Designing the design process
We were losing time to design changes late in projects. The fix was knowing who signs off on what, not a better design.
my part
the only designer, so the process problem was mine to fixcrit with the wider design team; shipped with product, engineering and the business
We were losing time to design changes late in projects, because we weren’t getting the right feedback early enough.
Our designs touch a lot of departments, so the end of a project should be for fine-tuning. When someone new shows up at that point with new information, it throws everything off.
Map who signs off
First we needed a clear picture of who signs off on what, for each product and feature. At Microsoft I’d found that a simple map of team leads and what they own did more for alignment than any process doc.
My manager added the other half: presenting design overviews in team-lead meetings so everyone could see the work. Together we thought that would win back the time.
Two rules we added
- Any meeting that involves UX needs UI to react to. Not a conversation about a screen. The screen.
- Agendas get updated, and the right people get told they’re needed. It sounds obvious, but it wasn’t happening.