UX, CX, BX, all the X’s…Is it all BS?
Exploring the career pathing options in experience strategy and what each role means.
Whether you’re just entering the field of UX and experience work, or have been around the block, responsibilities continue to shift and grow as technology advances. One question that I get asked a lot when mentoring for ADPlist is the difference between all the job titles and responsibilities.
I’ve taken some time to highlight a few that comes up quite often, as well as a few others that have recently surfaced. Let me know in the comments if you have additions you want to add or follow ups for a specific role.
Digital or tech specific
UI or User Interface Design
UI designers focus on visual design interactions like typography, colors, visual aesthetic and possibly interactions/animations. UI designers works hand in hand with UX, but they are not the same. This isn’t to say an individual can’t have skills that toggle both, but usually there’s one area they are stronger in. (Source 1)
Questions they ask: What typography or color should I use for this navigation component help engage users?
Skills required: Visual eye and creative thinking for aesthetics
UX or User Experience
UX is the process to enhance user satisfaction through usability and accessibility of a product, site or mobile app. UX design covers a broad area and is typically a jack of all trades from information architecture to visual interactions and design, to user research and content strategy. As a generalist, you might have skills that cover the surface of all these areas, but not in-depth knowledge. Ways to measure UX effectiveness includes overall usability, abandonment, page views, task time, success rate, usage, error rate, and satisfaction. (Source 1) (Source 2)
Questions they ask: How will this feature/function provide value and make life easier for users?
Skills required: Curiosity and empathy for human behavior through research, ability to communicate, collaborate and influence cross teams
UX writing
Ability to craft a user’s experience by designing with words. This is typically a subset role within UX, common with those who have writing background. (Source 1) (Source 2)
Questions they ask: How can I guide users through this interface intuitively and easily with words?
Skills required: Content strategy, UX and writing skills, curiosity and communication, active listening
Product Design
Similar to UX design roles, a product designer focuses on user’s pain points and motivations. Analyzing data, understanding users through empathy to build a new product from beginning to end. Product designers focus more on requirements of the business compared to UX designers whose emphasis are user’s needs. (Source)
Questions they ask: How does this feature impact the overall product experience for my users?
Skills required: Curiosity and empathy for human behavior through research, ability to communicate, collaborate and influence cross teams, some might even have front-end dev capabilities
Product management and product owners
This role often gets confused with UX. While they share some similarities in responsibilities, the product manager (PM) focuses more on describing the problem users have and sets the product vision and goals for the team by making sure the team has the resources needed. PO’s or product owners focuses on setting up projects, aligning teams and following up on deadlines. (Source) (Source) (Source)
Questions they ask: How can we allocate the team resource with the tasks we have at hand for this sprint? How can we remove the impediments the team has in order for them to continue forward?
Skills required: Organization, ability to communicate effectively with designers, developers and stakeholders
Brand and marketing
CX (Customer/Consumer Experience) Strategy
Responsible for the strategy, planning and execution that impacts the overall customer experience goals for both online and offline touchpoints. CX ties closer to marketing and services for customers/consumers. Ways to measure effective CX is through customer satisfaction score, advocacy, loyalty, retention, Net Promoter Score (NPS), Customer Effort Score, ease of doing business, quality, value, and expectations.
Questions they ask: What does the customer’s engagement and journey look like when interacting with our brand? How much data can I gather to understand this market to reach our target consumers most effectively?
Skills required: Problem solving, analytical skills and foresight, align business objectives and user needs, aptitude for tech and influencing skills
Brand strategy
Brand strategy is defining what a brand stands for and what’s the one thing that resonates with consumers in a simple and memorable way. Sometimes this role is also called brand planner or account planner. Their role is being the voice of the customer through research and communicating it to the creative teams through briefs.
Questions they ask: What’s the best way to position this brand in the market white space?
Skills required: Ability to conduct user research and analyze data and trends. Ability to quickly adapt to change, as well as writing and collaboration skills to creatively tell the brand story to both creative teams and clients
Comms planning
Comms planners, or sometimes known as connections planners, have the ability to communicate what methods to execute via tactics that tie back to the overarching brand strategy. Typically this role is the liaison between media and creative teams, but also works closely with brand strategists to lead effective campaign tactics. (Source 1) (Source 2) (Source 3)
Questions they ask: How can we best reach our audience through what channels with the right message for this specific campaign?
Skills required: Communication skills, ability to understand different channels/medium, analytical skills and active listening
Operations
Design Ops
Design Ops is the orchestration and optimization of people, processes and craft to amplify design’s value and impact at scale. A big part of this role is how the teams work together, how they get work done through systems and how work creates impact. While some companies may have individuals taking on this role, it’s also seen in other roles like design producers, program managers or ResearchOps. (Source 1) (Source 2) (Source 3) (Source 4)
Questions they ask: How can I create an environment so my team can achieve quality breakthrough work?
Skills required: Communication, creative thinking, action oriented and active listening
Service Design
Service design is designing for the bigger picture and ties UX and CX together from a micro and macro level. Their goal is to maximize convenience and eliminate any barriers that impact overall efficiency. This is the activity of planning and organizing a business’s resources (people, props, and processes) in order to directly improve the employee’s experience, and indirectly, the customer’s experience. (Source 1) (Source 2)
Questions they ask: What’s the best system we can create to ensure our teams have a consistent process to repeat and create quality work efficiently?
Skills required: Communication skills, facilitation skills, ability to quickly adapt to changes, curiosity and empathy
So what do you all think? Do you agree with these? Are there things you’d add to each role?
