Boagworld: UX, Design Leadership, Marketing & Conversion Optimization

By: Paul Boag Marcus Lillington
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  • Summary

  • Boagworld: The podcast where digital best practices meets a terrible sense of humor! Join us for a relaxed chat about all things digital design. We dish out practical advice and industry insights, all wrapped up in friendly conversation. Whether you're looking to improve your user experience, boost your conversion or be a better design lead, we've got something for you. With over 400 episodes, we're like the cool grandads of web design podcasts – experienced, slightly inappropriate, but always entertaining. So grab a drink, get comfy, and join us for an entertaining journey through the life of a digital professional.
    Boagworks Ltd
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Economics
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Episodes
  • Redefine Your Role

    Redefine Your Role
    Mar 27 2025
    On this week's Boagworld Show, we're exploring how UX design leaders can take control of their roles within organizations, why UX agencies might feel doomed (but probably aren't), and how AI is reshaping the way we code and collaborate. We'll dig into practical strategies for UX leaders, share insights on the changing landscape for UX agencies, and provide guidance for navigating AI in your workflows.App of the WeekThis week's recommendation is UXPressia, a powerful yet easy-to-use visualization tool. UXPressia helps teams collaboratively create customer journey maps, personas, and impact maps. Although the visual output isn't necessarily designer-quality, it excels at engaging stakeholders and team members in user research activities. It's particularly useful for empowering non-designers to contribute meaningfully to UX strategies.Topic of the Week: Defining Your Role as a UX Design LeaderAs UX professionals, many of us often find ourselves caught in cycles of endless implementation, working on tasks dictated by others rather than strategically influencing user experience. If you're feeling overworked, understaffed, and under-appreciated, it's time to redefine your role. Here’s how you can proactively take control and transform your position from pixel-pusher to strategic UX leader.Clarify Your GoalsSenior management frequently sets high-level organizational objectives that, while seemingly vague, offer essential clues to aligning your UX efforts strategically. Start by identifying those broader goals—whether increasing efficiency, targeting new demographics, or enhancing sustainability—and ask yourself how UX can meaningfully contribute. Present these alignment opportunities to your manager, framing your UX role around supporting company-wide goals. This shifts your focus from reactive tasks to proactive strategic initiatives.Leverage Your Resources WiselyRather than dwelling on resource limitations, carefully evaluate what’s already at your disposal:Budgets and Software: Identify any discretionary funds or tools available.Internal Staff and External Support: Consider tapping into colleagues from other departments or engaging reliable external agencies. Establishing preferred supplier lists helps manage quality and ensures that external agencies align with your UX standards.Autonomy and Training: Use your authority to delegate smaller UX tasks, freeing yourself to focus on strategic planning and education.This perspective allows you to create impactful strategies within existing constraints. For instance, shifting your role to training internal teams on basic UX practices like user research and testing can extend your influence without increasing headcount.Expand Your InfluenceTrue UX leadership isn’t just about completing projects; it’s about cultivating a user-centered culture throughout your organization. Here's how:Education and Empowerment: Provide training materials and workshops to build UX capabilities within other departments.Policies and Standards: Establish clear UX standards and guidelines, creating a framework everyone in your organization can follow.Metrics and Accountability: Introduce meaningful UX metrics that encourage internal competition and drive continuous improvement. For instance, turning analytics into league tables among departments can spark healthy competition and motivate better user experiences.Transforming your role into that of an internal UX consultant positions you to make a broader impact, aligning user-centric design with the overarching organizational strategy.By following these steps—clarifying your objectives, leveraging your resources, and expanding your influence—you can redefine your role as a UX design leader, shifting from mere execution to strategic empowerment.Read of the WeekJacob Nielsen recently wrote an intriguing article titled "Future is Lean, Mean and Scary for UX Agencies". Nielsen predicts challenging times ahead for UX agencies, primarily driven by a shift towards more robust internal UX teams and the rapid rise of AI. However, we believe the narrative is somewhat skewed toward Nielsen's experience with larger organizations. While internal teams are expanding, they often remain overstretched, and the role of specialized UX agencies is still crucial. AI will indeed reshape the industry but likely as an enhancement rather than a replacement, empowering both in-house and external UX teams to deliver more sophisticated solutions rather than merely cutting costs.Listener Question of the WeekQuestion: How should agencies handle clients who approach them with projects partially completed using AI-generated code, expecting it to be quick and cheap to finalize?This is a growing challenge as clients become increasingly confident in AI capabilities, sometimes overestimating what AI can deliver without professional oversight. Here's our approach to handling this:Clients may assume AI-generated code is nearly complete, but the reality is ...
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    49 mins
  • The Art of Stealth Research

    The Art of Stealth Research
    Mar 13 2025
    On this week's Boagworld Show, we delve into the powerful concept of invisible user research - tackling how to conduct essential UX work even when stakeholders resist investing in formal research. We explore the often-overlooked impact of UX debt, crown a new champion among user-testing apps, and surprisingly, find ourselves nodding along with McKinsey on the strategic role of design leaders.App of the WeekThis week, we're excited about Useberry, a versatile user-testing platform that covers a wide range of UX research tasks like card sorting, tree testing, five-second tests, preference tests, and single-task usability studies. It's particularly appealing due to its comprehensive features, straightforward user interface, scalability, and affordable pricing model. With a free tier for small tests and scalable packages allowing incremental purchases up to 2000 responses per month, Useberry makes rigorous user research accessible without heavy upfront costs.Topic of the Week: Invisible User ResearchOne of the biggest hurdles in UX is convincing stakeholders of the importance of investing in user research. Often, organizations resist due to perceived cost, time constraints, or simply misunderstanding its value. However, this doesn't mean UX practitioners should abandon research altogether. Instead, we're advocating the concept of "invisible user research," embedding research seamlessly into the workflow without explicitly seeking permission or additional budgets.Embedding Research into Your WorkflowInvisible user research is all about reframing how you incorporate research activities. Instead of flagging them as separate tasks, integrate research directly into your design activities. For example, avoid creating separate budget line items for user research; instead, simply extend your design phase slightly to accommodate quick, effective tests and validation steps.Practical ApproachesLeverage everyday moments in your project timeline to slip in valuable research:Stakeholder meetings: If stakeholders question the design or argue over choices, propose a quick user test as a neutral way to resolve debates. For instance, if a stakeholder believes users might miss an essential CTA, perform a quick five-second test. You'll have concrete data within hours.Feedback delays: When awaiting feedback on your designs, use that downtime productively. Conduct small, targeted surveys or quick polls to fill knowledge gaps.Routine presentations: When stakeholders request updates or progress presentations, add a quick round of user research to validate your work and strengthen your position.Addressing Common ObjectionsStakeholders often push back against research for several common reasons, but here's how you can respond effectively:"It's too costly or time-consuming": Highlight how small-scale tests (like quick surveys or five-second tests) take minimal time and cost very little."Our users are too busy or inaccessible": Utilize surrogate groups, such as customer support teams or sales representatives who interact daily with users."Your research is biased or insufficient": Emphasize that even limited testing is more reliable than subjective opinions. Additionally, use tools like ChatGPT to ensure questions are unbiased and clearly phrased, or offer to conduct further rounds of testing to reassure stakeholders.Reframing Research as Efficiency and Risk ManagementPositioning invisible user research as efficiency gains or risk management can be particularly persuasive. Explain that catching design issues early prevents costly revisions later. Frame user research as a routine activity that ensures project success, rather than as an optional extra.Pragmatism Over ProcessFinally, remain pragmatic. Rather than adhering rigidly to a formalized research process (extensive discovery phases, multiple rounds of card sorts, or lengthy reports), opt for quick, targeted interventions tailored to immediate needs. This responsive approach ensures research stays relevant, actionable, and minimally disruptive to the workflow.By adopting invisible user research, you embed essential UX validation into everyday project activities, ensuring user-centered outcomes without needing formal approval at every turn.Read of the WeekWe have three great articles recommended for strategic UX leaders:Are You Asking Enough of Your Design Leaders? from McKinsey emphasizes treating design leaders as strategic partners at the executive level, advocating for a more impactful role beyond implementation tasks.How to Bring Value as a Design Leader Without Getting Hands-On outlines practical ways to effectively lead UX teams by stepping back from hands-on design tasks and focusing on team support and organizational communication.UX Debt by Nielsen Norman Group introduces the concept of UX debt, akin to tech debt, highlighting how design shortcuts during development can accrue and negatively impact user experiences, providing strategies for managing and mitigating this ...
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    40 mins
  • The Metrics Trap: Are You Measuring the Wrong Things?

    The Metrics Trap: Are You Measuring the Wrong Things?
    Feb 27 2025
    This week, we’re tackling a biggie—how to avoid the pitfalls of metrics. We’ll explore why tracking the wrong numbers can send your entire organization in the wrong direction and what you should be focusing on instead.We also have a fantastic Figma plugin to make your mockups more realistic, a thought-provoking read on AI’s impact on UX, and a listener question on handling the ever-growing number of software subscriptions. Oh, and of course, Marcus has a joke. But don’t get your hopes up.App of the Week: Quick FillThis week, I came across Quick Fill, a Figma plugin that helps you populate your designs with realistic-looking data. We’ve all been there—presenting a mockup to stakeholders, only to have them fixate on the fact that every name and profile picture is identical. Quick Fill solves that by auto-generating realistic text, names, addresses, and other useful content to make your designs feel more natural.Not only does this improve stakeholder buy-in, but it also helps you spot design issues early on. Ever built a UI that looks perfect until you enter a name like “Marcus Brian John Lillington” and suddenly everything breaks? This plugin helps catch those issues before they reach development. Highly recommend giving it a go.Topic of the Week: The Metrics TrapMetrics can be an incredibly powerful tool—but only if you track the right things. Too often, businesses latch onto the easiest numbers to measure rather than the ones that truly reflect success. And that’s where things start to go wrong.The Dangers of Poor MetricsA classic mistake is tracking surface-level engagement over meaningful outcomes. For example, an insurance company might focus on the number of quotes they generate rather than the number of actual policies sold. I’ve worked with companies who obsess over lead generation, but when you dig deeper, half of those “leads” never convert into paying customers. If you optimize for the wrong metric, you optimize for the wrong behavior.Then there’s the McNamara Fallacy, which essentially states that we measure what’s easy rather than what’s important. It’s easy to track the number of form submissions. It’s harder to track customer satisfaction, lifetime value, or the real impact of UX improvements. But those harder-to-measure metrics are the ones that truly matter.Short-Term Thinking vs. Long-Term SuccessAnother issue is the obsession with short-term metrics. Quarterly targets and monthly reports drive short-term decision-making, often at the expense of long-term strategy. A UX redesign might cause a temporary dip in conversions as users adjust, but if you panic and roll everything back immediately, you’ll never see the long-term benefits.It’s also important to balance different types of metrics. I always recommend tracking at least three key categories:Conversion metrics (sales, sign-ups, or other key actions)Usability metrics (error rates, time-on-task, Net Promoter Score)Engagement metrics (return visits, time spent, interactions)If you only track one type, you risk making short-sighted decisions that improve one number at the expense of everything else.See Also: What is Success? How To Define Key Performance IndicatorsMaking Metrics Work for YouSo, what’s the solution? First, stop relying on a single “magic” number to measure success. No one metric will ever tell the full story. Instead, combine different data points to get a more holistic view.Second, give things time before making decisions based on data. A website redesign, pricing change, or new feature will take time to bed in. I always tell clients to wait at least two weeks before reacting to data shifts—longer if it’s a major change.Finally, use qualitative data to understand the “why” behind the numbers. Metrics can tell you what’s happening, but they won’t explain why users are struggling. That’s where usability testing, surveys, and direct feedback come in.Reads of the WeekThis week’s must-read articles focus on the evolving role of AI and its impact on UX.Generative AI – The Power and the Glory – This article explores both the immense potential and the significant challenges that come with generative AI. It breaks down the current state of the technology and where it’s headed.Enhancing the Experience of Using AI – A deep dive into how we can make AI tools more user-friendly, highlighting best practices for designing AI-driven experiences that feel intuitive and useful.Both pieces offer valuable insights into the future of AI and UX. If you're keen to understand how AI is shaping our field, these are must-reads.Listener Question of the WeekSarah G. asks:“In an age where literally every tool requires a subscription, how do companies of one decide what they really need—and how do they afford it all?”Great question, Sarah. This is something I struggle with myself, and over time, I’ve developed a few key strategies:Keep a spreadsheet – Track everything ...
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    50 mins

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