UX Unicorns Do Not Exist: The Myth of the One-Person Usability Team

It’s a failed strategy that appears time and time again. A company recognizes they need usability help, which is a win in and of itself, but they hire a single usability expert to do all the work alone. Sorry, but that jack-of-all-trades doesn’t exist—one person can’t be an expert in all the disciplines it takes to create quality digital products. However, sometimes that’s all the budget you have. What do you do if you only have the budget and resources for one UX expert?

If There Can Only Be One Usability Expert

Play to your team’s strengths and support your new hire as much as you can.

• Assess Your Situation: Take a look at the existing skillsets your team already has. When hiring a UX expert, your first goal is to fill the areas where your team is lacking. Cover your weak spots to help strengthen your current assets.
• Prioritize and Fill Your Gaps: If you realize you have a lot of gaps in your team’s skillsets, you’ll need to prioritize. Don’t think that one expert can fill in all the gaps, because they can’t. Focus on what you’re completely missing and what specific skills your organization needs.
• Build Internal Awareness: Usability can’t be done with surface-level fixes. If you only have one member of your team advocating for users’ needs, you’re not going to see improvements. Support your new hire by spreading UX awareness across your team. When everyone advocates for users’ needs, UX will slowly be incorporated into your processes, and that’s where real change is made.

Do Your Best, and Plan for A Full UX Team

While one UX expert with the right support can make change in your organization and your digital products, they’re not the everlasting solution. Eventually, you’ll want to allocate budget and resources to hiring more skillsets you might be missing. A full team of UX professionals will open a floodgate to a whole new perspective on sites and apps that will lead to digital product utopia.

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Read the full article: UX Unicorns Do Not Exist: The Myth of the One-Person Usability Team