UX is a Team Sport

I have always said, “UX is a team sport.” This is because often we are our own worst enemies when working in UX by ourselves.

Are you in the trenches or in the clouds?

It is easy for a designer to slip into the trenches of doing without coming up for air. Checking, communicating, examining and challenging the design may fall by the wayside.

We also slip into the opposite mode and get stuck in the clouds — becoming paralyzed by inaction and indecision. In this moment we need to dig in and experiment by doing.

A strong UX team has people on it who can live in both of theses worlds, as both are necessary for any project. A great way to combat falling too far into one or the other is to work with a others who can hold you accountable or challenge you in the areas you are weaker. I believe this is true for any domain — we pair program and code review each others work in development — but this is often undervalued in UX.

The other reason I believe in “UX as a team sport” is the aspect of collaboration. For this I have two points: 1. holding a project too close to your chest when working alone, and 2. the quality and speed of decision making when working alone vs. collaboratively.

Anytime a person works on a project by themselves for an extended period of time that project tends to become their “baby.” And as is the case with pet projects, it is much more difficult for that person to receive feedback. They have invested so much, their mind shuts out external input by those who have not. This is nearly always to the detriment of the quality and success of that project.

I have observed this not only in myself, but from the highest C level position to lowest junior level position. This psychological effect impacts us all. And while it is true it affects each of us to varying degrees, I have yet to see anyone who is immune.

With all projects we face a bountiful harvest of decisions. Beyond the typical decisions, we face an even greater plethora of micro-decisions. Often a dysfunctional team will slow down the speed at which they make decisions. But with a small, collaborative team I believe that micro decision time is actually reduced.

My reasoning is this: when facing a few decisions we are capable of burning through them alone. Once we begin to uncover the mountain of decisions we can become paralyzed. Being able to bounce ideas off of a peer — not eventually but immediately — we are able to rapidly collaborate on those ideas and reach decisions quickly.

Additionally, with peer collaboration when making decisions we are challenged by them. Often, we may not see all sides of a problem or find other perspectives. Peers working in functional teams will engage in productive conflict and and thus vet a decision more thoroughly than a designer working alone. So then working in a team we not only increase the speed of decision making but also the quality.

But I work alone. What should I do?

We all sometimes have a Celine Dion moment

You are not alone. By that I mean that many of us that work in the UX field do work alone. So here is some advice:

1. Share these ideas with your boss and coworkers. Hopefully there is some ammunition here that can help you convince them of why UX is a team sport. Remember to talk to them in their language. Help them to see the increased impact that UX can have.
2. You actually aren’t alone. Even if they dont work in UX, bounce ideas off of other designers and developers you work with. I’ve found a lot of success inviting the Front End devs to collaborate with me. Again, make sure to use their language and make sure they feel their time is being respected and valued.
3. It can be hard, and perhaps slower, but challenge yourself to bring intention to your day to day and don’t allow yourself to fall too far into the trenches or the clouds. Force time constraints on yourself. When you are working on prototyping and an event to your calendar to remind yourself to come up for air and really look at your design critically. And vice-versa, remind yourself to stop pondering and get your hands dirty.
4. Read books like The User Experience Team of One by Leah Buley. Go to meetups in your area like the Downtown UX Meetup I help organize here in Orlando. And regardless if you can’t find a community in your area, also find forums online where you can ask questions and discuss UX as a career such as the User Experience Designers community on Slack.

Thank you for reading. I would love to hear what you think, or what advice you would share with others in this situation on twitter @MattPLavoie