[Sigia-l] Managing User Experience Groups

[Richard I. Anderson]

Hi,

"Managing User Experience Groups" is the title of a 6-session evening 
course that Lillian Svec and I will be teaching a in Silicon Valley 
beginning January 25.  We are offering the course via UC Extension in 
Cupertino (see below for a description).

We are trying to connect with the people for whom this course is 
intended not only to inform them of the availability of the course 
but also to increase the network via which we can ensure this and 
future variations of the course are on target.

If you presently or did or may in the future manage a user experience 
group, or are a higher level manager whose domains include user 
experience, or are someone who in other ways can impact how user 
experience personnel are managed in your company, we'd love to hear 
from you.  Lillian and I have been talking with user experience group 
managers, directors, VPs, etc. from a diverse mix of companies, but 
we'd love to talk with more.

Give us a holler.

Richard Anderson
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Managing User Experience Groups

Becoming an effective user experience group manager requires a 
significant shift from being an individual contributor or managing 
other types of groups.  And thriving as a user experience group 
manager usually requires addressing significant organizational 
challenges.

What is the scope of "user experience" and of the work a user 
experience group does or should do?  Who should be a part of a user 
experience group?  With whom should members of a user experience 
group work, and how?  How should such groups be positioned in 
companies?  What reduces the effectiveness and impact of user 
experience groups, and what can be done about it?

Join us in exploring answers to these and other questions of 
relevance to effectively managing groups that are often 
cross-functional (i.e., composed of designers, researchers, 
information architects, and others) and often misunderstood.  Learn 
answers to these types of questions for a wide range of user 
experience groups in a wide range of companies, and gain insights for 
answering these questions in your company.

Topics include:

o defining the work of a user experience group
o defining the composition of the team
o managing the employee
o working together and with others in the company
o making the case for user-centered design
o involving user experience groups throughout the development life cycle
o overcoming common obstacles

This course is intended for those who presently, or may in the 
future, manage a user experience group. The course is also suitable 
for higher level managers whose domains include user experience, and 
for others who can impact how user experience is addressed in their 
companies.

Dates, times: 6 consecutive Wednesday evenings, January 25 - March 1, 
2006, 6:30-9:30pm

Location: UCSC Extension Silicon Valley Campus, 10420 Bubb Road, 
Cupertino, CA 95014

For credit: 1.5 units, 1.8 ceus

Fee: $475.00

For more information or to register: 
http://www.ucsc-extension.edu/ucsc/search/publicCourseSearchDetails.do?method=load&courseId=2891664

Instructors: Richard Anderson & Lillian Svec

RICHARD ANDERSON, Ph.D.(ABD) University of Illinois at 
Urbana-Champaign, is a user experience management consultant 
(www.riander.com) with more than 20 years of experience.  He started 
and directed the Experience Center at Viant, and started and directed 
the User Research & Experience Strategy discipline at Sapient and 
Studio Archetype. For those and many other companies, he has extended 
the reach and effectiveness of multidisciplinary, user-centered 
design practices.

LILLIAN SVEC, M.F.A. Rhode Island School of Design, has championed 
user-centered design and information architecture (IA) for fifteen 
years.  She pioneered the IA role at Studio Archetype.  At Sapient, 
she was the Global Practice Lead for IA providing leadership to 100 
team members in 18 offices world-wide.  At Walmart.com, she was the 
Director of User Experience.  She is the program coordinator for the 
UCSC Extension Web Design and Development program.
______________

(apologies if you encounter multiple postings of this)
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Richard I. Anderson - http://www.riander.com/
blog - http://riander.blogspot.com/
UXnet - http://www.uxnet.org/