Summary
Bloomberg's UX team is excited to share its 15-year evolution -- from employing UX as a new, innovative process to UX playing a central role in every part of the product development lifecycle. Ash Brown, Global Head of UX, will share how the company's UX team has grown and how it collaborates with its partners in Product. This will be followed by a panel discussion with two designers and two product managers who will talk about the different ways they've worked together. Bring your questions, because we’ll close with a Q&A session.
Key Insights
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Bloomberg's UX evolution took 15 years, moving through four distinct phases from process innovation to full team integration.
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Embedding UX designers within product teams improves collaboration and leads to better user-centered outcomes.
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Providing designers with detailed product context upfront enables more effective and innovative design solutions.
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Curiosity and persistent questioning from designers push product managers to think beyond existing solutions.
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Product managers benefit from trusting the design process and being flexible about proposed solutions.
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Discovery research and usability testing are crucial for validating hypotheses and informing pivots in product development.
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Consistent user experience across different Bloomberg platforms (terminal, mobile, web) is managed via cross-product collaboration.
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Healthy, respectful disagreements between designers and product managers are natural and productive when focused on user needs.
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UX success equals team success – it is measured by achieving desired business and user outcomes, not just aesthetic design.
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Investing time in UX collaboration upfront reduces reactive firefighting and leads to better long-term product success.
Notable Quotes
"Good UX is good business."
"If it’s not usable, it’s not valuable."
"UX success equals team success."
"We act like a three-legged chair: product, engineering, and UX all contribute to a stable product."
"Curiosity and asking a lot of questions helped us build a good partnership."
"Providing context and letting the creative process take its course leads to much better design outcomes."
"It’s important for product managers not to fall in love with a particular solution."
"Collaboration and trust between UX and product are key to successful product development."
"Healthy disagreement is part of good collaboration because it helps build the best designs for customers."
"Take time to invest in collaboration with UX even when overwhelmed; it’s worth it in the long run."
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