Talk / prezo given to Brooklyn UX meet-up in Nov 2015. If you'd like me to present this to your group/team, please contact me!

1. Leading the Startup UX in 100 Days
Brooklyn UX Meetup : Nov 2015
Uday Gajendar, Principal UX Consultant
@udanium / udanium@gmail.com

2. Oracle
BEA
Adobe
Cisco
Citrix
~ 15 years of experience
E-business Suite
WebLogic IDE
License Systems
VOIP Phones
Cloud/Virtualization
frog Netflix LinkedIn

3. tt- +
tº
Marketing
Product
Mgmnt
Biz Dev
Sales
Channel
Engineering

4. “We value good UX!”
Greatly celebrated yet
poorly executed :-(
*

5. Too many hats, overwhelming, ship it now
No process, no structure
“Make me an icon now!”
Unclear who is target user/persona
Agile/Lean run crazy, not thoughtful
Sound familiar?

6. Uday Gajendar / @udanium / ghostinthepixel.com BayCHI 8/12 at PARC
A/B Testing!
Prototype the Biz Model!
Customers!
Tons of Data!
Validation!
Product Functionality
Strategy & Roadmap
Team / Resources
Time & Money

7. OMG
!

8. Influence the vision & strategy.
Cultivate good design habits.
Build what customers will love.
Breathe.

9. Use the damn product. Truly.
Absorb the founders’ vision.
Buddy up with Sales. Really.
Apply design instinct. Carefully.
Know thy business.
Influence the vision & strategy.1

10. #ExecutiveProTip
Learn their criteria for
annual reviews and figure
out how to support them.

11. "Making relationships is just as important as
making software or making design." John Maeda

12. #ExecutiveProTip
Understand the org
structure of the
executive’s peers &
subordinates.

13. Execution still matters!
Real-time design & stop-gaps

14. Bias towards action
Obsessive sharing
Cultivate delight
Capture debt
Process + Culture
Image by: Garen M. on flickr
Cultivate good design habits. 2

15. Conduct a “UX Audit”.
Capture & track UX debt items.

16. UX Scorecard Criteria

17. Own the walls. Make it visible!

18. • Daily Stand-ups with Devs
• UX Office Hours
• Sprint Retrospectives
• Big Think Sessions
• Tech Talks on Design
Always Be Communicating.

19. Build what customers will love.3

21. Understand
Modeling
Visualize
Verify
Evaluate
Assess
customers &
contexts
problem-space
solutions
Learning!

22. Define Principles & Values
What do you stand for? People will resonate.

23. Get everyone on board the entire journey!

24. Influence the vision & strategy.
Cultivate good design habits.
Build what customers will love.
Breathe.

25. Final Points
A dose of reality focuses your dream.

26. Uday Gajendar / @udanium / ghostinthepixel.com BayCHI 8/12 at PARC
• Multiple hats but know your limits.
• Empowered to “make the call” but need experts + users.
• “Head of UX” doesn’t mean having all the answers.
• You can be “The Superhero” but there’s a cost.
• Know how to calibrate for leading vs following.

27. Uday Gajendar / @udanium / ghostinthepixel.com BayCHI 8/12 at PARC
You design with the data & resources you have,
not what you wish you had.
Complexity + Ambiguity + Beauty

28. My Hardest Lesson –
It’s ok to ship “good enough”.
Satisficing

29. Uday Gajendar / @udanium / ghostinthepixel.com BayCHI 8/12 at PARC *

30. *There is no perfect design. Everything is subject to
compromise, trade-offs, constraints, etc.
Make 10% progress daily.
Good design takes time. Just like good code, there’s
iteration and reBlection that shouldn’t be rushed.
Allow for critique & insights.
AWESOME

32. Google Ventures Blog
The Designer Fund
General Assembly
Warm Gun
An Event Apart
Uday Gajendar
udanium@gmail.com
twitter: @udanium
Any Questions?
Thanks!