Thingie, gizmo, schmitzik, whatchamacallit

Am I the template?

Thingie, gizmo, schmitzik, whatchamacallit

You’re trying to finish a project around the house and you need that one thing to get it done. It’s a tool, or maybe a part, and it has to exist because you can’t be the first person to do this, but you just don’t know what it’s called, so how on earth are you supposed to order it from Amazon?

Or maybe your company manufactures that very tool, exactly the thing needed to complete that common home project task. How do you market it on Amazon if nobody knows what it’s called?

I have a similar challenge. Maybe you do too?

After building Web sites and Web applications I got a job as an “information architect,” which eventually morphed into the discipline of User Experience Design. The role of the UX Design team is to conduct research in order to determine requirements, and then design a

In the beginning there was waterfall. While today

For most of my career I’ve been involved in User Experience Design, primarily conducting discovery and producing d. I eventually took on leadership roles, as one does, managing cross-disciplinary teams charged with developing innovative user-friendly experiences for complex legacy back-end systems. where we utilized traditional

When I started in this field, “waterfall” wasn’t a bad word. To the contrary, it was a cutting-edge methodology intended to minimize risk by dividing the project into discrete stages, enabling each stage to be fully completed and verified before any resources need be committed to the next stage. The “Design” phase in particular offered the promise to stakeholders that they needn’t invest in a single line of code until every aspect of the proposed product had been fully reviewed, tested, and approved.

As companies marketed themselves on their ability to provide discrete discovery, design, development and deployment services, they quite naturally organized themselves into some version of discovery, design, development and deployment teams. As the limitations of the step-wise approach became apparent, the term “waterfall” became perjorative, and consulting firm pitch decks began touting the benefits of their Agile methodologies.

When I speak with companies that do software development these days, they almost always tell me they’re Agile, to one degree or another. However, what they usually mean is once the discovery and design phases have been completed by the appropriate team or teams, deliverables are handed off to the Development team, who divide the work into sprints and have daily standups to track their progress in completing Development/Implementation phase.

So what does this mean for us?

Over the course of my career I’ve learned a few things about how to create, develop, and maintain digital products. I have extensive experience as a UX Designer and UX Team Leader producing deliverables for the Discovery and Design phases. I’m also experienced in the Develop/Implementation phase, both as coder and a Scrum Product Owner.

That, then, is the challenge.

The challenge we have is the skills I can offer

can also code, and I have experience as a Product Owner h

Even as the industry began to understand the limitations of the step-wise approach, and iterative approaches such a the Agile methodology began to take hold, most co

The step-wise nature of the waterfall methology naturally

was intended to offering a can’t lose, minimal risk proposition to stakeholders that they needn’t invest in a single line of code until every aspect of the final design of their product had been fully vetted and even tested.

Every pitch from any agency or consulting firm worth its salt included several slides touting the benefits of their proprietary take on the waterfall methodology, and they organized their

Many of my prior roles have “User Experience” in the job title. I have extensive experience as a UX Designer, conducting user research, documenting requirements, creating wireframes, diagramming flows, producing prototypes, etc., as well as as a UX Team Leader, where I managed and mentored other UX designers. However, while I strongly believe the skills an experienced UX Designer brings to the table are essential

and prototypes but I’m not exactly a User Experience Designer anymore. I can write code, but “Developer” probably isn’t the right job title to search for. I’ve managed large inter-disciplinary teams, but I’m not seeking a traditional “Management” role. The term “Product Owner” gets closer, but as a certified Scrum Product Owner I’m reasonably confident it isn’t an exact match either.

, and “Project Manager” is definitely not it.I’m definitely not a “project manager,” although “Product Owner” is a little closer to the mark.

used to market myself as a User Experience Designer, but that isn’t exactly right anymore. Agile Product Owner doesn’t quite capture it either.

From Web Developer to User Experience Designer to Innovation Team Leader to Agile Product Team Member to… maybe we can collaborate on what to call it

I started in this field building Web sites and Web applications for a number of freelance clients, using HTML, CSS, and various frameworks and scripting languages. For most of my career, though, I called myself a “User Experience Designer,” conducting user research, testing, requirements gathering and documentation, wireframing and prototyping for several ad agencies and consulting firms. I then took on “leadership” roles, as one does, heading up inter-disciplinary “product innovation” teams tasked with creating entirely new, easy-to-use interfaces for complex legacy back-end systems.

Back then, every agency pitch deck bragged about their innovative waterfall methodology, promising stakeholders they’d be able to review and sign off on exactly what the finished product would be before investing in single line of code. Once the project managers reported to me, though, rather than the other way around, it became clear that while this stepwise approach might work when building a house, it’s simply the wrong way to organize and manage the process of delivering software products. While at GE I attended Scrum Alliance training and obtained certifications as a Scrum Master and Scrum Product Owner, but we were only able to put certain aspects of the methodology into practice.

After the collapse of GE, I was recruited to join a new product development team that would closely adhere to the principles of the Agile methodology. In this role I not only went “back to my roots” and rediscovered just how satisfying it can be to write code, but I’ve also learned a few things about how to create, deliver, and maintain digital products.