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
Stacy Merrill Surla
• 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
Stacy Merrill Surla
• 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
Stacy Merrill Surla
• 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
Stacy Merrill Surla
“We’ll support flamenco dancing if an IA wants to organize it”
Dan Brown, DCIA
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Grow as a leader
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What’s Next
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• 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