Process

Ideas are not solutions

Published on July 6, 2011

This post ranges outside of our UX circle, and is something I’ve been thinking about, and arguing with friends about, for a long time. It deals with becoming a better teammate as well as a better project team member. Brainstorming and generating ideas is something we value very highly in our profession. And rightly so, the more ideas we have the more options we have at getting to a solution. But, generating ideas does not equal solving the problem. I believe that an idea is not really a solution until it is put into action, and generating ideas without knowing what it takes to put that idea into action can be a dangerous thing.

Don’t get me wrong. Generating a good amount of ideas at the right time is not a bad thing. Often it is the reason why a great solution comes along. I’m not saying that during this appropriate idea generating time that you should NOT say an idea because you don’t know how it will be solved. Obviously, that is the point of brainstorming and you should be open minded and generate as many ideas as possible without worry of how to implement those ideas. The problem that I’m talking about is when you are not at a brainstorming time within a project, but are instead in a crucial decision or problem solving instance and things just need to get done. The problem with continually generating ideas and not thinking about how to put them into action, at least at some level, during these times is huge. There are several reasons why. First, by generating a lot ideas without thought as to how to bring them to action, you are putting the work onto someone else to actually solve the problem, and usually during these high pressured times, no one has the time for “extra work”. Thus you are not being sensitive to your team. Secondly, by generating ideas, assuming they are solutions but not thinking about the actions associated with bringing the idea to life, you are not educating yourself on how ideas turn into solutions and thus aren’t learning the work that it really takes to do so. Throwing the work at your teammates causes them to become bitter and untrusting of your ideas and you as a teammate; “oh here we go with Bob, just throwing these ideas out there and expecting me to create solutions from them”. Not educating yourself means you are not sensitive to how work really gets done on a project, and that is a bad quality in a project team member.

So, in order to stop these types of action, you should generate ideas, yes this is good, but think about and try to at some point put them into action. Take note of what this takes and how hard it is to do. Become sensitive to all the work that goes into putting your ideas into a project plan, or solution, and really understand those that are doing so day in and day out.

By doing this, you will become a better teammate because you will have empathy for the doers and empathy for what it takes to put an idea into action. You will also be better at understanding projects overall because you’ll be able to deconstruct ideas into what it takes to see them come to life. And finally you will start to see that generating ideas does not equal solving a problem. It is an important step in doing so, but if it’s crunch time you’ll need to take it a step further to be of great value to your team. You’ll need to be able to figure out how to get sh!t done. Now that equals a great teammate.

Getting to the ‘X’ in UX

Published on May 18, 2011

In my many conversations about UX, I usually run into people that are looking for advice on how to go from being a fulltime employee to an independent UXer. I love talking about this topic, because it helps me to reflect on how I can get better at being a consultant. However, there is always an underlying theme to the questions that I get, and want to point that theme out here today.

The theme that I see, as I move in and out of these conversations, is that when people ask for advice on how to become a freelancer, what they are really asking is “where and what do I focus on in this vast array of information regarding UX?”. Afterall, in this wide world of information consumption, I would be willing to wager that UX is at the top of both the content consumption as well as content generation lists. We have books, blogs, tweets and more… and all of these things contain information and conversations about how-tos, deliverables, methodologies. With all of this being thrown at us, where do we as UX professionals start?! And worse yet after we have started, how do we know which path is the right path to go down? It can all be so overwhelming and confusing.

Therefore, in order to simplify it all, I’m suggesting we start with learning one thing in order to become not only great independent UXers, but better UXers overall… Process. How many people can say they know the UX/Design process inside and out? Now, I’m not talking about memorizing one person’s or company’s way of getting their work out, I’m talking about the high level conceptual world of the way that we, as UX professionals, bring value. I’m saying that we, first, need to understand why discovery, scoping, design, etc exist. To take it further, we need to understand that we do discovery in part to define the problem, not just so that we can “talk to users” cuz that is the U in UX. We need to understand why we talk to users, and why talking to them at different phases of the project requires different types of activities & questions as well as brings different results. We should be able to access a situation, see the gaps, and know what part(s) of our process we use to fill those gaps.

So how do we learn the Process?There are a couple of different ways. Of course, we know there is a ton of information out there to consume… I would consume as much as you can about different ways to look at the design process. Also, take a look around you at how your leads are leading. What advice are they giving you? Think about how you fit into the project as a whole and what it is you are bringing or could be bringing more of. Get this stuff down pat. But the most important aspect to learning Process? Letting go of the idea that there is a right way to do things. This, is a lie. You must understand that you, as a UX professional, determine the right way for the situation. And by knowing the whys of your Process, you have a conceptual tool kit that allows you define what is ‘right’.

The outcomes of learning the Process and more importantly the whys behind the process are huge. From a consulting perspective you are now in a place where you can truly lead the UX part of a project. You will have the tools you need to listen to each different situation, access what the problem is, and be able to use your process to define and solve the problem. This is what your clients will be looking for you to do. If you want to be more than just a wireframer when you go independent you must remember that as a consultant there is no other UX Lead… it is just you. And therefore the most important thing you can learn is how and why you do your work, and what that means for those you work with. From a fulltime perspective, this is also important because it helps you to gain traction on the project team and become an invaluable member. In both instances it allows UX to begin to move out of the interface only game, and into the problem solving game. And this is where we want to be, a place where we lead by defining & solving the greater problem. Doing so is called creating an experience, and that is what the X in UX is all about.

Shrinking the UX Process on UX Booth

Published on May 12, 2010

Yesterday, UX Booth published an article that Gabi Moore and I wrote entitled Mission Impossible: Shrinking the UX Process. In it, Gabi and I write about the experience we had at her workplace, AnyClip (a site where you can find and experience movie moments), this winter. While there, we worked together to create a UX Strategy for AnyClip, a company that was about to re-release at Austin’s SXSW. The caveat is that we had to create the strategy in only three weeks.

The article outlines what our process was, what worked for us, and also where we went astray. Lastly, the article provides tips for other UXers to be able to recreate the same output that we had. During this time, we found such a great deal of satisfaction and success in our work, that it only felt natural to share it with all of you. Hopefully there is some information that you can glean from our experience to add to yours.

Read the full article here.

UX Booth is a blog for and by the user experience community. It is organized and ran by three awesome, highly intelligent and talented individuals: Andrew Maier, Matthew Kammerer and David Leggett. I cannot thank them enough for giving us the opportunity to present our thoughts to the UX Community. I am proud to have been able to become an author on such an outstanding website.

Special thanks are due to Karen McGrane and Whitney Hess, for contributing feedback as well as helping to edit this piece. Most importantly I owe a huge thank you to AnyClip for letting me join their outstanding team for three completely awesome weeks.

I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.