building a ux team

Building a UX team

Jane Murison

Head of UX&DChildren’s, Knowledge & Learning

We’ll talk aboutWorking cross-location

Skills and outputs

Inheriting people

Repositioning teams

Flexibility

Keeping people and losing people

Who to hire

Bad things, like poor morale, spreaders of misery and demon greed

I’ve been at the Beeb 8 years. Next year I get

to touch the Blue Peter dog.

It’s pronounced ‘mew-riss-on’

As opposed to ‘terrorist’ or ‘in

charge’

This is one of many poor

haircuts I’ve had. I was

trying to grow it out.

My passport smile tries to convey that I

am serious but friendly. I end

up looking smug.

About my team

Dec 2009

London

Salford

Glasgow

Aug 2010 Dec 2010 Aug 2011 Now

About cross-location workingAs the line manager you need to

- go on trains

- use video conferencing and Skype

- be able to have a proper conversation on the phone or messenger

The best working relationships start face to face.

As the line managee you need to

- consider going on trains

- get used to communicating complicated things on email, messenger and phone

- trust your manager

Remember how little your manager will know about what’s going on in your office if you don’t tell them.

Quick exercise

Your job titleWhat skills you use

What skills you have but don’t use

What you want as a job titleWhat skills you’d like

to use

What skills you wish you have

Write down...

Personal development

Your job title

What you want as a job title

What skills you use


What skills you’d like to use


It would be a surprise if...

=

Applying this to teams

Your team’s scope

Team developmentWhat you want as a scope

What skills you use


What skills you’d like to use


What you make and doWhat you want to

make and do

Let’s be realistic

Miners

..don’t make wedding cakes

Another quick exerciseYour ideal team

Skillset:

Seniority:

Skillset:

Seniority:

Skillset:

Seniority:

The team now

Skillset:

Seniority:

Comments:

Skillset:

Seniority:

Comments:

Skillset:

Seniority:

Comments:

Skillset:

Seniority:

Comments:

Another quick exerciseWhat does it look like now?

Skillset: IA, content mapping, DSP

Seniority: Senior

Comments: Hates my living gutsSkillset: Visual Design, Branding

Seniority: Midweight

Comments: Has potential as mentorSkillset: Flash prototyping


Comments: Not interested in new skills

Skillset: Interaction designer

Seniority: Junior

Comments: On short term contract

Skillset: Visual Design, Branding, Typography

Seniority: Senior

Skillset: Interaction Designers


Skillset: User research and strategy


Your ideal team

What do you do?The current team


Seniority: Senior

Comments: Hates my living gutsSkillset: Visual Design, Branding


Comments: Has potential as mentorSkillset: Flash prototyping




Seniority: Junior


Boot him out. Dance a jig when he’s

gone.

Gently explain she needs to develop and

then reluctantly

show her the door.

Generous salary increase,

defacto team lead

Permanent midweight contract

Right?

Skillset: Visual Design, Branding


Comments: Has potential as mentor

Generous salary increase,

defacto team lead

The sudden increase in responsibility causes Geoff to freak out, stop working, and alienate everyone in the office.


Seniority: Junior


Permanent midweight contract

Yay! This goes well. Sally goes from strength to strength and is really pleased with the permie job.

Skillset: Flash prototyping



Gently explain she needs to develop and then reluctantly show

her the door.

Jenny leaves the company and immediately gets a junior job at a User Research Agency, where she discovers a flair for user research. Her prototyping skills put her in a great position to develop research material


Seniority: Senior

Comments: Hates my living guts

Boot him out. Dance a jig when he’s

gone.

Two weeks after he leaves, your boss says, “What’s Dynamic Semantic Publishing?”You have to find him on Linked In and eat humble pie

The moral is...

1. Think about what skills you need.

2. Think about what skills you really need.

3. Really?

4. Think about what your team can offer, bottom up, not just top down

5. Identify broad potential

6. Support specialists with general skills

7. Make use of contractors when you can’t be certain (but don’t be evil)

8. Reward talent with responsibility (but find ways to make it safe)

9. When you don’t like someone, ask yourself if you’re missing something

10. The team can tell you what skills they should be developing

Hiring

When hiring...Straight replacement isn’t always right.

Hire junior and then develop.

Make sure the job description is both accurate and enticing.

Use discipline tests when possible.

Make sure your interview questions actually tie to the competencies you’re looking.

Look for potential rather than software packages.

Remember to let your team learn the skill of hiring too.

Keeping people and losing people

Hiring

Sometimes, it’s okay to lose good

people

Thanks

Jane Murison@mewroh

Photo creditsFlickr - Lego Miners: mac_filko, Wedding Cake: MrB-MMX, Miner Cake: dinkydoodle.co.uk, Thai Spa: Dennis Wong, Money: CJ IsherwoodOther - League of Their Own: Columbia Pictures Corporation ©1992, The Wonder Years, Office Space, Can’t Buy Me Love: IMDB, Dick Whittington: Harrogate Theatre

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