Designing a new UX team

Maybe you’re a lone-wolf designer in a small company, and you’ve finally gotten approval to expand your team by a few heads. Or maybe you’re part of a larger company that’s starting to embrace the value that good user experience (UX) brings to the table.

Either way, you’re the lucky duck who gets to build a UX team in an organization that’s never had one before. That’s exciting… and overwhelming. Having done it myself a couple of times now, here’s what I’ve learned.

You’ve got enthusiasm on your side.

It’s fun to introduce experience design into an existing product team. When an organization has never had UX support before, everyone — Engineers, Product Managers, Project Managers, business stakeholders — wants to make their product better. They tend to be open to new ideas and methodologies and enthusiastic about learning new things.

Capitalize on that enthusiasm!

Before you hire even one other UX practitioner, start by being as inclusive as possible with your existing, cross-functional team. Run collaborative design sessions, where you invite Engineers, Product Managers, stakeholders, and other interested parties to sketch ideas with you. And once you’re ready to begin interviewing, make sure to include at least some of these folks in your hiring process. At that point, they’ll have a pretty good understanding of what a good UX designer looks like. Plus, you’ll want their buy in as you bring your new team onboard.

You probably don’t have much headcount.

So far, I’ve only focused on the fun side of building a new UX team. But the truth is that it’s hard, too, because (unless you’re really lucky) you’ve probably got limited headcount to work with — which means that every single person you hire is critical to your team’s success.

Here’s how you can deal with that reality.

Go with who you know

Hiring someone you’ve never worked with before can be risky. After all, how much can you really learn about a candidate in an hour-long interview? Seeing someone’s portfolio helps, but how do you know what role they really played in creating those assets? Or how effective they were in getting to the end result?

You don’t.

So, go with who you know… Or at least with someone recommended to you by people you trust. Reach out to your network for referrals. Post your job openings on Facebook, Twitter, or some other social media platform that I’m too old to know about.

Because making a bad hire in a large organization stinks, but it won’t bring your entire team down. You don’t have that same luxury when your team is just you and a few other UX-ers.

Intentionally design your team

No UX practitioner is great at every aspect of UX. Tell me that you are, and I’ll flash you a suspicious side eye. Maybe you’re at least competent at everything, but you’re probably not great at it all — our field is just too broad.

And that’s ok! I’m not great at everything involved in UX either. That’s why I design my team really intentionally, pulling in people with strengths that complement my own.

For example, I’m great at content strategy and development, but I consider myself merely competent in visual design. So, I make sure to bring in someone who’s outstanding at creating visual experiences. Similarly, while I’m great at UX strategy, I’m not an expert user researcher. I value it and certainly can do it, but there are other practitioners out there who will do it better than me. Again, that’s ok — I’m comfortable with both my strengths and my weaknesses.

So, as you build your own team, get comfortable with your strengths and weaknesses, too. Be honest in communicating about where you’re amazing, where you’re merely adequate, and where you have no idea what you’re doing.

Create a chart, so you can see your existing skills coverage. Urge your existing team to be honest about their own strengths and weaknesses as you create this vision for what your team needs.

Something like this:

In this visual representation, I can clearly see where my current team is strong: Interaction and UI design/development. I can also see where we’re adequate: UX Strategy, Content Strategy, and Information Architecture. Most importantly, I know where we have critical gaps — in User Research and Building Design Systems.

Now I know where I need to focus for my next hire.

It pays to be open minded.

In organizations that haven’t previously had a UX team, someone was doing that work before you got there. Maybe they weren’t doing it as well as it possibly could have been done, but they were doing it — and maybe they were enjoying it and doing it with some level of competence.

So, think about how you can partner with and mentor that person. Approach them with a spirit of collaboration and actively bring them into your process. Treat them as the valuable asset that they are.

And then think about what they can teach you.

Maybe they’ve been at the company for 10 years and can help you more quickly and effectively navigate office politics. Maybe they know your users inside and out, because they’ve had the opportunity to watch them work. Or maybe they have an entirely different skill set that you can leverage to improve the user experience. Open your ears and your mind, and you might find an existing resource who adds real value to your small, new team.