As a UX Writer, your job is to build the best possible writing experience for your users. You might be wondering how to do this in an industry that’s changing so quickly. To help you figure it out, we’ve compiled some tips on building and managing a world-class team of UX writers.
Finding The Right Mix Of Personalities, Skills And Perspectives
Once you have a list of potential team members, it’s time to start thinking about the combination that works best for your business.
The first thing to consider is what skills and experiences each person will be bringing to the table. Every UX writer should have a strong grasp of grammar and punctuation, but what else do you need? Do you want someone who can help with user research? Are there creative briefs that need to be written? What about a designer who can create visual assets for content marketing? It’s also important to ask:
How does this person work under pressure? How well do they collaborate with others? Is their personality compatible with others on the team? Is there anyone who might not get along well in our office environment (such as introverts vs extroverts)? How much time do they need between projects before they’re ready again — or better yet, how many projects can they juggle at once without getting overwhelmed by them all at once!
HIRING THE SOFT SKILLS
What are soft skills?
Soft skills are interpersonal abilities, such as flexibility, communication and leadership. They can also include problem-solving and troubleshooting, influencing others and adapting to change. You may think of them as the “softer” aspects of a person’s personality — things that aren’t easily quantified or measured. But they play an important role in creating a productive work environment and fostering high performance among your team members. And they’re just as important as hard skills when it comes to hiring the right people for your UX writing team.
Why do we need soft skills at all?
When you have talented writers with strong technical writing skills but lacking in soft skills (such as listening), it can lead to trouble later on down the line once those workers begin interacting with clients or users through one-on-one interviews or focus groups — or even simply having conversations with their colleagues around the office! It can become difficult for the people who haven’t been trained in these areas because they don’t know how best to behave themselves; this might mean not asking questions when needed so as not to seem presumptuous about their own opinions; maybe even worse yet: only asking questions without listening carefully enough first (which often leads back into trouble).
Look for more than just writing chops
When you’re building a team of UX writers, look for more than just writing chops.
To build a world-class team of UX writers, you need people who are passionate about user experience (UX). You also need people who are passionate about writing. And you need people with their brands — people who want to be recognized as experts in the field and will actively build those brands on the back of their work. These folks will make your products better by improving them from within.
And if you have an exciting product that’s worth talking about (and marketing), then your UX writers should be excited about talking about it too! They shouldn’t be shy or afraid — they should feel comfortable sharing their knowledge with others and helping them understand how great your product is for users so they can make informed buying decisions.
Finally, don’t forget that the team itself plays an important role in any organization’s success: happy teams perform better than unhappy ones due to all sorts of factors like increased morale and decreased turnover rate among other things — so don’t forget this part when hiring new members for yours!
Hire for potential, not experience
Hiring for potential is more important than experience. This allows you to grow the skills and expertise you need, and hire the right people for the right job.
However, it’s not always easy to find candidates who can grasp your business goals without previous training or experience in your field. To streamline this process, offer a comprehensive onboarding program that includes both technical and soft-skills training so new hires are ready to hit the ground running.
How to support your team as they grow
“Help me learn,” is a request that’s sure to make your team feel appreciated and motivated. If they know you want to help them grow, they will be more likely to seek out opportunities on their own.
Here are some ways you can support your team:
Give them opportunities to grow.
Let them take ownership of their projects.
Give them the chance to lead others in the absence of their manager or senior writer, who may not always be available at crunch times during the sprints (or even beyond). This is especially important if there aren’t enough UX writers on board!
Let them try new things. For example, if one person has been doing only copywriting work for years while another specializes in writing user stories and creating wireframes, let these two collaborate on a project together so that both skillsets get used regularly instead of allowing one person’s expertise to go stale after years of neglect…
Invest in your team… and yourself.
There’s a lot of pressure on the UX writer to be good at everything. We have to be able to write copy, create microcopy, and create a content strategy — and that’s just for starters! It can feel overwhelming when you’re just starting but remember: You are not alone. There are tons of people who made it through this difficult time before and they can help you along the way.
You might also find yourself feeling like you’d rather work alone (or maybe with your cat). But if you want to build an amazing team, then you must spend time with other people who share your values and interests — the same goes for building relationships with customers or partners as well as employees within your company or organization.
Set goals, but give them a say in what those are.
You’re welcome to set goals for your UX writers, but they also need to have a say in what those goals are.
This is important on two levels: first and foremost, it gives them a sense of ownership over their work and lets them know you respect them as equal partners in the process. Secondly, it allows them to take into account their strengths and weaknesses when deciding how best to contribute toward achieving those goals (which will likely look different than yours).
Asking them what they can do better, what skills they want to develop further, and how they can help achieve organizational objectives while helping their teams do so would give an insight into what motivates people at work beyond just financial incentives.
Encourage and demand feedback.
Feedback is one of the best ways to improve. As UX writers, we should encourage and demand feedback from others.
Feedback is a gift. When you receive feedback, it’s an opportunity for someone else to give you something valuable and important — their time and attention. Be grateful for it!
Feedback is a two-way street. If you want more feedback from your team members, share your thoughts with them as well (assuming it’s safe to do so). For example: “I enjoyed this article because…” or “The thing I loved most about this blog post was…”
Feedback is an opportunity for growth on both sides of the conversation — you can learn new skills while helping others develop theirs too! While receiving feedback might make some people feel vulnerable or defensive at first, think about how much better everyone will be after everyone has had a chance to grow together in these areas over time!
Giving constructive criticism on writing is good, but so is giving it on people’s attitudes or working styles.
The best way to give feedback on writing is to critique the content of each piece, not the writer. You may think that a writer needs to be told this, but it’s true: many people are afraid of giving criticism and prefer to be overly polite instead. But if you don’t make suggestions for how things can be improved, how will they know what to do differently next time?
This doesn’t mean that you should only give negative feedback; in fact, making positive comments about a piece can also help writers improve over time because they’ll know what areas they’re excelling in and which ones need work. However, if there are problems with your team members’ work habits or attitudes toward their jobs (or any other issues), then those problems should be addressed as well — and this is where constructive criticism comes into play.
UX Writers can be an amazing asset to your team but success relies on hiring and supporting them correctly.
UX Writers are a special breed. They’re not writers, they’re not marketers, they’re not coders. If you hire them as “writers” or “marketers” or “coders,” you’ll likely be disappointed with the results. They need to be treated differently than your typical creative team members for their skillset to shine through and make an impact on your project. The following tips will help ensure success when hiring UX Writers onto your team:
Hire based on skill rather than experience — The best UX writers aren’t always professionals who have worked for years in other fields. Many of them come from varied backgrounds and bring fresh perspectives that can boost innovation within your organization (for example, someone who has previously worked as an academic). So if someone has potential but no previous experience writing user manuals or marketing copy (or whatever else), don’t worry about it! Look at their portfolio instead!
Provide constructive feedback — As mentioned previously, UX writers are more likely than other types of creatives to encounter problems with drafting content due to its complexity; so while it may seem easier just give them some direction and ask them where they went wrong later (like with coding), this isn’t always helpful because it doesn’t provide direct guidance during implementation time either way (“Oh no! I messed up!”). Instead, try giving constructive feedback via email after each draft is submitted so there’s still time left over before deadline day arrives — and remember that sometimes all it takes is one sentence change here or there before everything falls into place perfectly again 🙂
Conclusion
We’re not just here to make your life easier. We’re also here to make it more fun, and more rewarding. By listening to our customers, we can create tools that get them excited about writing again. By working together with the rest of your team, we can create content that resonates with readers and makes them feel like they belong in your world. And by building a culture of trust and respect — especially among ourselves — we can make sure everyone on our team feels valued for their contributions, no matter what those contributions may be.
