Thoughts on Multidisciplinary UX Teams
The most productive teams are those that are multidisciplinary. Bringing together people from varying skill-sets and backgrounds to work in an agile and collaborative way can result in more innovative ideas and, ultimately, more successful projects.
Designing and building great experiences can rarely be achieved by bringing in a specialist for a few days at the beginning of a project. Working through collaborative working sessions as a team allows ideas to flow between disciplines freely. Everyone on the team makes great user experiences together, not individually, during one project stage.
It helps the design process to break out of working in departmental silos. We all share a common goal, to build cool and exciting new digital products and spaces. Working with a small group of talented people allows a team to work very quickly. When a question comes up, someone on the team usually has the answer.
An example of a multidisciplinary UX team can include but is not limited to:
- A focused group of stakeholders
- Project manager
- Digital strategist
- Designer
- Copywriter
- Front-end developer
- Back-end developer
Allowing each discipline to be a part of the ideation through development provides the most ideas to be surfaced and explored. Having a developer in the room enables the team to explore all that technology can deliver. With a designer in the room, development can provide a design as close to its original intent as possible. It allows them to work through any necessary alterations for the best experience possible. With a copywriter in the room, designers can shape the UX to tell better stories and create better human connections.
“Great things in business are never done by one person. They are done by a team of people.”
- Steve Jobs, Co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Apple Inc.
Working in a multidisciplinary way allows each discipline to learn from one another, increasing an individual’s skills over time. Listening to team members’ work through problems opens up ideas on approaching their work differently. They also learn more about the other discipline at the same time. A win-win for all!