Design Strategy
As a designer it’s my job to understand what “building materials” we have to get to our end goal .
Bring Clarity / Safe space workshops and conversations for the whole team
Setting the Vision / Understanding what the steps are between the present and the end goal. Defining what success looks like, what potential blockers could be and what the business drivers are in an initiative. By defining high level themes a holistic understanding can be communicated to the team.
Exploration / Just because something has worked in the past doesn’t mean it’s the right thing today. I’m keen to explore the latest tech available and incorporating into our solution when applicable.
Define Goals / Product design is ambiguous. I work towards driving clarity in where we’d like to be in the short and long-term
Zooming In and Out / There are macros and micros to every projects. By switching from concept workshops to project roadmaps, and how to measure success we can avoid blindspots.
Focus on Outcomes / It should never be just the new flashy tech. I work to define the desired outcomes and define how to measure success. ex: are we looking for a better customer satisfaction rate or more new subscribers.
User & Customer Focused / I run workshops, test and collaborate with internal and external users constantly
Avoid Confirmation Bias / Having a hypothesis AND validating it is key. Through frequent and meaningful communication with users and stakeholders we can be sure we’re building the right thing for the right problem.
Teamwork / Product design is a team sport
Mentor / I’ve had some amazing mentors in my career. I believe in paying it forward and supporting others.
Lead teams / Collaborate with product owners and engineering leads to guide the team and ensure we’re all working together in lock step.
Collaboration / Great ideas can come from anyone on the team, not just leaders. Leadership and delivery are two separate skillsets and I’m cognizant of this throughout the design process.
Refine and Push the Craft / If you aren’t cringing at your old work you’re doing it wrong.
When you know better you do better / Continuous iterations is key to pushing products forward. This is not to dismiss existing work - we can always have somthing good that could be better.
Design systems / Design strategy informs the UI and design systems. By holistically understanding a problem we can push our design systems to new levels of form and function.
Ongoing Requirements Gathering
These 3 activities are ongoing to avoid confirmation bias.
Workshops
Define the problem you are trying to solve.
1
User Research
Gather insight on user pain points and needs.
2
Testing
Validates if the problem is being solved effectively.
3
Data
Data is the foundation to enabling solutions. By understanding what we have available to us in the current state we can identify missing pieces or ideate on how to connect the pieces together.
What this may look like…
Analyzing JSON fields
Normalizing data through equation mapping
Human-Centered API Mapping
Working with Engineering to understand the eco-system better
Architecture
Understanding the foundation we’re building upon is crucial to long-term success. We may have the data we need but the infrastructure doesn’t support us optimizing it in the way we need.
What this may look like…
Designing flows that feed into event based architecture and defining events
Understanding the building blocks of the system - search types - PostgreSQL vs. Elastic Search
Breaking down a monolith into a modernized Microservice Architecture
Business Processes & Flows
Mapping both the current and/or ideal future state (there’s not always a current state) creates a clear plan for delivery and identify where things need to happen with people and processes. These mappings help speed up delivery - when you can clearly communicate the desired behavior coding becomes much easier for developers.
What this may look like…
User Journey Maps
Service Blueprints
User interviews and research to understand user intent
Visuals
What this may look like…
Wireframes
Prototypes
Pixel Perfect Designs for Delivery
Design System
Visual Style Guide
Visuals are the vehicle to deliver the solution and are just as important as the underlying foundation. Through a well developed brand, design system, and style guide user experiences become refined and more enjoyable.