Usability and User Experience Resources
Idea Market Afterthoughts 2005

Working on project teams: Getting others to appreciate your (our) skills

Activator: Ginny Redish

Questions

• Who else is on your team?

• What do you do to appreciate them?

• How do you get them to appreciate your skills?

Answers (for question 1)

• developers
• designers
• technical people
• copy writers
• clients
• product managers
• other consultants

Ideas (for questions 2 and 3)

• know the field
• take time to get to know the application
• understand the client's culture
• understand the business and the business case
• let them know you appreciate them
• make others feel comfortable
• be careful not to put others on the team on the defensive
• make what you want to happen seem like their idea
• take people to lunch to celebrate milestones
• bake brownies
• use humor
• have toys around; give out toys; have team paraphernalia
• volunteer
• appreciate yourself
• make your philosophy clear, especially when there are other consultants
• make sure that roles and responsibilities are clear
• appreciate that others have similar problems (can't get information in a timely fashion, are pressured by deadlines, etc.) 
• let them know your skills
• do training, mentoring, share your skills
• offer some services for free to get information that you need 
• be persistent
• find the person who appreciates your skills and get them to push for you with those who do not
• physical proximity helps teamwork
• be a team builder, facilitator
• listen
• don't take it personally
• do site visits with developers – apply our user-focused techniques to the team
• remember to include stakeholders in the loop
• talk about users (not my opinion or your opinion but what will work for the user)
• do a post-mortem and be sure to include everyone