Recently, Optimal Workshop partnered with Eniola Abioye, Lead UX Researcher at Meta and UXR Career Coach at UX Outloud to host a career masterclass featuring practical advice and guidance on how to: revamp and build a portfolio, emphasize the impact of your projects and showcase valuable collaborations. It also included panel discussions with experts from a variety of roles (UX, product management, engineering, career coaching and content design) talking about their journeys to becoming UX leaders.
Keep reading to get key takeaways from the discussion on:
- How to show the impact of your UX work
- Common blockers in UX work
- How to collaborate with cross-functional UX stakeholders
- How to build a resume and portfolio that uses industry language to present your experience
How to show the impact of your UX 💥
At a time when businesses are reducing costs to focus on profitability - proving the value of your work is more important than ever. Unfortunately, measuring the impact of UX isn’t as straightforward as tracking sales or marketing metrics. With this in mind, Eniola asked the panelists - how do you show the impact of UX in your work?Providing insights is simply not enough. “As a product manager, what I really care about is insights plus recommendations, because recommendations make my life easier,” said Kwame Odame.
Auset Parris added her perspective on this topic as a Growth Content Designer, “the biggest thing for me to be impactful in my space [Content Design] is to consistently document the changes that I’ve made and share them with the team along with recommendations.” Auset also offered her perspective regarding recommendations, “recommendations are not always going to lead to the actual product executions, but recommendations are meant to guide us.” When it comes to deciding which recommendation to proceed with (if any) it's important to consider whether or not they are aligned with the overarching goal.
Blockers in UX work 🚧
As UXR becomes more democratized in many businesses and the number of stakeholders increases, the ability to gain cross-functional buy-in for the role and outcomes of UXR is a key way to help keep research a priority.
In his past experience, Kwame has realized that the role of a user experience researcher is just as important as that of a product manager, data scientist, engineer, or designer. However, one of the biggest blockers for him as a product manager is how the role of a UX researcher is often overlooked. “Just because I’m the product manager doesn’t mean that I’m owning every aspect of the product. I don’t have a magic wand right? We all work as a team.” Furthermore, Kwame notes that a user researcher is an incredibly hard role and a very important one, and I think we need to invest more in the UX space.
Auset also shared her perspective on the topic, “I wouldn’t say this is a blocker, but I do think this is a challenging piece of working in a team - there are so many stakeholders.” Although it would be ideal for each of the different departments to work seamlessly together at all times, that’s not always the case. Auset spoke about a time where the data scientists and user researchers were in disagreement. Her role as a Growth Content Designer is to create content that enhances the user experience. “But if I’m seeing two different experiences, how do I move forward? That’s when I have to ask everyone - come on let’s dig deeper. Are we looking at the right things?” If team members are seeing different results, or having different opinions, then maybe they are not asking the right questions and it's time to dig deeper.
How to collaborate with cross-functional UX stakeholders 🫱🏽🫲🏻
The number and type of roles that now engage with research are increasing. As they do, the ability to collaborate and manage stakeholders in research projects has become essential.
Kwame discussed how he sets up a meeting for the team to discuss their goals for the next 6 months. Then, he meets with the team on a weekly basis to ensure alignment. The main point of the meeting is to ensure everyone is leaving with their questions answered and blockers addressed. It's important to ensure everyone is moving in the right direction.
Auset added that she thinks documentation is key to ensuring alignment. “One thing that has been helpful for me is having the documentation in the form of a product brief or content brief.” The brief can include the overarching goal, strategy, and indicate what each member of the team is working on. Team members can always look back at this document to ensure they are on the right track.
Career advice: documenting the value you bring 💼
One of the participants asked the panel, “how do you secure the stability of your UX career?”
Eniola took this opportunity to share some invaluable advice as a career coach, “I think the biggest thing that comes to mind is value proposition. It's important to be very clear about the value and impact you bring to the team. It used to be enough to just be really, really good at research and just do research and provide recommendations. Now that’s not enough. Now you have to take your teams through the process, integrate your recommendations into the product, and focus on driving impact.”
Companies aren’t looking to hire someone who can perform a laundry list of tasks, they’re looking for UX professionals who can drive results. Think about the metrics you can track, to help showcase the impact of your work. For example, if you’re a UX designer - how much less time did the user spend on the task with your new design? Did the abandonment or error rate decrease significantly as a result of your work? How much did the overall customer satisfaction score rise, after you implemented your project? Before starting your project, decide on several metrics to track (make sure they align with your organization’s goals), and reflect on these after each project.
Fatimah Richmond offered another piece of golden career advice. She encourages UX researchers to create an ongoing impact tracker. She’ll create a document where she lists the company's objectives, the projects she worked on, and the specific impact she made on the companies objectives. It's much easier to keep track of the wins as they happen, and jot a few notes about the impact you’ve made with each project, then scrambling to think of all the impact you’ve made when writing your resume. It's also important to note the impact your work has made on the different departments - product, marketing, sales, etc.
She also advises UX researchers to frequently share their science insights with their colleagues as the project progresses. Instead of waiting until the very end of the project and providing a “perfectly polished” deck, be transparent with the team about what you are working on and the impact it's having throughout the duration of the project.
Another participant asked - what if you need help determining the value you bring? Auset recommends asking for actionable feedback from coworkers. These people work with you every single day, so they know your contributions you are making to the team.
Documenting the tangible impact you make as a UX professional is crucial - not only will it help create greater stability for your career, but it will also help organizations recognize the importance of a UX research. As Kwame discussed in the “blockers” section, one of the biggest challenges he faces as a product manager is the perception of the UX role as less important than the more traditional product manager, Engineer, and Designer roles.
About Eniola Abioye
Eniola helps UX researchers improve their research practice. Whether you’re seasoned and looking to level up or a new researcher looking to get your bearings in UX, Eniola can help you focus and apply your skillset. She is a UX Researcher and Founder of UX Outloud. As a career coach, she guides her clients through short and long term SMART goals and then works with them to build a strategic plan of attack. She is innately curious, a self-starter, adaptable, and communicative with a knack for storytelling.
Learn more about UX Outloud.
Connect with Eniola on Linkedin.
About the panelists 🧑🏽🤝🧑🏽
The panel was comprised of talented professionals from a variety of fields including UX research, content strategy, product management & engineering, and career coaching. Their diverse perspectives led to an insightful and informative panel session. Keep reading to get to know each of the amazing panelists:
Growth Content Designer: Auset Parris is a growth content designer at Meta. She has spent 7 years navigating the ever-evolving landscape of content strategy. She is passionate about the role of user research in shaping content strategies. Furthermore, Auset believes that understanding user behavior and preferences is fundamental to creating content that not only meets but exceeds user expectations.
Senior UX Researcher: Jasmine Williams, Ph.D. is a senior researcher with over a decade of experience conducting youth-focused research. She has deep expertise in qualitative methods, child and adolescent development, and social and emotional well-being. Jasmine is currently a user experience researcher at Meta and her work focuses on teen safety and wellbeing.
Product Manager: Kwame Odame has over 7 years of high-tech experience working in product management and software engineering. At Meta, Kwame is currently responsible for building the product management direction for Fan Engagement on Facebook. Kwame has also helped build Mastercard’s SaaS authentication platform, enabling cardholders to quickly confirm their identity when a suspicious transaction occurred, leveraging biometric technology.
UX Researcher (UXR): Fatimah Richmond is a well-rounded UX researcher with over 15 years of experience, having influenced enterprise products across leading tech giants like Google, SAP, Linkedin, and Microsoft. Fatimah has led strategy for research, programs and operations that have significantly impacted the UXR landscape, from clinician engagement strategist to reshaping Linkedin Recruiter and Jobs. As a forward thinker, she’s here to challenge our assumptions and the status quo on how research gets planned, communicated, and measured.
Career Coach: An Xia spent the first decade of her professional life in consulting and Big Tech data science (Netflix, Meta). As a career coach, An has supported clients in gaining clarity on their career goals, navigating challenges of career growth, and making successful transitions. As a somatic coach, An has helped clients tap into the wisdom of their soma to reconnect with what truly matters to them.
UX Strategist: Natalie Gauvin is an experienced professional with a demonstrated history of purpose-driven work in agile software development industries and higher education. Skilled in various research methodologies. Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) Candidate in Learning Design and Technology from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, focused on empathy in user experience through personas
Level up your UXR capabilities (for free!) with the Optimal Academy 📚
Here at Optimal we really care about helping UX researchers level up their career. This is why we’ve developed the Optimal Academy, to help you master your Optimal Workshop skills and learn more about user research and information architecture.
Check out some of our free courses here: https://academy.optimalworkshop.com/
