UXmatters has a great article about building a UX Services team, the qualities a team builder is looking for, and how consultants are “always on stage” when working with clients. When you work with a client, you never really get a second chance like you would in a company.

 I look for four qualities in a UX person working in services:

1. A willingness to travel up to 75% of the time
2. Having a true consultative nature. This means being comfortable talking to an hourly call center employee, then walking into a meeting with the CIO right afterward without skipping a beat.
3. Deep technical knowledge. In services, you are pretty useless as a UX person unless you not only know how to design a beautiful user experience, but actually know what it takes to build it.
4. A solid UX background. This can come from formal training or a lot of experience in the design world.

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My success in this area stems in no small part from the fact that a client can call me up and be assured that whoever I send from my team is going to do a quality job for them. The first time I fail to deliver on that promise, I will have effectively damaged a relationship and failed to radiate within that client. Deliver poorly on a first project, and any further projects the client is doing will not include you.

Read on…