Dimitrios Arapis

Please please please, keep them simple. There are two big traps when deciding what needs to be included: 1. You overload your personas with traits that are superfluous, irrelevant or even contradicting. 2. You become obsessed with measurable traits (quantitive data) and you just reflect on the marketing user segments, that give you little value on what personas can actually help you with. To avoid these two traps, you need to add only useful attributes, that clearly differentiate or affect behaviour. Finding these key attributes requires a lot of research, to be paired up with market & business observations, and ideally matching some of your real users (test subjects), for a more grounded reference.

If you already have a robust design system in place, the level of fidelity becomes somewhat indifferent. You can drag-n-drop your responsive components just to check compositions or alternative approaches in high fidelity. Given that the purpose of these wireframes is to be presented to users (or stakeholders) and map entire flows, high fidelity makes things appear more "final" (and they kinda are). Make sure you invest time in editing copy (don't go with lorem ipsum) and a pinch of interactivity for core functions (prototyping), and you're good to go. After having the green light, from users or stakeholders, you can then bind the final UI with minor hassle and prepare for handoff.

For non-tech people, I usually ask them if they have ever noticed that Bic pen caps have a hole on top. Human behaviour is such, that when many people write, they tend to bite the cap when thinking. There have been some incidents, in which people accidentally inhaled caps and chocked on them. Bic came across this information and decided to add a hole on the caps, which allows air go through, so people don't suffocate. UX is exactly this, researching and evolving products in ways that improve (or even save) the lives of users.

There's no greater way of showcasing great teamwork skills than delivering value as part of a diverse team with inclusive culture. Being a strong team player requires building healthy, collaborative professional relationships with people of diverse ethnic & cultural backgrounds. Inclusivity is key, to incorporate various perspectives in your creative process and to democratise your decision process, away from biases and ego. Beyond doubt, being able to work with anyone and deliver value to everyone, is the stronger demonstration of a professional with uncanny teamwork skills.

In highly competitive organisations, ethics may sometimes come as an afterthought. To keep their edge, they tend to release MVPs of products and features that only took happy flows under consideration. As a strong UX Design consultant, you often need to think of potential long-term consequences and malicious user intent when using your products. It's your duty, not only to keep users safe from harm, but also safeguard your organisation's operations, reputation and prestige. Playing the long game is what makes good products & orgs, great.

Most organisations and managers rely on external platforms for training their team members. While this is one of the available options, cross-training within teams is often overlooked. Every team is a micro-society, and within one there is a skill matrix for each of its members. Knowing both the skillset and training interest of your team members helps you match them, or even host masterclasses for your whole team. Supporting internal cross-training helps you strengthen the bonds & engagement between your team members, offer acknowledgement to the most proficient players and cut down on training costs by not paying for platforms/courses with questionable content.