IDF WEBINAR

The 5 Most Common Failures of UX

Management (And How to Fix Them)

Mads Soegaard Frank Spillers Daniëlla Gyselinck

Founder, Interaction CEO, Experience Dynamics Business Development
Design Foundation (IDF) Course Instructor, IDF Manager, IDF

interaction-design.org
 AGENDA
• 5 most common failures of organizational management of UX
• How to prevent these failures and improve UX management
• Q&A

Where to learn more:

o Full 12-hour IDF course on UX Management
o Online UX workshop by Experience Dynamics “Building a Roadmap for
Managing UX”

interaction-design.org
 THE 5 FAILURES
#1 Not making the business case for UX weakens value
#2 Inside-Out design weakens UX innovation
#3 Poor management impacts UX performance
#4 Poor org chart placement impacts UX effectiveness
#5 Weak UX process slows performance
 1

NOT MAKING THE BUSINESS CASE

FOR UX WEAKENS VALUE
 1 NOT MAKING THE BUSINESS CASE
Not cost-justifying UX efforts means business value can be missed.

UX Design is a business tool—with proven ROI, e.g.:

Boost revenue / Lower support costs Reduce wasted dev time

conversion

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 1 RISK: BUILDING THE WRONG THING

MVP?
What’s your Minimal Usable
Product

interaction-design.org
 1 PROVE YOUR ROI OF UX

Understand the ROI of UX Build case studies and Measure and evangelize
success stories business results

interaction-design.org
 2

INSIDE-OUT DESIGN WEAKENS

UX/UI INNOVATION
 2 INSIDE-OUT DESIGN WEAKENS UX
Low user contact (user testing, field studies) leads to internally focused data
and decisions.

Teams doing user research do better UX design without:

Fighting to legitimize UX Making design decisions Prioritizing company

efforts without user data culture over user culture

interaction-design.org
 2 RISK: KEEPING TEAMS INDOORS

Day-in-the-life = Realistic User Stories

interaction-design.org
 2 INVOLVE USERS IN YOUR PROCESS

GOOB: Get out of the Conduct regular user Build an Outside-In

building sessions (tests, site design process
visits)

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 3

POOR MANAGEMENT IMPACTS

UX PERFORMANCE
 3 POOR MANAGEMENT IMPACTS UX
Low senior management involvement/support suffocates UX teams.

UX teams perform better with proper support:

Effective management UX leadership (budget, Organizational chart

key to UX performance power sharing, autonomy) placement

interaction-design.org
 3 RISK: MIS-USING UX

UX design: pretty pictures?

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 3 BUILD A UX CHAMPION AT THE TOP

Show up to user sessions Bring UX into strategy / Give UX a seat at the table
business decisions (Dev / Mkt / PM)

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 4

POOR ORG CHART PLACEMENT

IMPACTS UX EFFECTIVENESS
 4 POOR ORG CHART PLACEMENT IMPACTS UX

Placing UX designers in the wrong reporting structure can undermine results.

Research shows UX teams are ineffective when there's:

A lack of UX leadership A lack of UX processes No UX team

(lone wolf)

interaction-design.org
 4 BIGGEST RISK: DISABLING UX

Org chart placement —

what message are you
sending?

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 4 STRUCTURE HIERARCHY CORRECTLY

Allow UX team to UX designers can service Be cautious about put UX

standalone / have across-teams (under designers in dev teams, or
managerial authority Product Mgmt) treating UX as QA.

interaction-design.org
 5

WEAK UX PROCESS SLOWS

PERFORMANCE
 5 WEAK UX PROCESS SLOWS UX
Lack of consistent or defined UX process can derail business results UX ought
to produce.

For UX design to produce beneficial results:

Internal UX process is key User research (field Agile / Lean has to marry
studies) are a must—not a with UX
“nice to have”

interaction-design.org
 5 BIGGEST RISK: AGILE DISCONNECTS

Agile + UX need a happy marriage

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 5 UX AS PART OF FAMILY, NOT ADD-ON

Understand what UX is Define UX activities, Build UX activities into

about (deliverables, roles, expectations working with your agile process (marry
skills, needs) teams, support needed agile + UX process)

interaction-design.org
 IDF WEBINAR

Q&A
interaction-design.org
 SUMMARY: 5 COMMON UX MANAGEMENT FAILURES

#1 Not
#4 Poor
making the #2 Inside- #3 Poor #5 Weak
org chart
business Out design management UX process
placement
case for UX

Weakens value Weakens UX/UI Impacts UX Impacts UX Slows

innovation performance effectiveness performance

interaction-design.org
 Where to learn more:

o Online UX workshop by Experience Dynamics “Building a

Roadmap for Managing UX”
https://bit.ly/2x8Rcls

o Full 12-hour IDF course on UX Management

https://www.interaction-design.org/courses/ux-management-strategy-and-tactics

o IDF Company Memberships

https://www.interaction-design.org/corporate

interaction-design.org
 IDF WEBINAR

Thank you for joining!

Mads Soegaard Frank Spillers Daniëlla Gyselinck

Co-Founder, IDF CEO, Experience Dynamics Business Development Manager, IDF
mads.soegaard@interaction-design.org Course Instructor, IDF daniella@team.interaction-design.org
frank@experiencedynamics.com

interaction-design.org