This is the final part in a three-part series on how to build and grow successful user experience teams in agile environments. It covers challenges related to organization, hiring and integration that plague UX teams in these situations. The perspective is that of a team leader, but the tactics described can be applied to multiple levels in an organization.
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This is the second in a three-part series on how to build and grow successful user experience teams in agile environments. It covers challenges related to organization, hiring and integration that plague UX teams in these situations. The perspective is that of a team leader, but the tactics described can be applied to multiple levels in an organization.
Read more…
This is the first in a three-part series on how to build and grow successful user experience teams in agile environments. It covers challenges related to organization, hiring and integration that plague UX teams in these situations. The perspective is that of a team leader, but the tactics described can be applied to multiple levels in an organization.
Building any kind of agile team is a lengthy and challenging process. Building a user experience team within an agile organization challenges not only traditional design practices but typical design team dynamics. In this first part, we’ll look at the type of culture that would support a strong UX component in the agile process and how to structure the organization so that designers are most effective and are able to thrive.
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If you’ve ever worked at a company of any size, you’ve experienced it. Isolation. Some people love it: the determination that comes from being a lone ranger, boldly going where no one has gone before. Others hate it: the despair that comes from slaving over a design only to see it disappear down a black hole of development, whereupon it emerges onto a website months later, unrecognizable from the pixels you put on the page with such painful precision.
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Have you ever wanted to take a client by the collar, shake them around vigorously and demand that they take you seriously because you are the expert?
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Social media is more than a buzzword. It’s now a lifestyle decision for a lot of companies. Many individuals and organizations have abandoned a traditional web presence (which used to mean a website and email address) in favor of a Facebook page coupled with a Twitter account. “Email Is (Still) Important And Here Is Why”)](https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2011/07/25/email-is-still-important-and-here-is-why/)
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It didn’t work out as you expected, did it? The freelance life was supposed to give you more time with the family and free you from that incompetent boss.
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Working with code that was created by some other person or organization is routine for developers, but it can be one of the most demanding activities, particularly if you’re still learning.
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We have theories about everything: why the sky is blue, why apples fall, why bees buzz (and do other unmentionable things), why my boss said a certain thing, why that girl in the restaurant looked at me, why didn’t that girl in the restaurant look at me…. We’re wired to theorize. Theories make us feel secure. We can wrap our heads around them and explain them with little diagrams on whiteboards, or with equations, or even graphs. We give theories fancy names like “The Classical Elemental Theory” and “The Flat Earth Hypothesis.
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OK, so this is a yet another article about dealing with clients. But let’s face it — it doesn’t matter how well you can design or code; as a freelancer or if you’re running a digital agency, if you don’t get the client management right, it can spell disaster for your business. By getting it right from the very beginning, you’ll most likely see things flourish.
In a previous article on How to Explain to Clients they are Wrong, I discussed one aspect of client management, but oh my, there are so many and that is why I would like to discuss yet another aspect in this article: how to maintain project productivity and momentum when working with clients.
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