Chapter 5: The Mature Stages of Development
- Continued case study on Turbodudes
- Maybe I can interview key members of a UX CoP to get their perspective on the value of the CoP, structure, how it developed
- As Shell’s CoP evolved, it was able to identify their real value in the knowledge to reduce uncertainty on where to drill a site; this is sign a community maturity
- Successful outcomes of the CoP = systematizing process, formalizing standard of good practice
- Coordinators transition from “walking the halls” to becoming “stewards” of knowledge
- Maturing > Stewardship > Transformation
- Communities grow, change relationship to their domain, integrate with organization as a whole; this applies to CoPs in large organizations
Stage 3: Maturing
- Value is already established
- Focus, role, boundaries become clarified
- Domain, Community, Practice is growing and changing simultaneously
- Growth can threaten intimacy and sense of identity for core members
- Systemizing process is required to handle newcomers and still have consistent focus in group
- “Community learning agenda” is developed by identifying knowledge gaps within the CoP domain; healthy growth
- How do you know when there is a UX knowledge gap? What triggers your need to access more information? Ex. Client problems, competition, etc.
- How do you keep track of the UX knowledge/skills/insights?
- Community should not transform into a policing group within the organization—they must maintain integrity as a community for knowledge
- Communities can restructure by department, profession, geography, etc.
- Build a knowledge repository to easily access “hidden gems”
- This might be more relevant to large organizations
- If large enough, a community librarian may be required. They facilitate resources, maintain repository, and contribute supplementary resources
- What would a UX librarian look like?
Stage 4: Stewardship
- Throughout stewardship:
- Domain: maintain relevance to organization
- Community: keep it lively and engaging
- Practice: Keep it at the cutting edge
- As I read this book, I have to remind myself these are theories about CoPs. This book seems more helpful to someone considering how to develop a CoP in a large organization
- At this stage, there is tension between Ownership and Openness
- Ownership is maintaining pride and leadership in community
- Openness involves inciting new people and successors to take leadership
- How do followers form? Do leaders in UX change? What makes the leadership change?
- Community coordinators recruit people in midcareer “who would appreciate an opportunity to take a more active role in the development of their discipline”
- Identifying the career stage of UX designers will be an interesting factor to analyze in my research
- How do you think you role models gained their level of leadership and influence? (Experience, publishing, etc.)
- Relationships and benchmarks outside of the organization help refine current practices and develop new ones.
- I wonder which organizations outside of UX influence UX designers; do you follow organizations outside of UX for inspiration?
Stage 6: Transformation
- Communities change for various reasons: changing markets, organizational structures, technology, etc.
- Ways communities change:
- Fade away
- Becoming a social club; loss of stewarding practice
- Merging with other communities
- Requires resources and becomes formally institutionalized (ex. department)
- How have you seen the source of UX impact change over time? What do you think caused this change?
Through a mastery of its domain, a community is able to increase the organization’s ability to deal with problems, improvise solutions, and imagine new directions
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