The "hard" and "soft" skills to look for when hiring a UX Designer
The most important skills for any UX Designer could be classified as both hard and soft skills.
There is a lot that goes into becoming a competent designer. Mastery of tools, of processes, and also an ability to connect and collaborate with a wide variety of people. Stakeholders, clients, colleagues, customers, and the observation of their unique behaviors. Then balancing the wants, needs, and expectations of each take a thoughtful individual, to say the least.
I personally feel the amount needed to learn only grows if you're pursuing a career in UX or Product Design which can be so varied in definition and scope of work from one organization to another. Or even one designer to another. How you define what UX means inside your organization and what value you bring as a designer is an important developmental step in your career.
Today I'd like to talk about some of the skills to look for when hiring UX designers. From the initial review of their resume, portfolio, website, into the initial phone screen and all the way down to the in-person interview. You should be both intentionally and unintentionally looking for these 5 hard and 5 soft skills in particular.
Let's start with the Hard skills
Now, let's get one thing straight. By "Hard" skills I don't mean skills that are difficult to master, though they CAN be quite difficult to master. I'm talking about more tangible skills like producing designs in a particular piece of software or any other complex task. These are the necessary skills to do the job of a designer in most organizations.
Empathy
Human connection and understanding your customer’s point of view are essential. Empathy comes into play when gathering research for your project. Connecting with stakeholders to unearth requirements, interviewing customers, understanding human struggle and triumph. These activities can be essential in shaping how you understand the humans you'll be solving problems for.The skill of active listening can be a hard skill to build up but will help you tremendously in understanding the "why" behind someone’s speech, actions, thoughts and not have you just waiting until it's your turn to speak. "Seek to understand before being understood".
Problem framing
You can't get the design right if you're solving the wrong problem. As empathy will help you better connect with humans and the problems you'll be trying to solve for them. It will take some curiosity, digging, and filtering of information in order to frame the problem you'll be tackling. One, for clarity's sake, and two to ensure everyone is on the same boat.Now to be clear, framing a problem is not solving a problem. Problem framing is all about deeply understanding and externalizing or sharing the problem from the user/customer’s point of view. This will ensure everyone on the team knows who is affected by the problem, what the real problem is, and why it should be solved in the first place. See this article by Atlassian or this article "A Guide to Problem Framing" from Lillian Xiao.
Seeing the whole picture
Being able to connect all the dots to ensure consistency and cohesiveness across an organization. One of the biggest problems I see in most organizations is inconsistency across products and efforts. This typically comes from teams being disjointed and not clearly aligned to an ultimate product vision. Now let's be clear. It's not the sole responsibility of the designer to set and ensure everything meets this ultimate vision and standard. But it is extremely important for a designer to understand how their piece of the puzzle connects with other projects, products, services, and teams inside an organization.It's good to see a designer who can think in systems and has the ability to see beyond the screen they are designing in front of them. Going back to empathy, a big part of being a successful designer inside an organization will be the ability to connect with, collaborate and share solutions across teams.
Prototyping
Doesn't matter what software you use. You just need to be able to make something you can put in people's hands. I believe this is the one skill that truly separates what a designer does from what a lot of other professionals do. Taking something that is being talked about and turning it into something that is real. That can be held, interacted with, touched, and affect the human interacting with it.Look for the designer with this bias towards action. The one who can quickly draw an idea on a wall in order to convey an idea. Who can quickly create a prototype a developer can hold in their hands, so they understand what they'll be building from a better standpoint than having just read some requirements about it. Prototyping, in my opinion, is the most important skill, ability, tool a designer has at their disposal.
Testing
Not only is it important to be able to prototype and experience, but a good designer also needs the ability to watch a user interact with said product or any other product for that matter. Analyze the findings craft a solution to tackle the problem areas, and share those next steps with a group of people is a skill that will take you very far and often be the best path towards innovation.It's no easy task to watch someone struggle to understand or use a design you spent a ton of time creating. Designers who have self-awareness and are humble enough to know the user is judging the product and not them have an easier time learning from failures and not being set back by them. It's a rare breed that doesn't let ego get in the way of progress.
Now let's talk about the soft skills
What exactly are soft skills you ask? These are the skills that are a little less tangible, a little harder to grasp, and a little harder to teach or learn. Though not impossible to learn and continuously improve upon. Soft skills are your behaviors and personality traits. How you behave in social situations, how you communicate and get along with all types of people.
Show Up Everyday
Do the work. Repeat. I read an article a while back entitled something along the lines of "Show up every day for 2 years". I can't seem to find the original article, but this video sums it up pretty well. No one can deny someone who continuously shows up, puts in the work, never complains, and is always there when needed. This part takes no talent, no specialized degree, and will typically make a candidate more appealing.How does a designer show a possible employer that they are this type of person? They show up on time to the interview, over-prepared. Send nice, thoughtful follow-ups. Show the work they've put in at other organizations. Document and show the growth they've made in the last year, two years, five years. Show they can consistently deliver even when it's not the most exciting project in the world. They show the value they add by the positive energy they bring into the room.
Learn how to empathize
Wait, I thought this was a hard skill. Yes, I put it in both categories because it's that important. There are tangible skills that go along with empathizing like conducting user interviews, etc... but generally learning how to view the world from someone else perspective without polluting it with your own biases is a little less tangible.Generally being aware of other’s emotions, perspectives or just plain existence shows a person who cares. A person who is concerned with more than themselves and is a willing, active participant in team collaboration which are essential traits in any good designer.
Communication
Communication is the key to gaining and building trust and trust is the key to building teams. Above all else. I believe that Communication and Trust are the two most important skills for any designer, well for any professional for that matter.Communication is the bedrock of an experience. Whether it’s visual, written, or iconographic. If it’s communicated poorly, users won’t trust it. If they don’t trust it, they won’t use it. Trust and communication are also the bedrock of building a team.
Teams that can’t trust or communicate with each other will have a hard time convincing anyone else to do so. Innovation will lag as designers and others weren't comfortable enough with their teams or leadership to take a chance or risk looking foolish as they strive for creating something new.
Curiosity
Look for those who are always searching. The type that answers, "I'm not sure, but let me find out". The type that won't let something sit until they understand it. The truth is nobody has or will ever have all the answers. But what you're looking for is the person who is just plain curious enough to never stop learning. To never stop searching for the answers.On the flip side of that, it's important to be the type of person that's not afraid when what you think you know for sure is challenged. The ability to not react protectively over held ideas. This quote by Mark Twain is one of my all-time favorites. “What gets us into trouble is not what we don't know. It's what we know for sure that just ain't so.”
Don't be afraid to challenge what you think you know by constantly seeking out new stimuli, advice, knowledge, and ideas that challenge what you assume you know for sure.
Passion
In order to be a person who will continue to search for answers, be a great communicator who can empathize with folks from all walks of life. A person who will show up every day and do the work necessary to solve problems. That person better have some passion. Passion for people, passion for problem-solving, passion for creating, and just generally passion for life.A big part of being a designer is inspiring others. Inspiring them to step out of their comfort zones, inspiring them to challenge their ideas and believes, inspiring someone to think and view a problem from a different perspective. Inspire others with your passion, it can separate talent from success.
The good news is that all of these skills can be learned, improved upon, and refined as you and your career progresses. In fact, these are skills that can help almost any career, the soft skills, in particular, will carry over into all aspects of your life and progress. Any designer, no matter how seasoned, advanced or successful should make it a point to continuously improve these skills in their own lives and ventures.
If you found this article helpful, please pass it along to the aspiring designers in your life. If you have anything to add. Please help me fill in the blanks.
