Comments on: UIEtips Article: Assessing Your Team’s UX Skills http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/12/10/uietips-article-assessing-your-teams-ux-skills/ UIE\'s latest insights on the world of design Fri, 5 Dec 2008 13:34:51 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: how can i assess my job skills http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/12/10/uietips-article-assessing-your-teams-ux-skills/#comment-140410 how can i assess my job skills Wed, 04 Jun 2008 13:28:05 +0000 http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/12/10/uietips-article-assessing-your-teams-ux-skills/#comment-140410 [...] to describe my job skills - they could not ... how would I assess the candidate??s UX skills? ...http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/12/10/uietips-article-assessing-your-teams-ux-skills/how can I built my future in IT field?... experience is very important, many people develop their [...] [...] to describe my job skills - they could not … how would I assess the candidate??s UX skills? …http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/12/10/uietips-article-assessing-your-teams-ux-skills/how can I built my future in IT field?… experience is very important, many people develop their [...]

]]> By: Sunday Weekly Roundup #18 - 12/16/2007 » Blog at veanndesign.com http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/12/10/uietips-article-assessing-your-teams-ux-skills/#comment-99611 Sunday Weekly Roundup #18 - 12/16/2007 » Blog at veanndesign.com Mon, 17 Dec 2007 05:02:39 +0000 http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/12/10/uietips-article-assessing-your-teams-ux-skills/#comment-99611 [...] Assessing your team’s UX Skills [...] [...] Assessing your team’s UX Skills [...]

]]> By: The missing skill: Creating UI Mockups » UIE Brain Sparks http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/12/10/uietips-article-assessing-your-teams-ux-skills/#comment-99294 The missing skill: Creating UI Mockups » UIE Brain Sparks Fri, 14 Dec 2007 22:51:28 +0000 http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/12/10/uietips-article-assessing-your-teams-ux-skills/#comment-99294 [...] wrote: I enjoyed your December 10th article, on assessing UX skills, so I sent it around to my colleagues. It was favorably received, but the folks on the alias found [...] [...] wrote: I enjoyed your December 10th article, on assessing UX skills, so I sent it around to my colleagues. It was favorably received, but the folks on the alias found [...]

]]> By: Steve Psomas http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/12/10/uietips-article-assessing-your-teams-ux-skills/#comment-99147 Steve Psomas Wed, 12 Dec 2007 19:20:41 +0000 http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/12/10/uietips-article-assessing-your-teams-ux-skills/#comment-99147 Unfortunately, my team is just me. I took the test for my "team" anyway. Didn't pass with flying colors. But I did want to push it further by asking the question, if I were to hire another team member, how would I assess the candidate's UX skills? Or asked another way, if I were applying for a position in a UX team, what would I want the hiring manager to know about me? So I created this document to do the <a href="http://smpsomas.googlepages.com/UXSkillsAssessment_blank.xls" rel="nofollow">UX Skills Self Assessment</a>. (Best thing to do is print out the Scoring Criteria sheet so you have that beside you.) Problem is, the rating scale in Jared's article is a little unforgiving. Maybe someone can offer another scale. Enjoy. -Steve Unfortunately, my team is just me. I took the test for my “team” anyway. Didn’t pass with flying colors. But I did want to push it further by asking the question, if I were to hire another team member, how would I assess the candidate’s UX skills? Or asked another way, if I were applying for a position in a UX team, what would I want the hiring manager to know about me?

So I created this document to do the UX Skills Self Assessment. (Best thing to do is print out the Scoring Criteria sheet so you have that beside you.) Problem is, the rating scale in Jared’s article is a little unforgiving. Maybe someone can offer another scale. Enjoy.

-Steve

]]> By: Daniel Szuc http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/12/10/uietips-article-assessing-your-teams-ux-skills/#comment-99108 Daniel Szuc Wed, 12 Dec 2007 04:33:13 +0000 http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/12/10/uietips-article-assessing-your-teams-ux-skills/#comment-99108 Great read! For UX Teams who are overloaded with work because the business is already sold on UX and seeing the value of their work -- what tips can we offer to help them better prioritize? Questions: 1. How does a UX manager better prioritize work coming into the team? 2. What factors should they take into account? I think this is becoming an important question to answer as UX folks continue to become more senior in their organisations, especially in emerging UX markets. This may also be a nice topic for a future article or PodCast ... rgds, Dan Great read!

For UX Teams who are overloaded with work because the business is already sold on UX and seeing the value of their work — what tips can we offer to help them better prioritize?

Questions:

1. How does a UX manager better prioritize work coming into the team?
2. What factors should they take into account?

I think this is becoming an important question to answer as UX folks continue to become more senior in their organisations, especially in emerging UX markets.

This may also be a nice topic for a future article or PodCast …

rgds,
Dan

]]> By: Claus Wagner http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/12/10/uietips-article-assessing-your-teams-ux-skills/#comment-99082 Claus Wagner Tue, 11 Dec 2007 19:20:23 +0000 http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/12/10/uietips-article-assessing-your-teams-ux-skills/#comment-99082 Hallo Jared, I read your list of skills and must say: Great! Mainly cause the content creation is respected and listed as - in m y opinion - one of the keys for ux and content usability in a special way. A lot of projects I did struggled cause of a lack in that skills: Bad words - bad experience! Claus (from Germany - therefore maybe a bad english - sorry) Hallo Jared,

I read your list of skills and must say: Great! Mainly cause the content creation is respected and listed as - in m y opinion - one of the keys for ux and content usability in a special way. A lot of projects I did struggled cause of a lack in that skills: Bad words - bad experience!

Claus (from Germany - therefore maybe a bad english - sorry)

]]> By: Deepak http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/12/10/uietips-article-assessing-your-teams-ux-skills/#comment-99035 Deepak Tue, 11 Dec 2007 06:31:07 +0000 http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/12/10/uietips-article-assessing-your-teams-ux-skills/#comment-99035 The list is amazingly great and simple to understand but I haven't seen the simple 130-point scoring process. Can you tell me where i can download or get it. The list is amazingly great and simple to understand but I haven’t seen the simple 130-point scoring process. Can you tell me where i can download or get it.

]]> By: Keith Instone http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/12/10/uietips-article-assessing-your-teams-ux-skills/#comment-99009 Keith Instone Mon, 10 Dec 2007 22:40:21 +0000 http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/12/10/uietips-article-assessing-your-teams-ux-skills/#comment-99009 Great list of skills. It feels like it is focused on UX teams that are only delivering web sites or software products, however. Should hardware design or hardware human factors be added for those UX teams where a physical object is part of the user's experience? Also, it seems like the hardware/software coverage is not even enough anymore - UX teams are working on service systems. Are there any additional skills needed for UX teams where the service is the major part of the experience? For example, designing for a quality patient experience probably has more to do with how the "human service" is designed as the software or hardware a patient encounters. Perhaps your list of skills is good enough to cover these situations. I think it would be interesting to try out your skill assessments on a wider variety of UX team contexts and see who they stack up. Great work as usual. Great list of skills. It feels like it is focused on UX teams that are only delivering web sites or software products, however. Should hardware design or hardware human factors be added for those UX teams where a physical object is part of the user’s experience?

Also, it seems like the hardware/software coverage is not even enough anymore - UX teams are working on service systems. Are there any additional skills needed for UX teams where the service is the major part of the experience? For example, designing for a quality patient experience probably has more to do with how the “human service” is designed as the software or hardware a patient encounters.

Perhaps your list of skills is good enough to cover these situations. I think it would be interesting to try out your skill assessments on a wider variety of UX team contexts and see who they stack up.

Great work as usual.

]]> By: Steve Psomas http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/12/10/uietips-article-assessing-your-teams-ux-skills/#comment-98996 Steve Psomas Mon, 10 Dec 2007 19:19:58 +0000 http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/12/10/uietips-article-assessing-your-teams-ux-skills/#comment-98996 Thanks Jared, I touched on "Framing Your Strengths and Weaknesses" in my UX matters article: <a href="http://www.uxmatters.com/MT/archives/000230.php" rel="nofollow">The Five Competencies of User Experience Design</a>. There are two more scenarios for the use of this assessment that would complete the circle. 1) The UX professional provides this assessment to the hiring manager as a self-evaluation 2) The manager uses this assessment to evaluate a UX professional's skill areas For these, the scoring criteria will have to be tailored to address an individual's skill level. I'd love to take a crack at it, if only for my self-serving purposes. -Steve Thanks Jared,

I touched on “Framing Your Strengths and Weaknesses” in my UX matters article: The Five Competencies of User Experience Design. There are two more scenarios for the use of this assessment that would complete the circle.

1) The UX professional provides this assessment to the hiring manager as a self-evaluation
2) The manager uses this assessment to evaluate a UX professional’s skill areas

For these, the scoring criteria will have to be tailored to address an individual’s skill level. I’d love to take a crack at it, if only for my self-serving purposes.

-Steve

]]> By: Tom Philo http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/12/10/uietips-article-assessing-your-teams-ux-skills/#comment-98985 Tom Philo Mon, 10 Dec 2007 17:35:20 +0000 http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/12/10/uietips-article-assessing-your-teams-ux-skills/#comment-98985 Specializing Generalist. One person at work came up with that phrase to describe my job skills - they could not pigon-hole me due to my widely varied abilities at work, so I have ended up in job areas where they can be best put to work and not doing a single specific job. Your article about teams is moving them into that type of classification - they can do a lot of different items but a few select areas they are very good at - specialists and know in depth. However, they can work and undrestand the other areas well enough to know what they can - and more imporatantly - what they cannot do and when to call in a specialist to tackle those unique problems. What you article also does not take into account is when there IS no other person who can be called in, those same people can still do the job - it just takes them longer to accomplish than a true specialist. Me, I would rather be a "specializing generalist" than a specialist. Tom Philo http://www.taphilo.com Specializing Generalist. One person at work came up with that phrase to describe my job skills - they could not pigon-hole me due to my widely varied abilities at work, so I have ended up in job areas where they can be best put to work and not doing a single specific job. Your article about teams is moving them into that type of classification - they can do a lot of different items but a few select areas they are very good at - specialists and know in depth. However, they can work and undrestand the other areas well enough to know what they can - and more imporatantly - what they cannot do and when to call in a specialist to tackle those unique problems.
What you article also does not take into account is when there IS no other person who can be called in, those same people can still do the job - it just takes them longer to accomplish than a true specialist.
Me, I would rather be a “specializing generalist” than a specialist.
Tom Philo
http://www.taphilo.com

]]>