Doing user experience design work at a digital agency is very different from doing it at a startup or small product company. I should know: I spent the first 15 years of my career in and running agencies and for the past year have been leading the UX effort at a small (50ish) but successful startup called Recurly in San Francisco. (You may have heard of us.)
In this talk, I’ll be sharing my experiences on both sides, the strengths and weaknesses of each, and sharing a few recommendations for the UX designer just starting out or thinking of making the leap from one to the other.
6. Team.
Visual Designer
UI Designers (2)
Front-End Engineers (2)
UX Designer / Design Director (me)
Philosophy.
Everything is UX (and UX is Everything)
Work.
Product
Marketing
You name it
DESIGN AT RECURLY
8. DESIGN AT AGENCIES
🌄
What is an Agency?
Work for hire: Client services, Consulting, Freelance
Paid to produce something, and then hand it off
External to company and product
Short-term relationship with the client and the product (usually)
Some environments are better than others
9. DESIGN AT AGENCIES
🌄
How does it work?
Focus on billing hours and producing deliverables
Waterfall process
Estimated and then billed by the hour
Multiple clients and projects at once
More specialized skill set and defined roles related to waterfall
Less iterative, more sequential
Hard(er) Deadlines
10. DESIGN AT AGENCIES
🌄
Why does it work this way?
Traditional Ad Agency Model (think Mad Men)
Clients pay for “deliverables”
Deliverables have to look good (PSDs, not sketches)
Resource management is hard
14. What is a Startup?
A company with a product or service
Creating or improving quickly with a goal of acquisition or IPO
Design for an internal team helping to create or improve the product
Long-term relationship with the product and customers
Some environments are better than othersDESIGN AT STARTUPS
🚀
15. How does it work?
Focus on improving the product to meet customer needs
Process is collaborative (sometimes) and lean (hopefully)
Broader skill set required
Flexible deadlines (sorta)
DESIGN AT STARTUPS
🚀
16. Why does it work this way?
Build faster
Learn faster
Customers, not clients
Product effectiveness
DESIGN AT STARTUPS
🚀
20. It depends.
There are upsides to both
Start at an agency, move to a product company
Think about what you like to do most and focus there
Consider lifestyle you want
Look for somewhere that appreciates UX from the top down
Never stop learning
Keep skills current
Design A LOT
Volunteer
Share your work (early and often)
so... WHAT TO DO?
%
22. Questions?
❓
@mntgmry
Additional Reading.
!
UX Design at Digital Agencies is F*cked (Part 2 & a Response)
Lean UX in an Agency World
How I’ve Come to Love Agile UX Design
The Agile Mindset – Perceptions around Failure
How I Learned to Become a Failure
The McDonald’s Theory
Lean UX: Getting Out Of The Deliverables Business
10 Most Common Misconceptions About UX Design
Konigi: User Experience Definitions
When To Apply UX
Apple's Design Approach
“Your Brain Is Hooked on Being Right”
Thinking, Fast and Slow
Insights on Collaborating with Steve Jobs
This Advertising Life
Tweets.
!
@mntgmry