To many business leaders, scaling is about two key factors: staff and technology.
For UX design teams, where the staff involved are relied upon for their creativity and ability to experiment, a third factor comes into play: the right leadership.
Patrick Pentz, product designer at SimplePractice, and Karin Nord, design director at Weedmaps, have both recently experienced the scaling of their UX design team and process.
On the topic of equipping their teams with the proper technology, both Pentz and Nord shout out design powerhouse Figma — the platform whose planned $20 billion acquisition by Adobe was recently announced — as being key to their teams’ work.
Another commonality between their stories involves inter- and intradepartmental collaboration. Pentz, for instance, indicated the working relationship with product managers as a necessary touchpoint while scaling the UX design process; Nord, meanwhile, said elements like regular design reviews have been an integral part of their success.
To facilitate this collaboration — and the scaling overall — the UX design team must have perhaps the most important factor in place: leadership that’s complementary to the team in place and the tool at their disposal.
As the leader of her UX design team, Nord’s advice to other leaders is: “Be open, curious and leverage your team’s collective knowledge to serve the bigger picture. Allowing different views and perspectives is a crucial part of building a sustainable and scalable design culture.”
Read on for more tips from Pentz and Nord on scaling this crucial component of any product’s success.
How fast was your team and workload growing when you realized you had to scale your design process?
When I joined Weedmaps a year ago, it was clear that we needed to establish scalable processes to grow effectively and sustainably in order to meet the needs of the business. Part of the process is not only hiring for the right roles, but focusing on implementing scalable processes, cultivating and optimizing them in our daily work and supporting and empowering designers. We added design managers across our B2C and B2B segments and built a team of UX researchers to help support effective decision-making in our efforts to design user-centric products. Within a few months, we were able to dedicate designers to specific product efforts and operate as effective and scalable cross-functional teams.
What processes, tools or methodologies helped you scale your UX design process?
For design, Figma is an incredible tool in terms of building scalability with components, shared design libraries and design systems. Figma also provides the collaborative aspect of being able to work together in the tool, which is key since the team is spread across the country.
We utilize FigJam during discovery phases, where our design and research teams facilitate workshops, whiteboard sessions and problem-framing exercises. Our UXR team uses a multitude of research methodologies to support the discovery phases and then with further usability testing during design sprints. We also use rolling research as a scalable function that, over time, builds a better understanding of our customers from a holistic perspective.
Additionally, we hold weekly design reviews — during which designers present their work and receive feedback — and monthly lunch-and-learns where knowledge is shared and discussed. With many designers working across different parts of the experience, this ensures visibility and collaboration and also gives space for a common language around design and how we work together, which is part of a scalable and sustainable design culture.
What tips would you offer a UX design leader who wants to ensure their team members still have the freedom to experiment and be creative as the process scales?
Providing a place and time for experimentation and creativity can be challenging when deadlines are tight and the workload is demanding. That said, a proper design process that encompasses discovery and experimentation, and ultimately sources better design output, is what provides some of that creative freedom. I advise design leaders to seek out opportunities in conversations across teams and leadership, to cultivate an understanding of what UX Design is and how a mature design process can better serve the business.
Attention to what each person needs within the team is important for sustainable growth and provides a lot of opportunity for co-creation and leveraging different perspectives.”
In addition, attention to what each person needs within the team is important for sustainable growth and provides a lot of opportunity for co-creation and leveraging different perspectives. Creatives need to be creative, and while we can mostly find this within the work we’re doing, if we plan the work right and allow for all the phases of the design process, we can generate ideas and a space for new thinking.
How fast was your team and workload growing when you realized you had to scale your design process?
I was fortunate enough to join a team that had already been thinking about scaling. There was a thorough onboarding process, a solid design system to work with and an environment that facilitated close collaboration and growth. We constantly work to improve these processes, but nonetheless, they’ve held up quite well — especially considering we’ve hired over 20 designers within the last year and a half.
What processes, tools or methodologies helped you scale your UX design process?
The first tool to credit is our design system. It provides guidelines and uses the latest and greatest Figma magic. The second to call out are the various opportunities we have to validate design decisions: We get to work closely with product managers, we can utilize different critique meetings and we have a customer base willing to test and provide feedback. Last is a methodology taken from a training called “Beyond Estimates” by Woody Zuill. Woody suggests we shouldn’t use time estimates to drive product development; rather, we should focus on adding value through the smallest chunk possible, learning from it and then iterating from there.
We get to work closely with product managers, we can utilize different critique meetings and we have a customer base willing to test and provide feedback.”
What tips would you offer a UX design leader who wants to ensure their team members still have the freedom to experiment and be creative as the process scales?
It’s important to be collaborative and flexible. Let your team contribute to any changes in the process and allow for continuous iteration.
