Building your A-Team 25 October 2016 | Leading Design conference 2016

Jason Mesut Resonant Design and Innovation

@jasonmesut

We’re in interesting times

Exciting & challenging

There is

Growing demand

Organisations have

Desire to scale

A frustrating

Shortage of supply

A s**storm of

Charlatans Product designers

UX/UI designers

UX engineers

Post discipline designer

UX architects

Ever-changing

Fierce competition

People that don’t stick around

Fickle talent

More money

Better process

Nicer office

Bigger team

More worthy projects

Variety

Packed diary

Never enough time

How do you

Build a great team that lasts?

Q:Given… – High demand – Supply shortage – S**tstorm of charlatans – Fierce competition – Fickle talent – Never enough time – Desire to scale

How do you

Build your A-Team?

Q:

– London focus – 17 years experience – Mostly agency/consultancy – Long-term projects – Hired 100s of designers – Reviewed 1,000s of cvs + folios – Built small and large teams – Advise others

Caveat

Personal perspective

Caveat

Haven’t built a team in years* * Yes, I got sick of it

Caveat

No silver bullets

Given the complexity

Where should you focus?

Key team building activities

Frame

Hire

Fire

Grow

Adapt

Exit

Scope and position the team and the roles within it

Attract and assess the fit of people to your team

Manage those that don’t and can’t fit into your team

Develop individuals, scale the team, increase its presence it

Flex to changing needs and the team dynamics itself

Get out to let others grow and shape things without dependence on you

They are parallel, not sequential

Frame

Hire

Fire

Grow

Adapt

Exit

Join date

Changing context over time

A focus for the next 15 minutes

Frame

Hire

Fire

Grow

Adapt

Exit

Scope and position the team and the roles within it

Attract and assess the fit of people to your team

Manage those that don’t and can’t fit into your team

Develop individuals, scale the team, increase its presence it

Flex to changing needs and the team dynamics itself

Get out to let others grow and shape things without a dependence on you

A focus for the next 15 minutes

Frame

Hire

Scope and position the team and the roles within it

Attract and assess the fit of people to your team

Sets the direction for everything else

Frame Understand and position your team within its current and future context

How framing helps

Frame

Hire

Fire

Grow

Adapt

Exit

Helps all key steps of building your A-Team

Sell to and assess candidates

Manage performance and fit against

Defines shape of future team, how you sell it and how you develop others

Gives you something to adapt from and to

Gives you clarity on whether to stay, go or move

Hire Honestly represent your positioning to others to ensure the right fit and manage expectations

You want to

Attract and assess talent to your frame

You should

Create a positive environment

Honest

Fair

Respectful

Professional

Open

So that

People have the best opportunity to shine

Clarity helps the hiring process

A good framing of your team helps you

1. Write a unique job spec

2. Review cvs and folios

3. Interview candidates

4. Profile them

5. Assess their skills

6. Check references

7. Negotiate a package

How should you frame and hire your A-Team?

Think

W A T C H

Think

W A T C HWork Approach Team Career Help

W A T C HWork Approach Team Career Help

What type of work do you (want to) do?

– Research – Strategy – Concept – Delivery – Optimisation

– Web – Mobile – Desktop – Products – Environments

– eCommerce – Marcomms – Enterprise apps – Financial tools – Consumer apps

– Finance – Healthcare – Retail – Startups – Big brand…

Frame

Hire

W A T C HWork Approach Team Career Help

Level of innovation

Medium Nature Who for

Frame

Hire

W A T C HWork Approach Team Career Help

Relevant or transferable experience

Interests and reservations

Level of innovation

Medium Nature Who for

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Introduce yourselfEmployers will want to know who you are, and if people (the team and your clients) are going to get along with you. They also want to know what makes you different to everyone else.

blog posts you have written) LinkedIn references)

Demonstrate your workingthe result

Share your project experienceand structured case studies that

research or analysis uncovered)

involvement (e.g. increased revenue, happier customers)

Structure with a clear journey and strong narrativeWork out a clear structure, and try to stick to it throughout

Don’t let the medium or the design get in the way

access to your content?

Keep it real

UX Portfolio Tips

2

1

3

includ

W A T C HWork Approach Team Career Help

How do you approach the work you do?

– UCD – Service Design – Lean – XP / SCRUM

– Organisation – Proximity

– Philosophies – Time

Methods + mindset Inter-team collaborationFrame

Hire

– JTBD – JFDI – CHAOS – Double Diamond

W A T C HWork Approach Team Career Help

Methods + mindset Inter-team collaborationFrame

Hire Alignment Flexibility to change

W A T C HWork Approach Team Career Help

It’s hard to assess someone’s approach

Assessing approach

Design challenges offer context control

Design challenges

They are flawed

– False negatives + positives – False context – Take time – Puts people off

Design challenges

Not all bad – Understand their flaws – Appreciate the positives – Focus on approach – Use sparingly

W A T C HWork Approach Team Career Help

What’s your team like?

Frame

Hire

W A T C HWork Approach Team Career Help

– Individuals – Skills – Quality bar – How you talk

about them

– Shape – Reporting lines – Project vs.

functional

– Culture – Socials – Official get

togethers

People Structure Intra + inter team

Frame

Hire Role they play Informal references

W A T C HWork Approach Team Career Help

People Structure Intra + inter team

Profile

Soft skills How do they engage with others and how do they think?

Profile

Hard skills and expertise The craft execution skills

Popular, reductive, bastardisation of Adaptive Path framework

Profile

Shape the role and the talent –What do you need? –Where do you/they think they are?

How do you support career development?

W A T C HWork Approach Team Career Help

Frame

Hire

– Train – Advise – Coach

– Monitor – Review – Assess

– Progress – Incentivise – Praise

Develop individual

Manage performance

Reward and recognise

W A T C HWork Approach Team Career Help

Frame

Hire Journey

Develop individual

Manage performance

Reward and recognise

W A T C HWork Approach Team Career Help

Work / life balance

Future Personal situation

Experience

Aptitude

Aspiration

What have they got evidence of doing?

Where do their skills and temperament seem to align?

Where do they want to develop?

Identify capabilities and growth areas

Over 70 areas and growing

Techniques, methods, approaches

W A T C HWork Approach Team Career Help

Where do you need help?

Frame

Hire

– Competition – Pace – Quality

– Role – Culture – Expertise

Organisation

W A T C HWork Approach Team Career Help

Team You

– Time – Support – Sounding board

Frame

Hire Experience

Organisation

Skills

W A T C HWork Approach Team Career Help

Team You

Perspective Desire

Key takeaways

– Create a positive environment to assess people fairly

– Profile what you need and assess against that

– Use design challenges to understand approach but beware false positives + negatives

– Frame your A-Team and the roles within it

6 key activities for growing a team

Frame

Hire

Fire

Grow

Adapt

Exit

To frame, think

W A T C HWork Approach Team Career Help

Thank you Jason Mesut Resonant Design and Innovation

@jasonmesut

slideshare.com/jasonmesut

betteruxportfolios.wordpress.com