IA Summit 2008: Creating Career Paths For UX Professionals

A Little Bit About Me
• Manage UX team for Citrix Online,

a division of Citrix Systems
• UX Designers, Researchers, Tech Writers
• Built and managed UX teams for about 5 years
• Started out as a UI designer/usability specialist
• A short first time manager story…
© 1997-2008 Citrix Online, a division of Citrix Systems, Inc. All rights reserved 2
Six Important Questions
1. Do I know what is expected of me at work?
2. Do I have the materials I need to do my work right?
3. At work, do I have the opportunity to do what I do best
every day?
4. In the last seven days, have I received recognition or
praise for doing good work?
5. Does my supervisor, or someone at work, seem to care
about me as a person?
6. Is there someone at work who encourages my
development?
Source: First Break All the Rules, Marcus Buckingham & Curt Coffman, 1999
Job Descriptions & Career Ladder
1. Do I know what is expected of me at

work?
2. Do I have the materials I need to do my
work right?
3. At work, do I have the opportunity to do
what I do best every day?
Goal Setting, Coaching and Feedback
4. In the last seven days, have I received

recognition or praise for doing good
work?
5. Does my supervisor, or someone at work,
seem to care about me as a person?
6. Is there someone at work who encourages
my development?
Get The Basics Down
• Career Ladder & Job Descriptions
• Goal Setting & Tracking
• Reviews, Coaching & Feedback
Defining Job Families
• Who do we have? (Allocation, Skills, Roles,
Specialists vs. Generalists)
• What do we need? (Identifying Gaps)
• What do they have in common? (Grouping)
Multiple Tracks
• Differentiate based on main differences/attributes
Define Levels
How many do you need? It depends!
The Five Parts of a Job Description
• Title
• Duties (Responsibilities, Tasks, Deliverables)
• Requirements (Experience, Knowledge, Skills)
• Competencies (Behaviors)
• Scope of Influence (Supervision, Leadership,
Interactions, Decision-making)
Job Description Matrix
Less → More
Scope of Influence
• Level of supervision/approval needed
• Supervision/direction of others
• Interactions with other roles or groups
• Discretion: Responsibility for decisions (and
effect of mistakes!)
Job Titles → Scope of Influence*
• Principal, Creative Director, Chief,
VP, President, CXO, Managing
Partner
• Manager, Director, Strategist,
Architect, Partner
• Staff, Senior, Lead, Art Director
• Mid-level, Analyst
• Associate, Assistant, Junior,
Coordinator, Production
*Consider the perceived value of the title and role!
Duties & Requirements
• Be as exhaustive as possible!
• Brainstorm; involve the entire team
• Crib from job postings (but be realistic!)
• Look at top performers – what are they doing?
• Then differentiate requirements for each level
and role
Duties & Requirements
• Duties don’t necessarily change – add scope &
complexity
• Differentiate clearly across levels
Participation in requirements gathering and review

sessions.
How might this change based on level?
Competencies
• Translate generalities and traits into specifics and
behaviors. For example:
• “Plays well with others” → Teamwork
• Works in concert with others toward shared goals
• Exhibits cooperativeness
• Participates in and supports positive conflict resolution
• Collaborates cross-functionally
• Puts needs of team over personal needs
How might this competency change based on level?
Salary Benchmarking
• Compensation surveys (Mellon, Radford)
• Industry salary surveys (IA Institute, UPA)*
• Public job postings (SimplyHired)
• Then define low, mid and high range for each level
*Take with a massive grain of salt when you can’t compare descriptions!
Broadbanding
• Broad, overlapping pay scales
• Discourages people taking the wrong path for the
money – “rewarding in place”
• An IA performing excellently is worth more than a
manager performing poorly!
Job Descriptions vs. Job Ads
• Explaining the job vs.
Selling the job
• Use the exhaustive
description to better
understand who you’re
looking for
• Then: Edit, edit, edit!
• Once they start, use the
job description, not the ad,
to set expectations
Exercise: Job Description Matrix
Less → More
Managing Expectations (on both sides)
• What do you do when
expectations for
title/salary are out of
alignment?
• Provide a clear path to
advancement
• Be fair, be consistent.
• Don’t be tempted to
inflate titles!
Regular Goal Setting
• Give them the first shot at it!
• Use descriptions/career path
as a foundation
• Offer objectives, not goals
• Define success but let
them find their own way
• Have regular check-ins
Goal Tracking Document
Q1 Goals (1/1/08-3/31/08)
Objectives:
Goal Description Due Date Performance Rating/Comments
Project/Group Goals
Personal Goals
Coaching & Goals – Moving Up
• Be open to questions, keep open dialogue
• Encourage partnerships with senior team members
• Find special assignments & research projects
• Offer ways of operating cross-functionally
• Find opportunities to let them delegate
• Provide opportunities to mentor others
• Help them understand and work on strategic issues
Coaching & Goals – Barriers
• Not asking questions, repeated technical mistakes
• Slow skills development, stuck in old methods
• Working too much alone
• Lack of accountability for problems
• Not prioritizing: scattered or always putting out fires
• Not delegating enough; overloaded
• Overly focused on micro area of interest/expertise
Case Study – Moving Over
• “Peter” – Usability Intern
• HF grad student, usability program intern
• Interested in IxD
• Used job description to identify experience
opportunities
• Hired F/T as designer after he graduated
Case Study – Moving Up
• “Rosie” – Mid-Level IA
• Was in the position when I joined
• Seemed to be doing a lot more than mid-level work
• Annotated job description for the next level up –
“checking off” met requirements
• Got her into the right position quickly
Case Study – Moving Out
• “Nathan” - Junior-level UI designer
• Missed meetings, follow-through problems
• Sidetracked on random ideas
• Set up 30-day Performance Improvement Plan
• Quickly showed he wasn’t meeting minimum
requirements
Giving Objective Reviews
• Use the job description as a benchmark
• Point to specific behaviors
• Be a mirror, not a judge
• Focus on the future
• Be supportive
• Do it early and often,
and do it in writing!
Exercise: Gina
• Mid-level User Experience Designer
• Very strong performer when working on her own
• Has had problems with clients – doesn’t do well
negotiating and presenting her ideas
• Really really really wants more responsibility and
interaction with clients, like running requirements
workshops
What’s wrong with this feedback?
“Gina, you’re a very talented designer but you’re
just not good with clients. You can be really
stubborn and difficult with design decisions
and you need to get over that. I just don’t feel
like you’re ready to move up to a client-facing
position yet.”
How can we make this actually helpful for her?

• Specific examples, mirror behavior, use objective
language, focus on the future, be supportive!
Exercise – SMART Goals
Gina’s goals:
• Get better at dealing with clients
• Learn more about running requirements workshops
How would you help Gina to make her goals:

• Specific (Do we both clearly understand what it is?)
• Measurable (How will we know if she was successful?)
• Actionable (How will she do it?)
• Realistic (Will she realistically be able to do it?)
• Time-bound (When will she do it?)
Try it Out!
• Use the handouts to get started
• Use career pathing framework for your own
development as well
• Join the UX-Management list at iainstitute.org!
• Some good books:
• First Break All the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers
Do Differently - Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman
• 12: The Elements of Great Managing – Rodd Wagner and James
Harter
Kristen Johansen
Senior Manager, User Experience
kristen.johansen@citrix.com
Yahoo! IM: CitrixKristen

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A Little Bit About Me

• Manage UX team for Citrix Online,

1. Do I know what is expected of me at

4. In the last seven days, have I received

How many do you need? It depends!

Participation in requirements gathering and review

How might this competency change based on level?

Goal Description Due Date Performance Rating/Comments

How can we make this actually helpful for her?

How would you help Gina to make her goals:

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