Presentation given at the Ottawa Web Meetup in October 2015. Many small creative services agencies and startups begin hiring the same way: the first employee is often a developer, the next is a designer, and operations quickly scale from there at a mile a minute. End-users sometimes get left at the wayside in the name of artistic vision, efficiency or even - egos. So, how do you engrain UX best practices in a team that either doesn’t have the time, see the value, or possess the skill set to do so? It’s not always fast or easy, but it is always invaluable to the growth of your business. We’ll walk through processes and integration of user-centric best practices, skill sets, and shaping priorities in a small agency. Whether you’re a developer, designer, manager or salesperson - you’ll learn why prioritizing UX in your team will breed your best work.

1. BUILDING UX MATURITY
IN
A SMALL AGENCY
By Matt Tanner

2. Who is this guy?
@mtanner613

3. AGENCY
“STUDIO”
“CREATIVE GROUP”
“FREELANCER”
“FREELANCER”
“FIRM” “TEAM”

4. “CREATIVE SERVICES”

6. UX
Design
Visual
Design
Interactive
Design
More theoretical More tangible

7. UX
Design
Visual
Design
Interactive
Design
More theoretical More tangible

14. REALIZATION NUMBER ONE
USER EXPERIENCE
IS SLOWER TO BUILD
THAN CODE

21. REALIZATION NUMBER TWO
USER EXPERIENCE
IS SOMETIMES AN ENTIRELY
NEW LANGUAGE

23. ???

24. ???

34. Individuals
&
Interactions
Processes
&
Tools

35. Individuals
&
Interactions
Processes
&
Tools
Users
&
What They
Actually Do

36. Responding
to
Change
Following
a
Plan

37. Responding
to
Change
Following
a
Plan
Admitting
We Don’t
Know
Everything

38. PROTOTYPE
DESIGN
DEVELOP
TEST
DEPLOY

39. REALIZATION NUMBER THREE
USER EXPERIENCE
ACTUALLY REQUIRES
THE USER

42. “WITHOUT DATA,
YOU’RE JUST ANOTHER PERSON
WITH AN OPINION”
W. Edwards Deming

44. I expect ____________________.
I like ____________________.

45. What social networks would you expect to be able share to?
What have you liked in apps that do [some function]?
How do you typically approach doing [this action]?
What types of devices do you use to accomplish [this action]?

47. REALIZATION NUMBER FOUR
DATA
SPEAKS LOUDER THAN
OPINIONS

49. When I do ____________________,
I expect ______________________,
because _____________________.

53. When you see ____________________,
what do you expect it to do,
and why?

54. RESEARCH
PROTOTYPE
DESIGN
VALIDATE
DEVELOP
CODE TEST
USER TEST
DEPLOY

55. REALIZATION NUMBER ONE
USER EXPERIENCE
IS SLOWER TO BUILD
THAN CODE

56. REALIZATION NUMBER TWO
USER EXPERIENCE
IS SOMETIMES AN ENTIRELY
NEW LANGUAGE

57. REALIZATION NUMBER THREE
USER EXPERIENCE
ACTUALLY REQUIRES
THE USER

58. REALIZATION NUMBER FOUR
DATA
SPEAKS LOUDER THAN
OPINIONS