With other leaders, I transform the design team from a group of siloed designers into a strategic organization with framework for professional growth.
Where it was
Several individual designers with no design organization
Each designers “belonged” to a product team and worked exclusively on an area
No clear professional growth framework
No connection and collaboration between designers in different locations
In Nielsen Norman UX Maturity Framework, it was between level 2-3
Impacts
50% hiring growth in its first year (during pandemic) and triple the team size in the text 3 years.
The most productive team despite the pandemic, shipping products that helped businesses survived such as online ordering (0—>1 in 3 weeks) and item management.
Expansion of my responsibilities to include back-office experiences for business owners and managers, in addition to front-of-the-house experience for servers and clerks.
How we shaped it
With our VP of Design, we iterated and formed a scalable design organization based on Org Design by Design Org by Peter Merholz and Kristin Skinner.
Design teams were aligned with merchant’s journey, from awareness, application, and onboarding to making transactions, managing orders, tracking finance, and managing assets.
What I did
Set up designers to own broad areas, allowing them to work on various related projects and develop their expertise while defining the experience across different platforms.
Established team rituals including cadence in design reviews, personal development conversations, culture of continuous feedback, and fluid communications.
Provided opportunities for ICs to become first-time Design Managers, who continued to be successful in the role today.
It’s FIKA time!
To connect designers in different locations and to build a sense of community, the team got together virtually to play trivia, share random knowledge, or play games (although we hadn’t figured out virtual karaoke!)
