Hiring Top UX Talent

Every company I’ve spoke with in the past 6m-1yr has mentioned that they just can’t find, much less hire, top UX talent. As one of the aforementioned “talents”, I’d like to share some advice to help companies with their recruiting efforts.

Hiring Do’s

1. Bone up on the terminology

I know there are a bunch of acronyms in the field, UX, UI, UCD, IA, IX, XD, etc.. but you wouldn’t think of just posting an add for a “Developer”, you’d take the time to specify that you want an experienced Java Developer with JSP, Spring, Soap and MVC experience. 

2. Understand the space

UX isn’t graphic design and it isn’t web design and it isn’t (just) making wireframes. An experienced UX practitioner will guide you from research to product launch. They should be part of your strategy team, not brought in at the tail end of the design phase to tidy up the wireframes. 

If you are hiring a consultant, they should want to be part of your team through  launch (and afterwards too). UX isn’t about a hand-off, it is a cornerstone of your project’s success.

3. Skip posting on the generic job boards 

Every qualified (and unqualified) designer I know is too busy to be pouring over the job boards. Reach out to leaders in the UX field and ask for recommendations. Try the UX groups on LinkedIn or the industry specific associations like the UXPA. 

4. Pursue the best fit

Since it is already a tight market, might as well shoot for the stars. If you have a big data visualization project, seek out a UX designer who is passionate about data visualization (like me). Research those designers and try to win one for your project. 

I am more likely to work with a company who takes the time to look at my portfolio before calling, just like they would expect me research their company if I was pursuing them. 

5. Request a portfolio

A UX designers portfolio might not be flashy like a creative director’s will be, but it should showcase their process and deliverables in the context of a projects success. 

6. Do due diligence

I have been suckered in by a gorgeous portfolio more times than I would like to admit, only to find out later the person was only tangentially involved in the project. I have now learned to ask these questions:

• What role did you play in this project?
• How long were you involved (2 of the 6 months, start to finish, still working on it)? 
• Who else was on your team?
• What process did you use? 
• Can I contact your creative director, team member, manager, client, etc… for a recommendation?

7. Know the nuances

If you are creating enterprise applications, a UX designer with web site experience probably isn’t a good fit. Look for someone with enterprise and BtoB experience. Conversely if you are working on a mobile app based on community building an enterprise UX designer won’t have the background of experience you need.

There are also specific roles in the UX field, like UX researcher. This is a vital role, but don’t expect your researcher to be a top notch mobile designer too (and vise versa). I have built our my team to have complimentary skills and we pair up based on the product space, and specific project needs.

8. Take a test drive

If the candidate doesn’t have a case study in their portfolio  take a small problem that you may have already solved and ask the candidate how he would approach it as the UX designer.*

*I am not suggesting you try to get free design work as part of the interviewing process, just test the designer like you would test a programmer. 

Hiring Don’ts

And now what not to do

1. Use a recruiter that has no idea what UX is

I have dozens of examples of being contacted by a recruiter who is hiring for a high level position but doesn’t know what UX is. They either think it is something to do with development or graphic design. Hard to have a conversation with this person…

2. Use a recruiter at all

Just got an email yesterday from a company that I would love to work with, but the recruiter suggested I would be great for their UX design as a “junior designer”. Seriously? Conversation over before it even started.

3. Offer 1/2 the going rate

A major hardware company called me a couple of months ago about a UX director role. They are “re-imagining” their whole user experience from soup to nuts. I was intrigued until we discussed the $$. They were paying 1/3  of the going rate. 

4. Think the ‘X’ in UX stands for seXy

So you’ve followed all these pointers and have top talent on the phone or across the table, don’t blow it by telling them you want to design a “sexy” app. The X stands for Experience, and the U for Users. 

The only way to blow your users socks off is to talk with them , get in their heads, and craft an experience that improves their life. Unless you are in the adult entertainment business or fashion, your users are not looking for “sexy”, they  are just desperately hoping for something that makes their life easier or more enjoyable. 

5. Want to start tomorrow

Again, every qualified (and unqualified) designer I know is booked, so please, please PLAN AHEAD. Bare minimum the candidate will need two weeks to wrap up their current project, more if they are leading it. 

But even more importantly, unreasonable timelines are a red flag for any project. I am forever perplexed by companies that call me and want me to start “yesterday”. It typically means the whole project is going to be run poorly and subject to knee jerk decisions during critical phases.

Wrap Up

My recommendations are similar to many other lists already out there, just scoped to the field of UX and my own personal experiences. And remember tip #3, I’d be happy to refer you to designers who might be a good fit for your projects, so reach out to me.

The Dangers of the Wrong Mobile Strategy

Presented at the IT Leaders Forum- Executive Networks. 20 minute intro used to start a discussion on mobile strategy. Number #1 biggest mistake, not knowing what options are out there and how to pick the correct ones for your organization. Number # 2 biggest mistake- stopping there. This talk includes some great examples from retail, subscription based services, and service design, and an example of a company in the danger zone.

HTML5 Can’t Be Your Mobile Strategy

Earlier this month, I presented an updated talk on Mobile Strategy for Servoy. This one hour talk looks at the 3 options for a mobile strategy: Responsive Web, Mobile Optimized, and/or Native. I also explained why HTML5 is not a strategy; it is merely a technology you can use to implement any and all of these options. And we briefly discussed the three faces of Mobile First and how this methodology helps companies break out of old habits to create better customer experiences.

Sponsored Start Up: Boost BI

When I started as an independent consultant in 2005, I had 2 clients. Seven years later I have a successful design group built entirely on referrals. My first 2 clients, both start-ups, referred me to other start-ups who in turn referred me to more companies, eventually allowing me to build a portfolio that includes Adobe, eBay, Fidelity, Salesforce and many others.

Unfortunately we can’t help every start-up that contacts us now, but we do accept 3-4 each year. Our Sponsored Start-Up plan is geared to help start-ups launch with a great user experience. We work closely with the team on their UX strategy, from contextual research through development and launch, at a reduced rate and generous payment terms.

Obaid Khawaja, a Carnegie Melon graduate and former program manager at Microsoft, presented his plan to us in early 2011. He had the magic formula to help eBay sellers increase sales, but the existing interface wasn’t intuitive. We created a simple UX that focused on showing sellers which listing had problems, and offered tips for improvement.

The Boost BI beta was well received and brought in a number of clients including BMW and Littlewoods. And just as importantly for a start-up, it generated valuable feedback.

It turns out customers were thrilled to get insights for improving their listings. But they wanted Boost BI to go one step further and allow them to take action within the application. In V1 (under development) we’ve taken the UX to the next level. V1 makes it easy for sellers to address their most critical (revenue and volume wise) listings problems, to significantly increase their impressions and conversions.

We wish Obaid and his team at Boost BI the best, and can’t wait to see what happens next!

The $100M Dollar Form Redesign: A Responsive Solution

It’s not every day a client entrusts us to redesign a $100 million dollar form. But the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society knew they had to do something to fix their donation forms. They were fielding phone calls from people angry because they couldn’t give LLS money.

One of the prospective donors was particularly upset, and I empathized with him. I lost my father 2 years ago this month the Leukemia. There wasn’t much I could do to help my father fight blood cancer, but one thing I can do is fix a broken user interface.

To guide this endeavor, I wrote a manifesto to address people’s frustration with the existing form:

Donation Form Manifesto from Theresa Neil

Looking at page 3, On Your Terms, what were our options? Mobile Optimized Sites or Responsive. Learn more about these two strategies.

It was a hard decision. Ideally we should have probably created a mobile optimized form that had half as many fields, but the organization wasn’t ready to ruthlessly edit their form donation yet. And our first version was just a “fast-fix”, planned for 30 days from start to launch. No back end code changes, just UI changes. So we went with Responsive, meaning we designed the form to work well on any sized screen, from a desktop browser to a mobile phone.

The forms were developed with:

• HTML
• jQuery
• CSS3
• CSS3 media queries
• SASS

And chose these devices to test on:

1. Desktops and Laptops
2. Apple iPad
3. Samsung Galaxy Tab
4. Kindle Fire
5. Apple iPhone
6. Samsung Galaxy III
7. Google Nexus
8. HTC Window Phone
9. BlackBerry Torch

(Thanks to Mudassir for pointing out that my earlier phrasing was incorrect- we didn’t target these devices, just tested on them. )

The final result is available at LLS.org, and it can also be accessed by donating to individuals participating in Team and Training and Light The Night.

We’re still working on these goals: Fast, Respectful, On Par…, and Helpful, but we’re getting there, and this is a big first step.

Mobile Design. Strategic Solutions.

Here are the slides and material from the 1 day class I gave for Door64 in Austin.

Class description:

• User experience expert Theresa Neil will guide you through the latest mobile UI design strategies: Responsive web, Optimized sites, Native apps, and Hybrids.

• Study the most successful mobile implementations in the market today (and some of the worst). Learn the merits and pitfalls of each strategy.

• Get to your mobile solution faster by learning the best practices for layout and navigation.

In a nutshell, the first 45 slides look at the mobile strategy options and explains each, the next 150+ slides deep dive into the four options: responsive, mobile optimized sites, native apps and hybrids.

I pulled shamelessly from Luke W, Ethan Marcotte, and Rachel Hinman’s books and articles to create this class, and am in debt to these great designers for sharing their mobile  know-how.

I will soon be presenting this class for Udemy if you missed the Austin talk!

 

 

The Evolution of the Starbucks Mobile Payment Experience

Android users can now pay with PayPal at Starbucks.

I’m really excited to see this product come to life. We worked with PayPal on the early concepts for mobile payments at Starbucks.

Early ideas required Starbucks customers to open the PayPal application on their iPhone to pay. This Android experience is more natural, allowing customers to simply refill their Starbucks card with PayPal, within the Starbucks mobile app.