Top

Column: Management Matters

UXmatters has published 12 editions of the column Management Matters.

Top 3 Trending Management Matters Columns

  1. Power or Collaboration—What’s Most Valuable to a UX Leader?

    Management Matters

    Managing UX teams

    A column by Jim Nieters
    January 5, 2011

    In October 2010, I was fortunate to participate in a panel discussion at the Mobile HCI conference in Lisbon Portugal titled “Guru’s Views,” [1] with moderator Bruno von Niman, who is a long-time UX visionary in the mobile space. In my opening statement, I pointed out that designers increasingly have the opportunity to facilitate strategy dialogues among stakeholders within our companies and, ultimately, to align product teams around a powerful design-led vision. In response, Josh Ulm of Vodafone pointed out that trying to gain support for design efforts through collaboration was no longer worth his time. If his design team did not have the sponsorship and support of senior leaders, including the CEO, it just took too much effort to make progress, so he would rather find a company where he could more easily make a difference.

    In this column, we’ll explore these very questions: Do UX leaders need to acquire and wield power to ensure their organizations can produce game-changing design? If they don’t already have executive support, can they can collaborate their way to success? Read More

  2. Thriving in a Difficult Economy: A Tale of Ugly Babies and Sacred Cows

    Management Matters

    Managing UX teams

    A column by Jim Nieters
    February 9, 2009

    The brutal fact is—we’re in a difficult economy. Every day, we hear about another company that’s laying off employees. Just yesterday, an article on Yahoo! News reported “Mass layoffs involving 50 or more workers increased sharply last year, and large cuts appear to be accelerating in 2009 at a furious pace.”

    In fact, there were layoffs at Yahoo! itself in December. Letting people go is traumatic for everyone involved. It’s traumatic for the employees who are laid off, whose relationships to their livelihoods—not to mention their friends and colleagues—are abruptly severed. It’s painful to the remaining employees, whose friends and colleagues were so abruptly removed. Sometimes companies must make deep budget cuts to succeed, but it’s painful, and those of us who have been through layoffs before agree that it seems to get harder every time we do it.

    When I look at who gets laid off though—regardless of the company—it’s always surprising. How do companies make the choices to lay some people off and keep others? In all of the layoffs I’ve observed, some of the most talented researchers, designers, and leaders have gotten laid off, while some much less skilled people remain. Why might that be? Read More

  3. So You Want to Be a UX Manager—Seriously?

    Management Matters

    Managing UX teams

    A column by Jim Nieters
    April 22, 2008

    This is my first column on the management of UX. In my column, I’ll articulate what I’ve learned from my experience as a senior leader and several years in intensive senior leadership development programs.

    Have you ever known a manager you felt shouldn’t manage people? Maybe you’ve worked for one. Most of us have at one point or another. On the other hand, most of us have also had great managers. What sets great managers apart from bad ones? That’s one of the questions I’ll explore in this article.

    Almost weekly, I talk with a UX designer or researcher who wants to become a manager of a UX team. For some people, this is a good choice. Both they and their teams thrive. But for many, it’s honestly not the right goal, and the end result is that neither they nor their teams are happy. The book Now, Discover Your Strengths [1] suggests that we tend to be good at the things we love doing, and we love activities at which we excel. I find that we do our best work when we’re in a playground. (I’ll explore this idea more in my next column.) Isn’t life too short to pursue a path we don’t enjoy? Read More

Champion Advertisement
Continue Reading…

New on UXmatters