{"id":373,"date":"2018-06-01T12:20:00","date_gmt":"2018-06-01T12:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.minotaurdesign.com\/blog\/?p=373"},"modified":"2026-06-06T02:25:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T02:25:13","slug":"this-isnt-even-a-unicorn-role-its-just-gibberish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.minotaurdesign.com\/blog\/2018\/06\/01\/this-isnt-even-a-unicorn-role-its-just-gibberish\/","title":{"rendered":"This Isn&#8217;t Even a Unicorn Role. It&#8217;s Just Gibberish."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!-- Originally shared on LinkedIn, ~2018 --><\/p>\n<p>As a usability professional, the struggle with recruitment communications is real. I want to share some requirements from a recent UX job &#8220;description&#8221; \u2014 in quotes because it&#8217;s more of a laundry list of hopes and dreams than a coherent role definition.<\/p>\n<h3>Preface<\/h3>\n<p>Before I get into it &#8211; many items here are better suited for dedicated roles, or too broad for any single UX hire regardless of seniority. Some items are just\u2026 odd.<\/p>\n<h3>Here&#8217;s what this posting actually asked for<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li>Establish the company&#8217;s technical vision \u2014 lead all aspects of the company&#8217;s technological development<\/li>\n<li>Direct the company&#8217;s strategic direction, development and future growth<\/li>\n<li>Do workshops internally and with customers<\/li>\n<li>Conduct technological analyses and research<\/li>\n<li>Open up new whitespaces for us<\/li>\n<li>Help in pivoting our image from being an &#8220;executor&#8221; of designs to a &#8220;design &amp; strategic&#8221; partner<\/li>\n<li>Management of sales process and product delivery<\/li>\n<li>Experience in overall transformation of Front\/Back end systems for digitization<\/li>\n<li>Experience in Mobile First Methodology to ensure internal systems are supported on all devices<\/li>\n<li>Expert skills on Project management<\/li>\n<li>QA\/Test experience<\/li>\n<li>PR\/marketing experience<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Breaking it down<\/h3>\n<p><strong>CTO\/VP Engineering territory:<\/strong> establish tech vision, lead technological development, direct strategic direction and future growth.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Niche or dedicated role territory:<\/strong> PR\/marketing, sales process management, product delivery, project management, QA\/Test.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Genuinely odd:<\/strong> &#8220;Open up new whitespaces for us.&#8221; I&#8217;ve been in this field a long time. I still don&#8217;t know what action I&#8217;m supposed to take on day one to accomplish that.<\/p>\n<h3>My Analysis<\/h3>\n<p>This isn&#8217;t a unicorn role. A unicorn role is a real job that asks for a rare combination of skills. This is a job description written by a committee that never stopped to ask: <em>what does this person actually do on Tuesday morning?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Every touchpoint in your recruitment process is a signal about your organization. A job description this incoherent tells strong candidates \u2014 the ones with options \u2014 exactly what working there might feel like. They read it and move on.<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re writing a job description right now: start with what the person will own. Then what they&#8217;ll influence. Then what experience makes someone good at those specific things. That&#8217;s a job description. Everything else is a wishlist.<\/p>\n<p><em>Originally shared on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/richleetn\/\">LinkedIn<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A real UX job description, annotated. When a role asks you to establish technical vision, run sales, do QA, manage projects, handle PR, and &#8220;open up new whitespaces&#8221; \u2014 that&#8217;s not a job. That&#8217;s a wishlist written by a committee.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,78,12,21],"tags":[76,67,28],"class_list":["post-373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-design","category-human-resources","category-management","category-usabillity","tag-leadership","tag-product","tag-user-experience"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>This Isn&#039;t Even a Unicorn Role. It&#039;s Just Gibberish. | Minotaur Design<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A real UX job description, annotated. When a posting asks you to set technical vision, run sales, manage QA, and &quot;open up new whitespaces&quot; \u2014 that&#039;s not a job. Here&#039;s what a real job description looks like instead.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.minotaurdesign.com\/blog\/2018\/06\/01\/this-isnt-even-a-unicorn-role-its-just-gibberish\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"This Isn&#039;t Even a Unicorn Role. It&#039;s Just Gibberish.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A job description written by a committee that never asked &quot;what does this person do on Tuesday morning?&quot; is a signal to strong candidates \u2014 and not a good one.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.minotaurdesign.com\/blog\/2018\/06\/01\/this-isnt-even-a-unicorn-role-its-just-gibberish\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Minotaur Design\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-06-01T12:20:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-06-06T02:25:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"minoblogger\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"minoblogger\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.minotaurdesign.com\\\/blog\\\/2018\\\/06\\\/01\\\/this-isnt-even-a-unicorn-role-its-just-gibberish\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.minotaurdesign.com\\\/blog\\\/2018\\\/06\\\/01\\\/this-isnt-even-a-unicorn-role-its-just-gibberish\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"minoblogger\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.minotaurdesign.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/0a7e35e42a4936a2196bb0e9d1506725\"},\"headline\":\"This Isn&#8217;t Even a Unicorn Role. 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