4 ms·

Usually this sort of work falls under U/X or "product design"- software design often means architecture. I get the sentiment, but specialization exists for a r

Usually this sort of work falls under U/X or "product design"- software design often means architecture. I get the sentiment, but specialization exists for a reason, and this sort of thinking could work just as well for a retail experience as it can for a software product.

kitotik 9y ago
Agreed on specialization being valuable, but the issue that arises is when this type of UX/Product process isn’t in place the specialists tend to spin out of control and lose sight of the users. And likewise, the UX team really, really needs those architects on their team to both help ship the experiments/improvements and make sure they aren’t proposing features that aren’t technically feasible with a given budget/timeline/tech stack. Some of the best ‘UX’ solutions I’ve ever heard in meetings came from the software architect, usually along the lines of “Ohhhh, THAT is what the customer is trying to do? We can repurpose the flux modules pretty easily and ship that in a week or two!”. Without good software architects on the UX team, designers will often punt on some of their more creative ideas because they assume it won’t be possible. A great architect tends to battle boredom, so the push/pull with designers can often keep them engaged and challenged. Win-win!
- briandear 9y ago
  So much this! Too often UX and SWE are black boxes to each other and thus there is a loss of, pardon the buzzword, “synergy” that could be driving progress towards making customers love your product.
austinchang 9y ago
completely agree. most "Critical User Journey" articles are written by UX or product designers. this article was meant to be an introduction to show how any product, startup, or company can use User Journeys as a framework for product development (not just product design) and how if executed in a systematic way can unblock growth.
- mhluongo 9y ago
  Glad to see you in the comments Austin. Would love to hear your thoughts on cranking up growth on a project of ours!
  - austinchang 9y ago
    sure. happy to chat. ping me at austin [@] initialized [.] com

kitotik 9y ago

Agreed on specialization being valuable, but the issue that arises is when this type of UX/Product process isn’t in place the specialists tend to spin out of control and lose sight of the users. And likewise, the UX team really, really needs those architects on their team to both help ship the experiments/improvements and make sure they aren’t proposing features that aren’t technically feasible with a given budget/timeline/tech stack. Some of the best ‘UX’ solutions I’ve ever heard in meetings came from the software architect, usually along the lines of “Ohhhh, THAT is what the customer is trying to do? We can repurpose the flux modules pretty easily and ship that in a week or two!”. Without good software architects on the UX team, designers will often punt on some of their more creative ideas because they assume it won’t be possible. A great architect tends to battle boredom, so the push/pull with designers can often keep them engaged and challenged. Win-win!

briandear 9y ago
So much this! Too often UX and SWE are black boxes to each other and thus there is a loss of, pardon the buzzword, “synergy” that could be driving progress towards making customers love your product.

austinchang 9y ago

completely agree. most "Critical User Journey" articles are written by UX or product designers. this article was meant to be an introduction to show how any product, startup, or company can use User Journeys as a framework for product development (not just product design) and how if executed in a systematic way can unblock growth.

mhluongo 9y ago
Glad to see you in the comments Austin. Would love to hear your thoughts on cranking up growth on a project of ours!
- austinchang 9y ago
  sure. happy to chat. ping me at austin [@] initialized [.] com