UX Design is a team sport at heart, much like Football! Surely we are not wearing a Team Jersey  and passing the ball, but the ground rules are just the same. To win, you need to perform as a  team with a positive mindset, excellent strategy, coordination & performance on the field. The  only difference? You don’t literally have an opposition as even the client is on your side (the 12th  man as we like to call it), but the aim is to reach a GOAL. As a football enthusiast and a UX  designer, let us help you adapt the game’s mindset for UX design:

1. Effective Team Communication: To win the game, players have to work together as a  unit. They must have an understanding and expectation of where the other players should  be on the field.

Just like a football player, a UX designer needs to develop effective collaboration and  communication with all the members of the project team to create a better product.  Brainstorming ideas together, conducting storyboarding sessions, having standup  meetings, keeping all the stakeholders updated about the progress through meetings,  emails etc. keeps everyone in the game & close to making the goal.

2. Ability to Adapt: In Football, every team player is an expert in his position but should  also be flexible for an adaptive strategy. Remember, no two games or briefs are the same.  Strategies change, some players get wounded up but one can’t stop playing the game.  When needed, a midfielder could be dropped into a defensive role too.

Similarly, as designers we must constantly develop & work upon our expertise, but also  expose ourselves to understand other skills like researching, defining strategy, analyzing  data, coding, illustrating, writing etc. for any challenges a brief could throw at us.

3. Strategy for Impact: Basis multiple factors like opponents, player fitness, climate etc,  each game’s strategic formations change (defensive vs offensive strategy) & it’s  constantly adapting through the ruff game.

Similarly, in a UX Team, one needs to be mindful of the team structure, the design  process, time distribution & work management required for a particular brief basis scope  creeps, client approvals, setbacks & more.

4. Learning with Self Analysis: Clubs have professionals that analyse players’ performance  and come up with ways they can improve through training. (analysis, analysis.)

Similarly, analyzing your own & team efforts is crucial to make you better at your craft.  You should be constantly learning & unlearning skills to get better & grow everyday (as  practice makes perfect) The same can be done via self-study, constructive feedback from  seniors, daily reading, dedicated research time & exploring new tools.

5. Dealing with Constraints: A football team faces many constraints like time, conditions  on the field & ofcourse, their opponents. It’s only with these limitations that the players  use their creativity for e.g they’ll dominate possession or counter attack or setting up  offside traps.

In UX design, the constraints could be technological, accessibility, sticking to the brand  guidelines & more. Thus, we need to use our creativity to come up with a strategy to  achieve our goal within the challenging constraints. E.g. If you are dealing with tight  deadlines, instead of trying to tackle the entire project all at once, break it down into  smaller, more manageable tasks and have deadlines for each of them on the schedule.  This will leave you with room to review and make changes at each task level.

6. Coaching Mindset : A coach can identify the strengths & weaknesses of each of his  players. While they utilize each player’s strengths, they will also help them overcome the  weaknesses by setting goals & performance plans for training & actual matches.

As junior designers, we must observe & learn from our seniors, the skills they’ve  mastered through their experience, be open-minded and get feedback on our work  including critique, being open to receive guidance when facing difficulties on a task for a  better product output. And as seniors of the design team, one should share knowledge,  hand hold & be a true leader to enthusiastic juniors.

Takeaway:

Team Play determines success whether in Football or in the UX world. You may be an expert at  what you do individually, but as a team you are unbreakable (which significantly delivers better  products)

BRB, working on our team strategy now 😉