Have you ever thought about using a system to become a better user experience professional?
For most of us, we learn new skills on the job out of necessity. Or, we have a particular skill that interests us, and practice for fun until one day we realize that – hey, we’re not so bad at this. Still, even more of us see those job descriptions for a unicorn and think “if I learn to code, I’ll be the first true unicorn”.
Jokes aside, there’s one thing in common with those ways of becoming better pros. They may be inspired, but they’re random.
I surveyed a group of colleagues about what they do to get better at user experience.
The following were the most common answers:
- Read blogs for new ideas
- Visit portfolio sites or public style guides for inspiration
- Experiment with ideas that grab them and attempt to apply them to their work
- Ask colleagues for the framework of a skill or activity, then practice to get up to speed
Less common answers included:
- Attend conferences
- Read books for new ideas
- Rely on formal on-the-job training from department or boss
- Formally go through an education program for a training certificate or degree
There was one other answer that was the most common, by far, and most interesting. UXers observed colleagues at work, and emulated traits that they perceived made those colleagues successful. The majority of those that were emulated? UXers with more experience and better titles.
Wow!
Notice how you reacted to that. Good? Bad? Meh? It isn’t a bad thing. In fact, all of these answers would absolutely contribute to incremental improvements for most. Learning is good!
But this sheds light on a few things.
- It assumes that title is linked to skill (it correlates to performance, but not necessarily skill)
- It also assumes that the skills worth learning are easily observed, or read about
- It shows more career ambition that UXers are typically given credit for
- It shows UXers believe that they need to improve equally in areas that are and are not linked to deliverables
- It implies that UXers don’t have a ton of confidence in formal education to train them
I would argue that none of these answers represent UX pros taking an active role in their professional development. At best, they’re actively working on a skill and hoping it’s the correct one. And there’s no guarantee what works at a current job will work at a future one. Most often, they’re hoping to learn by osmosis.
And I get it. Work is never going to be nice and easy, anywhere. It’s easy to get lost in the chaos of shifting priorities, politics, and the never-ending rounds of feedback and iteration.
But there is a deceptively simple solution that’s (almost) embarrassingly easy to implement – implementing a system for your own development and training.
The bottom line: taking an active role in your own development is going to get you ahead in your quest to become a top performing designer.
The Magic System to Speed Up Your Development
Here’s a simple system you can use to get started.
- Research
- Analysis
- Practice
…
…
…
That’s it.
Okay, I admit that this isn’t actually magic. But, there is some nuance here, so let’s break things down further.
Note: this isn’t going to be comprehensive, rather, it’s an introduction to what you can do to take control of your development.
Research
You’re going to need to figure out what you know, what you don’t know, and what you’re unaware of. Yes, this means visiting all your favorite resources. But don’t just dive in. Cultivate a list of topics, organized by skill. Focus on going broad. Try different things. What does the job description on your dream job ask for? Can you organize the information in different or unexpected ways? Is hard skills vs. soft skills enough? Can you take something generic like “communication” and break it down into sub-skills (hint: yes)? This can go so many different ways, but you’ll come out of it with a big list of stuff.
And at that point you’ll be able to put together a survey to find out what’s important. You’ll be able to interview others to find out what they focus on. You’ll be able to prioritize the things you want to move forward with.
Analysis
By now you’ve probably realized you’re already learning about and practicing research techniques. Regardless, you’ll have an idea of the things you want to practice, and what others consider important. This will allow you to look for opportunities, gaps, and get the creative juices flowing. You can apply this to your career goals. If you’re looking for a better job, what things will take you to the next level. Do you want to be a generalist or a specialist? What type of work do you really want to be doing every day? If you’re looking to stay with your current job, you can do something similar. What would earn me a promotion? How can I anticipate and deliver work of high quality more quickly? What are the skills the most senior people possess that I don’t? What competency is my company missing that I can provide?
You can go so many ways with this, but the one thing I’d recommend is really focusing on the things that you think will move the needle for you the most. Practice is hard, and while it’s never bad to work on a skill, you want to make sure you get the most out of your efforts.
Practice
First, let’s address something – practicing at work. If something you are working on lends itself to doing so, you should absolutely do so. It’s going to make you better at your job and everyone is going to appreciate your efforts to be better. Working on a diagram? Try a few different ways to communicate the message. Does it work well in a deck? Do you need to show it in a different way? How can you best present the information that led to these decisions? Leveling up yourself is going to lift the entire team. Of course, if it’s a freelance, pro bono, passion project, or practice materials you’re using, you should absolutely not, for reasons that should already be clear.
Let’s say you’re looking for a new job, and you’ve identified that you want to become a better interaction designer and you want to become better at managing up. If you’re in UX, you can already work on this every day. Even if you don’t do interaction design on a daily basis, you’ve already taken the time to learn about the tools you need, the deliverables that are required. So even if it’s not a part of your core responsibilities, you can overachieve and help out those that do. If it is a core part of your responsibilities, you can work on nuances of it you’ve not used. You can incorporate new ideas. You can try additional deliverables.
And of course, your boss would love to help you get better at managing up. What boss is not going to love hearing “Hey Boss, I want to get better at making sure I’m doing all of the things I need to do to make your life easier.” At worst, your boss will be supportive, if unhelpful. But most bosses will gladly share with you ways for you to improve, and over time you’ll build trust as they start to delegate more to you.
I’ll get into more detail in the future on this, but it’s important that as part of your research and analysis, you set (realistic) timelines to practice things. If something is a smashing success, by all means keep doing it, but if you need time to improve, don’t try something once and then quit. It may take months before you become even passable at something new and completely foreign.
Final Thoughts
Most design teams use a design processes to create higher quality designs, become more efficient, and keep the team happy. And it’s true, a great design process is a system that can lift a team to new heights. So it makes sense that UXers often relate problem solving to their own, or their team’s existing process. And while it can seem a bit corny, or a bit obvious, there’s good reason – it’s a model for problem solving. For that same reason, most UX processes bear a striking resemblance to the scientific method. So don’t be afraid to treat improving your own skills procedurally. It will allow you to get better at the things you need to improve at, and it will allow you to turn your strengths into specialties. It will also help you prove to yourself that you can improve, while demonstrating the same to others. You’ll build discipline, rigor, and gain a sense of ownership over your career.
There’s much more to get into on research, analysis, and practice. Hopefully, this quick read will get the ball rolling, and the tactics have been purposely left out. If you’re not motivated, all the tactics in the world will help you. And while there are some specific ways I’d recommend to get the most out of things like practicing – its most important that you simply start. Get going, don’t wait. Ride the wave of your motivation and get a system into place before the many responsibilities of life get in the way. Start now.
I’ll talk about turning strengths into specialties another time, because it deserves its own deep dive. And we’ll also talk about the mindset that’s required to fully immerse yourself into a new skill, and get really good at it.
But for now, it’s time to get to work.
