(Written on MARTA while commuting to work. Please forgive my errors. -sD)
I cannot claim to have thought up this idea, but when I heard Jared Spool talking about why you write a thank you letter to your imaginary hire, it made complete sense. We don’t talk with friends in bullet points and calls to action. Culture isn’t made up of font choices and section spacing. Relationships in business and friendship rely on compassion, trust, understanding, and silly banter. If I am seeking to get into a business and friend relationship with another individual, why would I recruit them with a list of requirements? Not bad mouthing industry practices, but I’d like to do my discover a bit differently.
So, I’m looking to gain a friend (community of friends) that happen to be a well rounded user experience designer. Rather than share our needs as a company through a well crafted job post, I resorted to diagramming and sketching out the type of person I am looking to work with.
Diagram #1, What is UX?
A non-conclusive round up of the things that I value and that I see are relevant to the job.
Diagram #2, Thank You Mindmap
Ideas build off of ideas and mind maps are how my brain work. Tangents strike and if I don’t capture hem or say them in the moment, they disappear into the ether. Sometimes they come back with barnacles, but mind mapping my thoughts and sharing them with others has always been a strong conversational tool for me. Thus, my Thank You Mindmap.
Diagram #3 New UXer’s Journey Map
These are fun and always expose holes in how we perceive reality. By thinking through what this person might do while working along side me, I further give potential UXers an idea what life might be like. It’s not conclusive at all, but it certainly give us some great talking points to discuss during interviews. I kind of look at his as my resume to share with them.
We’ll see how this works. As a first try recruiting UX friends this way, I’m curious to see what the reception will be like. Interested? Let me know!
Hello, I am Shelton. 