I recently started a new challenge as a UX consultant. This is now the second time in less than a year that I’ve started at a new place as a UX consultant and I have learned a few things about starting at a new organisation.
Whenever I start somewhere new, I always have to restrain myself from throwing out all the information I want to share with my new colleagues or supervisor. It is not because I want to be a UX superhero or ninja, but because I am eager to take the company to the next level in terms of UX maturity. I always have some kind of plan or strategy to help the company and my colleagues build better products. Sometimes I can lose myself in this and want to do everything from day one.
I’ve learned the hard way that when you come into a company somewhere new, it’s best to look around a bit and listen carefully to how the company and the people in it work:
- How are briefings conducted;
- How are projects determined;
- Who has the most power;
- Who believes in true user-centred products;
- Who listens to whom;
- Who has the biggest mouth;
- Why are things done the way they are done
- Etc.
In other words, I try to get a good understanding of the way of working, the exchange of values, and the stakeholders before I start talking about a new strategy.
At previous jobs, I did make this mistake. I immediately started implementing new plan of actions for projects and tried every meeting to take the opportunity to get my stakeholders to understand the importance of a more strategic approach. After months of trying, I finally had an AHA moment with my supervisor, but if I had taken the time to get to know the operations and stakeholders better, I could have achieved this a lot sooner.
I stopped assuming knowing how stakeholders work or what they expect. ASSUMptions make an ASS of U and Me.