UXers and product designers take it very personally when they're told “no, you can't do two weeks of research and iterate on design and test. You can have a day or you can't talk to customers at all. We gotta put this out and test it and we'll fix it on the fly.”

1/7 They're frustrated because their work ends up less than what it *could* be.

What I've learned over time:

The big issue here is that we — #UX and #ProductDesign professionals — are not explicitly taught *anything* about how businesses work.

2/7

Q: “Why do you think UXers seem so collectively frustrated as a profession?”

A: Because there’s a pretty significant disconnect between how we’re taught the work should happen and how it actually happens once we land a job.

1/4 Because when you’re in college, or attending a bootcamp, no one talks about just how much power, leverage and political influence nearly every department *other than UX* in that company has.

2/4

One thing I know to be true: the people who have intense imposter syndrome — folks who have that relentless internal dialogue which makes them feel very unsure of themselves — are typically people who are *wildly* beyond competent at what they do.

1/10 Their mediocrity is everyone else’s standard of excellence. They have a relentless lens they use to look at everything and say, "do I think this is good enough?"

There's a streak of perfectionism that runs through anybody who's truly good at anything.

2/10

Yet another example of what I was ranting about yesterday: just read something about how UXers + Designers should "apply strategy to consider 'sunk cost fallacy' when redesigning an existing system, as if this was novel.

Please excuse my bluntness, but:

NO. SHIT. SHERLOCK.

1/6 This SHOULD NOT be a new or novel idea. Any and every UX , Product or UI (or ANY) designer should damn well have been taught to consider these things.

They should *never* have gotten to the job without understanding the necessity of considering such things.

2/6

"Product Design is not UX Design is not UI Design is not..."

Look, if you're doing the job right, it's all the same shit.

It's all DESIGN.

Every description I've ever read about any of the above disciplines applies to ALL THREE if you're going to be any good at it.

1/6 If you're going to make an impact. Get results. Help people.

Design of ANY kind, in general, is a holistic pursuit — you have to know a hell of a lot about a hell of a lot that is far beyond the actual tactical work you do.

2/6

If decisions about requirements, #productdesign and #UX are being made without you, I have a suggestion:

Stop waiting for an invitation.

Start inviting yourself.

(a LONG thread ahead...settle in)

1/13 I’m sure in your organization there are strategic meetings you’re not part of, where product strategy or requirements or sprint plans are made and decided without you.

Everyone else knows things you don’t; information upstream never makes it to you.

2/13

Since so many ask so often, I will finally share my #UX process (a thread):

1) Get clear on why this app, site or system exists, who needs it and what they expect to be able to do with it.

2) Assess the current state of the app, site or system and map out how people use it. 3) Determine where and how the product (and the company) is falling short and what the consequences of each of those instances are, for users and for the business (existing or new research).

4) Prioritize and rank those failure areas: how bad and how often?

OK kids, #UX story time ;-)

I was in a meeting once where there was a religious argument between groups of developers, database folks, product owners and executive managers.

The topic: why a certain report screen was taking so long to load.

(1/12) It was a report clients were asking for; they log in, enter their credentials, enter a date range, set some filters — and then the system would literally take up to three full minutes to fully load the report.

You literally got a blank screen for several minutes.

(2/12)

A significantly large number of companies and organizations share three specific traits when it comes to #UX improvement and #ProductDesign in general:

1 - They don’t really know what their users or customers actually want.

(1/13) 2 - They’re under the mistaken assumption that surveys or their NPS scores tell them what the value of their product/service is to those users.

3 - They’re not willing to allow you to talk to those users to find out what they actually need or hope to accomplish.

(2/13)

Them: "We never have enough time to do proper user interviews."

Me: "How much time do you have?"

Them: "a week."

Me: "Let me tell you a story..."

And the story, #UX and #design friends, goes like this:

(1/11) I was consulting with an organization, whose team needed to do some research; interviews specifically. They said "well, we have 24 hours based on our schedule…but we have to get to this other work to make deadline and right now it's all hands on deck."

(2/11)

<ux_rant>

I will be 54 this year. I have helped product design and development teams and individuals in startups, mid sized orgs and global Fortune 100 orgs in 23 U.S. states and six countries in almost every industry you can think of for thirty (30) years.

(1/11) And across that span and across all those companies and industries, I have seen the same patterns and the same situations over and over and over again when it comes to the power, autonomy and authority far too many people assume #UX and #UI Designers have.

(2/11)

Ever wonder why executives and bosses are often so resistant to doing #UX work?

Why they seem to become personally offended at the very mention of user research or #IA or prototyping, in a way as if you were suggesting a diabolical plot to overthrow the government?

(1/9) From "we don’t have time for that," to "we know what our customers want," to "just make the #UI better looking," the wall of rejection is thrown up fast and furious.

Where does this come from, and more importantly, how do you deal with it?

(2/9)

Rules for Pitching to #UX Stakeholders Dept.

To me, EVERY meeting is a working meeting. So the very first time I speak to a room of stakeholders during a consulting gig, I am absolutely not doing the dog-and-pony show of presenting with slides.

(1/12) I am here to do one thing and one thing only: make an IMPACT.

Leave a firm, lasting impression that they will not ever meet another consultant cares as much about helping them succeed as I do.

Which means I’m here to talk about *them.*

(2/12)

#UX and #design friends, we need to talk about estimating. I'd like to share some advice that's come up 3 times this week, in hopes it's useful. And it's echoed, by the way, in the BUSINESS OF UX course @EliNatoli and I are teaching at my UX 365 Academy (link at the end).

(1/12) Avoiding wars with clients is a matter of how you structure your engagements, along with how you spell out what you're doing in your proposals/contracts. That starts with estimating.

The biggest 2 rules I follow are these:

(2/12)

PSA: Three weeks ago I tested positive for #COVID19. Four days later, while on a video call with my doctor I found myself gasping for breath, my pulse oxygen levels diving, with her yelling at me to CALL 911 NOW.

(1/8) An ambulance took me to the ER where they scrambled to hook me up to Oxygen and IV tubes and heart monitors. I’m going to tell you straight: I thought I was going to suffocate on that gurney. This is the first time in my life I ever literally thought I was going to die.

(2/8)

@rohanpaldesign @mgoldst When a client doesn’t pay, you send a series of letters, each one with a more serious tone: the first assumes oversight, and the last says unless I get a check on X date, we’re going to court. @rohanpaldesign @mgoldst In all cases you set specific dates for response/check and a consequence: “if I don’t hear from you/receive payment by X date, here’s what will happen next.”

In most states, you can file a claim in small claims court if the $ owed is less than $20K. It’s not hard, just tedious.