Today the fabulous Mags Hanley announced the creation of the UX Management Discussion List, sponsored by the IA Institute. In her words:

The purpose of the list is for UX Managers to talk about the things closest to their hearts; developing teams, individuals, themselves and UX practices within their organizations.

I’m really excited about this discussion list because I’ve been feeling a little without peers lately. Being among IAs is great and I always feel like I’m among family, but it’s like being the oldest kid among all your cousins; when you’re a teen you don’t really want to have every conversation with 8 year-olds. They just don’t “get” you anymore.

Mags facilitated a great workshop during the IA Summit titled UX Management: developing and growing yourself and a team of user experience professionals, which was excellent. It was a unique opportunity to talk to my peers about things that are 100% relevant to my day-to-day, so now we get to further that conversation on this new list.

During the workshop we discussed the idea of peer coaching (which Mags experienced very positively at the BBC). The group coaching could be done using something like Skype allowing a group of 4-5 people to have a phone conference once a month for an hour. Each person would bring a problem that the other members of the group would coach them through. I love the idea and I’m looking forward to making it happen.

If you manage any type of UX professionals, please join us.