Developing Junior Programs in UX

Developing Junior Programs in UX

Panel of:
Mags Hanley
Karen Loasby
Henning Fischer

Design your ideal junior using paper -mine looks like:
Job title: Intern
Duration: 1 year, part time during school year
Attributes: flexible, eager to learn; intelligent; diligent; humble
Skills & Experience: Customer service, exposure to topics, had a IA class, had lab test class
Education: BS if in Master's program. in progress in BS with a degree in field
Expectation: wants experience, looking to grow.
Discussion around these items. Very different concepts from mine.

BBC program
Karen Loasby
15 junior IAs since 2002
2 juniors in a team of 16, but first when team only 3.

Why?
difficult recruitment market for everyone
demand exceeds supply
BBC is special
Public Service
training is heavy investment
"Contributing to the development of the wider UK internet sector."

Benefits for BBC
Very little competition for juniors
built in loyalty
reduced salary bill
train our way
fresh ideas from academia
enthusiasm

Finding People
work experience scheme - unpaid, 2 - 3 weeks on projects
other BBC teams "we pillage other teams"
contacts
advertising on our websites
interview: short test & 1 hr interview

The role
take noes in usability testing, help organize tests, prepare wireframes, sort out daa for prototypes and tests, write up notes from workshops, taxonomy development, search and server log analysis, collecting screenshots for competitive reviews . . .

"Develop work that they can do for a long period of time, but with a short
briefing." So things we look at temps for.

Training
formal BBC training for soft skills (presentation, influencing, creative facilitation)
peer training (card-sorting, usability testing)
practical experience

Promotion and retention
1 still junior
6 promoted, 1 now senior
3 left and stayed in BBC
1 left and returned
4 left the BBC

Approach to promotion
regular promotion opportunities needed
interview for all promotions
about 1 year in, have opportunity for mid way role. So move from junior to normal.

Issues
effort/investment
career changers - coming in with advanced business skills, so the relationships etcetera - but next level is based on technical skills, not business skills.
job title - currently called junior Information Architect. They want to remove that junior level off within a month. Too quickly.
hanging onto them - 6 months in, they become attractive to the marketplace - so they start to leave.
operational work - becomes hard for them to be doing this work over time. Need to give them a chance to do more than this, so they can demonstrate that they can be a information architect.
reputation with "clients" - once you have been a junior, harder for the business to see them outside of this role.

Going forward
1 year contract, 3 months assignments
2 juniors
1 day per fortnight in training
usability / user research, wireframes, design, metadata, + one in interest area
Talk to team about running an internship / fresh grad program. I wonder if we could get a program together working with Giovanni as a year long program, based on temp style contract and no expectation of hiring at the end of that year. Might help us with any churn, identify potential people for Florence's team / Darin's team.

WTG Junior Program
Mags Hanley
Developing a graduate program for business analysts and information architects.
12 month program for 2 people.
mentoring by senior member of each team.
Writing the paper to pitch the program was easy, developing the program is hard.
Looking for someone with a degree and some kind of work.
Organization is very interested in developing junior staff, but you need practical HR help to get the program off the ground. People need to see support and progression forward.
Great motivator for senior staff. People looking for development, can see this as a great opportunity.
Need to find the time for the program, and need to time it correctly. Is this the right time for us to develop this sort of a program?
Next steps are: hire the senior IA, get the recruitment together, start the program in June.
Curriculum looks to be 1) get to understand the organization, 2) gain technical skills. Have them redesign the internal web site, have them work on client work.

Adaptive Path
Henning Fischer
Internships were very unprofessional
Summer internship: 10 weeks, 2-4 people.
Long term internship: 3-6 months 1-2 people.

Who: The interns
Areas of practice: design, IA, researchers
Hire according to your areas of expertise

Academic Background
Bring in students from programs you are familiar with, you can teach them, and they can teach you.

Personal Qualifications
People who have an arc, who are goal oriented, how can we help you do what you want to do? Look for passion.

What: The Program
Client Projects + Research & Development
Never more than one intern per project. They need that attention.
Teach by doing

Advocacy
Buddy on staff who is responsible for your care and feedback.
Treat interns like full employees

Where: Recruiting
Outreach: Targeted vs general.
Application processes: case by case vs all at once.
Used to do case by case, now doing all at once.
Closing the deal: You want what?
What clients, what kind of sexy work will they be doing with you?
Perks: we don't have a pool.
They want a lot more money than they can pay.

When: the timing
October: Send out early feelers
December: Have your program in place
January: recruit
March: hire
May: Prepare for them to come in, panic about project assignments
June - August: Work them to death
September: Follow up

A good intern program requires a year round commitment