The last three companies I’ve worked for
What I learned over three in-house roles
I wrote this a couple of years ago, but I think it still holds up. These are my thoughts shared for any UX designer client-side who may be questioning why they’re there and what they’re supposed to do. Tweet me if you want advice or just an ear @rosschapman
It’s funny. One of the reasons I left freelancing to pursue a career as an in-house digital designer four years ago was because I believed you could only really achieve a successful user experience in-house. You’re closer to the decision makers. You’re closer to the customers. And the people around you (your colleagues) would help you delivering upon that mission.
The last three companies I’ve worked for considered UX design important, vital even, for them to remain competitive and to retain their customers. That’s why they hired me as a UX designer — right?
Here’s what I’ve learned about being an in-house user experience designer product-side. Sure, in Silicon Valley, Silicon Roundabout and even Silicon Beach it may be different, but from working at the medium to enterprise level businesses in the UK, here is what I have learned from my past employers:
UX design is new, we don’t really understand it — please teach us
I started as an employee again in the role of digital designer. I really enjoyed the work and in my annual review I told my line manager that I wanted to get to know our users more. I wished to become a user experience designer. I’d already been making user personas, conducting guerrilla usability testing, gathering feedback and working up coded prototypes, among other things. My line manager agreed and the change was made.
Some months later, the best project I’ve had to this day began. We were asked to make a web app, to connect staff and students and get mentoring up and running. We brought in a developer and I started work with him. It was awesome! He taught me about MVC and about iterating quickly so that we could show the stakeholders a minimum viable product quickly to find out whether we were on the right track. Not three months down the line with that final “ta-da” moment.
I sketched out the views and he started building the app, grabbing users from the internal active directory. We learnt as we went, with the app acting as the documentation. I used Twitter Bootstrap for the front-end and within two days — we had a fully working app.
I couldn’t believe it. An app in two days. Sure, there were some usability issues, but really, we could have launched that app then and started learning about how users interacted with it and improved it.
In some ways, maybe we should have.
It took another three or so months to get the app launched. I think the stakeholders weren’t used to having something made so quickly, or felt like they needed more thinking time (or meetings!). Maybe they wanted to put their “stamp” on it — I don’t know.
Whatever their hesitation, it was an eye-opener for me. For someone that loves getting stuff done, and done quickly, I knew from that moment on that this was what I wanted to do.
User experience isn’t worked on by just your design team of one (yes, the last three places I’ve worked at had just one UX designer). It involves the whole team collaborating, learning as you build and understanding that working this way is completely different to the traditional design waterfall. I hate waterfall. I also hate design sign-off, but I’m picking my battles!
UX and UI — do both please
Whilst I’ve been a UX designer, I’ve also owned the user interface. This is great for me, because I like user interface design and to be honest, I’d rather make sure it fits in well with a user experience methodology than just making a wireframe and throwing it over the wall to someone else (like a traditional design setup). It’s also allowed me to push for Style Guides and code snippets. I guess it’s really about design control.
The whole UX isn’t UI debate is relevant, but this is where I offer something different. I can do both. I am ok at both. That may be different to other people, but I don’t agree with setting absolutes (only a Sith deals in absolutes).
Look at the skills you have available to you. Use them all. Benefit from them all. It’ll make you more valuable.
Job descriptions versus reality
For an in-house user experience designer, this is one thing I need to understand early on. Can I do the job? Can I actually fulfil the requirements of the job description?
Case in point. In one job, one of my Key Performance Indicators was the number of A-B tests I’d conducted. I didn’t have access to the A-B testing suite — it was owned by someone else. Plus, we could only run one test at a time due to a couple of reasons that I won’t go into here.
The job description I signed up to didn’t have a lot of thought put into it. Within your probation period, challenge the job requirements and show them why they hired you in the first place — you’re not just a designer, you’re a thinker too.
We care about UX, but leadership is more important
I’m hearing more about design-led companies, like Airbnb. I’m drawn to companies that really value user experience design. Those who think working with customers is better than deciding upon a strategy in-house amongst a small number of leaders. I value companies that put incremental design testing high on their agenda more than those who don’t. Most of all, I respect companies who are willing to risk trying something new to prove a hypothesis one way or another.
We have better tools and technology than ever before. Some of them are even free. Why wouldn’t you try them?
Strategies are great for sharing with management or shareholders. They love them. But you know what, try something new. Try testing something out over four weeks — a change to your website navigation, a tweak to your shopping cart — maybe even changing something that has been bugging you. If it works, great. If it doesn’t, don’t worry. The difference between trying something and deciding something in a boardroom is your ability to learn and adapt over time — quickly. If you have to have a strategy, let customers have the majority of the input.
I keep hearing that the user experience designer demand outstrips supply, but I ask this: Is your company ready for it? Are you willing to take some risks, try a new way of working and get closer to your customers?
It may even make you enjoy your job a little more — surely that’s worth the risk?
