Published on | Prototyping: From UX to Front End — Medium Jayde Adams

And why job titles shouldn’t be a crux.

Once a month I attend a local meetup.

We meet at a local pub and while it’s targeted at individuals working within the Digital Industry, I’ve met all kinds of interesting people, from front-end developers, to voiceover freelancers. Even gallery curators who need an extra pair of hands setting up their studios.

9 months on, and I now have a network of support of people I can socialise with and approach, when I have questions about challenges I’m facing at work.

This Thursday I met two newcomers to the meet up, who reminded me that job titles are sometimes just a bunch of words.

When they approached the table, we exchanged pleasantries. As is the British way of introductions, we missed hands the first time, then grabbed each other a little too viciously, and shook with a little too much enthusiasm.

We exchanged names, silently acknowledging that we’ll need to double check again, before the night was over.

We exchanged job titles, she was an Agile Coach, and he was a Project Manager.

The Agile coach was relieved when I knew what an ‘Agile Coach’ was. I returned the same satisfied smile when she jovially said, ‘I know what UX is, don’t worry!’ — it’s always nice when someone knows what your job title means.

No, I didn’t try to probe her understanding of what she believed UX was.

My Mum still thinks I fix computers and I seldom correct her.

While chatting about our job roles, our working environments as well as the projects we were currently on. The subject quickly moved to the product teams we worked within. The Project Manager commented on how he felt his responsibilities, dictated by his job title, didn’t accommodate for how much he did.

It was the same for all of us:

If the Project Manager can’t maintain an open line of communication with the team, he can’t update his client on the progress of their order.
If the Agile Coach can’t teach the product team that Agile is a mindset, not a process, she can’t truly help them transition from waterfall.
If I cannot align the team’s understanding of the problem we are trying to solve, we’re not going to solve the problem in an efficient way.

The three of us shared the need to practice an important soft skill, that was never mentioned in our job description, and isn’t an obvious ‘requirement’ to your success.

Stakeholder Management.

“Stakeholder management is critical to the success of every project in every organisation… By engaging the right people in the right way in your project, you can make a big difference to its success…and your career.” — Rachel Thompson, Mind Tools.

I know that doing more than what your job title suggests, isn’t restricted to our job roles, it happens everywhere. But it was enlightening to sit down with strangers and discuss this subject.

Especially as with UX, can so many other letters be attached to it…

You cannot sit in your silo and say, “my job description said these are my responsibilities, so this is all I am going to do for you, boss.”

And then be surprised when you don’t pass your probationary period.

I think it’s important to remember that your job title is just a bunch of letters and words, but your soft skills will make you stand out from others.

Thank you for reading.

A UX Designer, Project Manager and an Agile Coach walk in to a Bar. was originally published in prototypr on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

A UX Designer, Project Manager and an Agile Coach walk in to a Bar.

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