76. From Doormat to Advocate with Chris Nguyen

Do you feel like a doormat, passively accepting decisions that undermine your design expertise?

As designers, we often struggle with the delicate balance of advocating for our craft while navigating complex organizational dynamics. In this episode, Chris Nguyen, the founder of UX Playbook, opens up about his personal transformation from a doormat designer to a self-advocate who commands respect and drives positive change.

Drawing from his experiences at various startups and Fortune 500 companies, Chris shares valuable insights on building influence, fostering meaningful relationships, and leveraging social capital to amplify your design voice. We delve into the importance of aligning your advocacy efforts with broader organizational goals, ensuring that your push for better processes and craftsmanship resonates with stakeholders.

Chris emphasizes the power of bringing people along the design journey, allowing the process to speak for itself. He shares examples of how inviting stakeholders and engineers to participate in user research sessions can be a game-changer in shifting perspectives and garnering buy-in.

Throughout our conversation, Chris underscores the significance of extreme ownership – taking full responsibility for your work, communicating proactively, and operating with a solopreneur mindset. He offers practical advice on how to advocate for yourself during layoffs, reminding us that these decisions often stem from broader business considerations beyond individual performance.

Topics:
• 10:57 – We get accustomed to being treated a certain way
• 13:35 – Understand the players and the rules and know when to break them
• 16:46 – Networking to learn what other people want and need
• 20:53 – The importance of social capital
• 24:15 – Extreme Ownership
• 29:50 – We often wait around for people to tell us what to do
• 37:44 – What is your reason for advocating?
• 39:28 – Advocating for yourself is still advocating for the business
• 41:18 – Advice for people who are worried about rocking the boat during layoffs

Helpful Links:
• Connect with Chris on LinkedIn
• Learn more about the Job Sprint Course
• uxplaybook.org

Chris Nguyen
Helping take UX designers from Fuzziness to Focus

About Chris

Chris is a self-taught designer turned of Founder of UX Playbook. Previously an Ex-Head of Design, who worked with various startups and Fortune 500s, including household names like Google, Nike, Coca Cola. Now he spends his time helping designers go from fuzziness to focus with playbooks, courses, and content.

Connect with Chris on LinkedIn

—

Thanks for listening! We hope you dug today’s episode. If you liked what you heard, be sure to like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts! And if you really enjoyed today’s episode, why don’t you leave a five-star review? Or tell some friends! It will help us out a ton.

If you haven’t already, sign up for our email list. We won’t spam you. Pinky swear.

• Get a FREE audiobook AND support the show
• Support the show on Patreon
• Check out show transcripts
• Check out our website
• Subscribe on Apple Podcasts
• Subscribe on Spotify
• Subscribe on YouTube
• Subscribe on Stitcher