Session: Managing UX Design(ers)

Speaker: Jim Carlsen-Landy

Track: Career Development

Day: Friday, June 1st, 2012

Time: 10:00am

Length: 1 hour

If you lead UX activities and designers, you already know that it ain’t your usual management job. If you’re a designer or a developer or a non-UX manager, and are considering making the switch to UX management, then you need to know up front that this ain’t your usual management job. Prospects, newbies, and experienced leaders alike will find valuable guidance in this presentation, and we’ll make time to hear from each other about our victories and mistakes, and what alternately excites and terrifies us about leading UX teams.

In this presentation I’ll start with tips to help you decide whether you should – or should not – consider a UX management path, and share some general leadership observations. Then we’ll get into the good stuff, digging into what makes leading UX and UX designers such a unique and fascinating way to spend your days and nights.

You’ve probably already had (or will soon get) general management and leadership training, so this session will not include a personality type assessment, manager-employee role playing games, or trust exercises. We’ll focus on the things that make UX leadership different from other leadership roles, and prepare you to be successful as a leader in the field you learned to love as a practitioner.