New Role of UX Architects and Software Engineers – Great at One Thing, Good at Many

1. New Role of UX Architects and Software Engineers – Great at One Thing, Good at Many Product Development has long surpassed the traditional realms of the waterfall approach. With the rising need to deliver value on-the-go, the Agile Development approach successfully dominates today’s software development industry. But as startups and enterprises are making this shift, the skills gap among the livewire tends to exist, leading to product failures in turn.

2. Surprisingly, as few as 37% of companies understand their current skills gaps.– Forbes To avoid such product strategy mistakes, the different talents need to evolve and grow. Going by the standards, UX architect makes sure that the user pain points and expectations get addressed and the software engineer is responsible for delivering a workable software product. Yet, the product team finds it challenging to keep up with the changing dynamics as the silos between the UX design process and the engineering process continue

3. to persist. There is a missing harmony between the two talents as they ignore to coincide with their efforts when required. Only around 8% of the work is done in cross-functional teams.– Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends Survey, 2019 The teams prefer sticking to what they are good at, which is not enough when agility is gaining traction. Contrarily, if the two talents collaborate from time-to- time, or a UX architect wears the developer’s cloak, and vice-versa, things could be different. It would showcase the real potential of the software development muscle. To achieve such agility, there is a need to minimize the mountain-sized gap between the user experience architects and software engineers. And, the key to such an amalgamation of skills is the curiosity of mind and the ability to adapt to the agile mindset. UX Architects Could Become the Goliaths of Product Development Lifecycle UX architect responsibilities include the ability to create a meaningful information architecture to ensure that the website/app is user-friendly and intuitive. They think like an architect and finalize on how the product should look and behave like.

4. In some cases, these architects can also take over the roles of UX designers and analysts. On the other hand, software engineers only understand programming logic. They are the ones who make design choices and transform them into beautiful and useful products. The two profiles are complete parallels with a diverse set of principles engraved in their heads. User Experience Architects’ Expertise– Research + Design Software Engineers’ Expertise– Back-end coding + CSS/HTML/JS

6. Now, what if the UX architect explores the unchartered territory and learns the ropes of coding? Like, they could get their understanding of the basics of CSS, HTML, or even JavaScript and develop what is known as cross-functional talent. That would actually do more good than harm, right? This does not mean that the UX experience architect steps on the toes of software engineers, but it means that they should grab coding basics to understand the engineering perspective. An architect would understand the properties of the concrete, so why wouldn’t a designer understand the properties of code.– Aaron Walter This is the secret sauce that helps deliver ideal requirements to the engineers who deal with a much more complicated part of the New Product Development process. UX architects thinking like coders > Creating practical UX design requirements > Faster product delivery

7. Breaking the Silos Between UX Architects and Software Engineers The UX architects leverage their creative juices to create a human-centered design product. With basic programming know-how and an idea around UX design trends making rounds in the market, the architects can become unstoppable forces of the product development process. Talent Mobility provides avenues for staff to progress and evolve within an organization and can lead to 30% better processes and 23% more productivity.– Forbes Also, there is a responsibility that the architectural design process and the coding process share – Deciding when and what gets loaded on the user interface of the app/website. That is their sweet spot for active and ongoing communication. With their shared knowledge and collaborative efforts, a great user experience design product can be built. And, the organization can truly play a supporting role here by offering a flexible work culture across the organizational setup. Where some organizations are design-driven, and some are engineering-driven, you need to follow a product-driven approach, i.e., an organization that puts the product mindset over the project mindset.

8. Portraying the Need for Cross- Functional Setup with an Example In today’s technologically dominant era, talent nurturing for product development teams is becoming the driving factor towards gaining competitive advantage. One needs to be more aware and involved throughout the digital product development process.

9. This is why the role of a UX architect does not end with handing over the requirements to the development team. Like what Slack does, a product that is changing the way teams communicate. They have this process called “Pair Design,” where UX designers and engineers work in tandem towards enhancing product user experience. They have designers working towards ensuring a product-market fit, while the developers do their bit in analyzing the technical constraints. With the combined insights from the two groups, product vision gets more clarity. Not only that, but continuous feedback is also a part of the process. This helps them fine-tune the product design process and implementation plan. And, when the product development kicks-off, the designers come forward to give support and quality control. UX Architects & Software Engineers – Tips for Enabling Collaboration Product Design Steps– Research + Ideation + Prototyping + User Testing + Iteration Product Engineering Steps– Code + Test + Fix Bugs + Launch + Maintain Both the processes might look like parallelly running tasks with no commonality at all, but they are more intertwined than what meets the eye.

10. While solving problems for the customers is tended to by the UX architects and the delivery of a valuable product is taken care of by the engineers. Thus, adhering to one of the primary principles of the Agile Manifesto. Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.– Agile Manifesto Coming to the point, here’s how to kick-start collaboration between product design and development efforts: The scrum backlog should be designed to involve software architects in the ideation phase along with the UX architects. This rewired setup could bring some great and practical ideas to the table. Shared ownership should be a benchmark to follow. Software development is a joint endeavor, and the same needs to reflect when appreciating the teams. Experience design is an ongoing phase throughout the development lifecycle. The idea should be to conduct daily stand-ups where UX

11. architects and product engineers can present ideas. Standard communication guidelines should be in place, where cross- functional talks are given a priority. Thus, leaving no space for “I don’t think you are doing it right” kind of opinion. Continuous learning and growth opportunities should be the organization’s overall goal. When you take an initiative to change the daily routines of your employees, productivity follows. Conclusion Challenging limits might be taxing for UX architects and engineers alike. But, that is the only way to achieve digital transformation at an organizational level. If the two can learn to fit into each other’s roles faintly, and collaborate from time-to-time, nothing could be better. By bringing each other’s expertise on the table and sharing knowledge, many organizations have witnessed a positive change in productivity. To start with, try and redefine your agile scrum that is inclusive of UX

12. architects and engineers. Secondly, nurture the talent spectrums of your teams, and encourage them to develop new skills. The prize for this rewired approach – Better customer experience, motivated product development teams, enriched organizational culture, and, of course, better revenue growth. Source - https://www.netsolutions.com/insights/ux-architect-product-development/