Forging rock solid design disciplines

FORGING ROCK SOLID Design Disciplines Laura Van Doore @lauravandoore

Looking at design cultures through the lens of: SaaS & Startups Large Enterprise Government Agency @lauravandoore

Managing Designers is hard. @lauravandoore

DESIGN HISTORY LESSON A quick look at design team models @lauravandoore

Centralised Teams • The ‘Agency’ model • Designers work in one team in shared space. • Other teams approach the central design team with projects • Great for creating a strong design disciplines, but other parts of the product delivery cycle can suffer. @lauravandoore

Decentralised Teams • The ‘Agile’ approach • Each designer is assigned to a cross-functional team • Designers have great autonomy, but it can be challenging to develop their skills further • Designers can feel isolated and disconnected from their peers @lauravandoore

Hybrid Teams • The ‘Blended’ model • Designers are embedded in agile teams, but regularly return to a central ‘design guild’ • Benefits from cross-functional collaboration, but retains a strong sense of design culture @lauravandoore

3 Models for Design teams TRADITIONAL MODEL CENTRALISED CROSS-FUNCTIONAL MODELS DECENTRALISED HYBRID @lauravandoore

The Benefits of cross-functional teams • Aligned with agile delivery methods Designers working within delivery teams to shape outcomes • Better communication, faster product development Less chance of communication breakdowns, and bottlenecking • No ‘us vs them’ Fosters a collaborative culture across disciplines to build great products @lauravandoore

Cross-functional teams EXPECTATIONS REALITY @lauravandoore

Challenges of managing designers in cross-functional teams @lauravandoore

Isolating Designers @lauravandoore

The Challenges Isolating designers Designers have more autonomy, but less support & guidance to turn to when they need it, and less development/progression opportunities. @lauravandoore

Generalist Fever @lauravandoore

The Challenges Generalist Fever In cross-functional teams, all designers tend to be treated as if they have perfectly matching skill sets • How can we utilise design specialisations? Designers will have different strengths & weaknesses, but how can you benefit from these if no one works together? @lauravandoore

Inconsistent Outputs @lauravandoore

The Challenges Inconsistent Deliverables Since output from designers can vary radically from one designer to the next, no one really knows what to expect from a designer in their cross-functional team. @lauravandoore

Designers feel outnumbered @lauravandoore

The Challenges Designers feel outnumbered It can be exhausting for designers to be the solo design & user advocate in their delivery team. Engineering priorities can easily overtake UX priorities @lauravandoore

ACTUAL HISTORY LESSON Drawing inspiration from Ancient Greek Military strategy @lauravandoore

The Spartan Phalanx @lauravandoore

The Spartan Phalanx • Forms a ‘wall of shields’ • Fought in formation in a highly organised and disciplined manner • Each Spartan uses his shield to protect the man to his left • Codified, streamlined battle training @lauravandoore

GETTING STARTED WITH A Design Guild @lauravandoore

The things you’ll need • Your design team • A dedicated time slot each week to meet together @lauravandoore

#1 Codify Together @lauravandoore

Codify Together The Idea: Set aside one day every 6 months for designing the way you work together. @lauravandoore

Codify Together • Uniformity vs fluidity Decide as a team what should be locked in & where there’s some flexibility. E.g. At Fathom, we require Sketch for high fidelity UI, but wireframes & prototypes can be designed in your tool of choice. @lauravandoore

Codify Together • Templates and guides for common UX deliverables As a team, design the best possible templates for Personas, Empathy Maps, Journey Maps, and other common design deliverables your team produces. This saves time from everyone creating their own versions, standardises the outputs, and helps newly onboard designers get productive as fast as possible. @lauravandoore

#2 Design Pairing @lauravandoore

Design Pairing The Idea: Instead of having one designer on 100% of one project, split two designers 50% across two projects. @lauravandoore

Design Pairing The Reality: • More design iteration, happening at a faster cadence • Two designers will continually challenge each others concepts until they are solid • Work doesn’t grind to a halt if someone gets ill • Benefits from cross-pollination @lauravandoore

#3 A Bookclub Apart @lauravandoore

A Bookclub Apart The Idea: Reading the same short book, and discussing it as a group a month later. @lauravandoore

A Bookclub Apart The Reality: Realising way too late that everyone in our team had different tolerances for reading. @lauravandoore

Failure A Bookclub Apart @lauravandoore

#4 Pitch & Enrich @lauravandoore

Pitch & Enrich The Idea: Each member pitches their latest design concepts to the group. The group offers constructive criticism & tries to ‘enrich’ the design further. @lauravandoore

Pitch & Enrich The Reality: • More robust design choices • Better presentation skills • Support, guidance and validation for designers throughout their design process • Identify early when experiences are feeling inconsistent @lauravandoore

#5 Universal Design Presentations @lauravandoore

Universal Design Presentations The Idea: Read & research a principle outlined in the book ‘Universal Principles of Design’ 1 week later, give a 10 minute interactive presentation to the rest of the design guild. @lauravandoore

Universal Design Presentations The Reality: A complete success. @lauravandoore

Universal Design Presentations BENEFITS: • Improved team presentation and public speaking skills. • Challenged designers to present concepts creatively & persuasively. • All designers became fluent across a standard set of principles and terminology. @lauravandoore

1 Codify Together 2 Design Pairing 3 A Book(club) Apart 4 Pitch & Enrich 5 Universal Design Presentations @lauravandoore

Don’t forget to take stock @lauravandoore

Don’t forget to take stock Regularly ask your designers what they need out of their guild time. @lauravandoore

Crafting a ‘Design Phalanx’ ? ? ? ? @lauravandoore

Crafting a ‘Design Phalanx’ Core Design Principles Codified Deliverables Discipline Strengthening Design Pairing (No lone wolves) @lauravandoore

Thanks Laura Van Doore @lauravandoore