Just as businesses are talking about optimizing everything from business processes to utilization of data, we as UX professionals also need to optimize what we do and how we do it. We should not be merely usability testers, reacting at the end of the development cycle to code that is already complete. Instead we should be influencers of the what goes into the product, working as a core team member on all aspects, helping to mitigate risks and prioritize features for inclusion. With less and less time time for our various activities, and often a limited amount of resource, we can still be effective if we choose our activities carefull.