Design Leadership

As the Lead Designer, I needed to adapt the design processes to this new structure and vision.

At the time, I was the only digital designer and was responsible for all aspects of design; user-research, -journeys, -interaction, -interface and -validation.  When the Products were delivered fortnightly or monthly it was a manageable task for myself. However, with a growing team, the frequency increased and it became unsustainable. I had to grow the design team to support the increase in Product development.

I recruited more UXers. Initially, I hired another designer and then focused on hiring people who could help the organisation to understand the user better and design smarter. So I hired a UX Researcher and a Product Analyst and Web Optimiser. 

These new recruits allowed me to speed up the process of validating ideas with users, which provided valuable feedback to the team to optimise the experience. They also helped to refine the processes, such as rapid prototyping, remote- and lab-testing, AB Testing, to become more effective. This was so successful that people from all areas of the business became obsessed with the user.

I also created a framework for coordinating the design team, through establishing new UX processes. Firstly, by creating weekly routines (stand-ups, retrospectives & design critiques) to ensure individuals were supported and could share insights. This was to prevent designers from becoming isolated. Secondly, by developing shared resources (design principles and an interaction pattern library), to ensure consistency across the Products. Designers were encouraged to contribute to these resources and challenge them where necessary - provoking discussion and strengthening the design vision.

There were plenty of barriers along the way. My objective was to continuously reduce the feedback loop from the users to the Product teams. However, it was a challenge to engage the relevant team members in the design processes at the right time and to keep everybody up to date with the emerging discoveries. Over time, I established the trust of the team through proving the value of listening to users.

With the new team structure and processes in place, it was possible for the design team to support multiple cross-functional development teams. Each team consisted of a lead designer, a Product owner, a lead engineer and specialist engineers and was responsible for delivering against the team’s objectives. This meant the design team could develop multiple valuable Products for our users simultaneously, whilst ensuring functional and aesthetic consistency.