After several years as a practitioner, you’re now managing other interaction designers… As a UX professional, you are naturally empathetic towards others, so your first goal is to be a good manager to each individual.
If you were to ask team members what they are looking for in a manager, they would likely say they want someone who encourages learning, offers thoughtful and constructive feedback, gives mentorship based on prior experience, and provides the inspiration and the instruction to grow as a professional (I love this about UXers).
However, in addition to supporting the goals of individuals, you also want to empower the UX team as a whole. You want the team to learn how to best work together in a creative environment, what skill sets and experiences various team members bring to the table, and how they can collaborate to create designs that leverage the collective wisdom of the team. A lot to consider. On top of this, design is inherently creative, so educating and mentoring can be a challenge. You can’t just give someone a checklist and expect them to use it to navigate the nuances of user goals, business goals, and creative thinking. In this talk Michael Hawley presents several strategies that you can use to address these challenges.
Michael Hawley also discusses design management tactics that facilitate individual learning, enable professional development, and create an environment that motivates individuals and teams to find creative solutions to design problems.
Core Principles of UX Management
About Michael Hawley
As the leader of the Mad*Pow Experience Design team, Michael Hawley leverages 15 years experience in the software industry and expertise in UX research, usability and information architecture to deliver value to clients such as Fidelity, GE, Autodesk and Monster. Michael holds his MS in Human Factors in Information Design from Bentley University, and a BA from the University of Michigan. Have an unique take on a design research or collaborative design method? Find Mike and tell him about it. He’s a proponent of creative approaches to the user-centered design process and is a frequent presenter on alternative techniques.
via Michael Hawley: Core Principles of UX Management | IxDA.
