What’s next for UX writers?

Once upon a time UX writing didn’t have a name. Then it did. Everyone wanted to do it and a lot of people had the transferrable skills to get started. Others didn’t but went out to learn.

The amount of content online about what UX writing is, why it’s important, and how to get started, exploded. There is now a plethora of such articles, even a swamp, that all say the same thing. I am just as guilty as the next guy.

There was a dichotomy of UX writers with no middle ground: a flood of entry level and wanna be entry level UX writers, and a very very small group of foundational, “first generation”, “the original” UX writers, like Roy West and Jared Spool. And of course, founding father of the broader UX umbrella, Don Norman.

As I imagine is normal for a new field, in between the newbies and the founding fathers was a huge gap — no mid-level UX writers, or senior UX writers, no UX writing team leads or managers. No community leaders. Accessible thought leaders and mentorship were hard to come by. There were no formal educational opportunities like college degrees or bootcamps and definitely no books about the basics until Kinneret Yifrach filled that gap with “The Ultimate Guide to Microcopy” which was an instant global hit. So not only was there a dearth of mid level UX writers, there was also no clear path to becoming one.

I had a conversation once for 45 minutes with Roy West when I had less than one year of experience under my belt. I couldn’t believe it. I asked him straight up why he was giving me his time. And his answer was everything I’ve outlined here: there are no middle guys (3–5 years experience) and the field needs them and he is at a stage in his career where he can and wants to cultivate that space. He was talking to me because I had the potential to become a middle guy which companies need and he wanted to see more of and if talking to me would help, he was glad to. I was impressed and humbled and hopeful and motivated.

So what do we do now?

If that’s where we started and where we are, what do we do next. I have a few ideas:

Stop writing about the basics

There is (way) more than enough out there and adding more will simply make it more difficult to sift through to find the meaningful stuff. Have compassion for the newcomers and lower that barrier to entry.

Stop writing defensive articles

It’s starting to feel a little “The lady doth protest too much, methinks”. We are here. We are important. That’s been established. By continuing to go on about it, it makes us sound insecure and like maybe we ought to be second guessed after all. It’s true that this kind of education was once necessary, but I am optimistic enough to believe that we’re past it.

It’s time to show more than tell. Just kick ass and stop talking about it so much. The best evangelism is to get everyone else to talk about your worth. We can get to a place where product managers and product designers won’t agree to work without us but I think we need to become less self conscious first.

Again, I am as guilty as the next guy. My husband is a (super talented) product guy and when I practiced a UX writing talk for him that I was giving later that week, his first piece of feedback was that I sounded too defensive. “They invited you to speak — they already believe you have a valuable offering. Tell them what they want to know, not why they should want to know it.”

And then…

Next, we advocate for bigger teams with more specialization. It’s time to grow and mature and part of that is to move from generalists to specialists and that includes a management specialty.

We need to grow our numbers

Right now I’m hearing about UX writers generally being the only ones on their team — and a lot of discussion about which team that is and which it should be (used to be R&D back in West and Spool’s day; today it’s sometimes Marketing; should it be Product? Should it be Design? Design seems to be the trending consensus…) I can personally relate: At my last company I was the only UX writer for 10 product managers. At my current company I am the only UX writer for 7 product managers. In the meantime, PM to designer was always about 1:1.

Being spread this thin writing new features leaves little time for the strategic stuff. With a bigger team we can do more — our microcopy will be higher quality, our user and market research more thorough, our content strategy smarter, our value greater, and our products better. I foresee a positive feedback loop where more of us means more value which means the company’s best interests are aligned with hiring more of us, and so on and so forth.

We need to get organized

I’m imagining a hierarchy as such:

• VP Product at the top
• Director of UX (and Directors of Product) under her
• Head of UX Writing (and Head of UX Research and Head of UX/UI Design) under the Director of UX
• Senior UX Writers and UX Writers under the Head of UX Writing (UX Writers would be junior to the Senior UX Writers but wouldn’t have “junior” in their title)

The ratio of writers to designers to product managers would be 1:1:1.

The (junior) UX Writers would have 0–3 years experience and they would each own a single product. They would do all of the tactical work like writing microcopy day-to-day.

The Senior UX Writers would have 4–7 years experience and they would probably own a single product of their own. They would also be responsible for spot-checking the (junior) UX Writers’ work product and they would pitch in, hands on, whenever needed on any product.

The Senior UX Writers would be available to the (junior) UX Writers for advice both about specific projects and more general topics, with some specialization — one Senior who is an expert in transactional emails, another who would be the go-to for mobile, etc.

The Senior UX Writers would own the voice & tone and style guide and be responsible for coordinating with other departments like Marketing.

The Head of UX Writing would have 8+ years experience and mentor the entire team. She would arrange off sites and team outings and professional development opportunities like conference attendance and participation. She would run workshops and invite speakers from the outside to enrich her team’s skill set.

The Head of UX Writing, of course, would always be available for consultation on anything at all her team needed, from career advice to a specific one-word string.

The Head of UX Writing would also manage a Translations & Localization Manager who would manage a team of Translators and Localization Experts.

And they lived happily ever after

That’s the happy flow for us, as I envision it today. Of course anything can happen and none of that might make sense in a year. But from what I’ve seen, I think it’s a good roadmap to strive for.

Whether you’re on board or think we should go another route, what is for sure is that we need a route.

It’s time to grow up. Enough with the “What is UX writing” and “Why UX writing is important” and everyone wanting to be a UX writer but not having a way to learn the trade and there not being enough open positions. The talent and the need are out there. Let’s get organized and take over the world.