Practitioners-Guide-User-Experience-Design

YOU’RE NOT THE OWNER OF THE UX
In order to benefit optimally from collaboration, it’s important that you not think of UX
design as a narrow, siloed skill set, or of yourself as being in a “UX bubble.” Even if you
are a dedicated, specialist UX designer, you’ve got to be constantly interacting with the
other members of the product team, sharing ideas, getting feedback, and solving problems.
You shouldn’t think of yourself as “owning” the UX, because you want everyone on the
team to feel dedicated to it and to appreciate what UX has to offer. You’re also not ever
going to be the only one tasked with UX input. Gathering user data, for example, is not
only the job of UX, but is usually done by the marketing people and the product manager
as well. Even specialized engineers are involved in collecting usage data that can point
toward trends in how and when a product is being used. You want to be able to tap into
their data, and you want them to make use of yours.
Being open when helping others on the team will greatly enhance your ability to
shape good ideas and feedback. Over time, being collaborative can encourage others on
the team to think of ways to contribute to your efforts, as well as make them more
receptive to your ideas and appreciative of the value of UX. Empathy is important not
only in regard to users, but also to all those you’re working with to make the product. The
better a team member you are, the more effective you will be and the more you’ll find that
your own creativity and problem solving are enhanced. So first in this chapter I want to
discuss some of the ins and outs of collaborating with the team. Then I’ll discuss how a
receptivity to outside input goes way beyond working with your team and testing with
users. Sometimes the best UX ideas will come from entirely unexpected sources.