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A priori UX design aims to meet user needs — whether solving a problem or offering an enjoyable experience. Every result you create contributes to these or more significant goals. Also, you’re not just working on a project when you work as a UX designer. You also organize everything around it.

That’s why more than 90% of employers want to see soft skills on a resume — below are the nine most in-demand ones.

Communication skills

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An everyday part of a UX designer’s job is to explain their thinking to a team, which may include non-designers. This is where it is essential to communicate your ideas clearly and concisely.

Also, the designer should not assume that the client always knows and understands what he is talking about. Sometimes additional clarification is required, which means it is essential to present information in a clear and structured manner to offer thoughts and complex ideas to people unfamiliar with UX design.

“Good communication is the bridge between confusion and clarity.” -Nat Turner.

Here’s a short list of scenarios where communication plays a key role:

• Build rapport with interview and usability testing participants.
• We present ideas, solutions and projects to stakeholders (clients, team).
• We are collaborating with other team players during project development.
• To sell the value of UX design to management and clients.
• For effective brainstorming.

Customer service

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The three essential qualities of customer service are centred around three “P“s: professionalism, patience, and a “people-first” attitude.

The first “P”, professionalism, refers to your attitude towards customers. Even when a customer is upset or behaving immaturely, you should defuse the situation as much as possible and do your best to present your solution, your team, and your company (brand) in a positive light.

The second R, patience, means remembering the individuality of each client. While some general rules guide interaction and communication, each client learns at a different pace and may not react to standard practices as you would expect. Consequently, providing high-quality service means being creative and flexible.

The third P, a people-first attitude, is based on professionalism and patience. The customer service strategy should reinforce the idea of human communication. In other words, VIP service means that not the money is the essential part of the deal, but the relationship of trust you build with the client.

Scheduling & time management skills

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“Time is the one indispensable and irreplaceable resource of accomplishment”. Brian Tracy

A UX designer has to meet a lot of deadlines. Especially when you’re leading multiple projects simultaneously, and they’re all at different stages.

No matter how excellent a UX designer you are, if you can’t plan your time, organize it, stop procrastinating and work productively, you won’t be influential.

Want to know how I organized my time management? Sharing my experience below:

Project management

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Project management skills are a person’s competencies and traits to coordinate a project from start to finish effectively.

Among the skills necessary for a UX designer, I would single out the following:

• Task management skills. Task management skills include making lists, creating spreadsheets, delegating and assigning tasks to other team members.
• Risk management skills. One of the best ways to improve risk management skills is to learn from other managers and UX designers and learn from their mistakes. I try to analyze how successful project managers complete projects and use their techniques in my work.

I try to use suitable applications and tools to develop more effectively in this regard. Right now, my top list looks like this:

Analytical thinking

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Product development and marketing increasing use data science as part of the process, so UX designers need to be able to establish relevant KPIs and extract useful information.

And UX designers depend on analytics tools to gather and analyze essential user data because that’s the only way to create products that customers will love.

Ability to work independently

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A UX designer is a team player. You communicate with developers, and marketers, try to understand the problems of others involved in the project and give users a better experience with your product.

But you need to be able to work independently and take the initiative, create tasks and set deadlines, and not wait for instructions from the project manager. Only then will you be an effective team player.

Flexibility

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If you are a UX designer, you know that projects change, deadlines move, and new tasks appear, and you need to switch between them quickly. It would be best if you strived for flexibility — the ability to adapt to changes and new requirements calmly, without stress. Avoid chaos because it’s the only way to remain efficient and productive.

Empathy

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You can’t build human-centred products without empathy. Empathy is the ability to put yourself in another person’s shoes and identify their needs.

Empathy is the ability to understand and identify with another person’s context, emotions, goals and motivations. That’s why this skill is one of the key ones for a UX designer.

In interviews and surveys, users often cannot clearly articulate what they need and expect from a product. And here, the challenge for the designer is to use empathy to solve people’s problems that they didn’t even know they had.

“When you develop your powers of empathy and imagination, the whole world opens up to you.” — Susan Sarandon.

What Key Soft Skills would you highlight?