Community: Professional Development

Human beings are drawn to stories, which help us make sense of our world by letting us share others’ experiences as though they were our own. We feel characters’ struggles as they navigate difficult challenges and rejoice with them when they finally achieve their goals or share their sorrows if they do not. Stories help us learn to feel empathy—a critical trait for any UX professional.

Most importantly, stories are memorable. According to Jennifer Aaker, Professor of Marketing at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, using a story to convey information is up to “22 times more memorable than facts alone.”

Telling a story can help influence the opinions of others in ways that few other modes of communication can. The value of storytelling extends to how we present ourselves and our abilities professionally. Having participated in dozens of on-site portfolio reviews over the years—sitting on both sides of the review table—I’ve found that the most effective UX-portfolio presentations have one thing in common: the candidate told a story. Read More

With another new year upon us, now would be a great time to reflect upon your career growth and performance as a UX professional. One of the most effective ways of improving both your performance and your growth potential is through the feedback you receive from your peers, superiors, and subordinates.

However, contrary to what many people might believe, the exchange of high-quality feedback isn’t solely the responsibility of the person providing the feedback. It is equally important for the person receiving feedback to endeavor to ensure that the feedback is actionable, constructive, and conducive to his or her growth. In this column, I’ll provide some tips on what you can do before, during, and after receiving performance feedback to maximize its impact and ensure that it ultimately contributes to your growth. Read More

When you get a new job at most companies, they have an onboarding process—a few hours or maybe even a few days during which they give you a computer, a badge that lets you in the office, and maybe an overview of the company’s history and products. A few companies, especially those in traditional manufacturing or retail, might even have you start off by working in the field for a day or a week, to see how the on-the-ground employees really live. Some big, well-run organizations might even have a team process that gets you up to speed on how they work and training documents and folders of information for you to review. Many assume it could be weeks or months before you get the hang of it all, so they plan for that.

However, many organizations don’t do onboarding effectively and leave you to fend for yourself. Even if your company provides onboarding, you may be the only UX designer, replacing a team that has left the company or taking over from a vendor who isn’t available or isn’t cooperative. You might be stuck in an IT department that doesn’t really understand users and their context at all. Even if you’re joining an existing design team, you might be their first mobile-centric designer, so you would likely fall into a gap they haven’t thought about before and have to make your own way. In such cases, how can you get oriented so you can become productive and get to creating high-quality work as quickly as possible? You’ll need to onboard yourself. Read More