Junior Designers Should Talk About These 7 UX Skills
A practical guide for communicating the underrated skills of user experience designers
As a user experience (UX) designer, how do you talk about your skills? Sure...you could talk about users and journeys in an interview, but Karen from HR will think you're a drug addict.
Even hiring managers in product and marketing may confuse UX with user interface (UI). If your strength is in UX, it will be essential to talk about the skills that are uniquely about UX design.
In this article, we'll cover seven underrated UX skills:
Interviewing
Note-taking
Decision-making
Reframing
Sketching
Prototyping
Presenting
How to Use This Article:
Use this article as talking points for a job interview to be confident and clear about your value. Consider adding these skills to your cover letter and resume.
UX Skill #1: Interviewing
Many junior UX designers underestimate their ability to interview others. Interviewing users is an excellent way to figure out what's going on by going straight to the source. Interviewing is also an employable skill.
You may not have much experience interviewing users at the beginning of your career, but don't let that stop you from talking about it. Hiring managers will appreciate your interest in this activity even if you're not an expert yet.
Do: Talk about customers, qualitative data, research, surveys, learnings, and any quantitative metrics.
Don't: Don't mention personal connections to the people you've interviewed. i.e., family, friends, and roommates.
UX Skill #2: Note-taking
Another skill that junior UX designers should talk about is note-taking. Taking notes is essential for recording user insights during interviews and testing sessions. Note-taking is also helpful for gathering requirements from internal stakeholders.
The second you mention note-taking as a skill, hiring managers will ask you about tools. Be sure to have an answer for your favorite note-taking tool. One of my favorite tools for initial note-taking is Apple Notes because it’s simple, efficient, and doesn’t require an internet connection.
To sell your skill, think of a story where you went back and checked your notes during a project. Talk about how that helped move the project forward.
Do: Use words like interviewing, storing, organizing, tagging, categorizing, retaining, and recalling.
Don't: Avoid words like scribbled and secretarial terms like dictated.
UX Skill #3: Decision-making
A big part of the UX process is making sense out of the noise. As you progress, you must choose which problem and solution you will focus on. You will never arrive at a solution if you don't narrow down some approaches. UX designers should do this every day.
Don't be too caught up in the managerial idea of decision-making. Design decisions are also decisions, even if you don't make the final call in the project. Talk about design decisions you made and frame them as a way that you saved time and focused on the right solution.
Do: Talk about voting, simplifying, facilitating, converging, and determining.
Don't: Don't pretend you made all the decisions in a project if you didn’t.
UX Skill #4: Reframing
Reframing is a unique skill that allows you to restate problems to provide focus and meaning. We do this through "How might we" statements, Jobs to be Done, etc.
Talk about reframing in the context of collaborative problem-solving. Explain how you used reframing to get people on the same page and move the project forward.
Do: Talk about facilitating, collaborating, voting, and developing a shared understanding of problems.
Don't: Don't make it seem like you create meaning from thin air; don't be afraid to talk about the problem before and after reframing it.
UX Skill #5: Sketching
Sketching brings to mind many different things for different people. Focus on sketching as a skill that allows you to collaborate and develop solutions.
One of the ways that UX designers sketch is on a whiteboard. The ability to think visually on a whiteboard with non-designers can be a real superpower. Focus on this collaborative side rather than the solo sketch notes that you might do at your desk.
Do: Talk about collaborative sketching, whiteboarding, and brainstorming in corporate settings.
Don't: Don't talk about the value of sketching in the context of artistic ability.
UX Skill #6: Prototyping
Luckily, many people already understand the concept of prototypes. Use this as a bridge to present yourself as a person that can turn ideas into reality.
Many non-designers will be very impressed by prototyping. They may ask for specific examples to improve their understanding. Talk about projects where you took something from mere discussion to a usable click-dummy. Mention the senior stakeholders involved and the time the prototype saved in the project.
Do: Talk about this skill early and often, as it is key to many people's estimation of the UX designer’s value.
Don't: Don't focus the conversation on the tool you used to prototype.
UX Skill #7: Presenting
One thing that separates a good UX designer from a great UX designer is the ability to present work. Without buy-in from the whole team, UX projects won't get implemented. A good presentation can ensure the project moves forward.
You don't have to be able to give a TED talk to be good at presenting UX work. Presenting well is all about understanding your audience. As UX designers, that should be easy.
Don’t be afraid to provide a sample of a presentation from a project. Walk them through the presentation if possible and show that you can communicate the value of your solutions.
Do: Explain your design decisions and translate your skills into terms they will understand.
Don't: Don't assume hiring managers understand UX design just because they hire a UX designer.
Never stop communicating your value
Non-designers are usually the ones that make final hiring decisions. Make sure you know how to talk about your skills with them. You will be the first UX designer hiring managers have met in many interviews. Make a good impression by showcasing these seven skills to communicate your value.
UX design is a growing field, and there is still some work to be done before its value is understood in all corporate environments. If you communicate your value from day one, you will have a more strategic impact in the future.
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