The Industry of UX

How do product teams hire UX Designers? Anthony DiSpezio, Designer Advocate at Figma, explains the most significant factor in cross-functional team hiring and how this may very well be why you are not hired. In the second part of the episode, Anthony describes the role of Designer Advocate at Figma: a mix of hands-on design and advocacy. To be hired for this role, you need to be a Figma expert with a knack for communication!

How does UX hiring at Google work? Earl Friedberg, UX Lead on Gmail and Google Chat, covers the entire candidates funnel and some of the specific hiring steps, such as the portfolio walkthrough and whiteboard exercise. What makes these steps successful? How can candidates set themselves up for success? Earl also sings for the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus, and he shares some tips he uses for live performances, which you can repurpose to manage your nerves during interviews.

The whiteboard exercise is a hot topic when it comes to UX hiring. Part of it is solving it, and part of it is managing the nerves while doing that. Ray Gonzales, Lead UX Designer at Zappos, a veteran of whiteboarding exercises, walks us through his thinking process behind administering this exercise as a hiring manager. Then, he switches places as Filippo puts him through an impromptu whiteboard exercise. Next, Ray lays out the very effective framework he uses to approach these exercises and then dives into it, coming out on top!

We're excited to bring Morgane back to talk about the remaining hiring realities for finding the best UX candidate. She covers points on how to leverage different application channels, why hard skills are overrated, why you need to be mindful of cultural differences, how you shouldn't fake it, why details matter and much more!

Mirela Ignat, UX Lead at Provably Fair, describes what to look for in a successful design challenge. An ideal candidate takes advantage of storytelling when presenting work and has emotional maturity to accept feedback. In order to stand out, the solution should be simple and realistic, unlike the work seen on Dribbble or Behance. Mirela also addresses how to approach challenges directly related to the company.

From stock options to funding rounds, Adrienne outlines how startup compensation is evaluated differently than what you get from a regular corporate job. UXers need to decide the pros and cons between a publicly traded company and a younger startup, looking at benefits and promotional/growth opportunities too. When it comes to stressful negotiations, Adrienne encourages a practical perspective to help you become comfortable with the process.

If being passionate about design isn't enough to stand out, then what is? Morgane Peng, Director of Experience Design at Society Generale Banking, describes the hiring realities that UX candidates face in landing their first jobs. Some of these aspects are often overlooked but Morgane guides us on how to stand out by leveraging past backgrounds and understanding why time is one of the biggest factors. 

To become a traveling UX Designer, Karla Fernandes, UI/UX Designer, describes her world of freelancing while living in more than 11 countries. She walks us through how building a strong portfolio, investing in a network of clients and making customers happy are key to landing dream freelance jobs. 

What do startups look for when hiring UX Designers? Adrienne Hunter Wong, Head of Design at Dataquest, highlights the differences between working for a startup and a big corporation, and how they evaluate portfolios/case studies in the hiring process. They also dive deep in how to stand out as a candidate amongst a crowded UX market.

UX Research is essential in uncovering valuable and game changing customer insights. Sourav Bhuyan, Senior UX Researcher at Zappos, dives deep into how he combines both qualitative and quantitative data to apply them to customer and business goals. Designers collaborate with researchers by participating in interviews and applying different methodologies such as rapid iterative testing and eye tracking. Sourav also answers why UX Researchers are hired aside from designers who already apply research in their processes.

What does UX in science entail? With roots in biochemistry, Nate Patrick brings his insights in his role as Lead UX Designer at CAS, a division of the American Chemical Society. He strives to implement accessibility principles in the systems he uses and builds to create an accessible environment for all scientists and users. While science can be quite complex and technical, Nate hopes to make scientific information easily consumable to people of any background.

What's out of this world? UX in space! Macy Nguyen, Senior Interaction Designer at NASA Ames Research Center, talks about her role in spacewalking research and design in astronaut applications. From a background in mobile app design to designing solutions for astronauts, she elaborates on her favorite elements of UX, why it's important to build a strong relationship with developers and how to make sense of a complex and nebulous problem.

The world of physical products and industrial design go hand in hand, but also overlaps digital design. Lucas Couto, Senior Industrial Designer at EGGS Design, explains what creating a physical product is like, from design all the way to manufacturing. Despite the differences working with plastic vs pixels, designers from both industries follow a similar design discipline from understanding a problem and testing assumptions to mocking and prototyping. Lucas walks us through the process of handling iterations in industrial design and answers the big question “is plastic a necessary evil?”

Allie Thu, Senior Accessibility Experience Designer at Zappos, guides us on her journey from a marketing job to carving her own accessibility experience designer position. The world of accessibility really resonated with Allie by showing her what it meant to be inclusive and empathize for all users. It's about making a commitment to approach problems from different angles, since accessibility gets tied into every single thing we touch, smell, see, etc. When it comes to showing the ROI of accessibility on a business level, Allie goes over three points: brand loyalty, building a usable product, and semantic code. She ends the episode with quick tips for both designers and developers, as well as a number of helpful resources.

Hayden Humphrey, Chief Uplift Officer, tackles how he transformed himself from people pleasing in a corporate career to becoming a success coach and creative entrepreneur. In order to break free from people pleasing, we must first recognize the behavioral patterns and understand that niceness and kindness are two different things. To close the gap between customer advocacy and business goals in UX, we have to make ourselves uncomfortable! Hayden brings up how imposter syndrome is another level of vulnerability we need to defy by allowing self-love and encouragement. This episode closes with advice on how to combat isolation during Covid, especially for those working from home.

Is a degree really necessary for UX? What type of job descriptions reflect a clear set of goals and expectations for an applicant? Should designers leverage their skills based on the industry or the technology itself? Filippo dives deep into these and a few other insightful questions posted on the User Experience subreddit.

Trevor Newberry, Owner and Product Manager of Newberry Consulting and AppThink, shares his insights about the differences in customer experience between the food and tech industry. In his “bad sandwich” metaphor, he breaks down why customer dissatisfaction is not always caused by the product itself and how good customer service can resolve the underlying source of frustration. As he shifts from food to tech, Trevor discusses the challenges of working with non-technical founders and why spending money doesn't necessarily translate to an amazing product. Rather, Trevor states that advocating on behalf of UX and allocating UX time and resources is essential to creating a solid product and business.

Matteo Trisolini, Chief Behavioral Offer and Customer Experience Strategist at South Slope Pediatrics, discusses why it's important to focus on relationships to thrive in customer experience, especially in the healthcare industry. Valuing relationships over profit has helped his company succeed and ignited a positive chain reaction among his patients and community.

Matteo Trisolini, Chief Behavioral Officer and Customer Experience Strategist at South Slope Pediatrics in Brooklyn, New York, walks us through his inspiring journey from a career in photography to a career dedicated to customer experience and company culture in the healthcare industry. He discusses how he became obsessed with customer experience, how he translated that to create a close community, how he proved his passion to be impactful during the Covid-19 pandemic for both his employees and patients, and why it's important to hire the right person.

Ray Gonzales, Lead UX Designer at Zappos, shares his favorite Design System resources. First, when it comes to the "creation" side of things, Invision is a great way to start. They have an entire collection of books on the subject. When it comes to "adoption," Ray mentions Nathan Curtis, who digs deeper behind the scenes at the structures we can use to disseminate our Design Systems. On the other hand, Paul uses the oldest (yet still best) trick in the book: a Google search!

Paul Pittman (Amazon), Filippo Lovotti (Zappos) talk Design Systems with Ray Gonzales, Lead UX Designer at Zappos. They start with the basics and move to more complex issues. Ray reveals how he approaches Design Systems and what has worked for him when it comes to adoption. Paul doubles down on the importance of nailing communication. Finally, they move to common mistakes and how to discover and communicate the ROI of Design Systems.

Douglas argues that the main difference between in-person and remote meetings is that the former was familiar. Facilitating remotely is not an excuse to run poor meetings. Yes, it's a new experience for most of us, but if we have solid basics, then having online interactions is no different than in person. Focusing on intention and being very deliberate about it is always to bring purpose to our meeting culture and systems.

Douglas Ferguson, President and Master Facilitator at Voltage Control, is on a mission to rid the world of bad meetings. He breaks down what it means to control the room, why designing meetings makes them more meaningful and effective, and the definition of meeting culture and meeting systems. Douglas also explains how being deliberate in our intentions can save us from horrible interactions and take our facilitation to the next level.

Alex Genov, PhD Head of Customer Research at Zappos, explains how to create innovation, we need to understand our customers and users as people, not just numbers and data. Alex brings up examples of "innovation on meaning" and explains how this was possible, leveraging the insights by professor Roberto Verganti. Spoiler alert: it was achievable thanks to a deep dive into customers' needs!

Filippo Lovotti (Zappos), Paul Pittman (Amazon) sit down with Alex Genov, PhD Head of Customer Research at Zappos, and discuss customers' attitudes during these unusual times. How do we leverage User Research? How are the psychology and behavior of customers changing during the pandemic? How are companies reacting and adapting to COVID? Alex brings up great examples and valuable insights from his work as a researcher and Customer Experience expert.

Kelli Lucas, Lead Product Designer at Airship in Birmingham, Alabama, goes over the differences and overlaps between Agency and Corporate UX jobs. Which one you should go for really depends on the type of work you like to do! Kelli also talks about her work-to-life balance and how UX practitioners should approach burnout. In the last few minutes, facilitation becomes the focus of the conversation. Kelli explains her approach to collaborating with clients and users during discovery sessions.

Paul Pittman (Amazon) and Filippo Lovotti (Zappos) discuss their first UX jobs and the learnings they got out of them. The talk moves to the meaning of having “backbone”: why pushing back and advocating on behalf of your users is important? What are good routines and important steps to take on your first UX gig? And finally, the discussion moves over to covering stakeholders and moving around like a squiggly line when leveraging principles VS processes becomes a focus.

Get ready to hear some scary UX Horror Stories in this Halloween Special! Paul Pittman, Danielle Salisbury, Ray Gonzales, and Filippo Lovotti go over some really terrifying examples of "bad UX" and the survival strategies they learned from them. The stories span from companies not understanding UX to getting in trouble by saying "yes" to all users' requests. From clients hovering over designers to startups ignoring their own users. Music by PeriTune https://peritune.com/blog/2016/09/27/spook3/

Paul Pittman (Amazon) explains both the applicant and the hiring manager sides of Amazon's hiring process and details how they hire UX Designers. Filippo  Lovotti (Zappos) lays out the lengthy Zappos UX hiring process and the many interviews required to get the job. The conversation moves from that to interview prep, focusing on articulating design decisions by backing them up with data. The episode closes with a UX whiteboard challenge example and the approach to get the best out of the challenge.

Filippo Lovotti (Zappos) and Paul Pittman (Amazon) talk about the difference between UX and UI, the portfolio of a UX Designer, differentiating yourself in the UX job market, resume best practices, social media, and how to download a deck to buff up your UX terminology!

Filippo chats with his long-time mentor and former boss Jill DaSilva. They briefly cover UX mentoring, the diversity in the background of folks jumping careers over to UX, stories from companies excluding or "missing" UX vs. including it, and the difference between working in corporate and owning your company. Jill currently consults for Adobe Xd, runs her UX agency called Digital Karma, is a Faculty Program Member at General Assembly, and is a professional UX mentor.

In this very first episode of the Industry of UX, Filippo Lovotti (Zappos) and Paul Pittman (Amazon) talk about their background, the outline of the UX industry, and UX job interview horror stories. Leave a comment or any feedback on our Podbean page https://theindustryofux.podbean.com/