<p>Published on <a href="http://ift.tt/2to88yu">| Prototyping: From UX to Front End &mdash; Medium</a> Serena Dorrestijn </p>
<p><em>While I had many stories and UX related subjects ready to write a few months ago, there is one personal story that I feel I need to share first. My personal rollercoaster. I have been away from blogging for a while simply because I have been all over the place and everywhere exept for nice and quiet on the couch with a cup of tea (So many things happening, so exciting, but I am on the couch now, Jeeh!) Part of this story I have shared at </em><a href="http://ift.tt/2toeCxr"><em>UXCamp Dublin</em></a><em> (met some really great people and had an amazing day) where I had the nice surprise that the audience voted my talk the most inspiring. (OMG, talking about ups and downs, biggest compliment people can give me). In this post I will share my professional personal story of the last few months like I also did in Dublin. My ups, my downs, my learnings, my professional personal rollercoaster.</em></p>
<blockquote><p>I feel that there is a taboo on experiencing difficulties at work and while professionaly developing that I would like to break. Everyone is human. Everyone is learning. Everyone is on a journey. I would love to be able to support each other in this process by opening up the conversation. (read all the way down to find the origin of this quote 😉 )</p></blockquote>
<h4>1. Strap in, and join the ride:</h4>
<p>Last December I was looking for a company to work at and at the same time finalize my PDEng in User System Interaction. I was approached by<a href="http://ift.tt/2sEJmxc"> Bright Cape</a>, a consultancy firm from Eindhoven, the Netherlands that excells in small and big data solutions. They were looking for a UX consultant to help shape their products, projects and thereby increase the User Experience. Since I can get very exited about UX Research related projects and opportunities, I saw a match, an opportunity and a small but exciting, exhillerating but scary obstacle: I would be the first UX Consultant there.</p>
<p><img alt="" src="http://ift.tt/2toB1Le">Strapping in to enjoy the ride. I joined Bright Cape curious to see what it would bring and see what value I could offer within this domain.</p>
<h4>2. Going up: Getting settled</h4>
<p>I think everyone starting a new job will have experienced the beginning as a draining but meanwhile energising process (paradoxal!). I was very lucky to have a brilliant kick-off. Before I officially started work I was given the opportunity to join my new Bright Cape collegues for the annual wintersport holiday. A great way to get to know everyone (and then the monday after hear: “wow, you look really different when you’re normally dressed and not in your skiing gear ;)).</p>
<p><img alt="" src="http://ift.tt/2sE919e">My first high, feeling settled in, finding my added value, finding projects and seeing opportunities for the future.</p>
<p>After a month I experienced my first high. I felt at place, had great collegues, was shaping my first assignment, I found some great multi-diciplinairy collaborations and I got used to the rythm of the company. I also learned that I was offered a lot of freedom. If I wanted to I could develop myself in multiple ways, and I found the guts to speak up more and felt supported to voice my vision and opinion.</p>
<h4>3. What goes up… Meet crash number 1.</h4>
<p><img alt="" src="http://ift.tt/2tnPRBz">What goes up, must come down. Reality kicked in and the aftermath of the first adrenaline boost hit me.</p>
<p>After having experienced the “woohoo on top of the world” feeling, I was really brought back to reality by talking to companies who didn’t see the added value of UX, finding that there was maybe a mismatch in the assignments that Bright Cape saw for me (front end development, graphic design, whitepapers) and experiencing that I didn’t pace myself properly in balancing everything. I experienced an enormous workload that I had put on my shoulders myself. While I still very much enjoyed working at Bright Cape, I felt thaht in order to be efficient, effective AND energized/at ease, I needed to change some things from inside myself. So I sat down, told myself to stop moping around and started looking for small and big solutions to my struggle (hah, see what I <a href="http://ift.tt/2sEJmxc">did there</a>?)</p>
<h4>4. My solutions to crash one:</h4>
<ul>
<li>I planned strategy meetings with my team lead and my boss. How did I view UX, how did they experience it and how could we shape and use it in the future?</li>
<li>Use the tools you know that help you reflect. For me this was the Business Model canvas for UX as a dicipline within Bright Cape and a Business Model You for me and my added value.</li>
<li>I prepared lunch meetings, slides, marketing material and talked to everyone at the coffee machine in order to create understanding and comprehension about the subject of UX.</li>
<li>I gained confidence. In order to check my level of expertise I went to London and joined the NN/g conference (shoutout to all the amazing and inspiring people that I met there), where I learned to look at things in a new manner, gained insight in what area’s I could improve my knowledge, but also learned that I can confidently call myself an expert in User Research. (BIG insightfull, celebration, confidence giving moment there).</li>
<li>I swallowed the frog and started talking to everyone I met. (sorry if I bored you with UX stories in the car, coffee shop on conferences or during other events ;)).</li>
<li>Iterate, iterate, iterate all of the above.</li>
</ul>
<p><em>To be honest, I am still iterating and improving on this one, but looking back, it really made a big change and offered solutions to the issues that I mentioned in crash 1.</em></p>
<h4>5. Woohoo, up again!</h4>
<p><img alt="" src="http://ift.tt/2sEfGAm">Up again, Harvesting the fruits of solutions 1.</p>
<p>After taking myself (and my constantly running brain) under the loop, I felt more at ease and confident in who I was as a person and what my added value could be. A really great moment for me was the feedback talk with my boss and collegues in which they voiced that they saw that I contributed a lot and that my vision was adding value to the company. My contract was renewed and the UX strategy was taken into account. We found a new client in the field of UX and we could start growing the UX team! I felt at ease, enabled, supported, excited (adrenaline, waaaaaaaah) and challenged.</p>
<h4>6. Crash 2</h4>
<p>Now that I am writing this blog post, I can totally see this one coming (and I guess you could too :P) but this one hit me hard. I experienced that positive stress (adrenaline, drive, excitement) also needs to be managed and limited by yourself, or you will end up not sleeping or worrying about everything like I started doing.</p>
<p><img alt="" src="http://ift.tt/2tovlAA">Crash 2: Bam.</p>
<p>After experiencing the buzz and the high I felt overwhelmed, I did not believe that what was happening was due to my competence, I felt difficulties with clients due to age and had problems saying no (sounds familiar?) Prioritising sounded like a very exotic word that I knew I learned somewhere along the road but i had forgotten the same way that according to my diploma I should be able to speak french &amp; german :P. While I thoroughly enjoyed my work, at one point I came home and thought:</p>
<blockquote><p>“I should start an all day breakfast bar! With pancakes..”</p></blockquote>
<p>So I sat myself down, told myself to stop thinking about everything at the same time and focus on the parts that I can change, am in charge of and that I would like to see differently. Time for solutions round 2!</p>
<h4>7. Reflections and solutions round 2</h4>
<ul>
<li>Find your energy provider in the company. Your buddies, your coaches, your advocates, the critics, map them out for yourself and lean on those who can help you further along.</li>
<li>Stop being afraid of help.</li>
<li>Stop being afraid to ask for help (this one was easier then the upper one)</li>
<li>Network — Pick up the phone and just do</li>
<li>Find strong partnerships in other companies. Seek what you can bring as a sharp proposition and partner up to make an ever better product or experience</li>
<li>Actively seek and give feedback (and start implementing it in the company culture)</li>
<li>Share what drives you, scares you and give energy back in return (I found out that I am just as human as my colleague :P)</li>
</ul>
<h4>8. Going up, up, up!</h4>
<p>Let’s look at the entire picture of the rollercoaster. Up, down, left right. Every turn has both positive and negative experiences and consequences and the difficulty lies in finding the best loopings for you to ride along with (cheesy, jep I know).</p>
<p>After my 2nd reflection round nicely summarized in bulletpoints above, I really felt relieved and enabled to be myself and found space to clear my mind and focus on the things that bring me energy.</p>
<p><img alt="" src="http://ift.tt/2sE4QKJ">Going up: what happened after the reflection rounds.</p>
<p>But, if I have learned anything from myself and my iterative rollercoaster journey the last few monts, it is that reflection is key. So to finish this blogpost, I would like to end with my final tips to you and to myself (so that I don’t forget them again in enthusiasm or while running around):</p>
<h4>The coming months I/you/we will (join me in this mantra! :P)…</h4>
<ul>
<li>be the advocate of UX and take time to prepare, UX, EVERYWHERE!</li>
<li>surround myself/yourself with people that bring your energy<br />ask for help when needed</li>
<li>be brutally honest to myself, clients and colleages (but of course without being extremely blunt etc.) → expectation management!</li>
<li>step over boundaries, but not too often and/or too quick</li>
<li>school myself, define my expertise, keep learning</li>
<li>look for strong partnerships with other companies</li>
<li>prepare marketing material &amp; talk, talk, talk!</li>
<li>keep iterating on all of the above</li>
</ul>
<p>I see my rollercoaster as amazing opportunities to develop, shape myself, learn and rise to the occasion. I see it as a strength that it is ok to accept that not everything can always be fun and games and that it is ok to occasionally feel suboptimal. To me, it are the moments in which you truely reflect that help reach a new level or more peace and quiet. But, what is life without a few good rollercoasters to keep you excited? 😉</p>
<p>Feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions. I would like to stress that what I have written here is/was my personal experience. I am sharing my struggles and process because I would have loved to have read about someone else’s difficulties and how they managed to overcome them to get inspiration or new insights. I feel that there is a taboo on experiencing difficulties at work and while professionaly developing that I would like to break. Everyone is human. Everyone is learning. Everyone is on a journey. I would love to be able to support each other in this process by opening up the conversation. Share the successes AND the learnings!</p>
<p>Best, <br />Serena</p>
<p><img src="http://ift.tt/2tosyrh" width="1" height="1" alt="stat?event=post.clientViewed&amp;referrerSou"></p>
<hr>
<p><a href="http://ift.tt/2sEBNXq">The ups, the downs and the surprises: My personal professional UX rollercoaster.</a> was originally published in <a href="http://ift.tt/2cAqCpx">prototypr</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.</p>


The ups, the downs and the surprises: My personal professional UX rollercoaster.

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