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The User Experience Team of One: A Research and Design Survival Guide
Whether you're new to UX or a seasoned practitioner,
The User Experience Team of One
gives you everything you need to succeed, emphasizing down–to–earth approaches that deliver big impact over time–consuming, needlessly complex techniques. This updated classic remains a comprehensive and essential guide for UX and product designers everywhere—you'll accomplish a lot more with a lot less.
Who Should Read This Book?
The techniques and advice in this book are applicable to anyone who is just starting out in user experience, as well as seasoned practitioners who have been in the field for years. In addition, anyone who read the first edition will appreciate this updated edition that features loads of new material that has changed over the past 10 years. There are tips, tools, and techniques throughout the book to improve your performance. The various methods detail exactly how to handle a variety of situations—from the timing involved, the materials, when to use that information, and how to try it out. Look for real–life sidebars from the authors, as well as experts in the field. This book applies to a team of one or a team of many.
Takeaways
The first section covers the philosophy of the UX team of one—why you do it, how you build support, how to identify common challenges, and how to keep growing.
The second section of the book, "Practice," gives you tools and techniques for managing this balancing act with detailed methods.
The 25 up–to–date methods in Part II prompt a question about a specific topic, answer the question, give the average time it will take to deal with the issue, tell you when to use this material, and give you instructions for "Trying It Out".
You can learn about working conditions that a team of one often experiences.
The book addresses difficult situations that UX practitioners often encounter (for example, the need for speed in corporate environments.
Be sure to review the UX Value Loop[TM] that Joe created to define UX.
Check out sidebars that highlight some of Joe and Leah's personal real–life experiences.
The end of each chapter tells you what to do if you can "only do one thing"
Finally, notes and tips give you handy techniques and tools to use in your own practice.
Who Should Read This Book?
The techniques and advice in this book are applicable to anyone who is just starting out in user experience, as well as seasoned practitioners who have been in the field for years. In addition, anyone who read the first edition will appreciate this updated edition that features loads of new material that has changed over the past 10 years. There are tips, tools, and techniques throughout the book to improve your performance. The various methods detail exactly how to handle a variety of situations—from the timing involved, the materials, when to use that information, and how to try it out. Look for real–life sidebars from the authors, as well as experts in the field. This book applies to a team of one or a team of many.
Takeaways
The first section covers the philosophy of the UX team of one—why you do it, how you build support, how to identify common challenges, and how to keep growing.
The second section of the book, "Practice," gives you tools and techniques for managing this balancing act with detailed methods.
The 25 up–to–date methods in Part II prompt a question about a specific topic, answer the question, give the average time it will take to deal with the issue, tell you when to use this material, and give you instructions for "Trying It Out".
You can learn about working conditions that a team of one often experiences.
The book addresses difficult situations that UX practitioners often encounter (for example, the need for speed in corporate environments.
Be sure to review the UX Value Loop[TM] that Joe created to define UX.
Check out sidebars that highlight some of Joe and Leah's personal real–life experiences.
The end of each chapter tells you what to do if you can "only do one thing"
Finally, notes and tips give you handy techniques and tools to use in your own practice.
320 pages, Paperback
Published August 27, 2024
9 people are currently reading
30 people want to read
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October 10, 2024
“This book is intended to be approachable for anyone who picks it up. Maybe you are new UX and product design. […] Or you might be an experienced partitioner seeking ways to work more efficiently with cross-functional teams.” This is how the authors define the target audience of the second edition of the book.
From my perspective, the book meets these claims only partially. The book presents some good approaches and methods, but I would recommend other books to people from other disciplines (e.g. product managers or developers) and new UX designers. More on this later. Furthermore, I would not recommend new UX designers to take a job where they are the only user experience person. If they would even be considered for such a position.
Here are a few things that bothered me while reading the book:
Chapter 1: UX 101
Defining User Experience: No Clear Breakdown and Explanation
Visual design is equated with user interface design and defined once in a regular section and twice in sidebars. Content design, on the other hand, is only mentioned as a role designation (content designer), but is only indirectly defined via “UX writing and content strategy”, which in turn is not necessarily the same thing.
Chapter 2: Getting Started
Get to Know the UX Improvement Process: Overwhelming
The authors begin, correctly, with an explanation that there is not one UX process, but many flavors. What is missing, however, is a clear overview of a process that they want to use to explain things to their readers. Instead, the authors jump straight into possible process steps and their possible components, which they explain at a high level. For experienced UX designers, these components are understandable, but for beginners, these components may be overwhelming at this point. I would have found it better to give a clear overview of a process at this point and then explain all the relevant components step by step in the following chapters. And to be fair, some components (methods) are explained in the following chapters, but by no means all of the components that are explained at this point. Rather, at the end of the section, reference is made to other books, which brings us to the next point.
– Supplementary Books: Questionable Approach and Selection
Book recommendations are generally a great thing. However, when this takes place right at the beginning of a book and these book recommendations obviously address similar topics to the book that I am currently reading and from which I am hoping to learn more, this leaves me with a somewhat strange impression. Furthermore, I consider the selection of books to be somewhat questionable for beginners. For example, the book “Information Architecture for the Web and Beyond”, which was published in its fourth edition in 2015, is no longer something I can recommend to anyone with a clear conscience, even though information architecture is still important.
– Minimal Viable Product: Incorrect Explanation
“[…] an actual product with minimal feature set, offer it to customers, and observe their actual behavior using it […]” This is incorrect and does not correspond to the clarification made later by Mr. Ries. An MVP is the smallest possible experiment that can be carried out to learn something. For example, about potential users or the product. The product can also simply be a digital or physical prototype.
– Font-End Development Skills: Questionable Statement
“Font-End development (CSS, HTML, JavaScript) has become an increasingly expected part of the job. […]” A solid understanding of these languages is certainly helpful for UX designers, and there are certainly some companies that would like to get it all from one person to save money. Personally, I think such companies are questionable these days and mixing UX design and front-end development is not very effective. Not least because UX already encompasses many activities. I'm not saying that it's impossible to do good work in both disciplines, especially if a person already has several years of experience in one or the other, but often one or the other is already enough work.
Chapter 4: Planning and Discovery Methods
UX Questionnaire: Misleading Title
Learning more about a product (strategy, business model, stakeholders, etc.) in a structured form is a good idea. However, I think the title is misleading.
And this applies to several of the following methods, although the authors themselves state in the previous chapter: “UX is rife with jargon that can be off-putting to people from other fields, and it makes effective communication across internationally distributed teams extremely difficult. Terminology, jargon, and acronyms obscure meaning.”
Chapter 5: Research Methods
Learning Plan: Misleading Title
This method involves writing down assumptions about personas and considering how these assumptions can be tested (validated or falsified). Other authors call such a method briefly and succinctly: “Assumption Persona”, “Proto Persona” or “Bullshit Persona.”
Guerrilla User Research: Negligent Omission
Talking to users is, without a doubt, important. At the same time, legal aspects such as data protection are just as important nowadays. To merely address this in a short paragraph about “housekeeping” and “informed consent” is, in my opinion, negligent these days. In any case, talk to your manager or, if you have one, to the legal team before you talk to external people. Violations can be expensive for you and the company you work for.
User Archetypes: Misleading Title
This method is again about writing down “Assumptions Personas.” This time together with the team. This also makes sense, but this separation and the title do not.
Heuristic Markup: Misleading Title
The idea is to experience a specific user journey and record what you think and feel. Essentially, it is about mapping a “User Journey” with the help of screenshots.
Comparative Assessment: Misleading Title
Now it is about analyzing indirect competitors, which users may use, and certain aspects of their product. Normally this is simply called “Competitor Analysis,” regardless of whether they are direct or indirect competitors.
Content Patterns: Questionable Method and Screenshots
I don't understand the point of this method. It seems to be about recording the rough structure of a product (several pages) in order to somehow analyze its quality. In the explanation, the authors explicitly state that this is not a content inventory, as this would be very time-consuming, even though the table in the screenshots is named “Content Inventory”.
Chapter 7: Testing and Validation Methods
Interactive Prototypes: Overlap with Rapid Usability Test
Step three describes nothing else than usability testing, which will be explained again later.
Black Hat Session: Crucial Information Missing
This method is about collecting feedback on certain aspects from stakeholders. This is a good idea, as good design needs feedback and debate. However, there is no mention of the fact that good expectation management is also important. Not all feedback can or should be implemented; it is not about design by committee. This must be clearly communicated in advance, and if something cannot be implemented, it is essential to explain the reasons for this to colleagues. Alternatively, this method is also known as design critique.
Chapter 9: Growing Yourself and Your Career
Online Professional Communities: Maybe, Maybe Not
Having one or more people you can absolutely trust and with whom you can discuss professional topics and problems is extremely important. Even better if you can actively look for possible ways to solve problems with this person and have fun. Do you need a superficial network like LinkedIn, etc., and groups on such a platform to grow your career? I think such an exchange can be helpful, but it is not essential. I would prefer a few trusted people and waste less time with online groups.
Going Independent: Target Audience, Anyone?
The information is valid, but I think that this information is not essential for this book with the previously defined target audience. Instead, more polish of the other information would have been desirable.
Conclusion
For me, rating this book is tough. If I take the documented points into account, and also other UX books that I rated with three stars, I tend to arrive at two out of five stars for “The User Experience Team of One.”
Book Recommendations
For new UX Designers, and anyone who is interested:
• “The Design of Everyday Things” by Donald Norman
• “Collaborative Product Design: Help Any Team Build a Better Experience” by Austin Govella
• “Articulating Design Decisions: Communicate with Stakeholders, Keep Your Sanity, and Deliver the Best User Experience” by Tom Greever
• “Validating Product Ideas: Through Lean User Research” by Tomer Sharon
• “Writing Is Designing: Words and the User Experience” by Andy Welfle, Michael J. Metts
From my perspective, the book meets these claims only partially. The book presents some good approaches and methods, but I would recommend other books to people from other disciplines (e.g. product managers or developers) and new UX designers. More on this later. Furthermore, I would not recommend new UX designers to take a job where they are the only user experience person. If they would even be considered for such a position.
Here are a few things that bothered me while reading the book:
Chapter 1: UX 101
Defining User Experience: No Clear Breakdown and Explanation
Visual design is equated with user interface design and defined once in a regular section and twice in sidebars. Content design, on the other hand, is only mentioned as a role designation (content designer), but is only indirectly defined via “UX writing and content strategy”, which in turn is not necessarily the same thing.
Chapter 2: Getting Started
Get to Know the UX Improvement Process: Overwhelming
The authors begin, correctly, with an explanation that there is not one UX process, but many flavors. What is missing, however, is a clear overview of a process that they want to use to explain things to their readers. Instead, the authors jump straight into possible process steps and their possible components, which they explain at a high level. For experienced UX designers, these components are understandable, but for beginners, these components may be overwhelming at this point. I would have found it better to give a clear overview of a process at this point and then explain all the relevant components step by step in the following chapters. And to be fair, some components (methods) are explained in the following chapters, but by no means all of the components that are explained at this point. Rather, at the end of the section, reference is made to other books, which brings us to the next point.
– Supplementary Books: Questionable Approach and Selection
Book recommendations are generally a great thing. However, when this takes place right at the beginning of a book and these book recommendations obviously address similar topics to the book that I am currently reading and from which I am hoping to learn more, this leaves me with a somewhat strange impression. Furthermore, I consider the selection of books to be somewhat questionable for beginners. For example, the book “Information Architecture for the Web and Beyond”, which was published in its fourth edition in 2015, is no longer something I can recommend to anyone with a clear conscience, even though information architecture is still important.
– Minimal Viable Product: Incorrect Explanation
“[…] an actual product with minimal feature set, offer it to customers, and observe their actual behavior using it […]” This is incorrect and does not correspond to the clarification made later by Mr. Ries. An MVP is the smallest possible experiment that can be carried out to learn something. For example, about potential users or the product. The product can also simply be a digital or physical prototype.
– Font-End Development Skills: Questionable Statement
“Font-End development (CSS, HTML, JavaScript) has become an increasingly expected part of the job. […]” A solid understanding of these languages is certainly helpful for UX designers, and there are certainly some companies that would like to get it all from one person to save money. Personally, I think such companies are questionable these days and mixing UX design and front-end development is not very effective. Not least because UX already encompasses many activities. I'm not saying that it's impossible to do good work in both disciplines, especially if a person already has several years of experience in one or the other, but often one or the other is already enough work.
Chapter 4: Planning and Discovery Methods
UX Questionnaire: Misleading Title
Learning more about a product (strategy, business model, stakeholders, etc.) in a structured form is a good idea. However, I think the title is misleading.
And this applies to several of the following methods, although the authors themselves state in the previous chapter: “UX is rife with jargon that can be off-putting to people from other fields, and it makes effective communication across internationally distributed teams extremely difficult. Terminology, jargon, and acronyms obscure meaning.”
Chapter 5: Research Methods
Learning Plan: Misleading Title
This method involves writing down assumptions about personas and considering how these assumptions can be tested (validated or falsified). Other authors call such a method briefly and succinctly: “Assumption Persona”, “Proto Persona” or “Bullshit Persona.”
Guerrilla User Research: Negligent Omission
Talking to users is, without a doubt, important. At the same time, legal aspects such as data protection are just as important nowadays. To merely address this in a short paragraph about “housekeeping” and “informed consent” is, in my opinion, negligent these days. In any case, talk to your manager or, if you have one, to the legal team before you talk to external people. Violations can be expensive for you and the company you work for.
User Archetypes: Misleading Title
This method is again about writing down “Assumptions Personas.” This time together with the team. This also makes sense, but this separation and the title do not.
Heuristic Markup: Misleading Title
The idea is to experience a specific user journey and record what you think and feel. Essentially, it is about mapping a “User Journey” with the help of screenshots.
Comparative Assessment: Misleading Title
Now it is about analyzing indirect competitors, which users may use, and certain aspects of their product. Normally this is simply called “Competitor Analysis,” regardless of whether they are direct or indirect competitors.
Content Patterns: Questionable Method and Screenshots
I don't understand the point of this method. It seems to be about recording the rough structure of a product (several pages) in order to somehow analyze its quality. In the explanation, the authors explicitly state that this is not a content inventory, as this would be very time-consuming, even though the table in the screenshots is named “Content Inventory”.
Chapter 7: Testing and Validation Methods
Interactive Prototypes: Overlap with Rapid Usability Test
Step three describes nothing else than usability testing, which will be explained again later.
Black Hat Session: Crucial Information Missing
This method is about collecting feedback on certain aspects from stakeholders. This is a good idea, as good design needs feedback and debate. However, there is no mention of the fact that good expectation management is also important. Not all feedback can or should be implemented; it is not about design by committee. This must be clearly communicated in advance, and if something cannot be implemented, it is essential to explain the reasons for this to colleagues. Alternatively, this method is also known as design critique.
Chapter 9: Growing Yourself and Your Career
Online Professional Communities: Maybe, Maybe Not
Having one or more people you can absolutely trust and with whom you can discuss professional topics and problems is extremely important. Even better if you can actively look for possible ways to solve problems with this person and have fun. Do you need a superficial network like LinkedIn, etc., and groups on such a platform to grow your career? I think such an exchange can be helpful, but it is not essential. I would prefer a few trusted people and waste less time with online groups.
Going Independent: Target Audience, Anyone?
The information is valid, but I think that this information is not essential for this book with the previously defined target audience. Instead, more polish of the other information would have been desirable.
Conclusion
For me, rating this book is tough. If I take the documented points into account, and also other UX books that I rated with three stars, I tend to arrive at two out of five stars for “The User Experience Team of One.”
Book Recommendations
For new UX Designers, and anyone who is interested:
• “The Design of Everyday Things” by Donald Norman
• “Collaborative Product Design: Help Any Team Build a Better Experience” by Austin Govella
• “Articulating Design Decisions: Communicate with Stakeholders, Keep Your Sanity, and Deliver the Best User Experience” by Tom Greever
• “Validating Product Ideas: Through Lean User Research” by Tomer Sharon
• “Writing Is Designing: Words and the User Experience” by Andy Welfle, Michael J. Metts
September 17, 2025
Did I really know anything about UX before reading this? Not really.
I'm in a technical, what I would call adjacent field to this, so hey - I was curious.
This guide, "The User Experience Team of One: A Research and Design Survival Guide" makes UX both interesting and practical. It talks about different ways to tackle UX design, different tools and applications that are out there, and most importantly - THERE ARE PICTURES. I appreciate this because not only does it break up the content, but the pictures are relevant - if not direct examples of the content matter being discussed.
An excellent look into all things User Experience.
I'm in a technical, what I would call adjacent field to this, so hey - I was curious.
This guide, "The User Experience Team of One: A Research and Design Survival Guide" makes UX both interesting and practical. It talks about different ways to tackle UX design, different tools and applications that are out there, and most importantly - THERE ARE PICTURES. I appreciate this because not only does it break up the content, but the pictures are relevant - if not direct examples of the content matter being discussed.
An excellent look into all things User Experience.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews