Part IV: Skill Set

It is difficult to assess skills without measuring behaviors associated with those skills. Due to the nature of this survey, direct observational assessment of UX skills within the

organization was not possible. Therefore, this section gathers information about skill sets through three lenses: role orientation, process orientation, and the UXmatters (Six, 2010) skill set

orientation. It seeks to understand the respondents’ perception of their proficiency, the

proficiency of their teammates, and the general proficiency of their organization in each of these categories. Looking through these three lenses offers a more complex and nuanced picture of skill sets in lieu ofdirect behavioral observation. In all questions for this section where proficiency is assessed, it is perceived proficiency and it is measured on a 7-point Likert-type scale. The 7-point proficiency scale used is as follows:

• 1: Not at all proficient

• 2: Knows the basics (limited)

• 3: Novice (limited)

• 4: Unsure

• 6: Advanced (a go to in the organization)

• 7: Expert (recognized authority)

In every organization, a role may manifest differently. For example, a business analyst in one organization may be charged with creating use cases and driving development work,

whereas in another organization the business analysts assesses the market opportunity and drive overall product direction. Thus, the list of roles described in the survey also reflects this

variability. The definitions of the list of roles in the survey may be subjective to the survey respondent’s experience. The data collected about skill set when looking through the role lens will be influenced by the expectations of the survey respondent about what that role should do. The variability that this introduces hinders neither the utility of survey results nor the ability of the response data to shed meaning on the perceived proficiency of the people in each of the roles. The roles fall into three general categories: technical, business, and design. These three general areas cover the gamut of roles observed during early in this research when I was embedded in several companies. The survey captures both the respondents’ roles and the roles present on their respective product delivery team(s). With respect to assessing the proficiency of roles at an organizational level, the aggregate of participants' ratings for each role has been used in the design of the survey.

The second lens used to assess perceived skill set elicits information about process orientation. As explained in the previous section on the overall survey design, collection, interpretation, and implementation are the three major parts of the UCD process. The data collected about skill set when looking through the process lens is influenced by the expectations of the survey respondent about what that role should do relative to that part of the process. Again, the variability that this introduces does not hinder the utility of the survey results or the

ability of the response data to shed light on the perceived proficiency of the organization in each phase of the process. With respect to assessing proficiency at each phase of the process at an organizational level, the aggregate of participants' ratings for each phase for all roles will be used.

As noted earlier, I drew upon the skill set listing in UXmatters (Six, 2010) to generate the list of actions, characteristics, priorities and attitudes that indicate proficiency relative to the data spectrum. Six (2010) breaks skills of UX professionals into nine major categories: core, business, communication, interpersonal, usability, media, technical, tools, and personal attributes. She does not address every skill listed in every category; however, she does address the general nine categories directly. Another challenge when asking about skill set directly is the difference between asking about the skill set of an individual and asking about the general skill set of the organization. The survey addresses that challenge by using different approaches to assessing individual skill sets and organizational skill sets. Individual skill sets are measured indirectly through the expectations of roles at each phase in the process. The assessment of organizational skill sets is elicited through direct questions (Table 4.8).

Table 4.8.

Skill Set Item Survey Questions

No. Question

How would you describe your overall company’s degree of proficiency with the following?

Core skills

• Coming up with great product ideas • Designing beautiful interfaces • Conducting ethnographic research

• Creating a holistic experience for an entire product line Business skills

• Identifying market opportunity • Identifying the MVPs

• Communication skills

Table 4.8. continued

Skill Set Item Survey Questions

No. Question

• Translating design ideas to development teams

• Interpersonal skills

• Listening to the user’s needs

• Usability skills

• Conducting usability tests

• Responding to user feedback post release

• Analyzing the effectiveness of released products • Media skills

• Technical skills

• Speed of iterating on product releases • Tools skills

4.10.2. Goal of the Skill Set Section

On the User Data Spectrum, the differing skills of individuals and of organizations, particularly in high-functioning organizations, are likely to match with where those entities land on the User Data Spectrum. Participatory companies may require higher core skills, such as user research and usability skills, whereas genius companies who do not engage in direct user data collection methods may not require high levels of user research and usability skills.

Table 4.9.

Part IV Questions

No. Question

Q37 For the roles you identify that are on your team, rank their level of proficiency in their job. Include yourself. If you have multiple people in the same role, think of the most proficient person and rank him/her.

Q42 The questions below will use the following definitions: User Data = Any data that represents the thoughts, actions, behaviors, words, needs, wants, context, and environments of the end stakeholder(s) interacting with the system. Interpret User Data = The act of translating user data collected into design language and/or system requirements. Implement User Data = The act of incorporating user data into the actual design or functionality of the system.

Table 4.9. continued

Part IV Questions

No. Question

Q36 Who is responsible on your team for bringing user data to the development process?

Q44 For those that you selected above that are responsible to collect user data, rate their level of proficiency. Rate yourself if you are the one that collects user data. If you have multiple people in the same role, think of the most proficient person and rank him/her.

Q38 For those that you selected above that are responsible to interpret user data, rate their level of proficiency. Rate yourself if you are the one that interprets user data. If you have multiple people in the same role, think of the most proficient person and rank him/her.

Q39 For those that you selected above that are responsible to implement user data, rate their level of proficiency. Rate yourself if you are the one that implements user data. If you have multiple people in the same role, think of the most proficient person and rank him/her.

Q40 What is your background?

Q41 How would you describe your overall company’s degree of proficiency with the following?

4.11. Part V: Representativeness