User experience design and leadership

Applying Leadership Thinking in User ExperienceA Strategic Approach

December 15, 2015

Applying Leadership Thinking to User Experience

User Experience

Designer


Experience


Experience

Series of Interactions

A Coherent Journey

Invoking an Emotion

A Relationship


Back-end Developers

Clients

Front End Developers

Researchers

Customer ServiceMarketing

Designers QA’s

Dev-ops

Strategists Brand Designers

Copywriters

Systems Administrators

Experience


USEREXPERIENCE

IS A TEAM SPORT


DESIGN FOR USERS

DESIGNPRINCIPLES

FOR ENGAGEMENT EXPERTS

DESIGN FOR AUDIENCES

DESIGN FOR EXPERIENCE


CURIOSITYDRIVES EVERYTHING WE DO


QUALITIESOF A GOOD LEADER

QUALITIESOF A GOOD DESIGNER

COLLABORATION

EMPATHY

DIRECTION AND FOCUS

MENTORING


Our Work Defined

Too many people view management as leadership, It’s not.Leadership comes for influence, and influence can come from anyone at any level and in any role. ”

“

— Kurt Uhlir


11 The qualities of a good designer

Are the qualities of a good leader


Empathy

Getting groups of people excited about an idea requires understanding what motivates them.”

“— Bryan Zmijewski


AGOOD

LEADERIS EMPATHETIC

THEY LISTEN TO OUR EXPERTISE

THEY UNDERSTANDOUR INDIVIDUAL NEEDS

THEY LISTEN TO AND PRIORITISE OUR CONCERENS


When there is no empathy you get:

“I decided not to do it

that way.”

“I told the designer

we couldn’t do that”

“The developer didn’t follow my design.”

“I thought someone else was

doing that?”

Lack of commitment to decisions


A good designer is empathetic

They can put themselves

In a users shoes

They are good at

understandingHuman behavior

They can Prioritize Needs of others

Understand what

Motivatesthem

Take time to

understandTheir concerns

Consider colleagues

needs As you would users needs

Use empathy to connect with colleagues


Direction and Focus

The greatest leaders mobilize other by coalescing people around a shared vision”

“— Ken Blanchard


AGOOD

LEADERSETS DIRECTION AND FOCUS

THEY EXPLAIN WHY THOSE GOALS ARE IMPORTANT

THEY COMMUNICATE GOALS, NOT DETAILS

OPEN TO CHANGE WHEN CHANGE IS NECESSARY


When there is no direction and focus you get:

“The current trend is…”

“Because I’ve been doing

this for 10 years”

“Won’t work because of the

flux capacitor.”

“This is best practice”

Conflict


AGOOD

DESIGNERPROMOTES DIRECTION AND FOCUS

THEY MAKE DESIGN DECISIONS WITH INTENT

THEY KEEP THE DESIGN GOALS FOCUSED

THEY ARE KEEN TO MEASURE AND IMPROVE


SET GOALS FOR

YOUR WORK

1

2

3

DEFINEMETRICSTO MEASURE YOUR SUCCESS

IFSOMETHING ISN’T

WORKING, CHANGE IT

DON’TWAIT FOR SOMEONE ELSE TO DEFINE THOSE GOALS

To avoid conflict


Collaboration

Individual commitment to a group effort –That is what makes a team work.”

“— Vince Lombardi


AGOOD

LEADERFACILITATESCOLLABORATION

THEY EMPOWER TEAMS TO MAKE THEIR OWN DECISIONS

THEY MAKE SPACE FOR NEW IDEAS TO BE CONSIDERED

THEY DON’T CLAIM PERSONAL CREDIT FOR TEAM SUCCESSES


When there is collaboration you get:

“The feature description

was unclear”

“The developer implemented

my design badly”

“That wasn’t the palette

I specified”

“The QA should have

checked that”

Blame


AGOOD

DESIGNERFACILITATESCOLLABORATION

THEY CREATE ASSETS THAT ARE EASY TO REUSE

THEY ARE OPEN TO FEEDBACK AND NEW IDEAS

THEY PRESENT INFORMATION IN A WAY USERS CAN UNDERSTAND


To avoid blame Design for Internal Collaboration

Consider your team

as your users when presenting

ideas. AvoidUsing jargon others may

not fully understand

FocusYour

communication on what is relevant to

them


Empower your colleagues to be design-led

2

3

1

DON’T BE ”THE EXPERT”, BE THE MENTOR

HELP COLLEAGUES TO PROBLEM

SOLVE

FOCUSADVICE ON VALUE

AND IMPACT, NOT “BEST PRACTICE"


User Experience Design

EMPATHY COLLABORATION DIRECTION AND FOCUS MENTORING


Thank you

User experience design and leadership

Design

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