State of Soft Skills Chapter 4: Designers and Devs Ask the Right Questions

It’s 2024 and Soft Skills are more important than ever before. I talked to some of the absolute best people I know in many different roles and in different stages in their careers. In this series, we’re sharing why soft skills are crucial for success. Missed a chapter?

From the visual design, to the code developed behind it, thinking about the user and understanding the customer are keys to success. Today, we’re hearing from a senior designer and a senior technical consultant on the soft skills they use to excel.

UI/UX Designer: Empathy, Accessibility, and User Feedback

As a UI/UX designer it’s incredibly important to focus on empathy when making design decisions. You need to consider your users’ wants, needs, thoughts, and struggles while designing.

One way I incorporate purposeful empathy into my process is by prioritizing accessibility – it benefits all users, but especially those that have impairments.

I like to conduct a colour audit at the top of a project, ensuring that there are accessible and on-brand colour combinations available to design with. That provides a solid foundation for addressing users’ visual accessibility issues; marrying clients’ brand standards with accessible and empathetic practices.

Another way to practice purposeful empathy is by simply asking questions. Speaking directly with users whenever possible will always be the best way to understand and empathize with your target users and find creative ways to solve their problems.

Seth’s Comment: Nicole has communicated so much value in so few words. Getting user feedback and implementing it during design, prototyping, testing, and post-release is a journey to success in so many roles.

Takeaway Question: Instead of (or in addition to) having users rate their experience from 1-10, ask them what the most stressful part of their experience was. This will give you insight into how you can improve the experiences of your happy and unhappy users.

Salesforce Developer: Get the Big Picture, Keep an Open Mind

When we land ourselves another project, I think that it’s always important to keep in mind that all of the soft skills we have contribute to the holistic success of any developer and the work they are providing to the business and its customers.

Soft skills equip any developer to tackle any sort of challenge that comes their way while maintaining this team synergy.

Of course, it goes without saying that it is easy to jump right into development work without understanding the big picture!

It’s a balancing act; in my experience, we must resist the urge to jump right into development work – when I start a new project, I find that it is always helpful to ask questions and communicate with the client, the stakeholders, and even my own team first so that it helps me look at the solution from every angle when possible.

For those that are looking to hone your soft skills, I believe it’s always best to keep an open, positive mind, being attentive to any new updates that Salesforce has deployed in their platforms and technologies, and to work with your team effectively so that you and your team can deliver effective solutions that meet the requirements and needs of the business, its users, and its customers.

Seth’s Comment: If you didn’t catch it, Evan is one of the most optimistic and nice humans ever! His happy energy and passion shine through, which is a secret to his success. Whenever you can let what you are passionate about shine through in your work, people will notice. Your passion will resonate.

Takeaway Resource: What questions are you asking to ensure your work is going in the right direction?