My college internship was with National Instruments (NI). NI is a multinational company that makes automated test equipment and virtual instrumentation software.
I felt just as intimidated by this internship as you might imagine. As a 20 year old, soon-to-be college graduate, I was hoping to make an impression, and contemplating how to "do marketing" in an industry I didn't understand at all.
One day, my Lotus Notes inbox dinged with an invite from my boss, Matt Cate, to a BBQ lunch. I'm not a huge BBQ fan (heresy for a Texan), but I knew enough to know that if the boss invites you to lunch, you go. I was lucky I did.
Together with the other department intern (that's you, Kathryn!), we got our BBQ plates and posted up at a table on the screened-in porch. Matt got out a 2-inch binder. Page by page, he explained what the company did. In layman's terms.
"Our flagship software, Labview, is groundbreaking. Here's why..."
"Here's what a PXI chassis is."
"Here's where our competitors cause us concern and here's where we are blowing them out of the water."
We were there for 2 hours, poring over that notebook and asking the questions we were afraid to ask in a room of engineers. I left with a tremendous sense of relief, exhilaration, and support.
In the coming week, the terms used in meetings were no longer flying over my head. Fast forward a few months, and I found myself sharing this intel with other full-time counterparts who hadn't received the same BBQ-infused crash course. With my new knowledge, I was able to speak confidently in meetings and hatch strategies to move the needle. The time that Matt took to explain the company in-depth to 2 lowly interns gave us each a huge leg up. We each locked in full time jobs at NI. I even went on to meet my spouse at the company!
In a recent conversation with product leader Bandan Jot Singh, he and I talked about how design managers can increase the visibility of their UX teams. One key trait of a highly visible UX team is that they are out there talking about their own work. But in order to do that, they've got to be confident.
Designers need to understand the products and services the company sells, and how they sell them. They need to know the acronyms, the competition, the customer support model. Sometimes leaders don't realize that.
As a leader, take the time to explain the industry, the competition, and the acronyms. Seniors designers will ask these questions, but less experienced team members may suffer in silence, afraid to look uninformed. Make sure that appropriate training about the context–not just the tasks–is a part of every employee’s onboarding process.
In other words, take someone out to a BBQ lunch. You might just change a life!