Hold a UX Stand-Down and Operational Review

Look for opportunities to do things better, eliminate procedures and processes of dubious value….

This is something I’ve done in my management and leadership positions at Sage and Intuit. I got the idea from the US Navy. Periodically, certain naval air units examine and improve operational policies and procedures by standing down for a day and thoroughly reviewing how they do what they do. They look for opportunities to do things better, eliminate procedures and processes of dubious value, and improve safety margins.

I’m sure you have some cruft in your UX practice. So, do yourself and your colleagues a favor. Take a day where all you do is look at what you do, what you produce, and how you deliver your services. It might help for you to pose some form of the following questions to yourself, regarding every aspect of your operation:

Is this activity or process still meeting the need for which it was originally designed?

If it isn’t, why not?

If it is, can you meet that need in a better, faster, or stronger way?

Are you performing any activities or processes that don’t meet any of your organization’s needs? (And can you stop doing them right now?)

Are there new needs your current activities and processes are not satisfying?

There are many names for these types of activities. One I’ve heard in my corporate travels is the stop-start-continue exercise. Whatever you call it, it’s a good idea. Do it! Don’t worry, I won’t punch you in the arm if you don’t. But if I see you at a UX conference or meetup, I will give you loads of Jewish-mother guilt.

Stretch Yourself Outside of User Experience

Temporarily assuming a completely different job or responsibility might make you love our little UX world even more when you return to it.

Our profession can be like a comfortable, well-decorated, and distracting gilded cage. It’s so comfortable, we are often loath to leave it. Well, guess what? Temporarily assuming a completely different job or responsibility might make you love our little UX world even more when you return to it. And you’ll have the added advantage of bringing back an outside-in perspective of your field. So, do yourself a favor. Go do something else for 6 or 12 months—for example, take on a requirements analyst or business analyst role. Be a product manager. Work in the online marketing department. If you have the chops, go write code. Hell, you could even do QA for awhile. (Although it seems to me that it takes a certain kind of focused craziness to geek out on testing and validation.) But it’s all good, and it’ll pay dividends down the line.

Think About Your UX Career Path

This is the other side of the coin. Who are you professionally? What is your UX specialty, your brand? Are you a strategic UX thinker—business oriented, big picture—or more tactical—testing, testing, testing? Are you a tool wizard—adopting the latest, greatest tools—a specialist—the forms guy or gal—or a cutting-edge Web 2.0/social media wonk? Pick a persona and work it. Specialization is not a bad thing, especially if you’re seen as the go-to guy or gal for a particular class of problems.

Repurpose Your UX Assets

Here’s a suggestion from John Rhodes, one of the truly talented marketing minds in the user experience industry. He suggests taking reports you’ve written for several clients and creating a meta report for sale on your Web site. Another suggestion from John is to convert a whitepaper to an MP3 and post it as free download on your Web site or a podcast directory. Use it for marketing or sales support.

Think your stuff isn’t worth the reuse effort? Think again. Everything helps. If your for-sale report doesn’t sell like hotcakes, you’ve got a ready-made piece of marketing collateral—or a portfolio piece, if you’re looking to get employed by a company that likes to see work samples.

Departing from Script on User Research Visits

Invariably, the most interesting and important findings for my clients come from pursuing a line of inquiry that wasn’t even part of the original research protocol.

Serendipity is the mother of discovery. I have created dozens of user research studies and moderated hundreds of sessions. Invariably, the most interesting and important findings for my clients come from pursuing a line of inquiry that wasn’t even part of the original research protocol.

I’ll fess up. One of the major mistakes I made as an inexperienced user research practitioner was over-determining the session protocol. In my younger days, I was too eager to cram the protocol full of tasks, questions, and opportunities for recounting critical incidents. I didn’t realize that the best, highest-quality insights come from simply being attentive and open to the unexpected, then describing the phenomena you’ve witnessed and offering some clever and penetrating analysis.

So, learn from my experience. Loosen up your field-research protocol a bit. Don’t fill it with too many tasks and questions. And be on the lookout for interesting phenomena, behaviors, or rituals. They’re your business-class ticket to insight city.

I’m sure there are lots of other things that we, as UX professionals, should and could be doing. I invite you to share your suggestions in the comments below.

A quick thanks to Susan Hura of SpeechUsability, Daniel Szuc of Apogee, and John Rhodes of Webword for their suggestions and ideas.