Panel: Effective user experience professionals and teams

I am honored to be one of the panelists at tonight's Michigan UPA / MOCHI meeting: What makes an effective user experience professional and team (UX management perspectives). Here is an outline of what I will cover in my 5-10 minute introduction.

• Why I am qualified - and not qualified - to be on the panel
• Best Careers 2009: Usability Experience Specialist
• On the ibm.com User experience design team: From Sales and distribution to CIO. Convergence and transformation. Success = partnering. Overall trends within IBM.
• Design convergence
• Branding and corporate messaging. See Smarter Planet and the (English) blog.
• Roadmaps

A few related conference sessions I have been to:

• Strategies for Enabling UX to Play a More Strategic Role: What Will Work Where You Work?
• Figuring out the "ONE THING" that will move UX into a position of strategic relevance
• A Kit For Building User Experience Teams Within R&D Organizations

Possible debate topics:

• Methods and deliverables for individuals and teams. Personas, usability test analysis, how many users, … Does any of it even matter today? Which methods and skills will stand the test of time? Which will not?
• Engagement models for "the UX team" (and org chart concerns). Part of the organization, Loaned to the team, Part of the project, Consultant, Reviewer, Enforcer, Ignoring. Should there even such thing as a "UX team"? When short on resources, it is OK to "teach and deputize" UX responsibilities?
• Agile vs. Waterfall. Is Agile evil or what "UCD" has meant all along? Or both? Are you a Newtonian or a Quantum mechanic? Is there a unified field theory for UX? Do the UX skills transfer between Agile & Waterfall? What else may need to change?
• Individual UX skills. Jack-of-all trades/generalist, T-shaped, Specialist. Should you be an "Interaction designer/IA/etc.", a "UX person" or a "person who does good work, including planning good experiences"?

Looking forward to hanging out. Hope we get good participation from the audience and a lively debate.