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Surviving Your UX Career in Enterprise Design (Videoconference)
Thursday, December 2, 2021 • Enterprise Community
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Surviving Your UX Career in Enterprise Design (Videoconference)
Speakers: Jessamyn Edwards
Link:

Summary

If you’re just getting started in your UX career and find yourself in an enterprise environment, how can you face some of the unique challenges of practicing UX design? What if I'm not a domain expert in my new field? What happens if my team asks me to deliver something they want, but come up with something I think they really need? What if my organization doesn't have a good process for UX work? We'll discuss how to deliver professional work without all the resources at your disposal. Learn strategies to tap into your company’s people, processes, and data to shore up the quality of your UX practice.

Key Insights

  • Lacking domain expertise in enterprise UX can be overcome by proactively seeking internal experts such as customer service reps and salespeople.

  • Maintaining a glossary of jargon helps validate assumptions and align terminology with user expectations.

  • Delivering exactly what is asked builds trust, while separately proposing bigger improvements can raise the team's standards without pressure.

  • Documenting UX processes and creating project plans with milestones fosters transparency and manages stakeholder expectations effectively.

  • Providing quick wins early in projects reassures stakeholders and buys designers needed time for thorough work.

  • Embracing early negative feedback prevents shipping flawed designs and aligns the team sooner.

  • UX designers often act as connective tissue in large enterprises by sharing customer stories and facilitating communication between teams.

  • Leadership in UX means reducing ambiguity by clarifying what needs to be done and guiding teams through uncertain terrain.

  • Younger or less experienced PMs may rely on UX designers to lead the design process; embracing this role is critical for success.

  • Tracking complaints and usage metrics, even with small data samples, can effectively demonstrate the impact of design work.

Notable Quotes

"Start knocking on doors immediately to find domain experts inside your company without waiting for permission."

"Your fresh eyes are an asset—naturally questioning jargon and assumptions helps avoid nasty surprises later."

"If someone asks you for a checkbox, give them the checkbox—then separately propose your bigger ideas."

"Bad news does not improve with age; fix issues as soon as you detect them."

"Setting up a simple Wiki to share your UX process makes your work predictable and builds trust."

"Leadership is about reduction of uncertainty—you’ve got to forge that path of clarity."

"Always give a why when communicating design decisions to help your team understand the rationale."

"Thank people for feedback, even if you disagree or have tried their idea before and it didn’t work."

"UX designers have a high degree of emotional intelligence and excel at facilitating conversations between stakeholders."

"You are not a substitute for engineers or PMs—you bring your unique strength of design and research to the table."

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