leading the startup ux in 100 days

Leading the Startup UX in 100 DaysBrooklyn UX Meetup : Nov 2015

Uday Gajendar, Principal UX Consultant @udanium / udanium@gmail.com

Oracle BEA Adobe Cisco Citrix

~ 15 years of experienceE-business Suite

WebLogic IDE

License Systems

VOIP Phones

Cloud/Virtualization

frog Netflix LinkedIn

tt- +

t º

Marketing

Product Mgmnt

Biz Dev

Sales Channel

Engineering

“We value good UX!”Greatly celebrated yetpoorly executed :-(

*

Too many hats, overwhelming, ship it now

No process, no structure

“Make me an icon now!”

Unclear who is target user/persona

Agile/Lean run crazy, not thoughtful

Sound familiar?

Uday Gajendar / @udanium / ghostinthepixel.com BayCHI 8/12 at PARC

A/B Testing!

Prototype the Biz Model!

Customers!

Tons of Data!

Validation!

Product Functionality

Strategy & Roadmap

Team / Resources

Time & Money

OMG

!

Influence the vision & strategy.

Cultivate good design habits.

Build what customers will love.

Breathe.

Use the damn product. Truly.

Absorb the founders’ vision.

Buddy up with Sales. Really.

Apply design instinct. Carefully.

Know thy business.

Influence the vision & strategy.1

#ExecutiveProTip

Learn their criteria for annual reviews and figure out how to support them.

"Making relationships is just as important as making software or making design." John Maeda

#ExecutiveProTip

Understand the org structure of the

executive’s peers & subordinates.

Execution still matters!Real-time design & stop-gaps

Bias towards action

Obsessive sharing

Cultivate delight

Capture debt

Process + Culture

Image by: Garen M. on flickr

Cultivate good design habits. 2

Conduct a “UX Audit”.Capture & track UX debt items.

UX Scorecard Criteria

Own the walls. Make it visible!

• Daily Stand-ups with Devs • UX Office Hours • Sprint Retrospectives • Big Think Sessions • Tech Talks on Design

Always Be Communicating.

Build what customers will love.3

Understand

Modeling

Visualize

Verify

Evaluate

Assess

customers&contexts

problem-space

solutions

Learning!

Define Principles & ValuesWhat do you stand for? People will resonate.

Get everyone on board the entire journey!

Influence the vision & strategy.

Cultivate good design habits.

Build what customers will love.

Breathe.

Final PointsA dose of reality focuses your dream.

Uday Gajendar / @udanium / ghostinthepixel.com BayCHI 8/12 at PARC

• Multiple hats but know your limits.

• Empowered to “make the call” but need experts + users.

• “Head of UX” doesn’t mean having all the answers.

• You can be “The Superhero” but there’s a cost.

• Know how to calibrate for leading vs following.

Uday Gajendar / @udanium / ghostinthepixel.com BayCHI 8/12 at PARC

You design with the data & resources you have,not what you wish you had.

Complexity + Ambiguity + Beauty

My Hardest Lesson –It’s ok to ship “good enough”.

Satisficing

Uday Gajendar / @udanium / ghostinthepixel.com BayCHI 8/12 at PARC *

* Thereisnoperfectdesign.Everythingissubjecttocompromise,trade-offs,constraints,etc.

Make 10% progress daily.

Gooddesigntakestime.Justlikegoodcode,there’siterationandreBlectionthatshouldn’tberushed.

Allow for critique & insights.

AWESOME

Google Ventures Blog

The Designer Fund

General Assembly

Warm Gun

An Event Apart

Uday Gajendar udanium@gmail.com twitter: @udanium

Any Questions?Thanks!