Archive for Management
Filed under Management
April 23, 2007 at 7:29 pm
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.
Filed under Information Architecture, Management
April 20, 2007 at 5:00 pm
Tomorrow I’m speaking at the IA Roundup - Panel and Workshop on IA Resumes. Olga approached me to participate asking what challenges I’d come across in finding the right information architects for my team. The challenges were many, but poor resumes (poor quality, not lousy professionals) certainly makes my life harder than it needs to be. This is what I want to convey tomorrow:
How to get a job
- Have a sense of purpose
- Have a truthful resume that promotes you
- Have a portfolio (online preferably)
- Build professional networks
How to write a resume
- Use a plain, 10 point Serif font.
Resist the urge to design your resume.
- Name, address, phone, personal email, portfolio and URL.
Centered and bold at the top.
- Write up your job history, presented in reverse chronological order.
- Each job has Start-End Dates, Your Title, Company Name and Location.
- Follow with 2-3 sentences describing responsibilities.
Answer the question, What job did you have? For example, “Responsible for conducting user research for e-commerce and financial clients”, “Responsible for managing team of 27 information architects and researchers across 3 satellite offices in Mumbai, New York and Sidney, as well as coordination of $1MM research budget for remote and in person usability testing”.
- After responsibilities, list your major accomplishments using bullet points.
Answer the question, How well did you do your job? This describes how well you fulfilled the responsibilities you spoke of before. Example: “Drove satisfaction metrics up 10% over redesign goal by utilizing a fast iterative approach to collaboration with developers”, “Nominated for the IA Institute board of directors by my boss for my leadership and community commitment”, “Nominated most valuable contributor across design teams worldwide in ‘04-’06″, “Improved efficiency by creating reusable patterns with Visio stencils and training all IAs across the organization to use them”.
- Lastly, two lines for your education. Degree, Year and Institution
Note: A GREAT resume is one-page long.
Here is a template I put together (Word document).
Tips on what to include in the responsibilities:
- How large was the audience for the work you did - hints to the kind of impact you can make and how comfortable you are working with large scale initiatives
- How large was the group you worked with - hints to the types of interactions and demands you are subject to depending on size of team
- How large was your client (for consultants), employer (for in-house employees) Example: “Fortune 50”, “$200MM annual revenue” - hints to the level of business challenges you’re exposed to and the risks you were subject to while working with them
Tips on what to include in your accomplishments:
- Activities that resulted in cost saving and efficiency gains (better performance, less people/hours on projects, etc)
- Activities that resulted in increased value (explicit satisfaction score gains, increased revenue and profit margins, etc)
- Company and industry recognition (awards, nominations, remarks from annual reviews, etc)
Anything else you may want to promote about yourself goes in the portfolio. Anything else you may want to say about what you want and expectations for future jobs goes in your cover letter.
Interviewing to get the job
- Ask Name and title (responsibility) of the people who will interview you
- Google their names and learn about them before the interview
- Learn about the company and their current situation before the interview
- Dress professionally
- Be on time
- Bring your portfolio (preferably printed).
- Prepare questions about the things that are important to you in working day-to-day (you should be interested in the company and work dynamics)
- Be honest
You’d think that dressing professionally, being on time and being honest were obvious. You are right, they are. But it’s because we don’t re-state the obvious assumptions that people forget them and then I’m faced with a guy in flip-flops telling me some story about being late to the interview.
When I return from the panel and workshop I will elaborate a little more on some of the points.
Filed under Information Architecture, Management
April 16, 2007 at 8:41 pm
UPDATE: The panel and workshop went great - here’s what I talked about.
This Saturday morning April 21, 2007 from 10am to noon, I’ll participate in the first IA Roundup, a panel/workshop to discuss successful resumes for information architects.
With increasingly blurred lines across disciplines in the UX world, how should information architects present their work and experience to potential employers?
The User Experience Network, DC-IA, and UPA-DC will facilitate a panel discussion and workshop to help distill what makes this challenging and what can make it successful.
Bring your resumes for one-one-one feedback from panelists and event volunteers
Bethesda-Chevy Chase Regional Services Center
4805 Edgemoor Lane, Bethesda, MD 20814
Online registration is recommended.
$5 donation welcome to support space and refreshments.
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