Being a UX’er in a large organisation

Perhaps the most important skill a UX designer can have is knowing how to comport yourself. To be diplomatic. To be socially pliable. To be able to talk to everybody, whether they be users, business people, c-suite exects, developers, UX peers, or other stakeholders. And to be able to collaborate with all of these people — no mean feat given how massively different people’s outlook, know-how, vocabulary, sense of humour, and goals are.

Being a change agent

As a designer, you are inherently an agent of change. That’s the job: to change things. We don’t usually call it that, but basically design is figuring out how to change stuff so it will be better. It doesn’t always get better, I know that. Sometimes it just gets different. But it’s supposed to change for the better.

Change.

Large organisations are extremely resistant to change. Because size and age (maturity, if you want to use a nicer word) also means lots of complexity, and lots of processes to harness this complexity. It means lots of people who execute these processes until they become routines that are hard to change. I don’t blame anybody for that — that’s what people do. We find routines that work, and then we stick to them. We generally don’t change things around all the time, because that would be a waste of energy and time.

My point with this is: as a designer, you will be in opposition to a lot of other people in a large organisation. You are the change agent in a place that is resistant to change. Most other people around you will be the ones who practice the routines, and therefore also the ones who resist the change.

Facilitating change

So how do you facilitate change? How do you actually do your job as a UX designer in such an organisation? You need to possess the relevant UX design skillsets of course. But a lot will also depend on your personality in my experience. Do you have the following traits, for example:

• Can you facilitate, i.e. guide others with a firm hand and maintain a good, friendly and fun atmosphere?
• Are you likeable without being a pleaser?
• Are you diplomatic?
• Do you know how to make an argument based on data? (at this point it feels like I’m in the middle of writing a job ad) :-)
• Do you know when to compromise, and when to stand your ground?
• Can you run a process (e.g. a customer interview) tightly enough to maintain structure, but also give people enough freedom to go in directions you hadn’t thought of, so you can capture their valuable input?
• Can you navigate an uncertain, ill-defined situation and process?
• Are you stubborn? Or perhaps a better way to put would be, are you persistent? Being a change agent in an environment that resists change requires a lot of that!
• Do you understand what the organisation needs and wants? You have to know this in order to design for the benefit of both the users and the organisation. That’s why you’re there.

Grab the reins yourself

Until now I’ve portrayed large orgs as kind of a hostile environment. But the good thing is: you actually have a lot of possibilites to be proactive, to plan and to execute your plans. In a big org you have freedom and resources you can draw on!

• In a big org with lots of people, only a few people know what you are actually doing. This means you will have a lot of freedom to act on your own, because nobody actually knows what the boundaries of your jobs are. Your boss doesn’t. And really, you don’t even know yourself — because the boundaries of a UX designer’s job are pretty fluid.
• In lots of places you’re able to hand in receipts and recoup your expenses — e.g. if you spend money on fuel, or on gifts for your test users, or whatever. This means you probably have financial resources you can draw on – ask for forgiveness later, not permission now.
• There may be a lot of bureaucracy and politics in a big organisation. That’s something you have to accept and deal with. You can’t change it.
• Define the need. Examine the situation. Understand need + situation, and define the problems you think should be solved. Then gather data.
• Make sure you have data, and that you analyze it. If you don’t have data — find ways to get it. It could be qualitative (interview data for example) or quantitative (analytics, numbers at scale).
• Quantitative data tells you what’s happening and what has happened. Qualitative data tells you the why and the how. If you only have one kind of data, you need to find a way to go out and get the other.
• Externalise your findings. Meaning: create visual representations / design artefacts that you can put on the wall. These can act as passive “information radiators” to people, helping to spread your message. It all helps!
• Finally: repeat your message. Eventually, it will stick. Be persistent, and a little stubborn. Work for what you believe in, and act like a mule butting its head relentlessly against the door.

Thanks for reading

I like to keep my writing free and not behind paywalls — If for some bizarre reason you like my writing enough that you want to buy me a cup of coffee, you can do that here: https://flattr.com/@skjoldbroder

Also: Remember that these are just some reflections based on my experience. I’m not claiming I have the full Truth. Not all big orgs are like this — And I’m also not saying that everybody in a big organisation has freedom or resources. But as a UX designer, you are in a kind of privileged role where the type of work you do can vary a lot. Add to this that most people don’t actually understand what you do. That sort of thing can lead to confusion and frustration. But it can also give you a lot of freedom to show initiative (because people don’t know what you do — so who is going to tell you not to do something, right?)

Initiative is typically rewarded, especially if it leads to results. So find out what change you want to push for, build your case using data, and demonstrate that the changes you want to institute will deliver results.

I was thinking a long time about whether I should publish this or not. Let me know if you think I’m on the right or the wrong track — I’d appreciate your comments and perspective a lot!