Paul Adams' talk on what UXD should do

Last time I worked on a UX team, with my passion and aspiration for UX design, I was disillusioned and lost... I felt we were not as important as we claimed we were to the company or customers, and that designers around me generally cared too little (scope wise) or were given too little room to play. What does UXD really do and what value does it really bring, in addition to all these artifacts it generates? I wanted to know more, and do more that really matters. So I retreated from the plan to becoming a UX designer.

In fact, before that I worked on user support. And I felt a lot of times undervalued and frustrated - we had to work so long hours all the time, dealing with confusing/angry users, yet we couldn't really do much for them, other than apologizing or sometimes even directing them away (to "scale up" and focus on the "priority users"). At that time I thought, if I could get into the product development circle, I'd be able to know more, and do more that really makes a difference.

Today I watched Paul Adam's talk at 2018 UX London. I felt enlightened. He asks UX designers to stop navel gazing and look up and look around. Stop thinking they're in the center/the voice of customers and talk to other functions. Truly collaborate to build a great product - and that's insanely hard to achieve.

I totally agree. I realize it's not a limitation by function, it's more due to the dissatisfactory organizational setup/culture. We all know each function is important, and it takes all of us coming together to build a great product, a great company. Yet in reality, especially in big companies, people work in silos, and there is a chain of contempt between functions. Sales think they are the bread-earners and pay for everybody else's salaries; Design think they are the real cool creators of great experiences; Engineering think their codes are what make the world a better place and Sales & Marketing are just evil business people; nobody even wants to mention Finance and HR... It's about - very practically - vast difference in pay levels, as well as universally - egos of human beings.

I now know that my right goal should be looking for a company that does cross-functional collaboration for real or where I can help execute that with like-minded people.

Here's a slide from Adam that I find particularly helpful.