How to Develop Your UX Skills to be Hireable and Effective (the I, M, X... and T Shaped Designers)

[@kianaaaaaa321]

The chart of UX skills @ 4:30 ... would we be able to download a copy of that please? or if it is from an external source does anyone know where you can get it?

[@nickylimyeanfen7684]

Thank you so much. Finally, I have my career direction.

[@starogre]

Hi, do you have a UX Portfolio online anywhere? I could only find your blog and youtube content. It'd be really helpful with trusting some advice you give! I just notice a lot of people on social media preaching UX don't even show their own personal work. Thanks in advance! :)

[@vaexperience]

Hey, yes and no. My portfolio is PDF based and shows design leadership and strategy only at this point (think of a person who has over dozen of years in UX, manages 20 or so UX people delivering service and product design through others - you wouldn't benefit from such portfolio a bit). It's entirely up to you to take my advice or not though - I'd certainly recommend to stay cautious of who you listen to and who don't.

[@starogre]

@@vaexperience I appreciate the response. There are a couple other people who have proven track records (working at facebook/meta and such) that don't even have online public portfolios either. I figure it may not even be necessary at this point. I'm kind of under the impression a google slides doc using a bitly link is enough. (Only bad thing is them googling you and finding old work though)

[@Enuman]

Hello Vy! You insist a lot in the "Research", and i totally get it! But, how do you recomend me to grow properly in that area? i've been in the UX world for just a few months researching, reading and studing, and have to say that your channel is one right know one of my best tools to understand what this is really about!

[@thesnazz1790]

I've personally found that the Nielsen Norman Group website has been helpful with research deliverables

[@vaexperience]

Books, courses, mentors, etc. Just like any other skill what matters is the repetitions you put in after taking in a theory

[@Enuman]

@@vaexperience thank you so much. I appreciate your answer!

[@notjustelegant]

If I may, it helps to learn everything about chalking out user personas. As someone from a marketing background learning UX, I see that many of the skills used in customer personas converge with user personas. And also, I see that the more you can bring in skills from the previous experience if any, the better your research outcome gets.

[@cindyluvbug]

I'm catching up on some missed videos - I think this one was on a playlist that watched me in the wee hours 😴. As always, thank you for your focus on fundamental UX competencies 🙌 Because I am a nosy, problem-solving, visual designer, I am drawn to the Product design side of things, particularly with early-stage startups (what can I say, I'm an idealist 🍁). I believe the areas I am strongest in would be IA, design systems, and usability analysis and metrics. I am currently working to develop a more holistic approach to defining a problem, which is something you pointed out to me previously, and am reaping benefits in spades from it! IYO which of my "stronger" skills do you feel would be most beneficial to develop first and deepest? Is there something else altogether I should be putting more effort into?

[@vaexperience]

Hey from what you've described IA will certainly cast foundations to every other skill. In any skill once you feel confident that you can contribute to outcomes well using them - try to test the scope of the challenge to see how that skillset stands up. For example IA for UI/UX vs IA for mental models vs IA for data sets vs IA for business thinking and its services etc. - the skillset could be applied in many scenarios and challenges, but because the challenges will scale your skills will also need to be appropriately 'calibrated' to be applied. A good example is design thinking - could be applied to smallest of UI patterns or massive business transformations - figuring out how to approach and how much to zoom in/out is that next step that only comes with tackling those challenges and learning from it :)

[@cindyluvbug]

​@@vaexperience Thank you for that, I wholeheartedly agree! I find IA on any level intensely fascinating and am currently mapping out the entire business system that supports (or is supported by) my Shoplocal design, in collaboration with a business buying co-op that I reached out to, to see if there is a fit. This is an ambitious undertaking for me, but each day's work is revealing new ideas and teaching me to look at the entire problem space (holistically) rather than just jumping to a quick bandaid solution. Once the big picture is mapped out both in my head and on my whiteboard, I plan to look at each piece of the puzzle to evaluate the persona and map out the existing journey for each, leading to building the IA for each touchpoint. I used a service design technique, specifically service blueprinting, to help identify the players, their roles and touchpoints. Is this the type of activity that will help me scale up my IA work?

[@urbanmetal7802]

Hi, do you think business analysis is a good thing to learn and do alongside UX design?

[@vaexperience]

Business skills are necessary for UX designers who want to go for senior roles, so it's inevitable. However Id be careful not to dilute your focus from UX if you are just starting out - business analysis also might clash with proper user centered approach as it's usually business-centred approach which is rarely aligns with what users need.

[@notjustelegant]

Thanks for sharing this info with us. Is there any such course that includes business goals with UX? That would be really valuable, I don't wanna end up learning UX without being able to add some solid value to what I do.

[@Youth_Centered_Leadership]

I am a UX manager and I appreciate your videos. I was thinking of building a UX managing software to help grow designers. I wanted to share the idea with you and have you punch holes through it. The idea for managers to create UX scorecards with designers. They set skills and measurements for each skill. They would track the designer's progress from sprint to sprint. The reports will help the manager create or modify progression plans. Is this something you would use? If yes, why? If not, why? Thank you in advance for your time.

[@vaexperience]

Great idea, but as with everything you'd need more research with design teams to shape it appropriately. There's a big challenge and need for managers and growing designers to add clarity on their career progression. If you could solve that so that people can align on the specific qualities that a person need to work on and also be able to track the success then it would be much easier. Personally some of the challenges I faced in the past (that perhaps might help you) is how career progression, paths and skills feed into promotion process that tends to be disconnected from non linear design skills development. And people usually come with a problem 'I want to be a senior'. You can help define what they need to improve, but the actual promotions might be limited to headcounts, budgets etc - so the challenge would be more organizational than career progression. Anyhow do let me know how you get on, very interesting idea

[@imalij123]

I love your videos. Could you please share how you make the cool graphics? What programs do you use? Thanks for always sharing useful info.

[@vaexperience]

Hey all videos are edited with Final Cut and a lot of keyframe animations

[@thesnazz1790]

Could you do a video on the best cities/states for UX designers to be in long-term?

[@vaexperience]

You dont need a video for that: For career development - the more oversocialised and metropolitan the area the more likely to find the opportunities, for wellbeing - the opposite.

[@thinkpositive3667]

I tried to search for jobs related to UX design. Why do most of them say they're hiring a "UX designer", but in reality, they're just hiring a UI designer? Most jobs I've seen are just for visual designers - which, I'm not really passionate about. What should I search to discover "real UX jobs" like interaction design?

[@starogre]

keep searching. there's a lot of companies that have adopted "real ux" nowadays

[@maxbardus3019]

Hahah ironic. In my case I am more interested in UI part but most jobs I find have more UX-like responsibilities

[@thinkpositive3667]

@@maxbardus3019 What keyword did you search?

[@vaexperience]

Hey, depends on the market - region, maturity in terms of design etc all play the role in it. Developing areas are still biasing their UX with UI. So could be the market or could be the orgs you're applying for. The UX roles are there - might just take some time for opportunities to align - keep applying!

[@KT-ue2mx]

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