How to Survive as a Solo UX designer

It doesn't matter whether you're a solo designer on your team, or the whole company-- the #1 issue you'll encounter is communicating (more accurately, defending) what your role does and how you do it. Finding a company that understands the role of UX within the team/project is rare, let alone finding one that has clearly defined goals for their new hire. Truthfully, the struggle begins before you even get hired. When scrolling through job descriptions for UX Designers, as one does, you'll encounter something like this:

1. Graphic designs skills a must!

2. Must know web development (HTML, Javascript, JQuery, C++, CSS)

3. Design email templates and marketing materials

4. Sketch ONLY

5. Design original graphics, images and illustrations

6. Must know Photoshop and Illustrator

7. Write copy for landing pages and email marketing

8. Head research projects and translate to actionable designs

... did you see the point? Because I didn't until I was three months into my first gig. Inevitably, since UX is still an emerging field and working at an early-stage startup tend to have you wearing multiple hats, I found myself neck-deep desperately trying to spear 7 out of 8 the broad categories listed above--and more! Luckily, I re-evaluated my responsibilities before it came time to learn CSS and Javascript.

{ I struggled to learn Spanish in high school--I didn't need to combine another foreign language with functions and math)

But it's not atypical for a UX designer to be given an arbitrary deadline for a deliverable with the assumption that "It's just a tiny change to this screen" or "It's just a simple fix to add another screen here", right?

If you don't take the opportunity to push back against these demands, the team's, department's or company's priorities will encroach on your territory-- they'll try to tell you how to do your job or what components or buttons need to changed--leaving you an over-glorified graphic designer or an artsy front-end developer.

It's our responsibility-- especially those of us who are solo designers to educate our fellow team members, managers and bosses why it pays off in profit and revenue to understand the problem, rather than deliver an answer, in the form of a .png exported from Sketch. Let's practice.

Say your project manager comes up to you and says:

"I want you to change this checkout button to green instead of the brand's color orange. Other websites use green since it's a CTA color so we should too, it will increase our checkout rates. Please have it on my desk by the end of the day."

Here are some tips I've learned to fight back against the stigma and perceptions that come with the territory:

1. Propose your changes as a solution to a business problem

Whatever it is, it's best to frame your findings as a solution to a business problem, whether it's been identified or not. In this example, try phrasing it like this:

"Since we're looking to reduce the percentage of users who abandon their cart before check-out, I explored some solutions that can help us solve this problem...."

{To list a few solutions: adding a notification modal that shows their cart total after they add an item to their cart, sending them follow-up emails that retarget users, putting pressure on customers by allowing them only to reserve the item for X amount of time in their cart....}

2. Cater your response to the audience you're pitching to and explain the what result your solution will have.

Your manager, CEO and investors may share a common goal but they will also have difference priorities:

To your manager: "By implementing this change, I believe this will increase the percentage of users who checkout by 15%" (The project objective)

To your CEO: "....I believe this will increase our revenue by 22%" (The business objective)

To investors: "...I believe this will help us exceed our quarterly goal by 5%" (The company objective)

3. Solve the catch-22 of approval by separating separating UI from UX and data-driven from non data-driven input.

In line with number two, along with priority differences, your board members or higher-ups may clash when it comes to implementing solutions and style. Separating issues of style and functionality, testable theories and non-testable ones can help you discern the best solution. This one is a difficult scenario to navigate as it requires quick thinking and mindfulness. Try this:

The Solution to the UI/Stylistic disagreement that doesn't deserve this amount of discussion: "It's great to see have a lot of solutions to our problem. Between the two shades of orange you've proposed, let's put it up to a vote on which color we'd like to try.

The UX solution: Once we've decided, A/B testing the color with the most votes against our current color scheme can help us determine if it makes significant impact on the bottom line."

4. If demands for deliverables overwhelm your schedule, redirect them to open slots in your calendar.

By blocking out chunks of your time in your schedule for specific UX-related tasks like--user research, interviews, design reviews--and sharing this calendar publicly with your teammates, not only will you avoid being bombarded with, and I sarcastically quote "small tasks", you'll also indirectly educate your coworkers on all the other tasks and research you undertake before designing and sending a pixel-perfect screen.

"I am conducting my weekly design review between 2-5pm, but I have some open time tomorrow at 10am to go over the new screen requirements and design requests. Does that work for you?"

5. Lastly, come prepared. Like you learn about your users, learn about your fellow coworkers. Come reasonably prepared for questions you might expect.

But if you come up against a question you're unprepared for, be honest and sincere.

"You're absolutely right. Why don't I find out and get back to you about the disadvantages of pressuring customers with countdown timers? Can I schedule us a meeting once I have an answer for you?"

If you have any other suggestions and feedback for us lone UX designers, add them to the comments feed below!