Comments on: You like us, but do you know who we are? http://whitneyhess.com/blog/2008/01/30/you-like-us-but-do-you-know-who-we-are/ Improving the human experience one day at a time Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:24:43 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Sam http://whitneyhess.com/blog/2008/01/30/you-like-us-but-do-you-know-who-we-are/comment-page-1/#comment-37 Sam Thu, 31 Jan 2008 20:08:11 +0000 http://whitneyhess.com/blog/2008/01/you-like-us-but-do-you-know-who-we-are/#comment-37 Funny story from my time at Microsoft. An employee survey asked us to classify our role in the company, and like Cam, I found they were trying too hard to pigeon-hole the UCD function into buckets that didn't quite work. I sent it out to my team, and I some great responses. One is worth sharing; it went something like this: "It's not even just usability disciplines. I'm technical support at the end of usability studies when a user didn't get something. I'm QA when I'm arguing for bugs on the same level as other testers to impact the product. And I'm *constantly* selling - not the product, but my own skills and abilities to help people to understand what I do." I'm not sure the need for such a broad skill set is *unique* to our discipline, per se, but with how much its emerging (as Whit points out), we're going to need to be generalists for a long time to come. Funny story from my time at Microsoft. An employee survey asked us to classify our role in the company, and like Cam, I found they were trying too hard to pigeon-hole the UCD function into buckets that didn’t quite work.

I sent it out to my team, and I some great responses. One is worth sharing; it went something like this: “It’s not even just usability disciplines. I’m technical support at the end of usability studies when a user didn’t get something. I’m QA when I’m arguing for bugs on the same level as other testers to impact the product. And I’m *constantly* selling – not the product, but my own skills and abilities to help people to understand what I do.”

I’m not sure the need for such a broad skill set is *unique* to our discipline, per se, but with how much its emerging (as Whit points out), we’re going to need to be generalists for a long time to come.

]]> By: whitney http://whitneyhess.com/blog/2008/01/30/you-like-us-but-do-you-know-who-we-are/comment-page-1/#comment-35 whitney Thu, 31 Jan 2008 13:58:24 +0000 http://whitneyhess.com/blog/2008/01/you-like-us-but-do-you-know-who-we-are/#comment-35 Can't forget this one from July 07 http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/08/business/yourmoney/08starts.html?_r=1&oref=slogin Can’t forget this one from July 07

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/08/business/yourmoney/08starts.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

]]> By: Cam Beck http://whitneyhess.com/blog/2008/01/30/you-like-us-but-do-you-know-who-we-are/comment-page-1/#comment-31 Cam Beck Thu, 31 Jan 2008 02:32:15 +0000 http://whitneyhess.com/blog/2008/01/you-like-us-but-do-you-know-who-we-are/#comment-31 What a surprise. The old media still like their silos and neatly-packaged job descriptions (not unlike how they prefer neatly-packaged politicians, but that's another story, at another blog). This "discipline" (if you can classify it as such) is constantly evolving to the needs of the client, to the needs of the project, and to the needs of the environment. We do what we must to deliver a better product that meets and exceeds the requirements of the consumer. We're tough to pigeonhole, which is both a blessing and a curse. It's a blessing because we can be flexible. It's a curse because we constantly must prove our value to people who are trying to associate with us a familiar frame of reference that they don't have. What a surprise. The old media still like their silos and neatly-packaged job descriptions (not unlike how they prefer neatly-packaged politicians, but that’s another story, at another blog).

This “discipline” (if you can classify it as such) is constantly evolving to the needs of the client, to the needs of the project, and to the needs of the environment. We do what we must to deliver a better product that meets and exceeds the requirements of the consumer.

We’re tough to pigeonhole, which is both a blessing and a curse.

It’s a blessing because we can be flexible. It’s a curse because we constantly must prove our value to people who are trying to associate with us a familiar frame of reference that they don’t have.

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