Top 3 Reasons Your Team Needs A UX Designer From The Beginning

Happy February!

It’s a brand new month, which means new Build episodes.

If you’re new to Build or maybe missed episodes here and there, know that I’ve previously covered a number of topics related to design like Design Sprints, Product Debt, Product Redesign, Accessibility, Being A Freelance Designer, Creative Confidence, The Rise of the Design Executive Officer, Designing With Empathy, and The Art vs Science of UX Design.

It turns out all those episodes weren’t enough, and there’s still a lot to cover!

So this month we’re going back to the theme of design, and start by covering why it’s important to work with a user experience (UX) designer. Given the significant shift to designing user-friendly interfaces, it might feel like I am preaching to the choir. However, some companies still struggle to justify the work of a UX designer. Plus, given how young the field is, it’s continually evolving, and people are always writing in and requesting I cover design :)

People still aren’t sure how a UX designer adds value, how to go about hiring and vetting them, and how they can work with software engineers and product managers effectively.

Just like how software engineering has become more specialized over the years, design has faced a similar change. However, people still grapple to understand the nuances between a graphic, visual, and UX designer.

In today’s episode, we’ll dive into the different types of designers out there. Then talk about some of the myths around user experience design. In next week’s episode, we’ll talk about what UX designers can do to stand out, how companies can go about hiring and vetting them, and how they can work effectively with software engineers and product managers.

To help us out, I’ve invited Sarah Doody who is a UX designer and entrepreneur (formerly based in NYC).

You’ll learn the following from Sarah:

• Benefits of having a UX designer on your team from the beginning
• How to think of user research as an investment
• How to co-design and how it helps handle pushback and the handoff period
• How design-minded companies outperformed S&P 500 for ten years

Listen to the episode on iTunes!

You can listen to this episode of Build on iTunes.

“You have to have baby steps to introducing design into your company. One of the best recommendations I would make is that want to not just have your team, your product team, let’s say, point the finger and say that’s the designer. If I were leading a product team, I would want to ingrain in everyone’s mind that they have the opportunity to influence design. And we all need to be thinking like a designer. And the way to do that is to not silo off the designer into the creative room, but involve the developers and product managers in the design process, so that it doesn’t feel like the designer is telling them what to make. It’s more of collaborative process.” — Sarah Doody, share the episode

Here are some additional resources mentioned on the show

Slack / Facebook Groups Related To UX

• Designer Hangout
• With Candles (for junior designers)
• User Defenders
• UX Careers Tribe (this is Sarah Doody’s group)
• Design X
• Mixed Methods

UX Career Resources From Sarah Doody

• Design Value Index
• UX Portfolio Formula (use code BUILDSHOW for 50% off)
• Free UX Portfolio Blueprint
• UX Careers & Job Interview Playlist

Build is brought to you by Femgineer an education company dedicated to helping techies build companies, products, and level-up in their careers.

Sarah Doody - Hacker Noon

Top 3 Reasons Your Team Needs A UX Designer From The Beginning was originally published in Hacker Noon on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.