1st session

I attended my first pre - conference session today. The session was with Margaret Hanley and was on UX team management. Much of the content was familiar, particularly the section on goal setting. The firm does a fairly good job of describing how to set goals, how to measure goals and coaching a team on completing goals. The more interesting bits, for me, were on the different types of managers and on the use of social network analysis within your own firm to ensure your projects are successful.

The different types of managers she described were: pure manager, manager and developer of the team, manager as practitioner, and manager as project lead. The pure manager has no other responsibility than to manage and lead the team. They focus on the allocation of work, developing the practice of UX, team management and finding work for the team. The manager as the manager and developer of the team is where the manager focuses on ensuring the development of the practice of UX and the mentoring of the individuals within the team. Here the run some projects to show leadership, but will not have much focus on managing upwards. The manager as practitioner is where the manager continues to have a active practitioner role, keeping their skills in UX current, but diluting the impact of them as a manager. Manager as a project lead is where you are leading a team through a project, or a series of projects while also being the line manager of the team. In this role the manager has an active role in developing the products, but the development of the practice of UX, the team and the individual suffers.

The idea is to self assess your own strengths, your interests and the firms needs and determine which role you are taking on in a active way. With this mind set you are better able to focus your attention where it is needed, and understand what areas will remain undeveloped, rather than trying to do all things for all people.

The second part I found interesting was the application of social network analysis to the political environment within your firm. If you are able to identify the key stakeholders, their influencers and the role each project team member has within the network, you can target your communications and actions, making them more effective. Not sure we are in an environment that will be conducive to this sort of analysis, but the implications were interesting.

Very interesting first day, if tiring. Which role does your manager take? Are they effective? Or are they spreading themselves too thin? How about me? If you are on my team, do you see me falling into one of these roles?