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How to be a strategic UX partner in new and mature teams
Different levels of maturity will entail different approaches to processes, communication, and engagements to partner more effectively with your stakeholders.
Let me kick off this article with a personal story.
When I started my career as a UX Designer, I was thrown into a chaotic project: creating a new tool from scratch within a brand new team. The project needed to integrate seamlessly with our existing suite of products and was constraint to tight shipment deadlines. A mix of Project Managers, Engineers, Researchers, and a Designer (me!) that had never worked with each other before.
The project started with lots of chaos. My PM was giving me verbal, vague asks, I had pressing demands from engineers, etc. When I looked around on my design org, I saw my peers smoothly integrated into well-structured teams with much more clear direction — it seemed so unfair I was given so much ambiguity on my first project.
After some tumultuous weeks, I decided to seek advice from my senior lead. And after my rant, she replied:
“Have you told them what you need?”
That took me by surprise. I felt I was just lucky to be in a company that that been around longer than myself, and it hadn’t occurred to me that I could voice my needs and create cross-discipline systems. This was a pivotal realization for my career. Understanding your own power to establish work methods is crucial, irrespective of your role or level. I rushed to my desk and wrote down what I wanted: clear specs, defined timelines, regular team syncs, weekly check-ins with my PM…
Taking a deep breath, I communicated my needs to the team, and to my surprise, all my wishes were granted. That project was not an easy ride, it hit multiple roadblocks, but we shipped it on time, and got several praises. The working processes I put in place were also recognize by my team and leaders — they were appreciated as they helped us move forward and partner more efficiently.
Over the years, I have become the Mary Poppins of UX. I’ve enjoyed fixing relationships across product teams, and I have been assigned to restore…
