UX14 - Changing the UX Mindset (Sarah Bloomer)

Are you new to managing a team of user experience professionals? Are you trying to improve the acceptance and effectiveness of your user experience team? Or maybe you’ve got a mature UX practice and are wondering what’s next?

We hear the usual recommendations: find an executive sponsor, create UX champions, demonstrate your value, and apply metrics. These recommendations focus on demonstrating and convincing our colleagues about the value of UX. While each of these approaches can be effective, they rarely take UX to the next level of maturity. We need new strategies for improving UX influence.

Sarah believes the field of User Experience has reached the point where we need to think more deeply about how we fit, how to work within an organizational system and find more multi-dimensional roles. It’s not just about convincing, but about collaborating; it’s not just about process, but about being a change agent. Soft skills such as listening, facilitation and influence are equally important to design and research skills. She’ll summarize by explaining how the Capability Maturity Model is relevant to UX and provide ways to move your team or practice forward.

Transcript

1. CHANGING THE UX MINDSET Gaining influence through collaboration UX India | October 2014 Sarah Bloomer SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 1 @boolie @boolie
2. You are here SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 2 Culture Collaboration Capability Maturity @boolie
3. Acceptance of UX involves change SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 3 Skepticism Curiosity Acceptance Partnership Stop battling for acceptance and get strategic Ehrlich & Rohn, 1994 www.useit.com/alertbox/process_maturity.html @boolie
4. What we are told: SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 4 “You need an Executive Sponsor” “Invite everyone to observe usability testing” @boolie
5. We tend to get busy with UX SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 5 @boolie
6. …when you need to look beyond SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 6 Working with colleagues Negotiate the UX role Build awareness Be strategic @boolie
7. SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 7 Techniques Design process Design principles Tools Development process Coding constraints UX is part of the whole Soft Skills Communication Promoting UX Domain expertise Marketing Finance eComm etc Essential Leadership Management Other skills Writing Facilitation Divergent thinking @boolie
8. What do UX practitioners need to succeed? SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 8 The Hardest Soft Skills Mia Northrop @mnorthrop Creative thinking Communication Problem solving Analytical thinking Active listening Collaboration Interviewing and observation Persuasion and influence Planning and organization Teamwork Soft skills UXers Senior managers Product managers Facilitation Critiquing Consensus building Building trust Client management Negotiation @boolie
9. CULTURE SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 9 @boolie
10. Organization types SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 10 Software Enterprise Creative Agency The software is the business Software to support the business Website or web apps to deliver services Work with software companies and enterprises to help them design user experiences @boolie
11. 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 give you help determine the best approach 11 @boolie
12. Start with your culture • Culture drives the values and norms that drive actions • Cultures that deliver great experiences are: • Adaptive • Accepting of (reasonable) risk • Accepting of (reasonable) failure • Committed to quality • Willing to prioritize • Other-focused SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 12 K. Goodwin: Leading UX UX London, April 2011 @boolie
13. Cultural values and myths SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 13 Actual company values are the behaviors, attitudes and skills that are valued in fellow employees. Myths are beliefs that reveal those values Users don’t know what they want, we can design for ourselves Companies create corporate values that they aspire to 1. Deliver WOW Through Service 2. Embrace and Drive Change 3. Create Fun and A Little Weirdness 4. Be Adventurous, Creative, and Open-Minded 5. Pursue Growth and Learning 6. Build Open and Honest Relationships With Communication 7. Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit 8. Do More With Less 9. Be Passionate and Determined 10.Be Humble Zappos.com @boolie
14. SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 Another angle on culture Design centric Engineering centric 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 14 @boolie
15. Apply your design research skills SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 15 Get to know your co-workers Field studies To understand your co-workers and their context of work Personas To enable you to design an effective process Rich picture To identify attitudes and behavior @boolie
16. Field studies SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 16 • Interview and observe the people you work with: product managers, analysts, quality engineers, scrum team colleagues. • Interview stakeholders to understand their goals and beliefs. • Be a product owner. Storytelling: How do they feel? What do they say? What do they complain about? What do they boast about? What are they proud of? Who do they admire in the company? @boolie
17. Create personas of colleagues SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 17 Jen Fabrizi, 2013 @boolie
18. Rich picture SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 18 Competitors Product Owner Business Analyst Testers Architect / Tech Designer Developers UX Architect Enterprise Architect Business Analyst Senior Leadership Teams Customers Which company do I trust? What are people like me doing and saying? What do customer s want? What are our competitors doing? Will it be on time and on $$?? Gotta block for my team!! Do they get what I want? What do I want? They want what, when? Scrum Master External Pressures In-Group Pressures Internal Pressures Scrum Team The Enterprise PO Cabinet LEGEND Mental Models Ideas Let’s visualize it together! Use rich pictures to “reason about work”; (Monk & Howard, 1998) J. Fabrizi, 2013 @boolie
19. SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 19 operational model capability model user research interaction design information architecture usability engineering visual design content writing front-end development process model UX meta model user- centered taxonomies / ontology knowledge in-flows & out-flows capability interaction touch points attitude & behavior model waterfall agile leadership logistics staffing sponsorship funding personas scenarios rich pictures storyboards Fabrizi, 2013 Modeling the user experience practice: a unified story @boolie
20. FINAL TIPS SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 20 @boolie
21. Be a leader to drive change • Communicate all the time • Keep a learner’s mind • Build trust in all directions • Give credit where it’s due • Stay out of the weeds • Value your team • Make time to mentor and coach • Shut up and listen SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 21 @boolie
22. Collaborate in all directions SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 22 Adjacent teams Colleagues Allied teams Beneficiaries Upper management Stakeholders Your UX team Other beneficiaries @boolie
23. Build communities of practice SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 23 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 @boolie
24. Tips to move up the maturity model SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 24 Learn about your culture: Build trust: within your team, with your peers and your stakeholders Show you value co-workers: support them, help them succeed, give them the information they need Get to know your co-workers: Spend time with product managers, scrum team colleagues, senior management. Share: UX is most effective when it is influencing and enabling other groups. Find allies: Learn how other groups are measured. Identify myths & values: Find what’s preventing you from moving forward. Also barriers & opportunities. Communicate in all directions: Within your team, next to your team, above your team. Be a leader: Design your team: Be tactical: Choose activities that will be accepted within your culture. Align your UX goals to bigger goals. @boolie
25. It won’t happen over night SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 25 http://johnnyholland.org/2010/04/planning-your-ux-strategy/ @boolie
26. You’ll get there SarahBloomer & Co | UXIndia 2014 26 Culture Collaboration Capability Maturity @boolie