UX Team building
With buy-in for a UX centred thinking approach secured, I was able to recruit and build a full team that would expand over time to have wide influence in design across the business even beyond the core product.
Determining skills and experiences
I created a provisional breakdown of the skills and experiences that I was looking for. I looked to create an appropriate balance within the team.
Recruiting the right people
An initial round of recruitment failed to turn up the appropriate candidates. I resisted the temptation to recruit applicants who did not have the appropriate experience. This was despite a growing demand for UX to help drive the business forward.
I then engaged with a Recruitment Agency (Consortia) who I had worked with before to help me build teams in other organisations.
I worked with the excellent Ryan Ollenreshaw at Consortia – who I had used successfully partnered with in the past. Ryan took the time to truly understand what we were looking for.
I was determined to find people who were committed to designing with a user-centric ethos. My recruiting experiences from previous organisations proved valuable. It helped shape my understanding of selecting the right people for the UX team at Cheapflights. I was determined to bring people with the right mentality, who could pair well and work well with myself and others.
Pairing – Recruiting, Effectively and Efficiently
Initially, I gained approval to recruit 2 new senior members to join the team. Within the budget, there were a few months between the approvals for the first member and the second.
I determined it would be best to recruit members of the team at the same time. I delayed the first by a couple of months enabling the recruitment of the second to be brought forward.
This enabled me to recruit the new team members, side by side, match skills and attitudes. This fitted best with the ethos of building a longer-term tight-knit team.
I used this pairing strategy again as I brought more members to the team. The success of the initial strategy proved valuable in more ways than I had expected. Enabling newer team members to have a partner who was also new to the team gave them more assurance. I found that this emboldened both to provide more input earlier with confidence.
Teamwork
Forging Team Ethos with Psychological Safety
I created an environment where all members of the team felt they had ownership of the User Experience. This involved fostering a team dynamic that embraced taking responsibility for the design, balanced with a strategy of Psychological safety. Team members knew that they were backed-up and supported, not just by myself but other members of the team.
Design Reviews – Evidence Based not Opinion
I instituted regular team design reviews. This ensured all members of the team had both the opportunity to showcase their work and more importantly their design thinking.
These sessions would gather the UX team together regularly on a Thursday morning. I would bring pastries to fuel the session. Each session lasted an hour and covered one or two design challenges.
One member of the team outlined the scope of a design challenge they faced. They talked through the evidence of user behaviours they had gathered and applied in their thinking. Then they took us through the design they were proposing.
A key element of this approach was to ensure that designs were both user-centric and evidence-based as well as empowering the designer. The designer would then invite and direct discussion.
Ultimately, however, it was up to them as to what advice and suggestions they followed. They were closest to the design work and the user evidence.
Empowering Designers to make choices
I have always maintained that the UX team’s designers had ownership and responsibility for the design of the product. I considered this especially true for the parts they designed themselves.
There may have been a few occasions where very small improvements may have resulted in following a suggestion. Even if they didn’t end up taking these on-board, these small benefits were far outweighed by the ongoing sense of empowerment and ownership they felt from having this control.
It also resulted in people being more willing to take on advice and asking for input. The feeling that their inclusion of design suggestions was part of the overall ownership of the design.
Lessons learnt from seeing it done badly
The approach I instituted was opposed to reviews I had witnessed in the past in other organisations. In these sessions – designs got picked apart by more senior colleagues and then they forced the designer to implement changes. Frequently, these were not evidence-based.
Reluctantly, the original designer would end up making changes that they didn’t believe in and didn’t really know why they were being changed. The designers would end up thinking of the design review as a hurdle that they have to get their designs through. They became defensive and looked to close off areas of attack before they could be established. People felt their contribution to the discussion was not taken on board. The designer didn’t benefit from valuable and reasoned input.
This is one example of how I endeavour to lead, by setting up and insisting on robust processes that engender trust within a team.
Skills and experience sharing
By opening up about skills and experiences team members had acquired, we were able to jointly build our skills. This enabled us to bring multiple UX brains to design challenges collaboratively.
This created a feeling where all could contribute but the key designer establishes and truly owns the design. Consequently, they are happy to have both the responsibility and accountability for the success they can bring to the product.
Support and Development
I gathered intelligence about team members’ UX skills and experiences through self-assessment. I looked for opportunities for them to engage with areas that they had less experience with. I fostered a sense of ‘it is ok not to know’ certain things and ensured it was not seen as a weakness. From here team members are far less likely to be defensive about any area that they feel they could improve in themselves. They are more open about seeking support and create partnerships to deliver.
I worked with each team member, exploring areas they would like to develop and where we felt it would benefit the team. I worked with our HR team to build a development plan for each of the team members so they were supported in their development paths not just within the group but had the support from the wider firm in terms of strategic development. I continue to mentor team members many years after we have moved on and am proud to see their development and successes.
Here are some examples of what it felt like to be on the team from those who knew best.
Jay Tulloch – Senior UX at Cheapflights in 2015
Now
Jay Tulloch Director – Digital Customer Experience
‘Will has been excellent in encouraging and motivating the UX team, as well as helping us to work collaboratively on UX strategy and projects. Will is a hands on Head of UX, that gets stuck in and actively shows an interest in our projects, but does not cast a shadow over his team, allowing us to each shine individually.
Will has shown a great amount of enthusiasm in helping his team to improve as UX professionals, and is always finding new ways to identify areas in which we can improve as a team and as individuals. He is great at challenging our ideas or proposals in a constructive, non-condescending manner, to ensure that we find the right solution for our users. I have personally learned a lot from Will during my time at Cheapflights and would love to work with him again.’
Mel Ditschun – Senior UX Cheapflights – 2016
It’s been great to work as part of Will’s team at Cheapflights. He’s been a fantastic manager – supportive, enthusiastic and inspiring. It’s also really nice to work for someone who’s knowledgeable, experienced, approachable and has a strong UX vision that the team can get behind. I know that if I want to run something by him, he’ll have useful input and if I have a question then he’ll either know the answer or be able to find out.
He’s also a fantastic team builder. While I’ve been here, he’s built up the team from 3 people to 6 and I’m really impressed with what a good job he’s done putting it together; I can honestly say it’s my favourite UX team so far. He’s chosen intelligent, capable people with complimentary skill sets. I’ve enjoyed working with them on joint projects (e.g. the recent user research project) and also hearing about UX accomplishments throughout the business (e.g. improvements to revenue from AB testing or web projects that have gone particularly well). It’s really impressive what he’s managed to accomplish in the 2 years that he’s been here!
Mike Green – Senior UX Cheapflights 2015
I originally took this role on as ‘another’ senior UX role. However, after working with Will for only a few weeks I found that he had a very different and refreshing approach to UX. He brought a new meaning to putting the user first, he empathises with the user and created flows based on what the user wants and not what the company think they want.
He is unassuming and a great manager who has limitless patience. He has very good organisational and communication skills. He puts his team first and is one of the most genuine people I have met.
It has been my pleasure to work with Will over the last 16 months and hope that I can work with him again in the future.