Forging rock solid design disciplines

Transcript

1. FORGING ROCK SOLID
   Design Disciplines
   Laura Van Doore

   @lauravandoore

   

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

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3. Managing Designers is hard.
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4. A quick look at design team models
   DESIGN HISTORY LESSON
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5. 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
   

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6. 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
   

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7. 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
   

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8. 3 Models for Design teams
   CROSS-FUNCTIONAL MODELS
   TRADITIONAL MODEL
   CENTRALISED DECENTRALISED HYBRID
   @lauravandoore
   

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9. • 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
   The Benefits of cross-functional teams
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10. Cross-functional teams
    EXPECTATIONS REALITY
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11. Challenges of managing designers
    in cross-functional teams
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12. Isolating Designers
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13. Isolating designers

    Designers have more autonomy, but less support &
    guidance to turn to when they need it, and less
    development/progression opportunities.

    The Challenges
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14. Generalist Fever
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15. 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?
    

    The Challenges
    @lauravandoore
    

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16. Inconsistent Outputs
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17. 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.
    

    The Challenges
    @lauravandoore
    

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18. Designers feel outnumbered
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19. 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
    

    The Challenges
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20. Drawing inspiration from Ancient Greek Military strategy
    ACTUAL HISTORY LESSON
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21. The Spartan Phalanx
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22. 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
    

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23. GETTING STARTED WITH A
    Design Guild
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24. The things you’ll need
    • Your design team
    • A dedicated time slot each week to meet together

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25. Codify Together
    #1
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26. The Idea:
    Set aside one day every 6 months for designing
    the way you work together.
    Codify Together
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27. 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
    

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28. 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
    

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29. Design Pairing
    #2
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30. The Idea:
    Instead of having one designer on
    100% of one project, split two
    designers 50% across two projects.
    Design Pairing
    @lauravandoore
    

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31. 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
    

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32. A Book Apart
    club
    #3
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33. The Idea:
    Reading the same short book,
    and discussing it as a group a
    month later.
    A Book Apart
    club
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34. The Reality:
    Realising way too late that
    everyone in our team had
    different tolerances for
    reading.
    A Book Apart
    club
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35. A Book Apart
    club
    Failure
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36. Pitch & Enrich
    #4
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37. The Idea:
    Each member pitches their latest
    design concepts to the group. 

    

    The group offers constructive
    criticism & tries to ‘enrich’ the
    design further.
    Pitch & Enrich
    @lauravandoore
    

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38. 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
    Pitch & Enrich
    @lauravandoore
    

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39. Universal Design

    Presentations
    #5
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40. 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.
    Universal Design Presentations
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41. Universal Design Presentations
    The Reality:
    A complete success.
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42. 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.
    Universal Design Presentations
    @lauravandoore
    

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

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44. Don’t forget to take stock
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45. Don’t forget to take stock
    Regularly ask your designers what they need
    out of their guild time.
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46. Crafting a ‘Design Phalanx’
    ? ? ? ?
    @lauravandoore
    

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

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48. Thanks
    Laura Van Doore
    @lauravandoore
    

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