When I graduated with an advanced degree in Human Factors and Experimental Design, I felt on top of the world. I felt prepared for any design challenge. I graduated at the top of my class. What more did I need?

Little did I know how unprepared I would be for the real word. My lofty vision of being a superhero, swooping in and saving the day, deflated quickly.

In my early years as a UX specialist, I made many rookie mistakes, many of which I wished I had been warned about.

Early in my professional career, I was applying what I learned in college, but had little or no impact. My research fell by the wayside. My recommendations fell on deaf ears. My confidence diminished and was replaced with anxiety and self-doubt. What was I doing wrong? Why was no one listening?

If these concerns sound familiar, you are not alone. I often hear clients and attendees in my workshops voice them.

After working in the UX field for 20 years, I know that the road to good user experience is not about technology, but rather about people. Reflecting back, I wish that I dropped what I learned in school sooner. I wish that I understood the importance of being pragmatic over being right.

Being a successful UX practitioner isn’t about always knowing the answers. It’s about understanding people, and helping them get to the answers.

Lessons Learned

I’d like to share with you the major lessons I learned during my UX career in the hope that you avoid making the same mistakes:

Don’t aim for perfection

In software development, you are never done.  The design is never finished and should never remain static. 

As Jakob Nielsen states, “There is no such thing as a perfect user interface.”  Your project is highly unlikely to be the first exception in world history to this rule.

Good companies adopt software-development cultures that embrace iteration and refinement. Don’t fret if you don’t get all of your ideas implemented now. Aim for incremental change. If the usability needle moves in the right direction, even if slowly, count each tick as a win.

If features or ideas don’t get implemented during the current release, it’s not the end of the world. Look for opportunities to make further refinements in future releases.

Prioritization is key. Usability studies might indicate that your system contains 100 issues, but don’t plan to solve all of them at once. When you make everything critical, your message loses urgency as teams become overwhelmed. 

Don’t attempt to win the war. Choose your battles wisely. Focus on the important ones. Some battles are worth committing to, while others are not worth dying over. You need to live another day to fight the good fight.

Consider the business needs

Set aside extreme usability idealism. If you focus on creating optimal experiences for end users while neglecting business goals, you will fail. Many novice UX specialists make this mistake and propose recommendations that are unrealistic. Businesses need to be profitable in order to exist.

In a usability study, customers may say they prefer an ad-free website. But that doesn’t mean you should recommend getting rid of all advertisements altogether, especially if that’s how your company makes money.

When making design recommendations, consider the tradeoffs between user needs and business needs and keep them balanced.

In the example above, rather than ban advertisements, a more reasonable approach would be to find alternative ways of presenting advertisements that users perceive as useful and or, at least, acceptable.

Learn to fail — early and together

Don’t be afraid to fail or admit you don’t know the answer. Usability research is about failure, not about validation. If your ideas are going to fail, it’s better to find out early; fail when there’s time to make adjustments.

A big mistake that UX rookies make is to test too late. No one wants to deal with a laundry list of recommendations when the release deadline looms. Influence project planning by developing a cadence or timeline for user testing, so teams know what to expect, and plan for it. When done right, usability testing brings team members together by giving them valuable insights and igniting creativity.

Adopt and advocate for a Lean UX mentality, where iteration and experimentation are embraced as key to product-development success. If you don’t know the answer now, find clever ways to research it.

Collaborate with team members to brainstorm ideas and develop prototypes, and make sure that you involve them in testing these ideas in user studies. Team members who participate in UX-related research are more likely to be great user advocates and buy into the process.

Camaraderie should not be underestimated. Team members who experience challenges and victories together are more cooperative and have stronger bonds. It’s magical when teams design and learn together. Remember, products keep evolving and you should never stop learning. The best ideas you have now can change as new information comes in. Keep an open mind and be in a state of restless reinvention. When UX isn’t fun, you’re doing something wrong.

Be a leader, not an order taker

The role of the UX practitioner has evolved to include leadership responsibilities. Whether you’re a UX researcher or designer, you cannot afford to sit behind your desk and wait for research or design requests.

To influence the process and effect change, you must be proactive, not reactive. Be involved in strategic discussions. Help shape the vision and goals, and be involved in deciding which UX activities are required and when.

Hone your presentation skills. You’ll need it to evangelize UX. Influencers know data and methodologies well, but can also explain them in ways that are convincing and engaging.

Reach out across the organization to see who has processes and systems that can benefit from UX research or data that can be shared with the UX team. Sometimes these systems are internally facing, such as intranets or proprietary tools made for your fellow employees.

Make yourself indispensable to product teams. Listen to their challenges and take note of the known issues. Show how research and designs will help improve their systems. Presenting data is one of the best ways to do this. It’s very difficult to argue with data.

Good leaders empower others. Design-thinking workshops and other collaborative UX activities such as customer-journey mapping  foster collaboration and provide UX training to other team members.

If you have the tendency to work alone or fear public speaking, now is the time to practice your soft skills. Your charisma and ability to interact effectively and harmoniously with other people are skills that should not be overlooked.

Find positive mentors

Surround yourself with smart, knowledgeable, and supportive people. Everyone needs trusted advisors to discuss ideas and help you grow in your career, especially when you’re a fledgling.

Never stop searching for people who inspire and lift you up. Working in a supportive and enriching environment is the best scenario. However, you can also find nurturing experts in conferences, meetups, and forums. Industry-related events help you learn interesting techniques and trends, and also allow you to meet new and thought-provoking leaders.

Trust is earned

Don’t be discouraged if your organization does not embrace UX right away. Your desire to evangelize UX might feel even more insurmountable when you’re new.

Depending on the UX maturity level of your organization, it may take years before you see significant shifts in development processes. In more traditional product development settings, aim for gradual change.

Earn people’s trust by demonstrating the value of UX incrementally. Pick a small, low-commitment, high-visibility problem to solve first. Allow team members to experience new design approaches first hand. If you help teams succeed enough times, you will earn their trust and respect, making it easier for you to push bigger agendas.

Show empathy towards team members

It’s fine to show empathy towards users, but don’t forget your colleagues: team members and stakeholders. Fuel innovation by understanding people and welcoming different perspectives.

It’s common for people from different backgrounds and silos to have disagreements or mistrust one another. For example, UX folks often complain about developers and vice versa.

When conflict arises, take the time to uncover the root cause. Sometimes it’s ego, but other times it is technical feasibility, pressured deadlines, how output is measured, or differences in communication and learning styles.

If you take a step back and consider the situation from the other person’s perspective, you will often discover good ways of compromising and keeping the team cohesive.

William Shakespeare once said, “The fool thinks himself to be wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.”

Be humble. Ask questions. Allow others to contribute ideas. Collaborate with them and together you will come up with the best solutions.

Learn how to be an effective UX professional or  become a UX strategist at the UX Conference.

Summary

Many new UX practitioners often put pressure on themselves to be perfect and feel thoroughly disappointed when things don’t go their way. Relax. There’s a lot more to UX than being correct. Often, it’s better to admit you don’t have the answer and work with your team to find it — together.