Friday, 1:45pm, Venetian
Over the last few years, whenever a group of UX Managers meet - both new and experienced- there are two fundamental issues we talk about:
- Do I have the correct job description? a. Does it describe my team and roles accurately?b. How many versions do I need and how much should I put in this description anyway?
c. What is the purpose of this job description?
- What is/ should be the structure of my team?
In this working session, we will address the first topic, job descriptions.
A job description sounds like a very easy thing to write, but it has multiple purposes including:
- Recruitment
- Description of the overall structure of the team and division
- Show/ sell a wide array of skill sets to the client
- Statement of work and job responsibilities to be used in performance evaluation and management
- Used in buying and selling work, such as Government framework agreements or as part of RFP responses
Purpose
The purpose of this working session will be to show the wide range of job descriptions and roles, then split the attendees with their individual job description needs into groups, where they will develop and/or edit their job descriptions while gathering feedback from the other members of the small group and from the session leaders.
Target audience
UX Managers who are writing job descriptions.
Why this topic should be selected and why you are qualified to deliver it
This topic is very relevant to managers as it something they have to address constantly when recruiting and managing staff. As seen in the session description, it will show the many demands on one small sheet of A4 paper.
Both session leaders are very experienced in developing job descriptions for both themselves and helping others within the community to write ones that meet the needs of their organisations.
INSTRUCTORS
Mags Hanley
Margaret Hanley is the Head of Consultancy at Web Technology Group in the UK. She has worked as a User Experience lead and manager over the last nine years in companies ranging from Yellow Pages in Australia and Argus Associates in the US; to Information Architecture Team Leader and Executive Producer at the BBC in the UK and Head of User Experience of DNA, a division of Avenue A| Razorfish. Throughout her time as a manager she has managed teams as large as 50 and as small as three. Her credo is to learn from as many situations as possible especially from your mistakes.
Head of Consulting, Web Technology Group
Lisa Colvin
Lisa Colvin is the Practice Lead for User Experience Architecture at Ascentium Los Angeles.
She has been working in IA, IxD and User Experience Design in one form or another for the last 13+ years, managing teams as large as 30 full-timers and as small as 2 contractors. She’s worked in a broad range of industries and teams - first in the dot-com/ startup world, then crossing over to systems analysis for a while then back to agency life. Most recently, she was Senior Information Architect at Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Online, Manager of IA and Usability for Spot Runner and Director, User Experience for Adapt Technologies.
She is passionate about the user experience and really enjoys working on the hard stuff with diverse teams – particularly online applications that make life easier.
Her favorite job skill is listening and she feels that the best part of working in the discipline is the requirement that we learn something new just about every day.
Practice Lead for User Experience Architecture at Ascentium Los Angeles.