building stronger teams for better user experience
TRANSCRIPT
@lily_dart lilydart.com
Lily Dart
Freelance service design & user research
Building stronger teams for better user experience
@lily_dart lilydart.com
Building stronger teams for better user experience
User Experience Designer
@lily_dart lilydart.com
Building stronger teams for better user experience
We’re all striving for great user experience
@lily_dart lilydart.com
Building stronger teams for better user experience
Experience
@lily_dart lilydart.com
Building stronger teams for better user experience
back-end developers
brand designerssysadmins
product managers
clients
copywritersuser researchers
quality assurance
marketing
dev-ops
front-end developers
Experiencecustomer services
@lily_dart lilydart.com
Building stronger teams for better user experience
back-end developerscustomer services
brand designerssysadmins
product managers
clients
copywritersuser researchers
quality assurance
marketing
dev-ops
front-end developers
Experience
@lily_dart lilydart.com
Building stronger teams for better user experience
User Experience Designer
@lily_dart lilydart.com
Building stronger teams for better user experience
User experience is a team sport
@lily_dart lilydart.com
Building stronger teams for better user experience
Successful design doesn’t happen in isolation
@lily_dart lilydart.com
Building stronger teams for better user experience
coding standards
git workflowaccessibility standards
application architecture
front-end interactions
user journeys
test coverage
UI design
naming conventions
@lily_dart lilydart.com
Building stronger teams for better user experience
Clear vision
Good leadership
@lily_dart lilydart.com
Building stronger teams for better user experience
Too many people view management as leadership. It's not.
Leadership comes from influence, and influence can come from anyone at any level and in any role.
Kurt Uhlir
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@lily_dart lilydart.com
Building stronger teams for better user experience
Empathy
Getting groups of people excited about an idea requires understanding what motivates them
Bryan Zmijewski
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@lily_dart lilydart.com
Building stronger teams for better user experience
A good leader is empathetic
@lily_dart lilydart.com
Building stronger teams for better user experience
A good leader is empathetic
They understand our individual needs
@lily_dart lilydart.com
Building stronger teams for better user experience
A good leader is empathetic
They understand our individual needs
They listen to our expertise
@lily_dart lilydart.com
Building stronger teams for better user experience
A good leader is empathetic
They understand our individual needs
They listen to, and prioritise, our concerns
They listen to our expertise
@lily_dart lilydart.com
Building stronger teams for better user experience
“I thought someone else was doing that?”
“The developer didn’t follow my design”
“I told the designer we couldn’t do that”
Lack of commitment to decisionsWhen there is no empathy, you get:
“I decided not to it that way in the end”
@lily_dart lilydart.com
Building stronger teams for better user experience
Use empathy to connect with colleagues
@lily_dart lilydart.com
Building stronger teams for better user experience
Understand what motivates them
Use empathy to connect with colleagues
@lily_dart lilydart.com
Building stronger teams for better user experience
Understand what motivates them
Take time to understand their concerns
Use empathy to connect with colleagues
@lily_dart lilydart.com
Building stronger teams for better user experience
Understand what motivates them
Consider colleagues needs as you would your users needs
Take time to understand their concerns
Use empathy to connect with colleagues
@lily_dart lilydart.com
Building stronger teams for better user experience
Direction and focus
The greatest leaders mobilise others by coalescing people around a shared vision
Ken Blanchard
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@lily_dart lilydart.com
Building stronger teams for better user experience
A good leader sets direction and focus
@lily_dart lilydart.com
Building stronger teams for better user experience
A good leader sets direction and focus
They communicate goals, not details
@lily_dart lilydart.com
Building stronger teams for better user experience
A good leader sets direction and focus
They communicate goals, not details
They explain why those goals are important
@lily_dart lilydart.com
Building stronger teams for better user experience
A good leader sets direction and focus
They communicate goals, not details
They are open to change when change is necessary
They explain why those goals are important
@lily_dart lilydart.com
Building stronger teams for better user experience
“I know what my own customers want”
“Won’t work because of the flux capacitor”
“This is best practice”
“Because I’ve been doing this for 10 years”
ConflictWhen there is no direction and focus, you get:
@lily_dart lilydart.com
Building stronger teams for better user experience
Set goals for your work
@lily_dart lilydart.com
Building stronger teams for better user experience
Don’t wait for someone else to define those goals
Set goals for your work
@lily_dart lilydart.com
Building stronger teams for better user experience
Don’t wait for someone else to define those goals
Define metrics to measure your success
Set goals for your work
@lily_dart lilydart.com
Building stronger teams for better user experience
Don’t wait for someone else to define those goals
If something isn’t working, change it
Define metrics to measure your success
Set goals for your work
@lily_dart lilydart.com
Building stronger teams for better user experience
Collaboration
Individual commitment to a group effort - that is what makes a team work.
Vince Lombardi
“”
@lily_dart lilydart.com
Building stronger teams for better user experience
A good leader facilitates collaboration
@lily_dart lilydart.com
Building stronger teams for better user experience
They make space for new ideas to be considered
A good leader facilitates collaboration
@lily_dart lilydart.com
Building stronger teams for better user experience
They make space for new ideas to be considered
They empower teams to make their own decisions
A good leader facilitates collaboration
@lily_dart lilydart.com
Building stronger teams for better user experience
They make space for new ideas to be considered
They don’t claim personal credit for successes
They empower teams to make their own decisions
A good leader facilitates collaboration
@lily_dart lilydart.com
Building stronger teams for better user experience
“The feature description was unclear”
“That bug is her fault” “The QA should have checked that”
BlameWhen there is no collaboration, you get:
“The back-end is slow, not the javascript”
@lily_dart lilydart.com
Building stronger teams for better user experience
Facilitate collaboration
@lily_dart lilydart.com
Building stronger teams for better user experience
Be open to feedback and new ideas
Facilitate collaboration
@lily_dart lilydart.com
Building stronger teams for better user experience
Be open to feedback and new ideas
Focus your communication on what is relevant to your team
Facilitate collaboration
@lily_dart lilydart.com
Building stronger teams for better user experience
Be open to feedback and new ideas
Admit your mistakes, and credit others successes
Focus your communication on what is relevant to your team
Facilitate collaboration
@lily_dart lilydart.com
Building stronger teams for better user experience
Be empatheticWhen something doesn’t go as planned, take the time to understand why, instead of working out who to blame.
Make sure everyone is heard, and avoid lack of commitment to decisions.
@lily_dart lilydart.com
Building stronger teams for better user experience
Contribute to direction and focusMake sure you understand what success looks like, and
that your team shares the same vision.
Use impersonal measures, to avoid the conflict that comes with incompatible individual opions.
@lily_dart lilydart.com
Building stronger teams for better user experience
Facilitate collaborationAdmit your mistakes, and credit your colleagues successes.
Avoid the blame culture that stops everyone committing themselves to the success of the team.
@lily_dart lilydart.com
Building stronger teams for better user experience
Helping your team to work towards the
same goal
@lily_dart lilydart.com
Building stronger teams for better user experience
Helping your team to work towards the
same goal isn’t about writing more
documentation
@lily_dart lilydart.com
Building stronger teams for better user experience
Helping your team to work towards the
same goal isn’t about creating UI
style guides
@lily_dart lilydart.com
Building stronger teams for better user experience
Helping your team to work towards the
same goal isn’t about blaming
individuals
@lily_dart lilydart.com
Building stronger teams for better user experience
We can’t design a better user experience…
@lily_dart lilydart.com
Building stronger teams for better user experience
We can’t design a better user experience if…
we don’t each take responsibility for our influence.
@lily_dart lilydart.com
Building stronger teams for better user experience
We can’t design a better user experience if…
we don’t each take responsibility for our influence.
we don’t agree what we’re direction we’re going in.
@lily_dart lilydart.com
Building stronger teams for better user experience
We can’t design a better user experience if…
we don’t each take responsibility for our influence.
we don’t agree what we’re direction we’re going in.
we don’t acknowledge we can’t do it alone.
@lily_dart lilydart.com
Building stronger teams for better user experience
Creating better UX
is about building stronger teams
and being better colleagues
@lily_dart lilydart.com
Lily Dart
Freelance service design & user research
Any questions?