Key UX Topics to Educate Your Organization On

UX Insights - User Experience Leadership and Strategy

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7d ago 4:24

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Last week, I talked about the importance of educating your colleagues on UX best practices and the different educational approaches you should consider. This week, I want to get more specific about what topics to prioritize when building your educational content.

I take a pragmatic approach to this task because otherwise it can feel incredibly intimidating. Instead of creating a comprehensive UX curriculum covering everything under the sun, I focus on three targeted areas that will give you the biggest impact.

Start with common mistakes

The first area I focus on is the errors I frequently see colleagues making when they try to do user experience work themselves. This is crucial because as we democratize UX across the organization, more people will naturally be attempting these activities and making predictable mistakes.

For example, one mistake I see constantly is leaving user testing too late in the project, when it's expensive and difficult to make substantial changes. When I spot this pattern, I create educational content about early user research and testing, explaining the benefits and cost savings of getting feedback when you can still act on it.

Address points of contention

The second area covers topics where you see the most pushback and resistance from stakeholders. These are the friction points that cause arguments and slow down projects.

A classic example is colleagues who want to start building without validating that there's a genuine user need for what they're creating. By creating educational material around user validation techniques, you can prevent these conflicts before they happen.

Answer frequently asked questions

The third area is simply the questions you find yourself answering over and over again. Things like "How do I run a survey to gather user feedback?" or "What's the difference between a usability test and user research?"

Keep a running list of these questions, and you'll quickly see patterns emerge that are worth turning into educational resources.

Build gradually, start strategically

Your educational library will grow and evolve over time. You don't need everything in place to start. Just begin with the topics that come up most often, cause the most arguments, or trip people up most frequently.

For user testing specifically, while you'll eventually want to cover everything from eye-tracking studies to advanced analytics, start with the quick wins. Focus on simple methods like 5-second tests, first-click tests, and analyzing heatmaps or session recordings in tools like Hotjar and Clarity. These require minimal time investment beyond analysis, making them perfect gateway drugs to more robust testing.

Content writing is another excellent entry point. Unless you're working exclusively on apps, most digital services are content-heavy. Since many people are already creating content that directly affects the user experience, providing guidance here feels immediately relevant and useful. If your team needs deeper guidance on this topic, I offer a website content strategy workshop that covers everything from information architecture to quality control.

Find natural entry points

Finally, it also helps to find a natural entry point that resonates with people when educating. For example, I've found that stakeholders often want to know how to improve their search rankings, which gives you a perfect segue into topics like writing for the web and accessibility. When teaching accessibility, I always emphasize that it's not just about accommodating people with disabilities. It's about helping people with situational or temporary limitations too. Making things accessible improves usability for everyone, regardless of their cognitive or physical abilities.

The beauty of this approach is that your educational material feels immediately practical rather than theoretical. People can see the direct connection between what you're teaching and the problems they're trying to solve.

Remember, there's no shortage of UX topics you could cover. The key is starting with what people are actually asking about, what's causing friction in your projects, and what you find yourself explaining repeatedly. This ensures your educational material resonates with people and makes a real difference to how they work.

Outie's Aside

If you run a freelance practice or agency, this same framework works brilliantly for client education. Track the mistakes you see clients making project after project. Document the points where you get the most pushback from stakeholders. Keep a list of questions clients ask repeatedly. Then turn those into educational resources you can share proactively. A simple guide on "How to write effective user research questions" or "Why we test prototypes before building" can prevent countless difficult conversations and project delays. Better yet, position this education as value-add rather than billable work. It builds trust, demonstrates expertise, and makes you indispensable.

Next week, I'll dive into how to boost your influence across the organization and transform how UX is perceived company-wide. This is the final piece of becoming a true UX leader.

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