Interview with Jay Harlow, VP Experience Design at Justworks

Why are you sponsoring Shift UX?

Because real communities of practice—where we can openly explore and exchange ideas about the nature of practice itself, and the context around it—are becoming increasingly rare. Tools, methods, technologies, come and go. But as the conference theme says, “the work is still the work.” The software-making world is deeply incurious right now, and we’ve never needed spaces like ShiftUX more.

What excites you about the future of UX?

The nature of software—and the work of making it—is changing more dramatically than it has in decades. I find that tremendously exciting, because design is always at its most interesting and inspiring when we are faced with new tools and new materials.

Software experiences in the SaaS era have become static, homogenous, undifferentiated. At Justworks we’re trying to use this moment to ask what new possibilities these new capabilities afford in service of our customers, our mission, our values—rather than simply how to make more of the same, faster, cheaper.

What's the biggest problem you foresee for UX as a practice, and how should we address it?

I think the biggest problem facing the practice is our own insecurity. This manifests in lots of ways—fear of irrelevance, fear of not having a seat at the table, fear of not being able to prove our value. These fears are justified, and their effects can be very real.

But when we bring these fears with us, it’s hard to show up in the ways that make us valuable. If you’re showing up worried about proving your value, you’re starting with the assumption that your value is in question.

UX is integrative, holistic, interdisciplinary. Our value to business is to make lateral connections, when everyone else is driving forward in a linear fashion. We connect features and products, processes and services. We connect strategy and execution. We connect functions and business units.

This puts us in (productive) tension with most other functions in business—but that tension is precisely the source of the value we provide. The way to address it is to show up as ourselves—curious, open, lateral, and focused on the work.

What is it like working in UX/design/research/product at your company?

At Justworks, Experience Design and Research & Insights are separate, horizontal teams, working across the entire business.

Experience Design works with Product and Engineering (of course), Marketing (always), but also Operations, Support, Sales, People, even Finance. We’re organized around experience domains—connected workflows, tasks, jobs, for given users—rather than by product or tech team. This enables our designers to think about problems in a very different way than if they were embedded in a product team, keeping one foot in the current business initiative, and one foot in the connected experience of the person who will be encountering this moment in the service experience.

Our Research & Insights team, led by Megan Blocker, is located within our Strategy function, which means they’re uniquely positioned to lead research and connect dots across Marketing, Technology, Success, Revenue, and Strategy, and distill insights that move the whole business. They mix and match multiple disciplines (market research, UX research, and strategic research) to meet the moment, and are building an insights engine to ensure every Justworker can make better, faster decisions at scale.

If any of that sounds interesting to you, several of us will be at the conference, so find a Justworker and ask!

How would you describe your company's culture, who would new employees work with, and who champions UX at your company?

Justworks is deeply guided by our company values and our mission to help small businesses grow with confidence. Simplicity is a core company value, and customer centricity is at the forefront of everything we do. Our service is our differentiator. So truly, everyone at Justworks is a champion of outstanding user experience!

How do you/your product enrich/benefit the practice and our community?

Justworks exists to serve small businesses, exclusively. That may not apply to everyone in the ShiftUX community, but if you work at a small business where you need HR, payroll, or compliance, but you find it all a little overwhelming, we can help!