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Advice for entering the UX writer world
Hi all - I've been a senior-level advertising writer/concepter for years. I understand creative briefs, strategy, insights, execution and many, many revisions.
The UX writing seminars and online tutorials I've attended say very different things, and make things far more complicated and frankly, unattainable. How will I charge for the jobs of 4 people?
For example:
- Would I be responsible for case studies, personas, customer journeys and white papers?
- Am I considered a "designer" now? Or am I a "product designer"? Why is the word "designer" even relevant in this context?
- Am I in charge for creating wireframes, interpreting analytics and forecasting trends?
Bottom line: I need to expand my skills, make better money and add value to clients without going broke on forgettable online seminars. If you are a UX writer/designer I'd love to virtually "shadow" you through a project. I'd be willing to pay.
Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Barb Hansen
Startup Product, Growth & Strategy
6.65k
04/06/20 at 5:56PM UTC
As background on me: I have worked in the startup and SaaS space for 25 years, starting as a product owner, growing through all product leader roles and now I am a COO/CPO co-founder of a pre-revenue startup.
I have never hired a UX Writer. I have hired UX researchers, UX and UX/UI Designers, UX analysts, information architects, technical writers and product designers along with Content writers, Content strategist, etc etc (plus many more job titles outside of the UX/UI and content verticals).
Am I glad that UX writer's exist now? Absolutely. Usually writing copy for a product falls to me (because it's outside of everyone else's skill set) and writing UX requirements fall to into an analyst's or technical writer's job title but you can have a great analyst who can't write requirements that the dev team can ingest. And many technical writers, without requirements experience, struggle to get hang of a requirement.
If a UX Writer's job is to write UX requirements, or to write UX-focused copy for a digital, mobile or SaaS product (which I see as a valuable niche), and that is where you bring value, you might want to lean into that niche, instead of trying to do more in the space.
Can you learn wire-framing? Sure you can, but is that the space you want to be in? It's pretty different than building the copy that engages a user.
Can you learn to be a product designer? Sure you can, but again, is that your strength and is working in a graphics program something that you want to do?
I like your idea of shadowing a UX writer (excellent idea) and I would also whole heartedly recommend that if you are a great or want to be a great UX writer (either in the requirements or copywriting space), I would suggest you focus in on one of those niches.
As someone who has written UX copy for all of the digital, mobile and SaaS products I owned, I would love to outsource that work. In fact, I might have a little job for you as my startup is getting close to launch and our copy could use a review and probably some tightening up, that is assuming you are a UX copywriter not a UX requirements writer :)
Anonymous
04/07/20 at 3:12PM UTC
Thank you, thank you for such a thorough response, Barb. You've clarified so much in the time it's taken me untold months to define. I appreciate your offer for outsourced work, but in full disclosure, I'm a content writer/conceptor who is contemplating the UX writing profession. I'd be happy to review your copy and offer suggestions from a conceptual/human-centric POV than a technical one. It depends on your audience - B2B? B2C? Please keep in touch as the project evolves, and let me know how/if I can help.
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