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What made you want to make that transition from front-end software engineering into the UX role?

• codyogden 7y ago
  Sorry, this is a long answer. I haven't perfected my 'switch pitch' yet. lol I worked at a marketing agency from 2016-11 to 2019-06. Went from developer to 'Director of Software' in Jan 2019. Fancy title at a 15-person agency, really just part of the leadership team. I couldn't put my finger on what it was I wanted, and I thought I wanted to return to being an individual contributor to software. Management role was fine by itself, but I didn't feel like my seat had an end 'work product' result; and I also didn't feel valued since it was basically a dual role and was paid relatively poorly. Any given day, I was working with strategy (client), creative, marketing/copywriting, and software teams to get on the same page. I was doing all of these things: - story writing (user stories, criteria, and tests) - wireframing and workflows - low-fi mockups in Sketch - information architecture - data/analytics research - technical guidance I had input on every step of the process, from running ideation meetings with clients to launching new apps. And my work product was always well received and useful to every team. So, I departed for a startup earlier this year, but realized quickly I wasn't missing deep coding. I came to realize I was missing the work I was doing outside of my management role. I read more about ux/product design and the type of work involved really spoke to me. So, now I'm trying to figure out that transition professionally.