How to Hire Your First UX Professional

Hiring a UX expert can be confusing and overwhelming. Find the right person by learning what skills your first hire should have and what work they must do.

So, You’re Ready to Hire a UX Expert

Adding a UX pro to your digital product team is an excellent decision, but you’re probably realizing that it’s easier said than done. Determining your team’s needs, evaluating UX skills, figuring out how a new voice fits into your organization, and ensuring you hired the right person can be a tall order. It’s especially tough if UX still feels like a mystery to you. Choosing the right applicant can be overwhelming when nearly everyone claims to have UX expertise.

Start the hiring process off strong by understanding your needs and what a true UX pro can do for you.

Understand What a UX Pro Does

When most people say they “do UX,” they often mean they do some form of web or app design. But visual approaches are never enough to make user-centered digital products, and a true UX expert does far more than cosmetic interface work.

A UX expert develops and executes a user-centered strategy from the very beginning of work on a digital product. They help organizations identify their goals and align them with the needs of the real people who use the product. Not only are they advocates for users’ needs, but they’re the driving force behind the planning and creation of user-friendly digital products. This includes establishing UX processes and best practices in your organization.

First, Evaluate Your Needs

Your needs and products are unique to you. You must determine what your team needs from a UX professional.

What Problem(s) Are You Trying to Solve?

What has led your organization to realize a UX expert is needed? Maybe your call center receives a constant torrent of complaints. Or your product is frustrating, confusing, and unwieldy. Your software may be hopelessly out of date, so you want to modernize it the right way. Perhaps a competitor offers a better user experience, and you’re concerned they are going to outdo you. Your development team may be outright asking for someone to define and design a better UI. Or you may simply have a feeling that something is off, that your product isn’t serving your customers as it should, and you sense a better user experience is the answer.

Understanding the problem you’re trying to solve will determine how a UX pro fits into your team. The trick is identifying the right person.

How Many Experts Do You Need?

If your organization is small, one UX expert may be sufficient if they’re comfortable wearing many hats. But having only one UX resource won’t work if your organization is large. On larger product teams, a solo UX pro will quickly become overwhelmed by the volume of work required to create or revamp digital products. Large companies need to hire for a specific role and build from there.

Next, Understand UX Specialties

UX experts have a variety of roles, job descriptions, and areas of emphasis. These can be broken down into high-level categories that address different organizational needs.

UX Roles

UX pros offer various kinds of expertise. Broadly speaking, this expertise comes in three overarching types.

• UX Strategy — If you are starting from the ground up, you need someone to help you define what you are going to make and who you are going to make it for. You need strategic guidance. This usually includes user research and user-centered product definition.
• Product Design — If you have a digital product that needs improvement or redesign, you need someone who can assess the current state of things, process requirements, and create wireframes or prototypes.
• Production — You may be far down the line. You’ve defined a product (perhaps with the help of an external UX firm) and need to make sure all the details hold to the vision. You need a UX pro who is a master of detail, whether they are writing microcopy, designing UI elements, or authoring front-end code. This type of UX pro is right only if you have already defined a strong, user-friendly experience. Be careful. Many organizations hire a production professional when they really need more foundational UX Strategy or Product Design expertise.

No one person can fulfill all of these UX roles at a high level. They will inevitably be better at some things than other things.

Areas of Emphasis

Beyond roles, each UX pro has an inclination or a way of thinking that helps them excel in certain projects.

The Creative Type
If your product is driven by marketing, a creative UX pro may be the best fit. This UX pro is skilled at bridging the gap between an organization’s goals and users’ tasks. They can generally help brainstorm creative (sometimes visual) solutions with limited direction. They’re great at defining corporate websites, intranets, B2C apps, or other digital products that must thrive in a highly competitive, public market.

The Technical Type
A UX pro who skews on the more technical or analytical side thrives in development-centric environments. They are conversant in front-end and back-end code, and they can understand how data affects user experience. They’re skilled at incorporating UX best practices into Agile processes and are great for complex, data-driven web applications or software, as well as mission-critical internal apps.

Putting it Together

Carefully consider where you are in the product development process. Which stage you’re at will determine what kind of broad UX role you’ll need. The kind of focus your organization has will also determine what area of emphasis your first hire must have. You’ll need to hire someone who has the same creative or technical acumen as your team. This thought exercise will give you a clearer idea of the UX pro you need.

Making Your First UX Hire

The first UX hire is the toughest. It also depends mightily on the size of your organization and team.

For Smaller Teams: The Jack-of-All-Trades
A single UX resource on a smaller team will need to do a bit of everything. This is not ideal but is often an unavoidable reality. Your user experience will feel half-baked if you hire someone who is skilled in only one aspect of creating user-friendly digital products.

You’re not looking for a UX unicorn. No one can do everything. But if your budget only allows for one UX pro, you must find a well-rounded person who is strong at what they do and can grow stronger in other areas.

For Larger Teams: The Foundation
Large organizations should focus on hiring someone who fulfills their most pressing UX need first. This may be someone who can dissect poor experiences and rethink product interfaces, a more hands-on UX pro with appropriate creative or technical leanings.

Hire this person with an eye toward finding the right cornerstone for a larger, more well-rounded team. This person needs to understand their limitations and be able to help you identify missing roles.

Essential Qualities

Regardless of your products or team, regardless of UX role or area of emphasis, your first UX hire must possess these qualities.

Be a Seasoned Pro

Your first UX hire can’t be new to the field. They must have experience conducting user research, creating wireframes and prototypes, and working with teams on a user-centered process. Don’t hire a traditional designer, agency writer, or standard front-end developer — you are looking for someone with a true UX background and track record.

Understand UX Processes

Your expert must have a strong understanding of how to envision, define, and make user-friendly digital products. They must be able to assess your current processes and identify where UX practices and thinking are needed. If they can’t change your processes, then UX will not become embedded in your organization. And if that person leaves the organization, then UX leaves with them.

Have Leadership Capabilities

Your first UX hire must be a leader. This means they will need to confidently make UX decisions and push the team toward user-centered processes. They must be proactive in leading an organization to better user experience.

If you plan to develop a team of UX experts, your first hire will also need to be able to find the right talents and build/train the right team. This can’t be someone who is afraid to be in the spotlight.

Find Your One True UX Pro

Taking a careful assessment of your organization’s needs, understanding the high-level UX roles, and the types of experts out there will help you identify the right hire for you.

Finding a real UX pro who fits your specific needs isn’t easy. But you can start the process feeling more definitive in what you need and who you are looking for.

It will take some time. Be picky and stay true to your standards. You’ll find the perfect UX professional, and your organization will be empowered with streamlined, user-centered processes, which in turn will lead to better digital products.

About truematter

Our team has been doing the real work of user experience since the earliest days of the commercial web. We’re out to make your digital products a whole lot better.

Author: @ItsDLarry
Graphic: @krisblack