Why is this so frustrating?

A UX leadership framework for all levels

A UX leadership framework for all levels

Photo by ahmad gunnaivi on Unsplash

The scenario is this — you’re trying to fix a problem but every time you make a move forward, someone or something in your organisation stops you from achieving a positive outcome.

You have no idea why this is happening, but it’s driving you crazy. And the more you try, the more you fail.

Whether you are leading a team, a project, or a task — sometimes it seems that everything is working against you.

Why is this happening?

Some people are problem-solvers. Especially in UX. They see something, they want to fix it. Or, people come to them to fix problems because they are clever and (more importantly) effective people.

First you need to ask yourself one fundamental question..

Is this really your problem to solve?

Here’s the framework

There are three simple things that you need in order to deliver successful outcomes for any team, project or task. But you absolutely must have all three of them:

1. Responsibility

Again — is this your problem to solve?

Responsibility is not just something you take on proactively from the goodness of your own heart— it has to be something that the team, people and organisation around you also say is your responsibility.

If no, hand it over to someone who is responsible and walk away (or establish the level of your supporting role). Yes I know it’s hard, but trust me it will save you a lot of time and workplace stress.

If yes, move on to the next two points below.

Scenario 1: You need to hire a new UX Designer. The tasks involved are — writing a recruitment spec, briefing a recruiter, screening CVs, running interviews, choosing the right candidate. That’s a lot of work. You’re going to need the next two things…

2. Control

OK, so you are responsible. In which case, you need to first get control of the situation.

You need to understand the problem and start looking at solutions. You need to be given all the information and have anyone who has already been looking at this problem, tell you or hand over everything they know and step away or at a minimum stop any current related activity for a second while you catch up.

Scenario 1: You need to audit the team skills, review any previous job specs, benchmark salaries in the team and in the industry, find recruiters, write a job spec, brief recruiters and so on… you simply cannot do this, or it is at best an epic waste of your time if anyone else is also doing this work.

3. Empowerment

As well as doing the work in #2, you also need to be allowed to make appropriate decisions. You cannot, at any point, have someone else come along and demand that