What do you think?
Rate this book
Experience Required: How to become a UX leader regardless of your role
For all the resources on great design, there is almost nothing on how to be a great design professional. For all the schools and classes and workshops on what constitutes a good user experience, there is not one bit of formalized education on how to earn the respect of your team and get your recommendations out the door.
Sure, they’ll teach you how to do user research and testing and interaction design. They’ll teach you about process. But where’s the book on how to convince people you’re right? On what skills will make you the most valuable? How to fend off the bad ideas and fight for the good ones? How to move from junior to senior? How to become a UX leader?
In Experience Required, veteran UX strategist Robert Hoekman Jr reveals the following and much more:
• the pros and cons of generalists, specialists, and “unicorns”
• the art and imperative of forming a good argument
• why communication may be your biggest obstacle
• the qualities and actions of effective design leaders
• why being unreasonable might be the key to your success
Whatever your role, Experience Required teaches you to become the UX leader you’ve always wanted to be.
Take charge of your next project starting right now.
Sure, they’ll teach you how to do user research and testing and interaction design. They’ll teach you about process. But where’s the book on how to convince people you’re right? On what skills will make you the most valuable? How to fend off the bad ideas and fight for the good ones? How to move from junior to senior? How to become a UX leader?
In Experience Required, veteran UX strategist Robert Hoekman Jr reveals the following and much more:
• the pros and cons of generalists, specialists, and “unicorns”
• the art and imperative of forming a good argument
• why communication may be your biggest obstacle
• the qualities and actions of effective design leaders
• why being unreasonable might be the key to your success
Whatever your role, Experience Required teaches you to become the UX leader you’ve always wanted to be.
Take charge of your next project starting right now.
225 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 19, 2015
25 people are currently reading
220 people want to read
About the author
Robert Hoekman Jr.
14 books36 followersRobert Hoekman Jr is an American writer. He is the author of nine nonfiction books, and has served as an Arts & Culture journalist, magazine editor, and manuscript developer. He has published articles in Fast Company, Wired, Maxim, and many other outlets. His microfiction has appeared or is forthcoming in 50-Word Stories, Nanoism, Spelk, Genrepunk, and elsewhere. He holds an Advanced Certificate in Creative Writing from the University of Pennsylvania, and teaches creative writing through the Stanford Continuing Studies Program. He lives with his dog in Richmond, Virginia.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
February 24, 2019
Very comprehensive insights for a UX role both technical and soft. The author brings several perspectives to the table for each of us who interacts or want to become or works as a UX deisgner.
March 23, 2016
THE BOTTOM LINE
Your first book towards a designer career and constant reminder of any career, because, seriously, you don’t get such sobering insights and decent advice very often in life or career.
PROS & CONS
Here’s the book I wish I had read before I had anything to do with design. And here’s the book I wish I could have written. So now it’s easier for me – I simply recommend this book as a must-read to anyone in need.
How’s the book so good? Well, it’s complicated. Let’s look at the pros and cons first.
Pros
- Sobering restatement of what design is about and what UX (user experience) is about
- Thorough debunking of the various myths of a designer’s job titles
- Practitioner’s hard-earned lessons on design’s and UX’s role in business and how to get there
- Insights on the mindset you need as a designer
- Summary of the absolutely essential skills you must learn to master – and it applies not only to a designer career
- Revelation of bitter truths about the reality and challenges faced by a wannabe or practicing designer
- Highly readable, highly quotable
Cons
- Kind of a ‘personal reflection’ narrative. Not that it’s bad, but wouldn’t it be even better if the wisdom bits could be somehow highlighted or emphasized. Personal anecdotes are not worth a second read, but those hard-earned lessons, bitter truths and insightful wisdom are worth a thousand reads – they should stand out. So maybe that’s an editing/layout issue.
- The target audience, as the author emphasizes more than once, include not just designers (and indeed so), but the narration is towards a designer. You might get a feeling like “what? you’re talking to me? but I’m not a designer! you’re supposed to talk to me also, right?” if you’re not strictly a designer. Well I guess the author has to assume something in order to say things out, otherwise it’d be too verbose to address every single type of audience. So maybe it’s better not to emphasize too much about “this is also a book for you and you and you”, just say non-designers can also benefit greatly (which is true).
WHAT'S INSIDE? A PERSONAL SUMMARY
Chapter 1 ‘Introduction’ makes some bold assumptions to establish a common ground for further discussion. You don’t have to agree with the author’s definitions, while those are very good ones that can help you understand.
Chapter 2 ‘The Shape of a Great Designer’, my favorite, clarifies the problem of job titles and explores various implications of the practice of design. That’s critical for both designers and people who work with them. The fundamental expectations for both are set here.
Chapter 3 ‘Adapting’ breaks the myths of design process and design time. The insights can help you tell decent designers from indecent ones – to me that’s very very important to human resource and management.
Chapter 4 ‘Understanding’ explores the ‘user’ side. Empathy. Psychology. Yes, important – but the next chapter is even better.
Chapter 5 ‘Questioning’ is another gem. Mastering the art of asking questions is probably the most important starting point of anything. And if you survey the literature of business success, innovation, design thinking, whatever, you name it, you’d find the same thing: start by asking questions; learn to listen well; question the problem first – or in the words of Kees Dorst in his amazing book Frame Innovation (read my review here), it’s about “attacking the context”.
Chapter 6 ‘Communicating’ continues the broader exploration of basic skills. The notion that a designer must be great at communicating is not new, while it’s that important to repeat in any book.
Chapter 7 ‘Arguing’ reads more like a sequel to ‘Questioning’. I feel like it’s less about arguing than about probing and influencing.
Chapter 8 ‘Leading’ and Chapter 9 ‘Learning’ concern issues in work habit, work culture, career development and self management. Big topics, therefore more ambiguities. Not bad, while there are definitely better books on those stuff.
Chapter 10 ‘Being Unreasonable’ is a total disappoint to me. The author tries to say something about the importance of ‘high standards’, which I totally agree, while the short treatment is far from convincing. Holding high standards is not easy. There are risks and sacrifices that go along with it. It’s hard to see how the chapter could help a wannabe designer.
SHOULD YOU READ IT?
If you’re a veteran designer, the book would be a real quick read. You may already know many of the things the author points out. There could be many resonant quotable stuff. Once in a while, there are insights you haven’t explicitly realized.
If you’re a beginner level designer, or you’re on the way to be a designer, this is a serious must-read for you. There might be things you don’t fully agree or understand. That’s fine. While it’s okay to disagree, you will definitely understand later in your career.
If you’re not strictly a designer, everything still makes sense as long as you work with, hire or manage designers. I mean who doesn’t nowadays? You need to understand what design is about. More practically, you need to know what to expect from a decent designer, and how to work with them. And, profoundly, you need to apply the same skills a designer has, whether you believe in design thinking or not. That’s not not because designer skills are special, it’s just that those skills are mostly universal.
FURTHER READING
You may want to read the book along with Kees Dorst’s Understanding Design, which, from a another angle, also provides deep insights you can’t get anywhere else.
Your first book towards a designer career and constant reminder of any career, because, seriously, you don’t get such sobering insights and decent advice very often in life or career.
PROS & CONS
Here’s the book I wish I had read before I had anything to do with design. And here’s the book I wish I could have written. So now it’s easier for me – I simply recommend this book as a must-read to anyone in need.
How’s the book so good? Well, it’s complicated. Let’s look at the pros and cons first.
Pros
- Sobering restatement of what design is about and what UX (user experience) is about
- Thorough debunking of the various myths of a designer’s job titles
- Practitioner’s hard-earned lessons on design’s and UX’s role in business and how to get there
- Insights on the mindset you need as a designer
- Summary of the absolutely essential skills you must learn to master – and it applies not only to a designer career
- Revelation of bitter truths about the reality and challenges faced by a wannabe or practicing designer
- Highly readable, highly quotable
Cons
- Kind of a ‘personal reflection’ narrative. Not that it’s bad, but wouldn’t it be even better if the wisdom bits could be somehow highlighted or emphasized. Personal anecdotes are not worth a second read, but those hard-earned lessons, bitter truths and insightful wisdom are worth a thousand reads – they should stand out. So maybe that’s an editing/layout issue.
- The target audience, as the author emphasizes more than once, include not just designers (and indeed so), but the narration is towards a designer. You might get a feeling like “what? you’re talking to me? but I’m not a designer! you’re supposed to talk to me also, right?” if you’re not strictly a designer. Well I guess the author has to assume something in order to say things out, otherwise it’d be too verbose to address every single type of audience. So maybe it’s better not to emphasize too much about “this is also a book for you and you and you”, just say non-designers can also benefit greatly (which is true).
WHAT'S INSIDE? A PERSONAL SUMMARY
Chapter 1 ‘Introduction’ makes some bold assumptions to establish a common ground for further discussion. You don’t have to agree with the author’s definitions, while those are very good ones that can help you understand.
Chapter 2 ‘The Shape of a Great Designer’, my favorite, clarifies the problem of job titles and explores various implications of the practice of design. That’s critical for both designers and people who work with them. The fundamental expectations for both are set here.
Chapter 3 ‘Adapting’ breaks the myths of design process and design time. The insights can help you tell decent designers from indecent ones – to me that’s very very important to human resource and management.
Chapter 4 ‘Understanding’ explores the ‘user’ side. Empathy. Psychology. Yes, important – but the next chapter is even better.
Chapter 5 ‘Questioning’ is another gem. Mastering the art of asking questions is probably the most important starting point of anything. And if you survey the literature of business success, innovation, design thinking, whatever, you name it, you’d find the same thing: start by asking questions; learn to listen well; question the problem first – or in the words of Kees Dorst in his amazing book Frame Innovation (read my review here), it’s about “attacking the context”.
Chapter 6 ‘Communicating’ continues the broader exploration of basic skills. The notion that a designer must be great at communicating is not new, while it’s that important to repeat in any book.
Chapter 7 ‘Arguing’ reads more like a sequel to ‘Questioning’. I feel like it’s less about arguing than about probing and influencing.
Chapter 8 ‘Leading’ and Chapter 9 ‘Learning’ concern issues in work habit, work culture, career development and self management. Big topics, therefore more ambiguities. Not bad, while there are definitely better books on those stuff.
Chapter 10 ‘Being Unreasonable’ is a total disappoint to me. The author tries to say something about the importance of ‘high standards’, which I totally agree, while the short treatment is far from convincing. Holding high standards is not easy. There are risks and sacrifices that go along with it. It’s hard to see how the chapter could help a wannabe designer.
SHOULD YOU READ IT?
If you’re a veteran designer, the book would be a real quick read. You may already know many of the things the author points out. There could be many resonant quotable stuff. Once in a while, there are insights you haven’t explicitly realized.
If you’re a beginner level designer, or you’re on the way to be a designer, this is a serious must-read for you. There might be things you don’t fully agree or understand. That’s fine. While it’s okay to disagree, you will definitely understand later in your career.
If you’re not strictly a designer, everything still makes sense as long as you work with, hire or manage designers. I mean who doesn’t nowadays? You need to understand what design is about. More practically, you need to know what to expect from a decent designer, and how to work with them. And, profoundly, you need to apply the same skills a designer has, whether you believe in design thinking or not. That’s not not because designer skills are special, it’s just that those skills are mostly universal.
FURTHER READING
You may want to read the book along with Kees Dorst’s Understanding Design, which, from a another angle, also provides deep insights you can’t get anywhere else.
December 6, 2018
This book could have been summarized in a few short articles. It's mostly stories of successes and failures of the author in design and sometimes design leadership. It starts great with an overview of web design history and the formation of today's digital design roles, and ways to survive in it. But the information is very sound judgment and derived from experience rather than study.
July 3, 2020
The book has been written in a blog post kind of way. The facts are great to read about, but the personal experiences could have been bundled and made into a different book.
I feel like a lot of parts of the book are not well structured. When the author writes in an objective way, I really like what he is telling. When he goes into his own personal experiences without adding small recaps about what objectively happened, I really have to look for the information that I find interesting. The personal experiences tend to be told in a very narcissistic way, in the part about Ed the Glass Guy for example. The author really misses the point about what he is writing about, he truly believes that what he had just emailed was the perfect thing by providing all the data he could imagine. Later on he writes a lot about asking questions and the importance of it, yet he ignores this completely with Ed.
I feel like a lot of parts of the book are not well structured. When the author writes in an objective way, I really like what he is telling. When he goes into his own personal experiences without adding small recaps about what objectively happened, I really have to look for the information that I find interesting. The personal experiences tend to be told in a very narcissistic way, in the part about Ed the Glass Guy for example. The author really misses the point about what he is writing about, he truly believes that what he had just emailed was the perfect thing by providing all the data he could imagine. Later on he writes a lot about asking questions and the importance of it, yet he ignores this completely with Ed.
November 2, 2017
While oriented toward UX folk somewhere in the ascending part of the career curve, this is entirely focused on soft skills which for the most part feel just as applicable to my experiences leading a tech services group, or running a kitchen – teams of all sorts providing deliverables really, be they professional or volunteer – even in my solo app development work. Much might seem obvious and it'd be easy to treat this as a light, quick (perhaps even trite) read, but I'd encourage digesting it slowly.
February 1, 2025
As a self taught designer who’s been in the industry for five years now, I have to say this is by far the best foundation you can give yourself. This is a fantastic book for seasoned designers, or fresh out the boot camp. I honestly feel like everyone who’s ever wanted to build anything would benefit from this book.
April 22, 2017
Oh my. A design cowboy talks about himself over and over. Between "The Stranger" in the Big Lebowski and Zapp Brannigan.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews