Why You Should Embrace Teaching

​ ​ ​ ​ Hello Indiana,​ So I am thinking of changing my job title to "user experience teacher," what do you think? Yeah, okay, it's kind of stupid. However, I spend a disproportionately large amount of my time educating people about user-centric approaches, and to be honest; I think you probably should be doing that too. That is because teaching user experience best practices provide you and those you work with enormous benefits. Teaching Benefits Your In-House Team I guess the most obvious of these benefits is for in-house teams. Typically in-house teams are massively under-resourced and cannot hope to be responsible for the entirety of the user experience. In such cases, the only feasible way of improving the experience to any significant degree is to inspire and educate others in the organization to improve it in their areas of responsibility. It is also the only way to change an organization's culture to be more user-centric. If you are frustrated that your organization doesn't care enough about user needs, you must become an educator. Teaching Benefits External Agencies and Freelancers Too However, many other benefits apply to external agencies and freelancers as well as in-house teams. For example, a well-educated stakeholder makes better decisions which in the long run leads to fewer debates, faster decision making, and better digital services. Teaching others also establishes you as the expert in the minds of others. As a result, they tend to appreciate and respect you more, adding more value to your opinion. That means less pushback on your recommendations. There is also the benefit that teaching is an excellent way of winning clients for agencies and freelancers. Other than word-of-mouth recommendations, my clients come via the advice I share in this newsletter, on my blog, and through speaking or writing elsewhere. How to Become a Better Teacher So how do you become a better teacher? As with so many things, the answer is practice. You will learn by doing. Becoming an inspiring educator is a skill that you need to learn through regular practice. So start sharing what you know and do so consistently over the years. It needs to become baked into your DNA. I started blogging and podcasting in 2005, and I was shit. However, I kept going, not because I wanted to become internet famous, but because the act of sharing was teaching me to become a better communicator, as well as helping refine my approaches and thinking. Every week I put out at least one piece of content, and slowly over time, I got better at it (although I am sure some people would disagree with that statement!) Over time I also expanded the approaches I used to teach, introducing webinars, speaking at events, newsletters, and more. Whenever I put something out into the world or shared something with a client, I became better at my craft and communicating that. And that is the most important benefit of becoming a teacher. Yes, being a teacher does influence others, and yes, that does provide benefits. But, becoming an educator doesn't just change your clients and stakeholders; it changes you too. Teaching Changes You When you are teaching, you have to think through your approach and reasoning. That challenges your thinking and deepens your insights. As a result, you learn through teaching and also become a better communicator. Many people are put off of sharing what they know because they feel they don't know as much as others. In addition, they feel intimidated by the experts they see posting online. But that is missing the point. Sharing your knowledge is about you growing and learning. You won't get that in the same way from reading other experts. Also, although more experienced experts may share content online, your clients, stakeholders, and colleagues aren't reading them, but they are listening to you. So take the knowledge of those experts and present it back to those around you, tailoring it to them and presenting it in your voice. If you do, you will all learn. They will learn about user experience best practices, and you will learn to be a better communicator. Thanks, ​ ​ ​ If you no longer want to hear from me, I completely understand and you can unsubscribe from all emails here. Alternatively, if you need to update any of the information about yourself you can edit your profile here. ​ ​