3 tips for creating a UX strategy SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 27 1. Align your strategy with business goals 2. Track your impact 3. Communicate Be clear about what is driving your UX strategy Identify business goals you can impact Build your activities and UX goals to support the business goals Create UX or Design Goals as a framework Determine success metrics NPS or Forrester’s CXi Talk up the attributes of your vision Create comics or storyboards Present your designs or concepts
28. What are business goals? A goal should be • Action oriented • Completed within a target time frame • Specific and well defined • Achievable yet challenging. SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 Business goals reflect the strategy of an organisation (how), how to accomplish the mission (what). 28
29. Corporate vision and goals SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 Samsung Electronics Vision 2020 http://www.samsung.com/sg/aboutsamsung/ samsungelectronics/vision2020.html 29
30. Discussion Small groups or pairs: • Review your one barrier and one opportunity • Review your biggest challenge • Write down one business goal from your company (that you are allowed to share) or make one up • How can UX help achieve the business goal? • Will the barrier or opportunity may impact your team’s ability to support the goal? • Will your challenge be a barrier to helping achieve the business goal? SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 30
31. Be aware of other forces Goals SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 Location Approach People 31 Company culture Business goals UX maturity
32. UX strategy drivers SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 What are you trying to achieve through your UX strategy? Influence how we do things Change the culture Improve a product or service Improve development efficiency Get people to think differently Better product design What are yours? 32
33. A strategy looks to the future SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 An experience strategy: 1. Anticipates and accounts for future form factors, technology platforms, and user expectations 2. Promotes a perspective on the character of uniquely GE product experiences 3. Uses values and principles as guides to design and development. Case study: GE wanted to drive revenue and growth through user experience practices • UX Framework • UX Process • UX Principles (tied to brand promise) GE UX Center of Excellence http://archive.mxconference.com/2012/videos/building-ux-and- design-culture-at-ge/ http://www.slideshare.net/UXSTRAT/ux-strat-2013-susan-rice 33
34. What is a UX Design Goal? A UX Goal describes the experience you aim to deliver, using adjectives you’d like to hear when others review or describe your product. They define the goals of your product and drive design decisions. A design goal: 1. Helps distinguish your product from your competitors. (Jared Spool) 2. Is aligned with your unique value proposition and brand experience 3. Guides design decisions 4. Can be applied to multiple products to create a common, shared experience. 5. Is broad enough to be defined more narrowly, eg what is “speedy” on a desktop app vs a mobile app? 6. Is the way you want your customers to describe their experience SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 34 Align
35. Create UX Design Goals SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 Kronos Innovative Our products are modern and unique in both visual appearance and behavior. We lead the industry in leveraging the latest advances in technology. Easy to learn Like your favorite consumer products, minimal training is needed to get started. Fast & Responsive Speed matters. We balance ease-of-use with powerful features that optimize task completion with minimal time and clicks. Engaging & Playful Solve complex problems with enjoyable interactions that are an extension of customers’ everyday experiences. Smart & Powerful Make better decisions. Our products harness the power of technology and industry experience to deliver insights when and how a user needs them. 35 Align Kronos Workforce Management
36. Derive UX goals from business goals SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 Experience Goal Issues Business Objectives UX Requirements Success Metrics Customer is confident that TN will streamline their training management • Users report that they often enter the same prospect multiple times, so they are called repeatedly. • Sales isn’t aware when a course is close to full • Courses underperform when registrants drop out late • Administrative staff are often interrupted and lose their work • Enable sales to sell the product based on productivity gains • Increase the number of customer reference sites • Reduce customer support calls • Improve admin staff efficiency • Enable information to be viewed in different ways in multiple locations in the organization • Create reports for management which reflect improvements • Create a top notch customer database • Customer contact logs are shared by all users • Implement persistent save • 10% reduced customer support calls • Increase time to proficiency from 2 months to 2 weeks • 20% increase in customer satisfaction Company: TrainingNOW 36 Align
37. 7 Evaluation Guidelines SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 User Objectives and Actions Layout & Visual Treatment Orientation Language & Terminology Feedback Forgiveness Navigation At Kronos,we aligned UX goals with design principles and taught product management how to critique against the goals. 37 Kronos Workforce Management Communicate
38. Track effort vs impact SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 IMPACT EFFORT 38 Track
39. Establish specific metrics SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 Measure Benchmark Timing Ownership Productivity improvement Reduce task time by 20%. Track and time current process (usability and end-users) 1.Usability test during dev 2.6 months after launch Product Owners UX Team Customer satisfaction Reduce customer complaints by 10% Capture current survey results Monthly for 6 months Customer Service Sales Increase sales by 10% Capture current statistics for past year Every month for a year Sales Some companies like metrics, some don’t. For those who do, choose your metrics carefully. Don’t be afraid to go for non-measurable goals: “our customers report that it’s helped their work.” 39 Track
40. Talk it up all the time SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 Reduce your vision to 5 attributes that fit on one hand Modular for quick updates Supports multiple roles Easy to learn UI Enables collaboration Seamlessly integrated with other systems Describe the attributes during meetings and elevator conversations 40 Communicate
41. Show the UX vision SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 • User narratives, tell stories • Conceptual prototypes • Comics and Storyboards • Kevin Cheng at kevnull.com • Davy Hoornaert on Printrest • Video • Knowledge Navigator (1987) • Mozilla Labs & Adaptive Path Aurora • Microsoft Silverlight Productivity Future Vision Knowledge Navigator: www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGYFEI6uLy0 Aurora: www.vimeo.com/1347289 Microsoft www.officelabs.com/Pages/Default.aspx Microsoft's Future Vision : Live, Work, Play 2013 41 Communicate
42. Building influence is change Skepticism Curiosity Acceptance Partnership When you introduce a new approach, you’re asking your company to change Enrlich & Rohn, 1994 User interface design and evaluation, Stone, Jarrett, Woodroffe & Minocha 2005 www.useit.com/alertbox/process_maturity.html SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 42
43. YOUR UX TEAM Fit your team into your culture SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 43
44. The UX Team ingredients Goals SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 Company Location Approach People 44
45. People: What roles do you need? SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 Interaction Designer Information Architect Front End Developer Usability Researcher Writer Content Strategist Front End Developer Visual designer Application design: Website design: Interaction Designer Visual designer Usability Researcher Writer Business Analyst 45
46. UX today SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 Interaction design: Navigation Layout Controls Style and tone: Visual treatment Language Interaction design Information architecture Development Visual design Writing/Editorial Deep customer knowledge: Ongoing research and feedback Evaluation User research Experience analysis Usability testing Analytics Technology: Opportunities/constraints Trends Technology Responsive design, social, mobile etc. 46
47. Emerging roles • Product Steward Tim McCoy • Represent user needs and goals • Manage product vision, framework • Provide creative direction • Collaborate with team • UX Architect • Works across program within a product/multiple products • Reviewing designer • Drive vision & strategy • Lead special projects • Typically found in large UX teams: 2 on a team of 30 designers plus 10 writers SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 Slideshare: Lean UX Product Stewardship and Integrated Teams 47
48. Make sure the team fits into the culture Create roles your culture will accept right away • Engineering: evaluation and needs analysis • Design: information architecture and evaluation • Sales & Marketing: research (by stealth) and evaluation Recognize myths and values, change from within Build allies and demonstrate complementary skills. • Engineering: collaborate in UI design • Design: clear hand-off from wireframes to visual design • Sales & Marketing: share customer research; prioritize feature lists. Invite to usability testing sessions SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 48
49. TEAM MODELS Find a good match SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 49
50. Where should your team live? SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 Software Enterprise Creative Agency Product Development 30% Product Management 40% IT Department 40% Product Management 28% N/A To be strategic: Locate your team where product decisions are made Bloomer: Effective UX Teams 2013 50
51. UX team models SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 Centralised De-centralised Hybrid Advanced Typical Range of skills applied as needed Center of Excellence Generalists assigned to specific product teams Communities of practice Specific activities centralised, others team based Teams of specialists and generalists 51
52. Models to structure your team SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 Project Project Project Project Centralised All projects go through the same team Software companies Consulting companies Pros: Consistent approach Cons: Projects require different levels of effort 52
53. Models to structure your team SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 Decentralised Project Project Project Project UX practitioners work individually UX manager Software companies Pros: UX knows their product well; works in Agile Cons: Lack of communication across products causes variable UX 53
54. UX practise models SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 Project UX manager Hybrid Specialist activities are centralised (eg. usability testing) Enterprises (non-software) Design Agencies UX research UX testing 54
55. UX practise models SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 Project UX manager Hybrid Specialist activities are centralised and shared Enterprises (non-software) Design Agencies Writing/Editorial UI Development Visual Design Customer research UX product strategy Project Project For example: Personas, Journey maps Shared components Research results 55
56. UX practise models SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 Project Guild model Project Project UX manager Project Project QA 2 Engineers Product Owner UX manager Work individually UX meets together weekly for one full day Software companies 56
57. Communities of practice SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly. (Etienne Wenger 2007) Community: engage in joint activities, help each other, share information Practise: shared stories and experiences, shared tools. 57
58. Build internal communities of practice SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 Build relationships within your organization through Communities of Practice. Promote cross-functional collaboration. Cross-functional teams drive ongoing research, design and evaluation. Customer research Customer facing experience Product Strategy Branding Marketing UX Team Product Strategy Personas Field studies Analytics Sales Stores Customer service Tech support Training Personas Stories Customer feedback Voice of the Customer Sales Marketing UX Team Tech Support Product Development Usability test results Tech support issues Release plans 58
59. Focus your UX design efforts SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 Priority projects: UX team works directly on product team 2nd tier projects: UX team facilitates the product team’s work Provide UI standards and resources for self-serve 3rd tier projects: Educate and facilitate: Share the outcomes of priority projects Project Project Project Project Project 59
60. HIGH PERFORMING UX How to create a team that works well together SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 60
61. The attributes of high performing teams • Good listeners • Listen to other points of view • Able to relate to other people • Strong communicators • Make shared decisions • Collaborative and relational • Continuously learning • Each project teaches something new • Build collective intelligence • Reflect on what works and doesn’t work. • Teams should be launched and relaunched • Agree on goals, challenges, roles and engagement (charter) SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 Amy Edmondson. www.athenahealth.com/leadership- forum/_doc/Teamwork_On_The_Fly.pdf Daniel Pink. Drive. Book or watch this: www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc 61
62. Skill Development Soft skills Shared knowledge Product consistency UXers must work within many teams SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 User Experience Group Product Team Expertise subgroup: eg. user research, testing, interaction design Applied skills Hard & Soft skills Communication Process (eg Agile) Applied skills Hard & Soft skills Communication Shared knowledge UX practitioners must excel at working with long term and short term teams 62
63. UX teams include different types of people sequential detail-driven, anal logical analytical rational, clinical, disciplined objective quantitative literal, word- and number-driven nonlinear, random holistic, big-picture, strategic intuitive synthesizing emotional, instinctive, passionate subjective qualitative visual and image driven Emily Cohen: Managing creatives in a left-brain world SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 63
64. What is your biggest team challenge today? SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 Group Discussion: • Review your team challenge from earlier • What would you do differently with your team to address your challenge? • Different team model? • How the team works together? • How the team works with product teams? • Develop new skills? 64
65. UX MATURITY Evolving UX acceptance SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 65
66. UX maturity SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 Skepticism Curiosity Acceptance Partnership Stop battling for acceptance and get strategic Ehrlich & Rohn, 1994 www.useit.com/alertbox/process_maturity.html 66
67. Show and include 67 Users Business Analysts Product Owners Stakeholders Product Team Users End users Developers (participatory) Stakeholders (observers) Definition workshop Field research User story mapping (Agile) Process mapping Brainstorming Sketchboarding Collaborative paper prototyping Design studio Group collaborative walkthroughs Participatory paper prototyping Usability testing 5-9 participants 2-9 participants 1-2 participants Group of 5-10 Discover & Analyse Envision & Design Evaluate & Refine SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 Required skill: facilitation Especially useful for teams of 1-3
68. Spread your value to gain acceptance SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 Adjacent teams Colleagues Allied teams Beneficiaries Upper management Stakeholders Your UX team Other beneficiaries Facilitate & communicate: Capture goals, thoughts and needs Leverage & facilitate: Support their goals Educate & collaborate: Customer support, marketing etc. Collaborate: QA, Tech writers etc. 68
69. Collaborate to communicate SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 69
70. Focus your message to the audience SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 Increase sales Lowers support and training costs Reduces IT development costs Increases product quality Increases user acceptance Increases productivity; fewer errors by end users Decreases staff turnover Fewer late design changes Potential re-use Shortens overall development cycle Meet goals of a sprint Increases product quality Decreases maintenance cost and effort Greater satisfaction; less fatigue Reduces training time and effort Less time spent seeking support and help Less learning required Fewer errors; faster error recovery Fosters focus on the tasks instead of the technology Senior managers look at the bottom line of any investment or development. How UX improves my costs? IT managers are measured on ability to meet budgets and deadlines How UX helps me make my deadline and stay within budget? Users want better and more appropriate tools & experiences How will this help me do my task better? Return on investment Performance goals Satisfaction and use Senior management IT management Users In-house development 70
71. Focus your message to the audience SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 Increase sales Lowers support and training costs Reduces IT development costs Increases product quality Fewer late design changes Potential re-use Shortens overall development cycle Meet goals of a sprint Increases product quality Decreases maintenance cost and effort Increases product quality Creates a more competitive product Increases Net Promoter Score Greater customer satisfaction Aligns with the brand strategy Senior managers look at the bottom line of any investment or development. How UX improves revenue? IT managers are measured on ability to meet budgets and deadlines How UX helps me make my deadline and stay within budget? Sales & Marketing want to have the right story How UX helps me increase sales and market share? Return on investment Performance goals Market differentiation Senior managers Engineering managers Sales & Marketing Software development 71
72. Some approaches I can’t do customer research UX doesn’t own the design Educate Become a co-designer Facilitate Co-design/design brainstorms Share reusable design assets Communicate Demonstrate your vision Write stories, create prototypes Adapt Relocate your team to be with the decision makers Leverage Work with customer facing teams Sales Customer Support Training Market research Customer satisfaction surveys Communicate Engineering Design Sales & Marketing                      SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 72
73. MANAGING YOUR TEAM Leading and managing 73 SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014
74. Management vs Leadership “Just being able to be there for others and to listen to them is one of the most important capacities a leader can have.” Joseph Jaworski Synchronicity: The Inner Path of Leadership “Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things." Peter Drucker, Essential Drucker: Management, the Individual and Society SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 74
75. Making your team effective • How your team works together • How your team works with others • Hard skills • Soft skills • Attributes: build trust and make it safe to explore designs • Primary things we do: • Meetings and workshops (work together) • Design or analysis (work alone) SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 75
76. The attributes of a good manager SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 76 • Operational skills • Plan and delegate • Domain expert • Set clear expectations • Positive recognition • Leadership Necessary skills when leading both an ad hoc team, or an established team Soft skills • Active listening • Empathy • Honesty • Humour • Keep your cool Be a guide, not a commander. Martin Zwilling, Forbes
77. Managing user experience SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 77 People Assign work: communicate expectations and deadlines Avoid surprises: give feedback constantly through weekly meetings Develop skills through team reviews, paired work, mentoring Process Integrate UX activities with development process Work both fast and slow Be flexible Build a library of common design elements Projects Prioritise and choose strategically Don’t be afraid to say no
78. UX Leadership • Working with your team: • Build trust • Appreciate different styles • Give feedback; take criticism • Mediate conflict • Enable learning and mastery • Build a shared vision and approach • Working outside your team: • Communicate vision • Mediate conflict • Negotiate • Communicate, communicate, communicate SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 78
79. Spread your value to gain acceptance SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 Adjacent teams Colleagues Allied teams Beneficiaries Upper management Stakeholders Your UX team Other beneficiaries Facilitate & communicate: Capture goals, thoughts and needs Leverage & facilitate: Support their goals Educate & collaborate: Customer support, marketing etc. Collaborate: QA, Tech writers etc. 79
80. SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 Group discussion: What is the first thing you’ll do when you get back to work? 80
81. Wrap up SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 People Methods Location Vision Your UX Team Your world Culture UX Maturity Interaction Communicate Educate Facilitate Leverage Adapt 81
82. Thank you Sarah Bloomer w: sarahbloomer.com e: sarah@sarahbloomer.com @boolie SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 82
83. Sample values • We need to ‘innovate’ and make cool technology • Pleasing senior management is good regardless of solution • The product managers are king • Developers are rewarded for ‘rescuing’ failing projects • Staff who don’t ‘rock the boat’ are safe in their jobs • Clever code solutions are applauded • Risk is dangerous SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 83
84. Sample myths • UI standards can’t be implemented for all the diverse needs of the user groups • If I design for myself, it will work fine • UX conflicts with Agile • If developers are familiar with the interface guidelines and principles, they’ll design good user interfaces • UX specialists are not technical enough to grasp the requirements of systems development • Requirements are anti-agile • Users don’t know what they want SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 84