As we all continue to grow as product managers, we should strive to fine tune our UX capabilities. It’s not enough to provide UX services merely as adjuncts to development projects. Our aim is to build a UX practice that inspires. This is not off the shelf UX!

If you are building your own UX practice, here are the steps I have followed as well as several lessons learned.

Building on the successes of the last few years, I’ve gathered the collective insights from my fellow professionals to personalize the UX services I provide. Of course, I always provide customized solutions for my clients, but now I’m refining my practice to connect more personally with my team. We aim to become inspired by the causes they care about.

Focus on Impact

I am committed to bringing positive impact to my clients and that’s a great starting point for improving upon a UX services. Capitalizing on that commitment, I used a combination of design methodologies, a design thinking workshop, and a design studio, to gather many different ideas from my fellow UX designers.

Starting with the design thinking workshop, I asked UX designers about the most satisfying projects that they’ve worked on and also about the altruistic causes that are important to them. Why did these projects have a positive impact? Why are these causes inspiring? We looked for parallels and connections to find what really drives them.

Find Themes

We then had an exercise, modeled on design studio practices, where we asked the designers to group the projects and the causes into themes. Some designers find satisfaction continuing to grow as UX professionals and sharing the knowledge they’ve acquired. Others are inspired by truly understanding what people need to improve their lives and acting on it. All of the designers see UX as a calling inside and out:

• “Making the inaccessible accessible”
• “Being multi-disciplined”
• “Relishing in projects that have positive impacts on others”

Integrate Themes

To put these ideas into action, the UX designers and I are applying these themes to the daily work done with our clients. First, we strive to make ourselves redundant by elevating junior UX staff and ensuring they are skilled enough to carry out more challenging tasks. Second, we work to identify the underlying causes that drive our clients and their customers – beyond the stated business goals. Finally, we foster an environment where all teams embrace the values of good UX and understand how it is intertwined with their own work.

Improving a UX service offering is not a static exercise – we have only just begun. We will always strive to make our services more personally meaningful for all. As we integrate these themes into our work, we will continue to look for opportunities to infuse great UX practices throughout.

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