The first skill you need to encompass is empathy. You need to be able to
put yourself in other peoples’ shoes to understand their needs, even
the ones that don’t make sense to you. The second skill that UX
Designers need to obtain is curiosity. I find myself asking, why and
needing explanations countless times each day to further understand our
customers’ habits and our business issues at hand.
I really liked this section. In my experience, empathy is what sets apart the good from the great in our profession. If I were to look for one non-tangible skill in someone I was hiring, empathy might be it.
While empathy itself is something that is primarily innate, how you display it during an interview is crucial. You can be the most empathetic person in the world, but if you don’t spend some time learning how to express that empathy in interpersonal communications, it’s one of those skills that can be easy for a potential employer to overlook.
I’d recommend that anyone looking for a gig in the UX world spend some time reading up on empathetic listening. It will pay dividends in the interview process. Additionally, empathetic listening is critical during user testing and requirements gathering as it helps you tune into the needs of your audience.