Becoming a UX Coach

This is focused on being a consultant and coaching your clients. Not really very focused on us, aside from our relationship with HFI.
Can feel like we have hit a brick wall within the practice. Not making a giant leap in impact.
The traditional approach to management has its roots in an autocratic command and control approach. This is imprinted in us in elementary school and we expect it.
Coaching is more like counseling, so will not always work. It requires two way communication and willingness to work together.
Business acumen - we get MBA's to help us learn their language.
Frustrating thing is this never seems to go away, we always have to explain what it is that we do, why it is needed.
Transformational Coaching: What?
The are of assisting people to enhance their effectiveness in a way they feel helped.
When?
Need to be seen as a partner, not a provider.
How does this work?
Coaching Steps
1st step: grow
Set a goal + reality which maps to Research + Discovery - seek first to understand (Covey)
Tools for UX work that help at this stage: usability testing, card sorting, analytics, competitive analysis, heuristic evaluation
Option + will maps to Alignment.
Tools for UX - get commitment to make changes.
2nd step: Modeling, training, simulation
UX - teach others to do the usability testing.
3rd step: Gestalt - mind shift from doing to being
UX - listening and planning together.
4th step: Relationship building
5th step: Trust and Honesty
Trusted advisor
The heart of transformation
1 changing mindsets
Think less like a boss and more like a coach.
2 ego stuff
move from an ego driven state to a centered state
3 becoming more centered
4 a matter of style
collaborating, creating , clarifying, conducting - I am a creating person.
Creating
Strengths - enthusiastic, creative
Weakness - poor attention to detail
4 generational style
5 leadership by example + self disclosure
"what you do speaks so loud I cannot hear what you say"
So the second part is very applicable to what I do, and where we are headed. Check references.
Presentation at nform.ca/blog or slideshare.net
yvonne.shek@nform.ca