UX Leadership

UX Leadership
UX Scotland, 2015
James Chudley
Hi, thanks for dropping by. I’d like
to talk about why leadership is
critical to great design and share
some soft skills you’ll need to lead
successful teams.

@chudders
Hello!
Hello! I’m a User Experience
Director at cxpartners. I run
large scale user centred design
projects for clients all over the
world.

@chudders
My plan for the next 45 minutes
1 Why does great design need great leadership?
2 (Soft) leadership skills to pay the bills
…..expect practical advice & please ask me stuff
as we go!
This is what I plan to cover in
my talk. Note the soft skills bit,
my goal is to give you a bunch
of useful stuff you can use
immediately in your day job.

A story of theft as I transition from a ‘designer’ to ‘leader’
@chudders
Research
assistant
IA
Intranet
manager UX consultant
Head of UX
Principle
consultant
Author
UX Director
Head
of product
20151998
This presentation pulls together
lots of things I’ve learnt from
working for great leaders along
the years and have then found
successful myself.

@chudders
My lens - leading UCD projects within a UX consultancy
I work ‘consultancy side’ so that
probably biases how I see the
world, but the principles here
are universal wherever you
work.

This is for everyone, not just ‘managers’ or ‘leaders’
@chudders
The managers job is to plan,
organise and co-ordinate. The
leaders job is to inspire & motivate
http://guides.wsj.com/management/developing-a-leadership-style/what-is-the-difference-
between-management-and-leadership/
Adapted from “The Wall Street Journal Guide to Management” by Alan Murray,
published by Harper Business. 
Not many people have ‘leader’
in their job title but many of us
(however senior or not) find
ourselves in situations where
we need to lead others during
projects.

Why does great design
needs great leadership?
@chudders
So……

Design projects are chaotic
@chudders
‘Squiggle’ by Damien Newman
Central Office of Design
This brilliantly represents the
chaotic and unpredictable nature
of design projects. Strong
leadership is crucial to guide
people through that crazy early
phase and beyond.

Outcome is unknowable, journey is unknown
@chudders
It makes sense that a journey
with an unknowable destination
will require a strong leader ..
Me
A metaphor of a journey is
useful when considering
projects. Every journey requires
a leader to guide your way.

@chudders
Anyone worked on a project that went wrong?
Design/ technology projects go
wrong (a lot) so you need
strong leaders to get you out of
the woods.

@chudders
Loads of stakeholders (who don’t agree)
Also design projects typically
involve lots of stakeholders who
want to be heard and influence
the outcome. Without leaders
these projects can end up trying
to deliver to everyone and
pleasing no one.

Products must ship despite design being…
@chudders
Politics
Hard
Constraints
Never finished
Compromise
Opinion
All of these things represent
the reality of design projects.
Acknowledging these is really
helpful as it helps to reduce
stress and keep the project
moving.

You get ‘seagulled’ by ‘HiPPOS’
@chudders
https://www.reddit.com/r/NewCerulean/comments/27qwl3/subject_initial_field_observations_of_flying/
No-one likes being seagulled,
let alone by a HiPPO! (just
imagine the mess)

(Soft) leadership
skills that pay the bills
@chudders
This part of the project shares
loads of soft skills and
techniques you can use today
on your projects.

This stuff is easy, you don’t need an MBA…
These ‘management’ books are
a bit depressing compared to
those nice design books you
used to read! You don’t need an
MBA to do this stuff, I promise
you can do most of it today.

Why should people follow you?
@chudders
Write down 5 qualities of leaders you admire
Copy them
1
2
Consider that if you are a
‘leader’ why should someone
want to follow you? Think
about the qualities of people
you admire and copy them.

@chudders
Be positive and enthusiastic
Anyone can just decide to be
positive if they want to. It
makes such a massive
difference on projects. I would
sooner hire on attitude over
experience any day.

@chudders
Don’t (ever) take the credit & admit you failures
I’ve seen managers pop up at
the end of projects and steal
the glory (think John Terry).
Don’t ever do it, make sure your
team get the glory. Also admit
when you get stuff wrong, it
can be very liberating.

Make a plan and share your vision
@chudders
A B
Pre mortem
Roles & responsibilities
*Write brief & share vision with team
Identify measures of success
*Regular communication
Critique & feedback
Mid project wash ups
Internal / external showcase
Critique & feedback
Wash ups
*Share stories
Measure outputs
Here are some practical things
that managers and leaders
should do during design
projects. Critically you need to
define and share your vision for
a project and remind people of
it along the way.

Accept classic project dynamics
@chudders
‘Storming’
Effectiveness
Project duration
‘Performing’‘Norming’‘Forming’
*from ‘Tuckman's model of group development’
Teams take a while to bed in
and start performing. This is
completely normal. Models like
this are useful because they let
you know what to expect and
help to explain things aren’t
working as well as you imagine.

Clarify roles and responsibilities
@chudders
Responsible Accountable Consulted Informed
Design the project
Manage scope
Negotiate deal
Responsible for quality
Run kick off
Own deliverables
Present design solution
Director PMUXDirector
Director Director PM UX
Director UX Director PM
Director Director UX PM
PM PM Director UX
UX UX PM Director
UX UX Director PM
Design projects can have lots of
roles that overlap and people
have different skill sets. At the
beginning of projects map out
who’s expected to do what get
agreement within the team.

Make decisions
@chudders
Leisa is spot on. As a leader you need
to take decisions. You’ll get some right
and some wrong but you must be
assertive and make a call to maintain
people’s confidence in you. Remind
people that design is never finished so
whatever you choose to do you’ll learn
and move on!

Discover people’s passions
@chudders
Take the time to find out what
your team love doing (hobbies,
techniques etc.) then try and
find them opportunities to bring
their passions into their work.
You will find yourself with a very
motivated team as a result.

Say thank you & reward great work
@chudders
It sounds like such a cliche but
amazing what a difference it
makes when someone genuinely
thanks you for doing something.
People don't do this because
they think the fact they are
being paid to do stuff makes this
unnecessary. Wrong!

Credibility
@chudders
You don’t have to have been a UX’er to
be a great UX leader but it certainly helps
for people to be able to trust your
judgement. Either way you’ll need people
to respect you to be successful, and being
credible is an essential aspect of building
trust. Fundamentally you’ll struggle as a
leader if you people don’t trust you!

Be accountable & protect your team
@chudders
I’ve worked out what you do,
you’re basically a shit shield..
A. Colleague, UX Consultant
Sounds rubbish doesn’t it but it’s an
important part of the job. You have
to do what you said you would do,
when you said you would do it as
well as protect your team from
flying objects.

Keep your distance, let it go & delegate
@chudders
This can be really difficult if you
used to be a practitioner. You have
to keep out of the detail so that you
can work across multiple projects
and keep a high level view. You can
still give people space to develop
and grow while keeping them under
your wing.

@chudders
Solve problems and make things happen!
As a leader it’s often down to you to
just make things happen. You have
to share your vision for something
and bring it to life, solving all the
problems along the way. Designers
are great problem solvers so I guess
it makes sense that they can also be
great leaders!

@chudders
Don’t stop talking
From regular & scheduled methods
such as daily stand-ups to more ad-
hoc catch ups around the kettle it’s
critical you keep talking to your
team. It’s amazing what you learn
from unplanned conversations that
prove critical to the success of your
projects.

Lead by example
@chudders
1. Work hard
2. Share what I know
3. Make stuff better
4. Keep it fresh
5. Make it fun
Like design principles but for you…
Here’s an idea for you. Why not
create career principles for yourself.
Think design principles but for you.
Remind yourself of them often and
try and live by them. This helps to
remind you of what’s important to
you and helps you to not compromise
your principles on projects.

Be brave and ask for feedback
‘You dealt with that
situation brilliantly..’
People don’t do this because they
are worried about getting bad
feedback and culturally it can be just
a bit awkward. Give it a try, perhaps
at the end of a project and use it as a
way to continually grow in your role.

@chudders
Share your stories
Sharing stories is a great way to
remind yourself of the things that
have worked well on your projects.
People will reciprocate with their
own stories which gives you insights
into other things to try. We’re hard
wired to respond to stories so use
them to your advantage.

Be honest with people
@chudders
People respect you for being honest
no matter what the outcome is. I’ve
found that it just makes life so much
easier, particularly when you are
juggling loads of projects.

People are different
@chudders
Cultural differences
https://hbr.org/2014/09/predict-cultural-conflicts-on-your-team
I’ve been leading teams that have
been spread all over Europe for the
last few years and this stuff is handy.
Cultural differences (in management
literature) can feel a bit stereotyped
but it’s better to be aware of them
than to be taken by surprise.

This is a good book - from the 1930’s!
@chudders
‘How to win friends and influence people’
1. Smile!
2. Always remember names and peoples interests &
issues
3. Be enthusiastic and keep your problems to yourself
4.Be genuinely interested in people
5. Be a good listener, encourage others to talk about
themselves
6.Don’t criticise, condemn or complain
7. Be a good conversationalist
8.Give honest and sincere appreciation
9.Put yourselves in the shoes of other people
I was recommended this book and I
must admit was sceptical about
what it could offer me 85 years after
being published. I was wrong. It’s a
little gem packed full of simple and
practical advice about dealing with
people. Buy it!

Make it fun, fun shouldn’t be a reward
@chudders
In every job that must be done 
There is an element of fun 
you find the fun and snap 
The job’s a game 
Mary Poppins from ‘A spoonful of sugar’ Please, oh please make it fun. The fun
bit shouldn’t be at the end of the
project, make it during the project too!
You can still do super serious, ground
breaking work and have a laugh along
the way. The people I’ve admired the
most during my career have been the
ones who can do this, what a skill!

So if you just remember three things
@chudders
Set and share your vision
Lead by example
Look after people
1
2
3
So I appreciate there is a lot to remember in
here but if you just remember three things
then these would be a good place to start.

Thanks!
@chudders
Thanks so much for taking the time to read
this. I really hope you’ve found it useful and
please drop me a line if you have questions,
comments or if you want me to present to your
organisation.

UX Leadership

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