UX Tweet Brief #1 — Workplace Challenges
This is a project by v1Labs to find the top user experience experts on Twitter. Here are the tweets they’re currently engaging with along with a bit of commentary.
I absolutely agree. This might seem subtle but the distinction is huge.
Iterative = better
Incremental delivery = more
A lot of product teams seem to talk themselves into incremental delivery with FOMO (fear of missing out) logic:
- I know we’d get adoption if we just had feature X…
- Ok feature X just got us to baseline. What we really need is feature Y…
Don’t get me wrong, building new is great but don’t neglect making improvements to existing functionality.
Unfortunately a lot of companies have overly top heavy organizational structures so a seat at the table and more meetings come hand in hand. Even small companies with flat hierarchies round up stakeholders to meet way too often.
This should change. More ‘doers’ should have a seat at the table. And that shouldn’t prevent them from ‘doing’.
I mostly agree with this list other than…
Will it stay the same regardless of changes to technology, policy and existing services?
User needs are often transient. I guess the idea here is to invest time working on more stable needs so you’re able to maximize ROI for your solution. I don’t agree with this line of thinking. Sometimes you’ve got to hustle and create temporary solutions to temporary problems.
Two very different ideas here.
People first.
Absolutely. This goes beyond the people you’re building for. Consider the people you’re building with. If your team is gravitating towards a particular problem, favor that over a problem with a higher upside.
Design the right thing. Design the thing right.
I can’t agree with this one. It sounds like you can develop a complete understanding of a users’ needs prior to implementation. Research only gives you a partial understanding. Once you add paint to the canvas, your understanding will grow a little bit. This is why iteration is necessary.
Great read on the importance of walls. Making the most of walls is something I aspire to but have never done well. To me, walls shouldn’t be about optics to show how much work your team has accomplished. They should be about inspiring conversation.
In order to do walls well, I believe they’ve got to invade communal spaces such as kitchens, elevators, and lounges. It’s tempting to make these spaces relaxing with art and clean design. If you do that, people will mingle and talk about Netflix or the weather. Use this opportunity to get your team talking about personas, use cases, and how to build a better product.
Here is an interesting tweet that strongly appeals to UXers.
This should be turned into a mobile app. Eliminating mansplaining would do a lot to promote equality in the workplace.
Definitely some truth to this. But you’ve got to understand your own motivations and find the right empowering situation. Sometimes you’ll follow good people, and sometimes you’ll forge your own path.
Great response to one of those dogmatic corporate quotes that comes up from time to time. I’d probably deliver the response a little less confrontationally but the sentiment is good.
To me, developing a deep understanding is the culmination of many tested hypotheses. You can’t just go into the design cave for a few months and magically deliver the answer. You can be thoughtful and deliberate while being bold and experimental.
It’s ok to chase your own fantasies so long as they have a lifeline to reality. Sometimes the lifeline is clear and obvious. Sometimes you’re taking a risk and it isn’t a sure thing.
The theme of the week seems to be workplace challenges. It’s tough working in a space where the value you provide isn’t always easily understood by everyone in an organization.
