The document discusses the importance of soft skills for UX designers. It argues that soft skills, such as communication, flexibility, creativity and reliability, are more important than hard skills for success in complex design projects. A number of soft skills are described in detail, including pragmatism, confidence, curiosity and having a genuine interest in people. The document advises focusing on developing soft skills, as they are transferable and will remain useful even as technical skills become commoditized. It suggests highlighting soft skills in CVs and interviews.

1. Soft UX Skills
to
Pay The Bills
Image source - http://www.pngall.com/unicorn-png
Hello, thanks for dropping by. I’d
like to tell you why I think that its
your soft skills that really make a
difference during complex design
projects.

2. Why are some UX’ers just
so good at what they do?
@chudders
One day I was sat in the office,
staring into the middle distance
and was thinking….
Why do some people feel so easy
to work with? Are there any
common skills they have that I can
identify? Being able to do the job
isn’t enough, the best UX’ers have
something else that goes beyond
just technical skills.

3. I think that it’s people's
soft skills that pay the
bills
@chudders
Let me tell you why…

4. We focus on the wrong
types of skills
@chudders
I think we focus too much on what
people can do (their hard skills)
and too little on how they go about
doing it (their soft skills).

5. We have some problems
@chudders
Problems? oh yes…

6. Demand Supply
@chudders
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There is a shortage of good UX’ers
and competition for jobs is ever
increasing as people switch to UX
from all manner of different roles.

7. How can you
differentiate yourself?
@chudders
Despite the market feeling like it’s
still booming how can you set
yourself apart? How can you make
sure that you really shine on
projects?

8. How can I get into/ get
better at UX?
@chudders
This also applies if you are trying to
get into the industry. You might be
thinking could I get a job as a
UX’er? Do I have what it takes? If
you’re an established practitioner
theres definitely something here
for you too!

9. Acquiring the skills you
want / need can be tricky
@chudders
You might know the skills areas
you want to develop but it can be
hard to get on the right projects
that allow you to develop these
skills. Budgets might not always
allow you to do things in the way
that you would like.
The great thing about soft skills is
that you’ll use them on every
project so theres nothing to stop
you working on them right now!

10. Keeping up with stuff is
impossible!
@chudders
The pace of the evolution of tools,
techniques, methods and approach
can be overwhelming. Trying to
keep up with reading and the
‘latest thing’ feels impossible.
The great thing about soft skills is
that they will always be useful and
will never go out of date.

11. Hard skills are becoming
commoditised
@chudders
It’s never been easier to learn how
to do stuff. You name it there’s a
youtube video or an article to show
you how. This is great but the
impact is that it’s making it easier
for others to get the same skills as
you have.
This makes the soft skills more and
more important. You’ll have heard
people talk about new recruits
having the right attitude and that
they’ll pick up the hard skills. Soft
skills are harder to teach/ change
as they are often more aligned to
our personalities.

12. Portfolios don't help
@chudders
It’s interesting to consider that
portfolios focus all to often on who
we’ve worked for, what the output
but less frequently talk about just
how we went about doing
something.
Bananarama were all over soft skills. ‘It
ain’t what you do but the way that you
do it’. Craftsmen talk about how it’s not
about what you make but the way that
you make it. It’s our soft skills that
contribute so hugely to the process of
design and the experiences we have
when working with one another.

13. @chudders
https://www.toptal.com/designers/ux/job-description
UX Design Consultant Role
And all too often job ads focus on
the ‘hard skills’, the sorts of things
that more and more we will expect
people to be able to do. The soft
skills are underrepresented.
Perhaps it’s because we don't ask
for them in this formal way that
they get overlooked during the
recruitment process?

14. Worry not!
@chudders
The beauty of soft skills is that
regardless of how long you might
have been in the industry you may
already have the right soft skills to
thrive. Soft skills are wonderfully
transferable. You can bring them
into the industry from elsewhere
and take them with you when you
leave!

15. Skills
@chudders
So I’ve mentioned ‘hard’ and ‘soft’
skills quite a bit so far. What the
hell am I talking about?

16. Image source - http://www.pngall.com/unicorn-png
The ‘UX unicorn’ describes an
individual who can do everything.
Research, design, strategy, you
name it. I accept that this is a
Pegacorn but go with it for a
moment.
UX unicorns are very rare (for good
reason). Let’s break down the skills
that we might expect one to have…

17. ‘Business’
‘Core’
‘Technical’
‘Soft’
‘Topic’
Image source - http://www.pngall.com/unicorn-png
Let’s break this mythical unicorn
down into the different skills areas
that we might want them to have.

18. Hard skills
@chudders
Let’s start with the ‘hard’ skills…

19. Core‘Topic’ area skills
• Research techniques
• Ethnography & discovery
• User modelling
• Product design
• Interaction design
• Interface design
• Information Architecture
• Usability
@chudders
These topic areas are typical of the
sorts of ‘types’ of work a UX’er may
be proficient in. I think its fair to
say that typically people lean
towards either the research or the
design side.

20. Core‘Deliverables’ skills
• Sketching
• Wireframing/ prototyping
• Journey mapping
• Personas
• Usability reports
• Expert reviews
• Constructing user stories
@chudders
Ok so a contentious one when
considering lean but the reality of
many UX roles (particularly within
Agencies) is that you will be
producing deliverables such as these.
These are typical deliverables and
UX’ers would be expected to be
comfortable producing any of them.

21. CoreTechnical skills
• Coding skills
• Sketch, Axure etc
• Computing skills
• Setting up recording kit
• Getting TV’s/ projectors to work?!
• Getting Skype to work?!
@chudders
Despite the focus on research and
design there are still many
technical skills that make our lives
easier. The ability to make stuff
work is clearly useful and its
amazing just how many tools we
end up using during a typical
project.

22. CoreBusiness skills
• Project management
• Time management
• Professionalism
• Writing skills
• Negotiation
• Influencing
@chudders
So theres definitely some cross
over here with some of these being
examples of critical soft skills that
will be useful when conducting
business. Speaking of soft skills…

23. @chudders
So why is it the soft skills
that really pay the bills?
Let’s look at ‘soft’ skills in detail…

24. Soft skills are personal qualities and
attitudes that can help you to work well
with others and make a positive
contribution to organisations you work for.
https://nationalcareersservice.direct.gov.uk/aboutus/newsarticles/Pages/Spotlight-SoftSkills.aspx
What are the ‘soft skills’ that employers want?
@chudders
This is a useful definition from the
National careers service. It echoes
an earlier point I made about
attributes that you will already
have that will help you on UX
projects.

25. Think about someone you
think is a great UX’er
@chudders
Give a moment to think back over
your previous projects and see who
pops into your head.

26. @chudders
What soft skills
have you noticed
great UX’ers
having?
In this part of the talk people
offered up some great examples of
soft skills. have a think yourself and
keep them in mind and see if we
came up with the same ideas.

27. Pragmatism
@chudders
This is all about being able to
decide what to fight for and what
to let go within projects. It’s
important to be true to user
centred design but you don’t need
to be dogmatic.
You’re being paid by the business
and being asked to represent the
user. A tricky conflict of interest
eh! Design is compromise and you
always have to work within
constraints. Design is also never
finished so be pragmatic about
which battles you choose to fight.

28. Communication
@chudders
The first thing that springs to mind
when considering communication
is talking but of course listening
skills are equally important here.
Being able to communicate well is
critical because you have to be able
to share your vision and bring that
idea in your head to life for others.
It’s your responsibility to make sure
that the users voice is heard. Use
stories to communicate what
you’ve seen in the field to help your
teams understand your
recommendations.

29. Flexibility & adaptability
@chudders
Projects change all the time. You
need to remain flexible and be able
to adapt to changing requirements
and constraints. Within your
research you’ll learn stuff that
means you’ll need to change your
approach. Expect your initial
approach to be wrong and learn to
change it as you go.
Inflexible people are hard to work
with. We’ve all encountered people
like that and have experienced the
negative impact they have on
projects.

30. Positivity & resilience
@chudders
All projects go through good and
bad periods. Whatever happens
you must remain positive and roll
with the punches. Work out your
own survival strategies to cope
with the tricks times and don’t take
criticism personally.
I think many of the best UX’ers are
highly self motivated which helps
them to get through the tricky
spells on projects. Side projects are
also great to help with this because
they offer you full control over
what you are doing which often
contrasts hugely with project work!

31. Confidence & Influence
@chudders
On a recent project a colleague had
to approach people as they were on
their way to work to get feedback
on a prototype she had made. No
one was interested. She knew it
too. Despite this she managed to
approach people with confidence
and authority and managed to get
what she needed from them.
You’ll often be in uncomfortable
surroundings presenting to very
senior people. It’s important to be
able to communicate with
confidence and authority to ensure
that decision that are made
consider user needs and insights
from your research.

32. Creativity & problem
solving
@chudders
We are lucky to work in such a
wonderfully creative industry. Our
projects present us with endless
problems to solve from the initial
design challenge to the constraints
we must work within.
You could summarise design as
itself being all about problem
solving so it’s clearly a critical skill
to have. Everyone enjoys working
with people who can make
problems go away!

33. Selling & influencing
@chudders
Selling is tainted with a bad
reputation but in reality it’s an
essential life skill. As a UX’er you
have to sell your ideas, your
recommendations, yourself and
you methods and processes.
It comes in handy in real life too.
Try convincing your 4 year old to
brush their teeth or negotiating for
that discount off that new pair of
shoes and you’ll realise how
valuable it really is.

34. Curiosity
@chudders
It’s essential to have an enquiring
mind and accept that you don’t
know all of the answers and you’ll
go far. The joy of project work is
that it will uncover industries and
domains you never knew even
existed.
The ability to use your curious
mind to ask questions to unpick
how things work is a great skill to
have. Be a thief. Steal the things
that you know work and apply
them to your own projects.

35. Reliability
@chudders
Wouldn’t it be amazing if everyone
did what they said they would
when they said they would do it?!
Sounds simple doesn’t it yet it
seems rare. Committing to delivery
and having a strong work ethic is so
important to ensure successful
projects.

36. Interest in people
@chudders
The ability to get on with anyone
and having a genuine interest in
making things better for people is
so important.
Being able to quickly build
relationships with people is critical
when conducting research. If you
can see the world from their
perspective you will find it easier to
design things that work better for
them.

37. Genuine desire to
make stuff better
@chudders
This is vital. If you don’t genuinely
believe in what you are doing why
will you bother to fight the
important battles on behalf of the
user?
We are truly privileged to be able
to do work that reaches so many
people. This gives you the perfect
opportunity to improve peoples
lives.

38. Commercial acumen
@chudders
Typically you’ll be employed by a
commercial client so an
understanding of how their
business works will be critical to
designing an effective solution for
them.
It’s as important to be able to
speak the language of business as
it is to be able to speak the
language of your users. The key
skill of any great UX’er is the ability
to be able to strike a balance
between the user and business
goals.

39. Leadership & decision
making
@chudders
Strong leadership skills will help
you to guide your teams to
successful outcomes. You should
lead by example and be
accountable for the work your are
tasked with completing.
You will need to frequently make
decisions in situations when you
feel you have insufficient
information to do so. Stick your
neck out, make a call, you have to
keep things moving forwards.

40. Don’t be a dick
@chudders
Possibly the most important one of
the lot. Keep your ego in check and
remember that a bit of self
deprecation always goes a long
way.
This does mean you should be a
pushover though, tension between
different roles can be healthy.
Remember there is no such thing
as a UX expert anyway. No one
really knows if something will work
until it goes live.

41. @chudders
All of these skills have
something in common
So you’ll have realised that none of
these skills are that specific to UX
at all. They are all totally
transferable. That means they’ll be
useful to make you awesome in
your next job too.

42. @chudders
As you progress the soft
skills become more
important
The more senior you get the less of
the ‘work’ you end up doing. So as
you progress you’ll end up relying
more on the soft skills than on the
hard skills.

43. Classic UX job
interview fails
@chudders
I chatted to Tam, our head of HR
about the soft skills that she often
see lacking for applicants to roles
at cxpartners.

44. @chudders
Actively listen in interviews, reflect back clearly, answer in a clear articulate way
Curiosity is important
- We need people who will be interested in problems that our clients face
Reflection
- What would do differently / learnt / would change
Flexibility/ adaptability
- Ways of thinking - if not flexible you become hard to work with
Ability to build relationships
These are the things we look out
for that are good indicators of
strong soft skills.

45. Make sure you
highlight your soft
skills in your CV
@chudders
So don’t forget to make a point of
highlighting your soft skills within
your CV and linkedin profile.

46. Homework
@chudders
You homework is to pick a few of
these that you think you need to
work on and practice them. Identify
someone you work with who is
good at them and try and unpick
what they do so well and then copy
them!
Let me know how you get on!

47. Thank you!
@chudders
Thanks and good luck!