The value of UX community involvement: Networking at conferences
“To go fast, go alone. To go far, go together.”
— In Simon Sinek’s book, Together is Better
There are many paths to success and fulfillment as a user experience professional. But few, if any, of them involve working alone. As I look back at the last 15 years of my career, it’s hard for me to distinguish between the people who I know from conferences, from my work life, to the people I went to grad school with, the people who have mentored me, and those whom I have mentored. They are all so interconnected and intertwined.
What I can say is that I have formed some of my deepest friendships, and received some of the most meaningful compliments of my life from people I met at UX conferences. So let’s define “networking” as just meeting new people. Sometimes they will come to you, and sometimes you’ll need to introduce yourself. And let’s define “community involvement” as attending or speaking at or helping to run a UX conference. [While community involvement also includes mentoring and writing, I’ll talk about the value of those activities in subsequent posts.] Conferences are not the only place to learn new things, but they are wonderful for giving you the opportunity to meet people outside the circle you already have. To demonstrate some of the benefits of networking and attending conferences, I’ll share three stories from my own experiences.
First UX Conference. Ever.
It’s 2005 and I’m at my first UX conference ever — the Boston UPA 1-day conference. While the conference is good, someone forgot to order tables and chairs for the room in which we need to eat lunch. We all find our way to a boxed or bagged meal, and then … I’m flashing back to grade school. Where do I sit? I see people I know, but there’s no room in the circle they have formed on the floor. I feel small and alone, but I need to eat lunch, so I find a spot along a wall, and sit on the floor cross-legged, under a bank of windows.
I’m mid-way through my sandwich, when a dark-haired man about my age asks if he can join me. It turns out that he recognized me from a grad class we were both in. His name is Bret, and he’s got things he wants to talk about — job things — things I’m not sure I can help with, but we eat lunch, talk shop, and are friends 15 years later. In between, we’ve worked at the same companies, given each other help and advice, and have been there to lend an ear when it was time to change jobs.
Once you’ve met new people, the next stage is the delicate one — how can I help you? How can you help me? Maybe it’s “I’m looking for my first job in UX.” Or “I’m looking for volunteer projects that I can work on to build out my portfolio.” But you can break the ice with some easy questions like, “What do you do?” and “Where do you work?” Sometimes that leads to an awkward response like “I’m not working right now.” Or I’m looking for my first job in UX”. At which point you can ask, “Tell me more about what you’re looking for — what kinds of roles are you interested in and at what kinds of companies?” You can find out why and how they got into UX or what they did before UX. Everyone has a story to share, you just have to ask.
And then, once you get to know those people, they might become part of your posse — the people who you would drop everything for. The people you text when you need advice, or go for a drink with, just to talk shop and compare notes.
Who is Diana?
Fast-forward 5 or 6 years from that first annual Boston UXPA conference I’d attended, and by now, it’s like an old home week — waving to people I see all the time, stopping to chat with people I haven’t seen since the conference a year ago. The first person I see tells me that next week her friend Diana is going to start working at the same company where I work — do I know her? Will I be working with Diana? No, and nope. Never heard of her, but I’d love to meet her. As the day goes on, the story repeats several times — Diana is starting a new job, will she be working with me? Do I know Diana? She’s starting a new job … she must be around here somewhere.
Finally, another friend says to find him at the cocktail hour — Diana is sure to be hanging out with him then. Five PM comes around and I see him with a couple of women, so I approach. He introduces us, and Diana lights up. “Finally! Oh my God — all day, all anyone has been asking me is, ‘do you know Jen?’ ‘will you be working with Jen?’” We have a good laugh about it, have another drink, and say we’ll meet for lunch one day after she starts. Over the next year, I share some new work with her, she encourages me, and I publish it. I get her invited to write an essay for the Journal of Usability Studies. We give several talks together on Agile UX. Today, it’s 7 or 8 years later, and she is one of my very best friends.
Role Models
I had a couple of role models when I started in UX. There was Nancy, a tech writer turned designer, and there was Robin, the distinguished engineer in UX. When I was first considering a career change, they were generous with their time. I asked to hear their stories of getting into UX and asked their advice regarding questions that I had. Many years later, Nancy contacted me to ask if I’d chat with a young woman she knew, who was considering a career change. She said that the woman would be at the Boston UXPA conference, and we made plans to meet for coffee. Heather and I found each other at the conference. I listened to her questions, and told her my story. We might have spent 30 minutes together.
Back at the annual conference two or three years later, I was getting the room ready for a group mentoring session to start. My co-lead said he’d be late because he was giving a talk right before this session, so I was a little flustered. I was focused on the tables, the signage, the mentors … and the mentees were starting to gather at the door. A young woman walked up to me, and I let her know that we’d start the session in a few minutes. She re-introduced herself to me as Heather, the young woman whom I’d had coffee with a few years before. She wanted to thank me. To let me know that I had changed her life. That what I was doing with mentoring was so valuable. I was stunned. I thanked her. She thanked me. And then she was gone.
So. Many. More.
The three stories I’ve shared with you are three of maybe 50 I could tell you. There’s the young man who sat down for lunch with my team at a conference, and I hired him six months later. There’s the luminary who challenged me about a paper I presented at a conference, and then I went on to work with him academically for the next dozen years. There are so many others who I can call friends, but whom I might not have met otherwise.
So, whether it’s virtual or in-person, get out there! Attend a conference. Meet someone new. It might not change your life forever, but then again … it could.
[Postscript: This article was inspired by a chapter of the ~same name that I wrote for Dan Berlin’s book, 97 Things Every UX Practitioner Should Know: Collective Wisdom from the Experts. While the format and style of that book is focused on delivering succinct advice, and that is a valuable thing in of itself, I wrote this article to expand on some of the points that I didn’t have room for in the space of a 600-word chapter.]
