UX Management: Strategy and Tactics
How This Course Will Help Your Career
What You’ll Learn
How to hire for, position, and empower a UX team effectively
Best practices to manage and support a UX designer and wider UX team
How management of UX professionals directly affects ROI—both positively and negatively
What your UX team should be doing in order to grow your UX efforts across the organization
Why it’s important that your senior management team gets educated on, and possibly involved in, UX
UX management best practices, from interviews and case studies with experts
What sets top-performing organizations apart? Well, for one thing, it’s no coincidence that they place a focus on understanding and empowering their UX and UI teams. Not only does this drive organic growth through a more optimal user experience, but it also means that the business can benefit from the ROI (Return On Investment) that UX work can deliver. In most organizations, however, you’ll find there is a lack of UX maturity—that is, how embedded UX is within an organization’s culture and work processes. And this occurs even when the decision-makers know that UX is core to business and customer stakeholders! We want to help both you and your wider team create a culture, and design mindset, that can truly reap the benefits of UX work. By learning how to apply key tactics, you’ll be able to ensure that your UX efforts are having maximum impact across the wider business.
In this course, we will explore the ins and outs of UX maturity by looking at the way your organization is structured and developed. We will give you the chance to grasp UX management as not just a people issue but also a design methodology… all so that you can manage UX as a smart leader, and get the very best from the UX professionals you work with. Even if you’re currently a more junior UX, UI or interaction designer, the strategies you will learn in this course will enable you to truly realize the value that your work will provide to your organization.
You will be taught by Frank Spillers, CEO of the award-winning UX firm Experience Dynamics. By taking this course, you’ll leverage his experience from two decades of working with enterprise, midsize and start-up companies across a wide range of industries. Given that, you will be able to learn from, and avoid, the mistakes he’s come across, and apply the best practices he’s developed over time in order to move towards managing your UX team in an optimal way.
The course also includes interviews with experts—including a UX Director, Chief Experience Officer, Product Manager, and User Research Director. These will give you another practical opportunity to learn from people who are highly experienced in managing UX across organizations. All of this means that you will learn how an Outside-In design approach operates, and what it looks and feels like in practice—be it from a product management, executive or stakeholder perspective. Upon completing the course, you will have the knowledge required to avoid unnecessary growing pains, and ultimately accelerate your company’s UX maturity so that you win sooner and enjoy a more consistently high level of performance within the market.
Gain an Industry-Recognized UX Course Certificate
Use your industry-recognized Course Certificate on your resume, CV, LinkedIn profile or your website.
Our courses and Course Certificates are trusted by these industry leaders:
Is This Course Right for You?
This is one of our intermediate-level courses aimed at design-minded individuals who either already manage UX professionals within their organization, or who seek to grow and improve their own UX practice in order to progress within the field. Therefore, while primarily aimed at management, it is also relevant for anyone who wants to improve the ROI (Return On Investment) of his or her UX/UI work.
This course will appeal to:
- UX leads, UX managers, and UX directors who are looking to refine the way in which they manage UX teams and professionals within their organization
- UX designers, interaction designers, and UX researchers looking to improve the ROI of their work and progress within the field
- Creative directors who would like to enhance the focus on UX design work within their organization
- CEOs, CTOs, COOs, and CMOs who want to better position their organization within the market by putting more focus on UX/UI work
Courses in the Interaction Design Foundation are designed to contain comprehensive, evidence-based content, while ensuring that the learning curve is never too steep. All participants will have the opportunity to share ideas, seek help with tests, and enjoy the social aspects afforded by our open and friendly forum.
Learn and Work with a Global Team of Designers
You’ll join a global community and work together to improve your skills and career opportunities. Connect with helpful peers and make friends with like-minded individuals as you push deeper into the exciting and booming industry of design.
Lessons in This Course
- Each week, one lesson becomes available.
- There’s no time limit to finish a course. Lessons have no deadlines.
- Estimated learning time: 28 hours 32 mins spread over 6 weeks .
Lesson 0: Welcome and Introduction
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0.1: Welcome and Introduction (9 mins)
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0.2: An introduction to courses from the Interaction Design Foundation (37 mins)
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0.3: Let our community help you (1 min)
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0.4: How to Earn Your Course Certificate (16 mins)
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0.5: Meet your peers online in our discussion forums (5 mins)
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0.6: Meet your peers offline through IxDF Local Groups (1 min)
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0.7: Gain Timeless Knowledge Through Courses From the Interaction Design Foundation (21 mins)
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0.8: Mandatory vs. Optional Lesson Items (7 mins)
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0.9: A Mix Between Video-Based and Text-Based Lesson Content (8 mins)
Lesson 1: Where to Begin?
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1.1: Understanding UX and UX Teams (37 mins)
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1.2: Interview: Understanding the Core Function of Ux Teams – User Advocacy (55 mins)
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1.3: Managing UX as a Process (16 mins)
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1.4: UX Maturity: a Lifecycle View (41 mins)
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1.5: Assessing Your Organization’s UX Maturity (36 mins)
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1.6: First Steps Toward Accelerating and Growing UX (32 mins)
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1.7: Discussion Exercise: How Is UX Viewed in Your Organization? (6 mins)
Lesson 2: Making the Business Case for UX
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2.1: Business goals of UX (20 mins)
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2.2: How Teams Perform With UX: the Good, the Bad, the Ugly (28 mins)
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2.3: Interview (A) – What Managers Need to Know About UX (31 mins)
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2.4: Interview – How Teams Perform – Analysis Paralysis (51 mins)
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2.5: What is the ROI of UX? (1 hour 12 mins)
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2.6: Interview – Quantifying Success in UX efforts (41 mins)
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2.7: Interview (B) – What Managers Need to Know About UX (22 mins)
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2.8: 12 Characteristics of Outside-In Design Organizations (20 mins)
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2.9: Exercise (7 mins)
Lesson 3: UX as Core to Product Delivery
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3.1: Agile and Lean UX Today: How Is That Marriage Going? (24 mins)
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3.2: Interview – MVP (Minimal Viable Product) Discussion (14 mins)
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3.3: Interview – Agile UX Process Best Practices (29 mins)
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3.4: Exercise (6 mins)
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3.5: UCD and Agile: Ideal vs Real (43 mins)
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3.6: Interview – Product Development and UX: Lessons From the Trenches (52 mins)
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3.7: 5 Proven Tactics for Evangelizing a Lean UX Process (32 mins)
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3.8: Interview – The Importance of UX to Product Development (40 mins)
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3.9: Data-Driven UX: the Role of Evidence, Metrics and Data (14 mins)
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3.10: Interview – Culture of Validation – Role of Personas in PLC (47 mins)
Lesson 4: Climbing the Ladder
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4.1: The 5 Tactical Keys to Scaling Your Org (33 mins)
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4.2: Interview – Qualitative Research Discussion (50 mins)
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4.3: Crafting Your UX Strategy Plan (13 mins)
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4.4: Interview: Importance of Balancing Research and Design (28 mins)
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4.5: Toward Outside-In: Tips and Tricks for Any Organization (28 mins)
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4.6: Interview – Org Chart – Role of Quality Assurance (19 mins)
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4.7: Creating a UX Culture to Rival Apple (26 mins)
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4.8: Customer Experience (CX) vs User Experience (UX) (23 mins)
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4.9: Skip These Mistakes: Bootstrap UX Culture From 10 Years Down to 2 Years! (35 mins)
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4.10: Exercise (6 mins)
Lesson 5: Your UX Roadmap & Process
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5.1: Process Mapping Your UX Strategy (34 mins)
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5.2: Interview – Planning Your UX Maturity (57 mins)
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5.3: Creating Your ideal UX Process Flow (35 mins)
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5.4: Interview: Coordinating UX Teams (45 mins)
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5.5: Interview – Hiring Considerations: Do’s and Don'ts (25 mins)
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5.6: Organizational Culture: 3 Keys to Making It Work (32 mins)
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5.7: Interview – Organizing Your Team: Org Chart (36 mins)
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5.8: Exercise (6 mins)
Lesson 6: Continuous Growth and Momentum
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6.1: Reaching Critical Mass: Signs (19 mins)
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6.2: Interview – Stakeholders and When UX Gets in the Way (20 mins)
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6.3: Interview – Making Sure UX Is Practical and Measurable (38 mins)
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6.4: Evangelizing UX: Known Best Methods (51 mins)
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6.5: Tactics for Encouraging UX Growth (34 mins)
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6.6: Interview: How to Make UX Teams Perform (53 mins)
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6.7: Troubleshooting Roadblocks: Discussion (1 hour 9 mins)
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6.8: Exercise (6 mins)
Lesson 7: Course Certificate, Final Networking, and Course Wrap-up
Learning Paths
This course is part of 4 learning paths:
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UX Designer Learning PathBecome a UX Designer through 19 courses in 4 parts
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Product Manager Learning PathBecome a Product Manager through 14 courses in 4 parts
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User Researcher Learning PathBecome a User Researcher through 11 courses in 3 parts
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Executive Learning PathBecome a Executive through 9 courses in 3 parts
How Others Have Benefited
Blazenko Davidovic, Croatia
“The course instructor and speakers all come from very reputable and well-known organizations, they are all so experienced that it's simply a pleasure learning from them directly. Technical prowess, attention to details, great communication, natural flow of topics — are all characteristics they possess.”
Vanessa Rosenthal, United Kingdom
“Great mix between methodologies and real-world practices. Great to hear a PM's, Researcher's and Consultant's perspective and experiences about UX Management.”
Julia de Freitas Casimiro da Silva, United Kingdom
“A major strength of the course was the course instructor's knowledge and the guests he had invited to give some of the lessons an interview format.”
How It Works
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Control your learning.
Lessons are self-paced so you’ll never be late for class or miss a deadline. Learning and life, hand in hand.
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Earn Course Certificates.
Your answers are graded by experts, not machines. Get an industry-recognized Course Certificate to show you’ve put in the work.
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Advance your career.
Grow your professional knowledge by watching Master Classes, networking within our UX community, and more.
Start Advancing Your Career Now
Join us to take “UX Management: Strategy and Tactics”. Take other courses at no additional cost. Make a concrete step forward in your career path today.
Advance my career nowFrequently Asked Questions
When I finish a course, do I have to pay extra to get my certificate?
Can I take more than one course at a time?
With a Student membership, you can take a maximum of two courses at the same time. You can still take as many courses as you would like – free of extra charges – just as long as you finish or drop them so that you don’t have more than two ongoing courses.
I missed the enrollment, and now the course is closed. What can I do?
Don't worry if you missed the course. We will re-run it shortly. One of the reasons we continually open and close courses is in order to control the classroom size.
Networking is a large part of our value proposition, so we want just the right number of people inside the courses. That is also why we display the "XX % percent booked" on our course icons.
Do I have to be online at an exact time to study?
No. You can set your own study schedule. There are no "live sessions" since we have members from all timezones around the world. We are a truly global community.
Thus, once you are enrolled, you can take all the time to complete a given course. Every "classroom" in each course will never close, so you’ll have permanent access to your classmates and your course material (as well as your own answers).
Will I receive a Course Certificate?
Yes. You will get a digital industry-recognized course certificate every time you complete a course. Certificates never expire and can be saved as a .jpg file, so it's easy to be shared. Also, there is no limit to how many certificates you can earn during your membership.
You can see an example of a Course Certificate at the bottom of the Course Catalogue.
I have answered questions in a lesson; when will they be marked/graded?
I have updated my name, but my course certificate is not updated — how can I change it?
Don't worry; once you change your name, your certificate will be updated automatically in the next 48 hours.
I have started my course later than the specified date, are my answers still going to be marked?
Sure! We will be marking all your answers for as long as you are an active member.
How are courses graded?
For how long will I have access to the course materials?
You will have access to the course materials for the entire duration of your membership. So, if you pay for a one-year membership, you will have access for one year. Renewing your membership for a second year means you will have access to one more year, and so on.
New lessons are starting before I have completed the previous lesson(s). Am I going to be locked out of these unfinished lessons?
No, you will not be locked out of any lesson or course. You will have access to all course materials throughout your membership, so there is no pressure to keep at the same pace as the specified lesson release dates.
All we recommend is that you try to stick to the same schedule as other participants. The reason is they may have moved on to other lessons, thereby meaning you could miss out on the social aspects of the course(s).
Do I have a specific date to award my certificates?
No, you can generate your certificate as soon as you score at least 70% of the total course points.
When will I receive my Course Certificate?
Course certificates will be given to participants when they have scored more than 70% or more of the total course points. For example, if a course contains ten lessons each with ten questions, you will receive a course certificate when the instructor has awarded you at least 70 points (70% of the total course points).
There is no specified time that certificates will be awarded — instead, they are given to participants as and when they have answered all questions, even if this is long after the official end date.
How do I add my Certificate to my LinkedIn profile?
Below is a step-by-step guide on how to add your Interaction Design Foundation course(s) to your LinkedIn profile:
Log in to your LinkedIn account, then go to your profile.
Below your profile description, click on the button Add profile section, choose Recommended and then select Add license or certification.
3. In the following fields add:
Name – Course name
Issuing organization – The Interaction Design Foundation
Check the field “This credential does not expire”
Issue date - Input the date written on your certificate (e.g., May 2021)
Credential ID – Your membership ID number (it's written on your certificate)
Credential URL: Input the certificate URL provided on your course page
4. Click the Save button.
Congratulate yourself! Earning the certificate is a great accomplishment and now you can share it with the world!
How do I add the Interaction Design Foundation Membership Certificate to my LinkedIn Profile?
Below is a step-by-step guide on how to add your Interaction Design Foundation course(s) to your LinkedIn profile:
Log in to your LinkedIn account, then go to your profile.
Below your profile description, click on the button Add profile section, choose Recommended and then select Add license or certification.
3. In the following fields add:
Name – Membership Certificate
Issuing organization – The Interaction Design Foundation
Check the field “This credential does not expire”
Issue date - Input the date when you joined our community (e.g., May 2019)
Credential ID – Your membership ID number (it's written on your certificate)
Credential URL: Input the certificate URL provided on your profile page
4. Click the Save button.
It is as simple as that. Now, anyone who visits your profile can see your certificate!
How much will I have to pay for the courses?
After you pay for your membership, you can take as many courses as you want with no additional costs. There are no further charges on top of the membership fee.
Do you provide mostly beginners' or more advanced courses?
How long does it take to complete a course?
You will need approximately 5-8 hours to complete one lesson. Each course has between 3 and 16 lessons.
Once enrolled in a course, you will gain access to a new lesson each week, which you are free to complete without any deadlines and no end date, either.
I scored less than 70% in a course, so I didn't qualify for a certificate. Can I try again?
Yes! Everyone's learning journey looks different, and we'd never stop our members from trying again. To retake a course, just follow these steps:
1. Go to your profile and click on the relevant course you'd like to retake.
2. Underneath your progress bar, you'll see a phrase "UX Courses" with an arrow (>) pointing to a clickable landing page of that course. Click on that link.
3. Once on the landing page, scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page. You'll see a red button, which you can simply click to drop the course.
4. Head back to our main list of UX Courses, and re-enroll yourself in the course. You'll all set to try again!
Please note that when you drop a course, you will lose any answers and progress you submitted. We advise that you screenshot or save any answers you'd like to reuse.
In some cases, we can open up lessons for members who are retaking a course, so that they don't have to wait for familiar lessons to unlock each week. If you'd like us to do this for you, please get in touch with our support team at hello@interaction-design.org, and we can help you out.