designing your career @ amux atlanta

Designing Your Career

Ian SwinsonVP of [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]?subject=

Roles

Associate

Staff

Senior

Lead

Principal

Architect

PrincipalArchitect

Chief DesignOfficer

Manager

SeniorManager

Director

SeniorDirector

Vice President

?

This is a big deal!Or...is it? SVP

What’s the right path?What’s the right path?

Roles

Individual Contributor

Manager

Which one?

Do I need a path?

Some good. Some bad.Consistent coaching was

tricky.

Each 1:1 was different.

Prepare Understand

Diverge Decide Prototype Validate

We have a process for UX…

…but nothing for career planning

Treat career planning like a design project

Time to make 1:1’s consistent

The Framework

Ladder

vs Framework

Ladders are linearCareers are not

1. Design

2. Research

3. Knowledge

4. Technical

5. Communication

6. Leadership

7. Culture

8. Innovation

Product Skills

Personal Skills

Team Skills

Abilities

Design

Ability: Design

Impact - You drive the design and direction of your features and products to create happier customers.

Interaction - From concepts to whiteboards to wireframing, prototyping and beyond. You craft an elegant product.

Visual - You make beautiful products. You create beautiful and compelling deliverables for communicating product vision.

Prototyping - You effectively communicate through prototypes at various levels of fidelity. You know when and which method to use.

Tools - You’re on top of game for all necessary software tools. This covers prototyping, graphics, coding, mobile, etc.

Process - You understand the overall design process and utilize it effectively and appropriately.

Research - You can handle formative and/or summative research effectively. You approach every design with a thorough analysis of the problem space. You engage effectively with Product Intel. You perform insightful competitive analyses.

Research

Ability: Research

Impact - You drive the research and strategic direction of your features and products to create happier customers.

Communication - Your message is being clearly conveyed, heard, and respected.

Empathy - You ensure team members are on a first name basis with their users. You bring customer data to life.

Methods - You demonstrate appropriately strong methodological skills for both qualitative and quantitative skills.

Knowledge - You leverage data from channels such as Product Intel, competitive analysis, industry trends, customers, personas, Chatter, etc. You are an expert in your product area.

Roadmap - You accurately plan the research for a release. Are they able to adapt their priorities and scope as needs change.

Domain - You understand the problem space and needs of the customer.

Knowledge

Ability: Knowledge

Customer - You know the Personas, company types, sizes, etc. for your product area. You know how your customers use and extend your products and features.

Product - You know your product(s) and product lines.

Industry/Competitive - You know the overall industry related to your products.

Company/Business - You know SFDC overall and how we compete within the industry.

Organization Awareness - You understand your supported organization and the broader SFDC eco-system. You know how UX operates and how we fit into the company at large.

Technical

Ability: Technical

Systems Thinking - You are an architect at heart. You use both sides of your brain to craft beautiful solutions from the feature to the system level. You bring new perspective to problems and to provide leverage and insight for how we might do things differently.

HTML - You can code quickly and semantically.

CSS - You can control your semantic code effectively with CSS and create pixel-perfect designs.

JS/Other - Your prototypes are rich, interactive & feel like a real product.

Aura/Apex/Visualforce - You effectively utilize our Platform technologies to create prototypes or completely functional applications.

DatStat/Morae/Eye Tracking - You leverage a rich collection of tools to increase design and research effectiveness.

Communication

Ability: Communication

Daily - You’re transparent with your manager/ux team/scrum team on projects/progress.

Presentations - From creating Keynotes, to publishing prototypes and wireframes, to delivering their message...you communicate effectively.

Written - From emails to wikis to blogs...you are clear, concise, compelling and convincing writers.

Meetings - You run effective and product meetings. You involve the right people at the right time. You clearly communicate action items and decisions.

Resourcefulness - You leverage the company and your network to tackle problems.

Leveraging Feedback/Reviews - You frequently collect feedback, track it to alter designs, gain insights and build relationships.

Leadership

Ability: Leadership

Product Leadership - You work effectively with the Dev/PM/QE orgs to drive the creation of kick-ass products.

Mentoring - You take time to help co-workers who are developing their skills.

Process Leadership - You know the process, how to use it & help your co-workers identify opportunities to improve.

Design/Research Leadership - You are effective and supportive at art direction, in design critiques, assessing research, providing heuristic reviews, etc. You are a multiplying factor in the quality of work produced by your teammates and co-workers.

Thought Leadership - You are sought out for advice in particular domains or areas of expertise.

Culture

Ability: Culture

Optimistic - You bring a positive, collaborative and supportive and engaging attitude to their work and the team. You actively support your team members - both professionally and personally.

Solution Focused - Problems are just the beginning. You’re driven to find solutions. “How might we...” is on the tip of your tongue all day. You help your co-workers focus on solutions.

Crossing Boundaries - You reach out and build relationships beyond their core UX team. You build relationships across clouds and disciplines.

Foundation - You participate in Foundation events and actively give back to the community.

Customer Outreach - You comport yourself professionally, cordially and enthusiastically when interacting with customers.

Innovation

Ability: Innovation

Futurist - You think beyond the current scope of your PM’s road map. You can envision a brighter future for our customers. You invent entirely new business opportunities.

Technology - You are in touch with the latest gadgets, trends, technology, competitors, frameworks, etc.

Patents - You utilize the patent process to protect our intellectual property.

Process - You recognize that invention goes far beyond products. You are consistently looking for new ways to practice your craft.

Fearless - You are fearless. The present is just a little boring so you spend time dreaming about where we’ll be in the future. You work to make that future a reality.

The Mini

Desig

n

Rese

arch

Know

ledg

e

Tech

nica

l

Comm

unicat

ion

Lead

ersh

ip

Inno

vatio

n

Cultu

re

Project Skills Personal Skills Team Skills

Current

+1

+2

-2

-1

1

3

5=over

=at

=under

The Workshop

• Who are you? What’s your brand?

• What have you learned?

• Where are you now? Where do you want

to be?

• Planning. Values, Vision and Goals.

• Building your network.

• Defining your north star.

Workshop Agenda

Prepare Understand


PrepareGet the people and things you need.All you need is yourself, your memories, a little self-awareness, and eventually a mentor or two.

Exercise: Setting your compass

BrandYour personal brand is what people say about you when you are not in the room.

Prepare Understand


UnderstandDig into the design problem…From past positions what did you most enjoy doing? What did you enjoy least?

Exercise: Mapping where you’ve been

Prepare Understand


UnderstandDig into the design problem…What skills do you have? What do you like to do? What opportunities are available?

Exercise: Where are you now?

Prepare Understand


DivergeRapidly develop as many solutions as possible.Think about what kinds of jobs, roles, skills, classes, projects…you name it…that you’d like to experience or learn.

Exercise: Defining your north star

Prepare Understand


DecideChoose the best ideas and hammer out a user story. Your story! Take all your best ideas and come up with a plan.

Exercise: Planning your path

Prepare Understand


PrototypeBuild something quick and dirty that can be shown to…your manager. Put together a short- and long-term plan. Think about how you’ll evaluate your plan.

Tracking and calibrating

Prepare Understand


ValidateThink about your goals, your history, and your level of satisfaction and challenge - be honest about what’s working and what isn’t.

Prepare Understand


IterateLike every design project…once you’re done it’s time to iterate (or try something new).

The future is not something that happens to you.The future is something you do.

Glen Hiemstra, futurist.com

http://futurist.com/

Your career is the one project you will exclusively own.

Make it a great one!

Thank You!

Ian SwinsonVP of [email protected]@iswinson

mailto:[email protected]?subject=