Are you a UX team of one? This would be someone who drives the user-centered design approach and leads all aspects of a product’s user experience. Your responsibilities could involve UX strategy planning, conducting user interviews, research, sketching, wireframing, prototyping, user testing, usability tests, and iterating designs based on feedback.
The list goes on. If you are the sole practitioner of these tasks in your company, you are the (sometimes dreaded) “UX team of one.”
This blog post is for anyone in a position where they are the sole UX person in their team or company. Working on user experience can be difficult, even in a team — this is doubly true when you have to work through UX challenges alone.
Many people are attracted UX because they want to champion users, as do I. However, being a user advocate doesn’t guarantee success in a UX role.
I’m writing this blog post to assist you when facing a specific challenge or working at a particular point in a project and to give you a sense of the expected growth path for a UX team of one. This post will provide insights, strategies, and practical advice to help you navigate and thrive in this unique role. You may be the sole UX person on your team, but you aren’t the only UX person in our community.
As a UX team of one, people at your company will often ask you to explain the importance of UX and the value of UX work. Understanding and defining what UX is and what UX means to you is crucial.
Ideally, you could use a well-chosen example to educate your colleagues and illustrate the complexity of your design, the end-to-end UX process, and the positive user experience you can offer to the actual users.
But there are more ways to justify your work that aren’t overt. I’ll walk you through some ideas of how the proof of valuable UX is in your work itself.
We always strive to develop designs that balance user, business, and team expectations. Here, I suggest several valuable tools to show your work, including sketching ideas for better visualization and communication, conducting design critiques to learn from competitors’ or successful products, and creating an inspiration library.
Gathering ideas, mainly through cross-functional collaboration, is always beneficial. By collaborating with other teams, you can incorporate new ideas and integrate yourself further into the company.
In the realm of UX work, the key responsibility of a UX team of one is to establish a robust and adaptable UX process. There isn’t a universally accepted process that all UX practitioners follow. As a result, you’ll need to develop a process that incorporates a standard set of activities and deliverables that align with your needs.
You can use various methods and research techniques, since you’ll be doing all the research, but I suggest collaborating with data teams where possible. This comprehensive process should cover every phase of the UX cycle, regardless of the level of support, time, and resources available to you. This is your best change of justifying your work to stakeholders. If you can prove that your work has an impact on users or convince stakeholders that your audience wants something else with hard data, this will prove the value of UX for your company.
For a UX team of one, understanding and prioritizing users is essential. Getting to know users involves firsthand interaction to understand their needs and treating them as individuals rather than flat statistics.
A well-designed product should cater to the user’s needs efficiently and without disruption. The most significant aspect in the field of UX is to actively engage with users, as this leads to valuable insights that can drive the design process. Therefore, even with limited time, the focus should be on initiating user research because this can lead to significant discoveries that can propel the project forward.
As a UX team of one, you’ll drive all aspects of a product’s user experience. Your job includes understanding the business needs, identifying user goals, and assessing the existing UX through various techniques such as user research.
Since you’re working alone, you’ll need to prioritize methods with the most significant impact on users. Your role will involve independent creativity and design, emphasizing the ability to test these designs quickly and cost effectively.
Being a UX team of one is a challenging job. Your organization may need to mature UX practice. During work, you may feel isolated and overwhelmed. You are likely to face multiple challenges:
Working with limited resources is a common challenge, and it is especially true when you’re working as a team of one. There’s only one of you, and a lot is expected of you. There are always tasks to complete and deadlines to meet.
And, of course, financial constraints are also a significant challenge. Without a sufficient budget, you’re unlikely to execute essential tasks such as user research or user testing. These constraints can limit your ability to deliver high-quality work and restrict your team’s potential.
However, every team will have constraints. One way to adapt to them is to reframe design constraints positively to produce better outcomes.
You are being a jack-of-all-trades and master of none. You might find yourself wearing multiple hats. You are skilled in various areas, and your work covers everything and involves a mix of research, design, and testing.
However, your colleagues and superiors may not value it and don’t consider yourself an expert in any specific one. While engaging, the diverse nature of your work can sometimes push you towards burnout, especially when striving for excellence. You might even question yourself whether having a specialist’s depth of knowledge would make challenging design problems or difficult conversations more straightforward to navigate.
One of the best things you can do here is to further your education, whether it’s work-sponsored or just for fun. You’ll obviously never be a master of all things UX, but attending webinars, workshops, and conferences can help you upskill, network, and get ready for all the exciting challenges your job throws your way.
You’re paving your path with no precedents in your organization. You’re creating your career ladder without a guide.
Remember that plenty of online communities and resources are available to support you. Overcoming these obstacles is essential for your personal development and acquiring the necessary resources and support for your projects.
For a startup or a traditional industry, they haven’t had a chance to work with any UX specialist. They’ve just heard of UX as a buzzword but haven’t bought into the value and purpose of UX. Or, they do value user experience but don’t know how UX can benefit their daily work and build a robust UX practice. When you are in this kind of position, you might find yourself an evangelist, constantly having to educate and persuade others about the value of UX.
I appreciate the questions outlined by Leah Buley in her book The User Experience Team of One. If you find yourself stuck, consider asking these questions:
Creating a list of what matters to you can reveal surprising insights and prompt immediate action toward achieving your goals, especially in being a UX team of one.
Remember that you are a member of a dynamic and growing community. Although passion and vision initially draw many to the user experience field, it’s the successful execution of the craft that retains them.
For those working solo in UX, it’s vital to develop unique growth strategies. These strategies will fuel your passion, maintain your motivation, and provide you with skills that can refine your UX practice and promote a shared dedication to UX. I have a couple tips to reignite your love for UX and avoid burnout.
As a UX team of one, you can effectively leverage AI and other technology to streamline your work process. Automated usability testing tools, for example, can provide valuable user insights in a fraction of the time compared to traditional methods. Similarly, design software with inbuilt collaboration and prototyping features can also enhance productivity.
By embracing technology, you can not only save time, but also improve the quality of your design outputs. You can try out some of these now:
Always stay abreast of technological advances. Not only because more employers will require them, but because they’ll make your solo job easier.
Here are several UX books that can help deepen your understanding of user experience and guide you in practicing user-centered design:
Establishing a community of professionals, either formally or informally, can significantly influence your career progression. It provides a platform where you can learn from others or offer guidance, share experiences and successful strategies, and find solace in shared challenges. It could also pave the way for potential job opportunities.
In essence, these professional networks can serve as a supportive pillar in your career, offering a wealth of diverse perspectives. Consider checking out design conferences in your area to get started.
Many UX practitioners transition from related fields like graphic design, industrial design, psychology, sociology, marketing, etc. This diverse background fuels their passion for user experience, making them enthusiastic ambassadors. These skills and experiences pave the way for influential UX practitioners.
However, being a UX team of one presents many expectations. First, you have to drive all aspects of a product’s user experience. Your work includes understanding business needs, identifying user goals, and assessing the existing UX through techniques like user research. You’ll need to prioritize methods with high impact. The role involves independent creativity and design, emphasizing quickly and cost-effectively testing these designs. Employers often expect UX practitioners to justify their recommendations, demonstrate their work, and persuade others to adopt new methods.
Being a solo UX team is challenging, as we’ve discussed. Here, I’d like to share some insights into recognizing such roles and how transferable skills can be.
These roles are typically not advertised as “We are looking for a UX team of one…”. However, there are usually signs in the job description. For example, an employer looking for someone to improve the user experience significantly usually expects immediate, impressive product improvements from a UX-focused candidate.
The job description conflates visual design with user experience design, reflecting a common misconception among employers. While some UX professionals incorporate graphic design into their work, many still need to. Some UX designers focus solely on wireframes, but solo UX practitioners might occasionally need to handle visual design.
Finally, a UX team of one must be diplomatic, informed, and a well-intentioned influencer, capable of justifying recommendations, demonstrating work, and persuading others in the organization to adopt new methods. If you’ve found yourself in this kind of role, prepare to be challenged, but you’ll also grow exponentially.
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