Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

We don’t need an expert in this or that to build better systems. We need a desire to learn and a desire to please.

We don’t need a User Experience (UX) person on the team. We don’t need a Customer Experience (CX) expert on the team. We don’t need an XX (fill-in-the-blank Experience) person on the team.

Those teammates would be nice, but are not necessary.

“Tech people” (not sure exactly what they are, but I think I are one) can learn. The great majority of people can learn. What we NEED are people who have a desire to learn. They can learn about user experiences and data, and algorithms, and usage, and this-age, and that-age. And we need people who have a desire to please others. Those folks will find out what others want and learn about those wants and how to fulfill those wants.

What we need are people who are not focused on just one problem to work with other people so that they learn how to make technology other folks can use.

Pollyanna? Pie in the sky? Perhaps. In my experience, people with these desires do just fine. And once we have such people, fill-in-the-blank Experience experts are much more welcome and we listen to them much more and we create systems that show it.

(1) Hire people with desire. (2) Bring in the experts. (3) Do so in that order.