Discover the unique user experience path that Jesse James Garrett, Design Leadership Coach, Author, and Speaker, followed in this sixth episode of Season 2.

Career Journey and Introduction to UX

• Jesse originally trained as a journalist and started his career in marketing communications writing.
• With the advent of the web in the late 1990s, he transitioned into web content management for a large eCommerce site.
• As a content manager, he began collaborating closely with designers, sparking his fascination with the design process and user experience.
• At that time, user experience was an emerging concept, largely undefined and unknown.
• Jesse moved into a design role focused on information architecture, which was then a new and critical discipline for organizing large-scale web content.
• He became passionate about UX and began publishing his ideas, culminating in his influential book, “The Elements of User Experience”, a framework that remains relevant and widely used over 20 years later.
• The book breaks down UX into digestible layers, helping newcomers understand the deeper components beyond surface design.

Why UX is a Popular Career Choice

• Society is saturated with digital products, and people have developed personal opinions on what makes good or bad UX.
• Many individuals discover UX as a career path when they seek to improve digital experiences and apply creativity to help others.
• Despite the appeal, Jesse cautions that the journey to becoming an effective UX professional is gradual and often slower than newcomers expect.
• Formal training or boot camps teach practices based on experienced professionals, but gaining real-world experience and developing diverse skills takes time.
• He advises aspiring UX professionals to focus on their unique career paths and seek varied opportunities to build their capabilities.

Leadership in UX and Its Importance

• Jesse now works as an independent coach for design executives, helping leaders develop the skills necessary to manage and inspire design teams effectively.
• His coaching experience revealed that successful teams depend more on the skills of their leaders than on processes or culture alone.
• Strong leadership fosters resilient teams and robust organizational relationships, which are essential to delivering successful product experiences.
• Investing in leadership development is a leverage point for improving the entire UX field by creating models for future leaders to follow.
• Jesse emphasizes the critical role of humane, empathetic leadership to uphold the principles of human-centered design.

Key Insights

• User experience emerged from early web content and information architecture challenges.
• “The Elements of User Experience” remains a foundational framework for understanding UX layers.
• UX attracts those eager to blend creativity with meaningful impact on people’s lives.
• Career growth in UX requires patience, diverse experiences, and personalized development paths.
• Strong, empathetic leadership is the cornerstone of successful UX teams and products.
• Technological advancements will shape UX, but leadership will determine its human-centered success.

Transcript

[Music]

Marc:
Welcome to another episode of UX Pathways. Today I have the honor of being joined by Mr. Jesse James Garrett. Jesse, how are you?

Jesse:
I’m great, Marc. How are you?

Marc:
Excellent. Great to have you on the podcast. I’ve been a fan of your work and everything you’ve contributed to user experience. To start, what is your role today?

Jesse:
Right now, I’m an independent leadership coach for design executives—people who run design organizations. I work with them one-on-one to help them develop the skills to be more successful leaders.

Marc:
It sounds like you’ve got your hands in many areas at the moment. How did you evolve into this? How did you stumble into user experience? I know you’ve probably told this story many times, but for our audience, how did you get into this field?

Jesse:
It really was stumbling. My background was in journalism—I wanted to work as a writer. But most of the writing jobs available were in marketing communications, so that’s what I did and got good at.

When the web came along in the late ’90s, that’s where I applied my writing skills. I built a portfolio of web writing and eventually became a content manager for a large e-commerce site. As content manager, I had to sit with designers to discuss content requirements, and that was my first exposure to the design process. I was fascinated.

This was a time when we had no names for these things—no best practices, no formal processes, and the term user experience was almost unknown. It certainly wasn’t in anyone’s job title.

I became interested in the conceptual design and flow of digital products. Inside my company, I transitioned into a role supporting front-end designers with that focus. We called it information architecture at the time, which was many people’s first exposure to these ideas. IA was crucial to the success of the big content-heavy websites emerging then.

The more I engaged with other designers, the more passionate I became. I began publishing my ideas—most notably in my book The Elements of User Experience. It was meant as a framework to introduce newcomers to the field. The book has been surprisingly successful and is still in print more than 20 years later. I still hear from people who say it helped shape their understanding of UX.

Marc:
I love The Elements of User Experience because it breaks down all the layers. People often see only the top layer of design, but your framework helps them understand the structure beneath it. That’s why it continues to resonate.

Jesse:
Thank you. It definitely struck a chord.

Marc:
For people thinking about pursuing a UX career, why do you think it’s become such a sought-after field? Why are so many people jumping in right now?

Jesse:
A couple reasons. First, we’re absolutely saturated in software—we’re swimming in it. Nearly all of our daily interactions involve digital systems. That means everyone has become a bit of an amateur UX critic. People have enough experience with enough products that they form opinions—and some of them want to make those products better. They start to explore how to do that and discover UX as a career path.

Another factor: Many people want to use creativity to help others. UX seems like an appealing way to do that, even though the challenges involved are often bigger than they expect. Still, the desire to be creative and make a positive impact is a big draw.

Marc:
For folks entering the field, do you have any advice? Anything they should think about before taking the leap?

Jesse:
A lot of people early in their careers expect progress to happen much faster than it does. Bootcamps and schools teach the job as practiced by someone with five years of experience—but they don’t teach what it takes to get those first five years.

There’s a journey every designer has to go through to develop their capabilities. You need to seek out opportunities that will teach you how to actually be a designer. Pay attention to your own path, not just the idealized version you were taught.

Marc:
That’s so true. Since you’re coaching leaders now, how does that connect to where you think UX is heading? Are you helping leaders prepare for the future of user experience?

Jesse:
Yes. Before doing leadership coaching, I spent many years as a consultant with Adaptive Path. I worked with leaders all over the world on many types of products across different kinds of organizations.

What I discovered is that the real difference between success and failure wasn’t the process or even the organizational culture—it was the skills of the leaders. Leaders who could build strong relationships, both across the organization and within their teams, were able to guide their teams through the many challenges of bringing a product to life.

I realized that helping leaders develop these relationship-building skills could be a leverage point for strengthening the entire field. Better leaders create better role models for the next generation. Right now, many leaders have no models because no one before them has operated at the level they’re expected to.

Marc:
So your career began with creating a framework for UX, and now you’re creating a framework for people—specifically for stronger leadership practices.

When we talk about the future, is everything going to hinge on technology? We’ve seen the progression from the web to mobile to immersive environments. Will it be the metaverse next? Or is the future really about leadership and philosophy rather than technology?

Jesse:
UX is limited by the skills of its leaders. The field has tremendous potential—the digital world inside the screen is becoming richer and more immersive, and technology is increasingly moving outside the screen into our physical environments.

The tools we have are powerful, but so is the potential for getting it wrong.

That’s why leadership is critical. Without humane leaders, we won’t have human-centered design. We can’t fully realize the potential of the technology without leaders who can build healthy, resilient, relationship-driven teams.

Marc:
You said that perfectly. I don’t think I can add anything to it. Before we wrap up, is there anything new on the horizon? Anything you’re working on beyond leadership coaching?

Jesse:
Nothing to announce right now. I’m really enjoying the one-on-one work I’m doing with leaders. I learn so much from my clients and from witnessing their journeys. Who knows where that will lead, but for now, that’s where my focus is.

Marc:
Excellent. Thanks again for being on the podcast. We’ll keep an eye on what’s next for you.

Jesse:
Thank you so much, Marc.

[Music]