4 principles every designer can adopt to grow their company’s design culture
Derek, a new designer, was working with a small multi-disciplinary team tasked with improving the company’s flagship product — a learning platform for people who want to learn how to code.
This was a huge opportunity for Derek to get his name out there, and he couldn’t wait to get started. “I can mock that up! I’ll have something ready for review in less than a week.” he said.
Wanting to impress his peers, Derek spent most of the next week in his office working on a design solution for the project. Like a good designer, he avoided jumping right into high-fidelity work. He perused numerous websites looking for inspiration, labored over his sketchbook, and tried out countless ideas until, “Ah ha! That’s it!” he thought to himself, and he began fleshing out his novel concept.
At the next project meeting, the team went around the room giving status updates and checking timelines.
“How’s the design coming along?” someone asked.
“Great! I think this’ll be a game changer.“I landed on a really cool idea for the course catalog view.” replied Derek.
“Awesome! Can we see it?” another asked excitedly.
Derek replied, “Eh, I would show you but it’s not quite done yet! There are still some things I’d like to try out first.”
The lead developer chimed in, “Okay, well I guess I have enough framework and back end work to keep busy for now.”
Another developer mentioned, “I don’t know if I’ve told anyone this, but I’m a self-taught developer. I used to use sites like ours quite a bit back when I was learning how to get started. Let me know if you want any help.”
“Thanks, I’ll let you know if I get stuck.” said Derek.
Several more days went by, and Derek churned through layout options and color palettes with confidence, “This new aesthetic is way more modern than before. It’ll be perfect for our brand!” he thought to himself.
After several more long days and late nights, Derek finished adding the last touches to the set of workflow screens. He added them to his presentation file along with the several other high-fi mockups he created. He felt a rush of excitement and anticipation wash over him as he saved his work, anxiously awaiting the team’s first progress review with the product manager tomorrow.
The next day the team gathered around the conference table for their first progress review with their product manager. Derek took over the display and unveiled the work he’s labored over for the past two weeks with a noticeable sense of pride.
Derek showcased the first, then second, and third screen — his voice grew in enthusiasm with each new shiny mockup, and he made sure to call out the highlights and interaction details along the way.
He realized he’s covered a lot of new material already, so he took a moment to pause for reactions and let his novel ideas sink in.
The room was silent.
The audience continued to stare at the projection of Derek’s high-fi mockups and workflow diagrams, trying to get familiar with the concept. After what seemed like minutes of silence, someone asked “So, what’re the default filter options?”
Derek replied, “Uhh, I just figured they could be the same as before. I didn’t think that was super important.” You could sense a hint of defensiveness in his voice.
“You know, have you thought about removing the filters altogether? I think the page might be cleaner that way. I’ve always found that filter section to be a bit cumbersome when doing my testing.” a software tester suggested.
Derek started to feel his muscles tense up.
“That’s a good idea, during sales demos people usually say ourfilters cause confusion and detract from the main purpose of the page.” said the product manager.
Derek made an attempt to redirect the discussion and flipped to the next mockup, “So what do you guys think about the new layout for the detail screen? Do you like it?”
Another long moment of silence passed as the team took a moment to scan the mockups.
Finally, one of the developers spoke up “Yeah, the aesthetics are pretty nice, but where did the user profile tabs go? I was thinking that instead of keeping them up top we could — ”
Derek interjected, “Pshh, the tabs? I can’t believe we didn’t get rid of those before. That information doesn’t seem very useful to me so I got rid of them.”
“Actually, according to past user interviews we learned that users found them to be and intuitive way to organize the profile.” said a developer.
Derek felt his face get hot. He tried to be quick on his feet to think of a rebuttal.
“Well, there’s no great way to fit them back in with this design. Besides, I think it looks much more modern without them.” Said Derek. There was a slight anxiousness in his voice as he fought to keep his design in tact.
“Can you tell us why you moved the contact button to the bottom?” asked another.
The remainder of the review meeting went something like this — members of the team on offense, whilst Derek played defense. Derek found himself growing more irritated with each question or suggestion from the audience that didn’t seem to fit in with his vision for the product.
“They just don’t get it.” Derek thought to himself as he strolled back to his office. “I’ve already poured so much thought into this! I know it’s a better design. Don’t they trust me to do my job?”
Does this scenario sound familiar? My guess is at one point in your career you used to be like Derek, or you’ve witnessed someone who‘s been in a similar situation.
Did Derek do anything wrong? After all, he stepped up to the plate to take on the brunt of the work for his team. He worked from early concept to low and high-fidelity designs. He even stayed late some nights to refine his ideas and meet the deadline. In Derek’s mind, his team should be thanking him for all his hard work on the project. It’s obvious why he was deflated and disappointed by their lack of excitement for his designs.
As a new designer, Derek’s goal was to make a big impact on the product and get recognized for his skill set. Instead, he ended up with a disjointed project team where nobody felt bought in to the project. He needed to completely rethink his approach.
1. Leave your ego at the door.
It’s normal for everyone to want to feel respected and valued for their talents. After all, we spent thousands of dollars and years in school practicing how to be excellent at our craft.
Our schooling makes us feel that our craft is something that’s exclusive or completely separate from other disciplines — whether that be designer, engineer, writer, marketing, etc.
Society tells us designers are supposed to be the creative ones. The ones with the brightest ideas and most beautiful renderings. We have a status to uphold and protect. These labels give us a sense of entitlement. “I’m a designer”, “She’s a developer”, “He’s a software tester”.
When we sense an “outsider” encroaching on our domain, we tend to act like the tattoo artist from that one AT&T commercial and we’re all like
I say fuck labels. They stifle our creativity and limit our potential to influence others with design. Isn’t positive influence through design our ultimate goal? Don’t we want to share our knowledge and impact more people?
In order to promote a healthy team dynamic, produce better work, and reach more people, the act of design needs to be inclusive.
You’re probably thinking what this will sound 10x less sexy from what you were told in school, but I believe as a designer it’s our job to guide conversation, ask the difficult questions, leverage the knowledge of others, build connections, and invite people in to the design process. After all, these are the primary skills that will make us more effective problem solvers. Oh, and sometimes we push pixels.
Design is a team sport, not a one person show. Just because you don’t have design in your title doesn’t mean you’re not a designer. I’ve worked with software testers and developers that I’ve found to be damn good at design. You’d be surprised how many other roles are out there waiting for an opportunity to contribute if you’re willing to bring them along with you.
2. Let it go.
Whether you like it or not, design decisions are made all — the — time. Most are probably being made without your knowledge or involvement. It’s impossible for you to have a say in every design decision, and I highly doubt you’d want to anyways as you would likely have no time for future-thinking work.
My advice? Let it go. Instead of trying to control every design decision made, teach others to do what you do when you’re not in the room. Look for small moments in team meetings or design reviews to educate others on the whybehind a design decision. This is how you grow your influence and build a better design culture within your team or product.
3. Make design approachable.
From my experience, “non-designers” are intimidated by anything they consider “design work”. If I had a quarter for the number of times I’ve heard “But I’m not a UI designer!” or “I can’t draw!” I’d be rich.
The reality is, everyone has ideas, and everyone can draw boxes, arrows, and squiggly lines on a piece of paper or a whiteboard. If you think someone has a promising idea, don’t hesitate to give them the marker and see what they come up with.
It’s often advantageous to start with a simple sketch or whiteboard drawing because it implies the design is subject to change. It invites criticism and people are more likely to contribute. Plus, you’ll be less attached to it and therefore more willing to explore other options.
When people see a realistic mockup, they tend to assume a lot of thought has been put into the design and that not much may change. The level of polish in your design should correlate with how finalized your ideas are and the kind of feedback you’re looking for.
4. Invite people in.
Have you heard of the endowment effect? It’s essentially the notion that people tend to value something more if its something they own or feel a part of. In the design industry, we can use this to our advantage by designing withour stakeholders and involving them during the early stages of our projects.
Derek’s design review meeting didn’t go very well because his stakeholders felt they had no say or investment in the outcome. Imagine how differently things could’ve played out for Derek, if early on, he facilitated a team brainstorming meeting to journey map with the team or identify the problems and goals they wanted to solve as a group instead of coming up with ideas and designs in his office by himself?
Derek and his team could’ve arrived at the same series of mockups that were originally presented at the meeting, but the shared understanding and investment would’ve been well worth the time and effort.
If you’re wondering how to involve your team members in the design process, I encourage your to check out Atlassian’s Playbook of design activities which I currently use with my teams and projects. It’s helped bring a boost of energy to my projects and engage the full team in the process.
A year later…
Derek and his project team are working on a major update to their user onboarding flow. The room was starting to get a bit tense, and one person uttered “Guys, I think we’re starting to swirl here.”
“Yeah, I agree. Let’s take a step back.” said the software tester. “How does this layout help the user achieve her primary goal?”
One developer hopped off her chair and grabbed the whiteboard marker. Derek sat back in his chair and smiled as the conversation ensued.
