Ux Local Groups

Stacy Merrill Surla

Local Groups How-To (and Why)

RUX (Richmond UX Group)April 30, 2008

Stacy Merrill [email protected]

Stacy Merrill Surla

Why are local groups important?

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Stacy Merrill Surla

Hard to do it alone

• The profession is growing, but...• A large proportion of UX professionals still work in

relative isolation• Many projects rely on contractors – UXs who have

to work on their own• Even companies with UX teams can lack

managers who understand and care about user experience

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Stacy Merrill Surla

“Communities of Practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly.”

Etienne Wenger, Cultivating Communities of Practice

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Creates a Community of Practice

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• Local groups give UXs regular social and intellectual contact with peers

• Validation and connectedness• Crucibles for new ideas• Volunteer projects help people network and get

established in the profession or in new locations

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Creates a Community of Practice

Stacy Merrill Surla

Local groups are more than just a nice thing to have. They're the key to the future. Building IA as a profession requires building IAs as professionals.

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Builds the Field

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“Whether we like it or not, we are all in the business of influencing people's thoughts and behaviors; we are agents of change.

“The stakes are higher now than ever before. How can one design for impact with awareness, efficiency, and responsibility?”

BJ Fogg, Persuasive Technology

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Improves the World

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Challenges

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"Why were people so excited about doing things when we talked in person, but when I followed up later via email, nothing happened?”

Javier Velasco, Santiago, Chile

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Big-Picture Challenges

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“When the dot com crash happened, the IA role disappeared. People hunkered down into roles that could be justified, like visual design and programming.”

Jason Hobbs, Johannesburg, South Africa

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Big-Picture Challenges

Stacy Merrill Surla

“There are lots of professional groups, but no social groups. There's no place to go to talk about issues at work. We need a place to have human contact and talk about professional IA.”

Mary MacDonald, Boston, MA

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Big-Picture Challenges

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“In Germany we have five or six big cities where IAs could work, but these cities are far apart. The Netherlands has one main city. They have a local group and are meeting regularly. I'm very jealous of places like Amsterdam where people can get together and drink beer and talk about IA.”

Wolf Nöding, Nürnberg, Germany

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Big-Picture Challenges

Stacy Merrill Surla

• Where do we start? • How do we gather interest?• Are we overdoing? Underdoing? • How do we keep up momentum?

IAI Local Groups Coordinator Survey

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On the Ground Challenges

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How Do You Do It?

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Stacy Merrill Surla

“A little perspiration, a lot of love, and a few glasses of wine”

Andrew Boyd, Canberra, Australia

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Stacy Merrill Surla

Successful local groups work in three domains:

Volunteer leadership, project management, and party planning

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Stacy Merrill Surla

• Think “Spa” when organizing your group and when planning activities.

• Everything should be refreshing, fun, meaningful, and good for you.

• Keep things as simple as possible, but no simpler• Declare victory and celebrate often

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Party Planning

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• Involve everybody who wants in• Give it away

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Volunteer Leadership

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• Makes some simple plans• Up the ante when you get good at it• Replicate your successes• Work with related associations

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Project Management

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Tips

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From the “Create a Network” checklist on iainstitute.org

Stacy Merrill Surla

• Speak up on listservs about your group• Find people and and invite them (eg IAI Member

Directory, LinkedIn, Facebook...)• Attend events of related associations and cross-

promote the group• Have an action item for people to respond to, like a

low-key face-to-face meetup

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Reach out to like-minded individuals

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Decide what "success" means to you.

An event with 3 people or 20? One good conversation? Enthusiasm and the next event scheduled?

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Organize an event

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• Face to Face Meetups• Little or no agenda (dinner, cocktail/coffee hour)

• Easy agenda (book group)

• Planning meetings (future events, activities, infrastructure)

• Meet during a conference (breakfast, cocktails, dinner)

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Organize an event

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• More Ambitious Events• Event redux

• Deliverables fair

• Guest speakers (invite IA presenters, writers, workshop leaders when they’re in town)

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Organize an event

Stacy Merrill Surla

• Virtual Meetings• Teleconference (e.g. via Skype)

• Local or regional listserv

• Online virtual environment (e.g. Second Life)

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Organize an event

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• Enough room• Right ambiance for the activity• Centrally located; good parking or public transport

• Coffee shops• Restaurants• Bookstores• Public libraries / Community centers• Colleges / Universities with related programs• Your company• Your home

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Find good locations and reuse them

Stacy Merrill Surla

• Setting up the local group itself is a project• Organizing each event is a project

• Offer a site redesign plan to a local nonprofit • Envision a service you'd like to see through an affinity

association, and offer to bring it into being

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Organize a project

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• Start a discussion list• Consider: Announcements only, or discussion?

• Start a website• Consider: How will it be maintained? How about a blog?

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Stay in communication

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• Keep things as simple as possible• Repeat whatever works best• Quality matters more than numbers• Declare victory and celebrate often

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Keep a good attitude

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• Read a book about organizing volunteers• Read a book about event planning• Make a project plan, a timeline, a network diagram,

or other management prop• Involve everybody who wants to participate

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Grow as a leader

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“We’ll support flamenco dancing if an IA wants to organize it”

Dan Brown, DCIA

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Grow as a leader

Stacy Merrill Surla

What’s Next

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Stacy Merrill Surla

• What’s happened so far?• What’s your next event?• Which challenges or tips are relevant now?

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Next Steps for RUX

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Beyond checklists, local leaders need infrastructure, recognition, and the weight of established organizations behind them

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Support for the Community of Practice

Stacy Merrill Surla

“The average IA is not a rock star in persona. She's thoughtful, slightly quiet, considerate – an unlikely candidate for evangelist in many respects.

“Feeling there's a community behind you is a big support – even if it's invisible, even if it's present only in the imagination."

Jason Hobbs

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Support for the Community of Practice

Stacy Merrill Surla

Thank you, Ironworks, for supporting RUX

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Support for the Community of Practice

Stacy Merrill Surla

Etienne Wenger http://www.ewenger.com

BJ Fogg http://www.bjfogg.com/

Andrew Boyd, Running a Successful IA Cocktail Hour Program http://iacanberra.org/2008/04/03/running-a-successful-ia-cocktail-hour-program/

Stacy Merrill Surla, Building IA Means Building Local Groups http://www.asis.org/Bulletin/Dec-06/surla.html

Create Network Checklist http://iainstitute.org/documents/localgroups/LG_Check_CreateNetwork.doc

Organize Conference Redux Tipsheet http://iainstitute.org/documents/localgroups/LG_Tip_Redux.doc

Leading Successful Volunteer Projects

http://www.slideshare.net/stacysurla/leading-successful-volunteer-projects/

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Links

Stacy Merrill Surla

IA Institute http://iainstitute.org/en/network/

Local Groups Coordinator Survey, 2007 http://iainstitute.org/en/learn/research/local_groups_coordinator_survey_2007.php

IxDA http://www.ixda.org/ 

UXNet http://www.uxnet.org/ 

UPA http://www.upassoc.org/chapters/

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Links

Stacy Merrill Surla

Stacy Merrill Surla

[email protected]

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Contact