It is no news that one of the pillars behind a successful product is a virile, solid and well-structured UX Team. Every designer or professional needs to understand that their actions or inactions can affect the prospect of the product. More importantly, the UX lead has the majority of the burden of ensuring that the team is going in the right direction for success.
Qualities of a UX Team Lead
- A Strong UX Knowledge: A UX lead needs to be well-grounded in the principles of UI/UX Design. It is built through years of learning, designing and supervising design projects.
- Generalist: Apart from the knowledge of UX principles, he should have the taste of other areas of design— Visual, graphic, and interaction design. This would help them to make sound design judgements.
- Communication Skills: Communication is the backbone of any managerial people, and as the UX Lead will involved in more managerial duties, he should be able to communicate appropriately in writing, speaking, listening and Reading.
- Empathy: Empathy goes beyond user needs. A leader has to extend this knowledge to the team members.UX Leaders should always put themselves in the team’s perspective and handle situations in ways that don’t cause more problems.
- Visionary: This role should be filled by someone who has the best interests of the organization/product at heart. The person will constantly find ways to improve the organisation’s standards and services.
Why a UX Team is Important for a Product?
“What someone can do, two people can do it better!”
One person can not design a successful product that will be a legacy in the industry, and that’s where a team becomes relevant and valuable.
- Alignment with Business Goals: The tendency of one person to miss the goal of a business or product is high, and once the person makes a mistake, the product also becomes a mistake.
Unlike a team, one person’s mistake can be managed and covered by other team members. If the UI designer doesn’t grasp the business goal, the UX Designer can help him get back on track.
- High productivity and efficiency: A designer can easily become too comfortable, especially when he knows he is accountable to himself and maybe the engineers who have little knowledge of how design works. The accountability system in a team puts every hand on deck to complete the project.
- Diversity in UX Solution: A team serves as a talent pool, especially if it is diverse in terms of culture, expertise, and specialities. If properly managed, the team can produce various solutions, which can be merged to create a comprehensive product for users.
- Division of Labour and Specialization: The division of labour ensures that the workload is properly and fairly distributed so that the professionals complete the work early enough. A diverse team will ensure that specialists handling a product will do their best without the worry of encroaching on other job descriptions.
Types of UX Team
How a UX team is structured affects how UX work is carried out within an organization. Each structure presents unique opportunities and challenges, from maintaining product consistency to inculcating deep project integration among members.
It is also important to note that the type of team you form will determine the type of professionals you need.
Centralized
In this case, all the UX Professionals are under one umbrella in the organization. They report to their managers, the lead, or the director in a bigger organization. The head assigns tasks to the team members and supervises the various products/projects the team is working on.
Advantages
- It’s a coordinated method of governance and management
- Clear career hierarchy, which means clear career growth
Disadvantages
- Communication can be slower; it passes through different chains before it gets to the designer.
- The designers might not have enough context, especially if they do not communicate frequently and directly with the product team.
This system is the best approach if the products/projects are relatively small. For instance, in-house designers for a fintech app focused solely on lending have just one mobile app or website.
Decentralized Team
When you remember how decentralized finances work, the concept of this system is easy to grasp. As the name implies, there is no single, central authority for managing UX Professionals.
The team is divided into project and product teams and reports to the product head. The members have the opportunity to interact with other technical experts, such as engineers, marketers, salespeople, and customer service professionals.
Advantages
1. Designers have contextual and deep integration with the project and its goals.
- Faster response time, which leads to a quicker iteration.
Disadvantages
- It becomes difficult to maintain UX Standards, especially if the product head is not well-versed in deep UX Principles.
- Designers are independent and can decide to do things in their own way, which is a breeding ground for inconsistency.
- UX professionals might not have a say in design decisions as most designs will be handled from a product perspective.
Any organization handling multiple products, such as Google or Microsoft, should adopt this method, especially in different industries. However, they should prioritise having a product leader who is an expert in user experience to set the standards for the organisation, and all UX professionals should report to them periodically.
Mixed Team
If you bring a little bit of centralized and decentralized system, you get the mixed UX team. This was created out of the need to curtail the excesses of both team structures. UX professionals may report to a central UX lead for professional development and UX strategy but work directly with product teams on specific projects.
Advantages
- There is a high level of collaboration, which is important for growth
- Designers are well-grounded in the products
Disadvantages
- Leading this team is very complex. It requires someone with professional and leadership\/managerial experience.
- Designers can get torn between any miscommunication between the product team and UX Managers.
This is for executives who want to balance consistent branding with the unique needs of different product lines or if you are rapidly expanding the portfolio of the organization. This structure might be the appropriate approach for you to consider.
6 Must Talents you need in your UX Team
A classical music concert is one of the most beautiful things you can experience. Imagine if the choirs are singing only soprano with a tuba or trumpet? That’ll be such an awful sound experience!
But try listening to the UEFA anthem and experience how different sounds and musical instruments come together. It is so natural that if one voice is silent or the violin stops playing, you’ll notice something is amiss. This is the same with a good UX team; if any of these professionals are missing from your product, your users will notice and bear the brunt.
- UX Designers focus solely on the user experience through their deliverables, such as user journeys, site maps, user profiles, etc. Their efforts and collaboration are geared toward ensuring that an app or website is usable, useful, and desirable.
They advocate for users, so their empathy and problem-solving skills should be top-notch. Advocates are known for being confident and articulate, so UX designers should prioritise these skills well.
- UI Designers work closely with UX Designers but have a different focus: Visuals. They are more concerned with how a product looks and feels to users. This role encompasses a wide array of skills, including visual design, branding, usability interaction design, etc.
UI designers should also be well-versed in UX Design principles and be on the same page as the UX Designer. They should be able to use industry-standard tools like Figma, Adobe products, Sketch, etc.
- UX Researcher: They make ideation and problem-solving easier with their background work on the users. This role is focused on understanding the users, their behaviour, needs and motivations. They draw up conclusions for the design team to allocate solutions.
They use both qualitative and quantitative methods to gather data and analyse. They are the ones that engage the users directly, so they should be naturally inquisitive and be people’s person to get relevant data. They must also be objective with facts and analysis to excel in this area.
- UX Writer: The first touch point of interactions for users is written information. While animations, colours, and other graphical elements can attract them, the written content will help them understand all the flashy displays.
A UX Writer creates clear, concise, and user-friendly copy for the product, including microcopy, error messages, instructions, and help/support documentation. Their core skill set should be a command over language, especially through writing. They must be brief and proficient with writing tools like Google Docs, Grammarly, etc.
- Information Architect: The Information Architect creates the blueprint for how information is organized within the product, ensuring users can navigate it effectively. They work with the content creators—UI Designers, UX Writers, and Marketers—to help structure the product properly.
An information architect should be organised and understand various techniques for arrangement, such as card sorting and tree testing. This requires a deep understanding of the psychology of how users perceive information by merely examining the content.
- Product designer: Many people confuse product design with UX Design, which is not their fault. Product designers share 70% of their responsibilities with UX Designers. The remaining 30% is focused on product growth. They approach problem-solving from the product’s perspective.
This professional is needed to align the UX team with the product; what is the use of a usable product with no users? What is the use of a product with little technological feasibility and no market value? A product person ensures the UX design is sustainable and scalable.
Factors to consider when building a team
UX Team leads and enterprise owners, this is for you! Even designers need to know this to understand their role in an organization.
- Organization Size: There are various organisational sizes, such as start-ups and unicorns(Small), growing companies(mid-size), and large enterprises(large). They all demand different resource allocations and team structures.
A small size should consider using a design agency, while a large enterprise with a different chain of products will do well with a hybrid or decentralized structure.
- Business/Product Goal: Back to the size of the organization, small organizations tend to focus on innovation and scaling. They would make do with a centralized structure. Big organizations want innovation and sustainability, so a mixed/hybrid structure seems the best fit.
Team leads should identify the goal of the organisation to know the kind of structure and professionals they need.
- Organization Culture and Value: Some organisations prefer understanding over speed, so a decentralised structure will work best. Organisations that prioritise effective communication should consider a centralised structure. The interview stage should be an opportunity to assess the fit of organisations for designers; they should use it well.
- Budget and Timeline: Organisations with limited budgets and short launch timelines should consider an agency with a decentralised structure. A start-up might not be able to afford all six professionals.
On the other hand, organisations with ample budgets and long timelines will benefit most from a hybrid structure (if they have different products). If not, a centralised system is also acceptable.
Lead a UX team for Excellence in the Industry.
Your team can make a mark in the industry; think of Google, Amazon, Ola or Make My Trip and how they have become pacesetters in their respective industry. As a UX/Product leader, you should learn how to nurture and manage UX talents to bring out the best in them.
Don’t micromanage
If you are sure of your team and their expertise, trust them to deliver to the best of their ability. You just need to define their tasks, responsibilities, project goals, and deliverables. Then, you can provide input and feedback when they finish their tasks.
Micromanagement is very stressful for both you and the members. You begin to worry about irrelevant details when you are supposed to focus on other managerial duties.
- Focus on outcome rather than process.
- Give them the freedom to be unconventional, provided the result is on point.
- Give them a timeline.
Lead by Examples
Excellence in a team starts from the head; when you understand you have to lay the foundations for the team, you start demonstrating what you want.
Do you want your researchers to be more empathetic? Be empathetic when talking to them.
Do you want your members to be accountable? Start with admitting your mistakes.
You should also continue working on your skills. It is easy to get caught up in meetings and managing the team. How will you teach an intern about the law of Prägnanz if you are not conversant with it? How will you explain auto layout if you don’t know Figma has released an update?
Sometimes, involve yourself by asking your team members how you can help with the design process. If for anything, ensure your technical expertise is put into practice.
Create a safe space
Build a safe space for your team members by actively involving them during meetings and some decision-making. Regular feedback is one way to ensure that they open up without fear. Organize discussions and debates to ensure your team members are on the same page regarding sensitive design topics.
“Monthly one-on-one meetings are invaluable. I recommend spending an hour with each team member to discuss any issues, personal or professional. This helps build trust and ensures they feel supported.” —- Anthony Fernandez, UX Head at YellowSlice
Celebrate successes and failures as learning opportunities and give constructive criticism. Finally, protect your UX team from undue pressure to compromise on user experience for short-term gains.
Collect Feedbacks periodically
Establish regular feedback loops within the team. This includes one-on-one meetings, team retrospectives, and regular performance reviews. Seek feedback on your leadership style and be open to making adjustments.
Feedback collection is not just from the team but also from the stakeholders and users to help you guide product directions and UX strategies.
Set Clear and Measurable goals and Expectations.
Find a way to align the design and business goals before sending them to your team. Then, you can now define KPIs to achieve a goal and set metrics to measure the success of a project/product. These metrics include user satisfaction, task completion rates, and conversion rates.
Learning and development
At the end of it all, prioritise constant learning for yourself and your team members. Learning will constantly improve the quality of your work. Allocate time and resources for your team members to learn, not just by online courses. It could be a visit to a big enterprise, tickets to design conferences, or even inviting external design leaders to conduct workshops, like Yellow Insight with Alok Sharma.
“There is a fantastic book I highly recommend: High Output Management by Andrew S. Grove. It’s a must-read for anyone in a leadership role.”— Anthony Fernandez, UX Head at YellowSlice
Putting it all Together
Rome was not built in a day, so your UX Team won’t just spring from the ground. It takes time, effort, resources, and intentionality. Having capable hands to handle your workload will greatly serve your organisation.
YellowSliice team members are flexible to meet the demands of your product. We have expert designers who can fit into a centralised, decentralised or hybrid team. So, focus on your core business and let YellowSlice handle your UX needs.
FAQs
1. What are the characteristics of a successful UX Team?
A UX team should be diverse in terms of skill set and experience. It should have a good mix of interns, senior designers, and all six UX Specializations and generalists.
Other characteristics include open communication, empathy, a shared vision, supportive leadership, clear standards and methodologies, continuous learning, and flexibility.
2. Should UX personnel be a part of the product teams building rapport with the developers?
Of course! The end product will be passed on to the developers; if there is no rapport, the product might be out of line and lose its UX touch. This is an opportunity for UX designers to better understand their designs’ technical limitations and possibilities to develop user-friendly and feasible solutions.
