I remembered a situation a short while ago when I was out with friends, two of them avid fans of different professional american football teams. They were talking in depth about the current season, making projections about who was going to ‘win it all”. I thought to myself ‘I know football, the rules, the game, etc, but this conversation takes it to a whole other level that I’m not equipped to be in’. And that was when it hit me.

You see, my football knowledge is equivalent to the UX knowledge of many non-UX people that speak up in meetings. Like them, I have a general knowledge about the topic, and may even provide high level insight, but I certainly can’t project who is going to “win it all”. Thus, these non-UX people can know about UX, and their interjections can actually prove helpful to us.

Therefore, as the people practicing UX, our job becomes first, not to prove these people wrong, but instead, to facilitate the sharing of their insight in a way that provides us with more ideas. And second, to use these moments as educational opportunities to explain in further detail our rationale. Be doing so we can teach the value of having a practicing UX person there, versus just having people that know high-level UX. From this, I guarantee that the next time they question our rationale, it will be with an air of respect, and an anxious-to-learn ear. And, how does that not make all of our jobs a little easier?

To make matters even worse many people see UX as everyone’s responsibility, and use that as an excuse to comment on all of our work. Thus, the amount of feedback that we receive is not only overwhelming, but it can be, at times, daunting. It is hard for many of us to not take this feedback as a sign that we are “doing UX” wrong.

Athletes also receive a lot of feedback. Align your wrist, go faster, slow down, be more sharp… the list goes on. My freshman year of high school, I tried out for the varsity soccer team. During tryouts, the coach was extremely demanding of me. He had feedback about my play constantly, and this made me certain that I wouldn’t make the team. Surprisingly enough, I was one of only 3 freshman that made the cut, and I couldn’t understand how. I went to the coach who helped me to make the connection. “If I didn’t see potential in you, I wouldn’t have provided any feedback at all. Feedback doesn’t mean failure”, he said. This principle is something we should also apply to practicing UX.

The next time that others are heavily commenting on how you did facilitating a meeting or how your concepts worked, or didn’t, don’t let it get you down. Instead keep in mind that if they didn’t see positive potential in your abilities, and didn’t respect you as the professional, they probably wouldn’t provide any feedback at all. This can help you to stop any negative thoughts you have towards yourself so that you can really hear the feedback, and apply it to make yourself and your work even better.

This is something that great coaches and athletes learned to do a long time ago. After each and every quarter, half, game the team sits together and reflects on what’s working, what isn’t, and how to get better. Sometimes this is a formal process, sometimes it is not, but either way it is a useful one. It allows the athletes to build what is already there, as opposed to starting from scratch. It’s like the old line says “in order to know where you are going you need to know where you have been.”. And this is true not only with athletics, but with our UX field as well.

By taking the time to reflect, even by ourselves, about our last meeting, project, deliverable, workshop… whatever, we begin to evaluate ourselves. We look into the positives and negatives, and we do this, not to criticize but to deconstruct and construct. We build off of what we already know, and can make ourselves better, without throwing away the knowledge that we have built up to this point.

The moral of the story is that projects aren’t the only things that you can and should iterate on. You can do the same with your UX career and skills, but in order to get where you are going you need to take a step back and reflect on where you have been.

Now, my surrender was not giving up. I certainly didn’t throw away my own game plan, I just didn’t push it on to others. Instead, I took down my wall and let in all the other ideas, processed them, combined them with my own to come up with new ways to win. And guess what happened? As soon as I surrendered those around me began to as well.

Being a UX person on a project team is no different. We can think our UX way of thinking and doing is the best way all we want, but pushing that way on to an unreceptive team, or being unreceptive to new ideas ourselves, will never bring success. Instead we need surrender our strong hold. Once we do that  not only will our team follow suit, but we can also begin to take in all the other knowledge around us, meld it with our way of doing and thinking and come to a successful solution for all.

I have played on many sports teams, some good, some not so good. Early on I learned some very important lessons regarding my team. I learned that in order to stay progressive I needed to look internally for the external growth I wanted. I also learned that in order to stay positive, I needed to remember why I was playing that sport to begin with, remember the goals I had set for myself in that sport, and always stay focused on meeting those goals. Sounds selfish? Well… it is.

However, once I started to do this I realized that several things happened. First, because I was no longer focused negatively on my team, I was able to be more at peace with my situation. I couldn’t change the team, I could only change me. My new found focus allowed me to stay positive, as well as to progress into a better athlete.

Second, my team did become more progressive overall due to the increase in my progress. Sure it wasn’t the ideal state, but it was much better than we had been before.

Thus, next time you are on a project team such as this and unable to escape, move your energy inward and focus on how to get better despite the circumstances. You’ll be surprised just how much better things will get.

Having to know and stay up to date on this much information is the reason that many of us don’t get much sleep at night. But, there is a secret that many of us don’t know that could save us all a ton of angst.

That secret: the fundamentals of UX Design don’t change. As long as you know them, you can solve any problem, at any time, no matter how up to date you are with the latest trends and methods.

For example, like UX, in sports the fundamentals don’t change. In basketball, one needs to know how to dribble, shoot, rebound, and more. Once an athlete knows these skills, they can basically play the sport of basketball no matter where they are, who their opponent is, and how many people are on the court (thus solving any basketball problem at anytime). Of course, from this state they can also learn how to run plays, play more intricate defense and more, but knowing the fundamentals of the sport is what propels them forward.

UX is no different. Once we know the basics, and know them well, we are able to approach any problem and outline a solution. It is during this outlining time that we are using our fundamentals to highlight gaps in information that we need to fill in order to come up with a full solution. We can then go back and research which knowledge and methods we need to fill the gaps in information that we found.

That is the secret to ensuring you are always up to date, knowing the fundamentals of the UX game. This allows us to frame the solution of any problem, and saves us from having to know every in-depth methodology out there. So, take time to learn the basics inside and out, and trust me… you will get a lot more sleep at night.

When we debate like this, with the goal of ensuring that UX is the winner, what tends to happen is that we get so focused on making sure that proper UX is present, that we can lose sight of the ultimate goal. That is, figuring out the best solution to the problem at hand. We also tend to lose a bit of ourselves and this lack of perspective can knock everything out of whack.

So how can we walk away from these debates with a clear perspective intact and still ensure that the solution we come out with meets the project goals? Simple we stop worrying about the score.

When I was first starting to play sports, the thrill of the competition was enticing. All I wanted to do was win (because winning was fun, and was what mattered), but when I was in high school, one of my coaches helped me to see it another way. After one particularly heart-wrenching loss he said to me “Have you and has your team progressed?”. “Yes”, I answered. “Well then, who cares about the score?”.

And that was it. I stopped worrying about the score and started worrying about my own personal progress as well as the progress of my team. I then applied this to the many debates I face in this profession. I stopped making it about the score (was UX winning?) and started making it about progress for myself, my team, and our shared goals. Once I did that I was able to walk away from each debate a winner.

Although UX is the newest buzz term, and everyone in our organizations thinks they need us, I still believe that we, as designers, lack a good amount of organizational clout. For instance, many of the people that we work with still have not granted us enough respect to really understand what we do. And, who in the world things that being “needed” on a team in order to draw the picture in omnigraffle is respect? Therefore, perhaps we should try a different route in order to earn the clout and respect we deserve.

That tactic? Become a motivator. In sports motivating means supporting your teammates and players no matter how bad of a day they are having. You can do this by cheering them on and just keeping a positive attitude in stressful situations. Turning our discussion towards UX, think about the last time you saw a developer on a tight deadline stressed out and said to them “Hey, you know what? You got this. You’re doing a great job and I know you can do this.”. Have you ever done that? Imagine the trust and respect you would receive if you did.

Earning this respect and clout means you are no longer the creative who sits in the corner and does the fun work… you are a part of the team! You are showing that you understand how everyone else feels and thus you can be trusted. And once you earn this clout and respect the sky is the limit for how far you can take your role and the role of this profession. By letting down your guard, and pushing your team to be better, you become the one they want around more, and not just for your wireframing skills either.

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Thumb image CC by Seattle Municipal Archives

In order to combat that I wanted to discuss a method gleaned from the wide world of sports that can help you to evangelize UX and your ideas both within your organization as well as with your clients.

That lesson? Learn to be a teammate. The first step in learning to be a great teammate is to earn your teams’ mutual respect and acceptance. To do that you need to being willing to swallow your pride, be the bigger person, and admit when something is and is not your responsibility. Sure, you can have opinions about anything, but to be honest, the marketing numbers or the coding, or other non-UX design focused things are not your responsibility. Might you be a better marketing representative that the person on your team? Sure. But you aren’t the marketing person responsible for this project, you are the UX designer. Respect the other person’s role. Offer up suggestions to them in a kind way, in a way that you want people to offer up design suggestions to you, and then… leave it alone. You are not the saving grace of this company, you are a part of the company team. By recognizing and taking control of your responsibilities and by letting your other team members do them same, you are showing that you have faith in your teammates, the overall team and the team philosophy.

The outcomes of taking this first step towards being a great teammate are mutual respect and acceptance on both parts (yours and your team’s). Having these makes it a lot easier for people to trust you as an expert, as well as, to respect your thoughts and comments. This, of course, gives you a greater ability to sell UX and your UX ideas. By letting your guard down you are inviting your teammates to do the same. And once they do, they will start to see you as a valued part of the team and will then be a lot more likely to help you to curate the best solutions possible for your users.

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Front image NC-CC mhcseattle

In the field of UX it seems that mentors are lacking more than ever, and that we may never get the help we seek. What then happens if we never get the mentors that we are looking for? Do we just sit down and sulk. No, indeed we do not. What we do instead is turn towards a lesson learned from sports: Mentorship comes in many different forms, it’s up to us to recognize it.

Every sports team has a captain, right? Unfortunately, that person isn’t always the best person to lead the team to victory. This is the same in the field of UX. In fact sometimes, in UX, this person doesn’t exist at all. Thus we have two choices in order to solve this lack of mentorship. We could sit down and grumble or we could make like an established athlete and recognize our other options.

When I found myself on sports teams that did not have the mentorship I wanted, I went out and looked for it elsewhere. I observed other team members who I wanted to play like, and whenever they had a free moment, I asked them to show me a new move, or explain to me their line of thinking. I would also play sports outside of my ‘official’ teams, and there I would find mentors as well. The important thing to note is that by exposing myself to different experiences, and not rooting myself in my anger at not having a mentor, I was able to see beyond my situation and grow as a athlete. You see, mentorship is a two way street. Sports taught me this.

By applying this same methodology to my UX career, I was able to find mentors without waiting for someone to assign them. I could then extract the type of information and insight I needed to grow into the UX professional that I wanted to be. Mentorship is something I’ve learned both how to do, as well as to extract from others. By doing so, I have become the master of my own destiny, and you can too. Thus, the best UX mentor for you is out there, just maybe not all in one place. It’s up to you to find them.