5 key things to consider before accepting that next UX gig

I’ve been scribbling on post-it notes for the better part of 17 years. It’s been a primary tool for my role as a design thinker, a collector of ideas, empathizer of user pains, maker of to-do lists, and the general organisation of projects into clearly defined tasks — all in a creative way.

I’ve also been a freelance UX designer for almost as many years.

Over the last few projects I’ve been involved with, I’ve noticed a common theme of frustration with each job and it’s left me wondering why. I’ve started keeping notes of learnings and it’s shifted my thinking from one of anger and frustration to a mode of learning. I no longer see each contract job as a ‘huge mistake’ and wonder why I didn’t ask the right questions to uncover this, but rather I see it as an opportunity to learn from and ask better questions at interviews to make sure that the fit is right — for both sides. And ultimately, to understand if and how a company recognises and appreciates UX as fundamental building blocks in the success of their organisation or if part of the role requires fighting the UX fight.

I’ve done alot of thinking, written 100’s of notes and I’ve distilled it down to 5 main topic areas to dig deeper into before accepting that next contract UX job. (I’m sure this could apply to other job sectors, too, but this is mine.)

Let’s assume you’ve received a detailed job spec, the role looks promising and you’ve made it past the HR recruiter. Now it’s up to you to dig deeper and ask probing questions about the role and the company. If you are still intrigued by the role and you make it in for a face-to-face with your future boss and some other team mates that you’ll be working with, then what do you ask? What are the critical questions that will make or break the role for you?

“Every job must have the 3 P’s…As long as 2 of them are right, then take the job.”

Years ago, a photographer friend of mine said this to me: “Every job must have the 3 P’s: the people that you work with, the project you’ll be working on and price they are willing to pay you. As long as 2 of them are right, then take the job.” I subscribed to this practice for many years. But recently, it just hasn’t proved to be rigorous enough to get me past some key areas that have failed me on the past few jobs. So, I’ve sat down and documented learnings from previous challenging roles and it’s lead me to the following important topics in helping me to decide if the role is right or not:

1. Cultural fit
2. Clarity or chaos?
3. Communication and collaboration are key
4. User research
5. And finally, if it doesn’t light you up, you’re not the right person for the job!

Cultural fit

When you arrive at the company, do you get an immediate sense of the culture of the company? Is it serious, fun, energetic? Do you feel a buzz? Or is it quiet, serene, or almost ghostly? And more importantly, what are you looking for? What do you need to thrive? Will you fit into this organisation, does it align to your way of thinking and working? This first topic requires digging a little deeper into your own work ethic and personality and think about what you really want and the type of environment that would help you thrive and grow and learn the most.

This topic also requires doing a little bit of user research on your potential new job. Think about asking the following key questions:

• What is the company and/or project vision?
• Who will you be working with and can you meet them?
• What do people love about the company/project/job?
• What’s the one challenging thing they’d like to change?
• Where does UX sit in the organisation and are stakeholders bought in to it as an important discipline?
• What is the work-life balance like?

It’s so important to meet the team that you’ll be working with, including the product owner, any stakeholders, developers, and other designers. Ask probing questions to understand who, if anyone, might be challenging or a blocker for you? Meet those people. Does it feel like a healthy environment? Do people seem to respect each other? Meeting others who work there allows you to get a better sense of how people behave and may bring you some insight as to whether that culture will encourage you to grow and enable you to produce good work.

Clarity or chaos?

I’ve worked in chaotic places and it certainly provides an exciting buzz and energy, but what doesn’t work so well for me is complete chaos, disorganisation and lack of process. I need some structure in order for chaos to live within it. When gauging clarity of the company vision, do all of the people you meet have a clear and consistent vision about the company or product? Is there a product manager that has a clear vision and can they articulate that to you so that you get it — instantly?

You may be hired to help define what that vision might be. If that’s the case, do you have the trust and time of the stakeholders to define that vision? I’ve certainly worked on many projects where the vision has been slightly different with each stakeholder that I’ve spoken with, but there have been underlying core values that remain consistent, which generally gives the impression that everyone is open to moving in the same general direction. If there is a distinct disparity between all of the people that you talk to, that should raise some alarms, unless you are brought in specifically for this task. Creating a clear vision takes time, buy-in from stakeholders and agreement of a strategic and tactical path from everyone. If there is no vision or no roadmap, I’d be wary of taking on a role, unless you can get sign-off on a clear path of work that you’ll be expected to produce, with clear outcomes and next steps.

Communication and collaboration are key

Ok, so this one seems like it should be pretty self-explanatory and people should be able to communicate, right? Wrong. I’ve worked at places as a contractor, where I’ve actively been left out of meetings, email threads, and conversations to the point of the detriment of the project. Poor communication can break a project and can break a contractor. I’ve also had people sitting next to me that will email me instead of speaking to me directly. Sometimes there’s a sense from permanent employees that when you are brought in to do a job, that you don’t really care because you are “just a contractor.” I know this stigma. However, I take pride in my job. I’m getting hired because I am specialised in what I do and I work hard. And it shows in the work I produce. Sometimes there are barriers to break down and you have to show your worth before you are accepted. I get that. But ask questions. Try to understand how the team works together. Are there daily stand ups? Weekly showcases? How does the UX team collaborate with the rest of the company? Is the UX team respected as an integral part of the process or will the product owner dictate (and sometimes sketch wireframes) for you to colour in the boxes?

Something that has been a long-standing issue within the UX industry is the interpretation of what UX is (and there’s plenty of posts on this — especially the need for the elusive UX Unicorn.) Terminology describing a role can often vary between job specs, and expectations for the role can vary even more so. Be sure that you clarify the role and the specific needs required of you. And ask yourself, does the job title equal the job description that’s being asked of you? If you don’t understand the terminology, then ask. Often times the client may say one thing and mean another. Clear communication is better than assumption.

Also, if the role requires buy-in or education of UX to stakeholders, then take this into consideration when accepting a role. Will you need to continuously defend the worth of UX to stakeholders or tech teams, or defend the need for user research? Often times, this can consume 15–25% of your time if you have to continually educate the client or the internal teams. Make sure that the process is clear at the start with your team and you’ll have an easier time replaying it to others when presenting your work. It’s often nice to display the agreed process slide at each presentation with a call out to where you are in the process. Stakeholders can then see the work that’s been done-to-date, what you’re presenting today and what’s up next — even if it’s handwritten notes or scribbles. That way, there will be no surprises around the work that you will produce.

User research

“We’ve already done some market research”

Feedback from users is a gift. If your future employer or client doesn’t believe in user testing, or says “We’ve already done market research,” then you must decide how much of your time will be spent getting buy-in or will you simply manoeuvre around that blocker to perform your own guerrilla testing or analysis and prove that it is an essential tool? Sometimes I wonder how, in this digital age, people still don’t think user testing is an essential part of the process. If the clients’ desire to improve their product or service is not met with deep understanding of the value of testing with users, then bells should be ringing in your ears right now! You’ll spend precious design time trying to move blockers when you should be testing, iterating and testing again.

And finally, if it doesn’t light you up, then its not the right job for you!

I firmly believe that you must be passionate about some aspect of what you are working on or you are never going to be 100% committed to it. If there are elements that you love and elements you don’t about a role, how can you tap into those areas that fill you with joy?

This often becomes more apparent after you’ve worked in a few places, interviewed at a few places, and can map it back to what you love to do. What I’ve also noticed over time are that my passions and priorities have changed. I now have a small person in my life, which means work/life balance is more important to me than it ever was. I have responsibilities that take precedence over almost everything else, so I now come to the table with specific questions like: how flexible is the work day? I may need to leave at 5pm once or twice a week, but I can come in early, is this going to be a problem? Does this role require work on the weekends? Can I work from home? Ultimately we spent a good chunk of our day at work and at least for me, it should be filled with learning, teaching, growing, smiling, laughing, creating and challenging myself. These are important elements in life to help us shape ourselves into better human beings, which is ultimately what most of us are striving for. This may be just another contract job, but I think we deserve to be our best selves in our work life as much as our personal life.

P.S. I’d love to hear if you have any specific examples to share or new points we should all consider. I have been documenting learnings for the last few years and I’m always interested in fine-tuning my list.