DESIGN PROCESS

I will admit that the years we worked on the new desktop and mobile experiences weren’t without challenges. Turnaround times from ideation to delivery averaged 6-8 weeks. My first priortiy after I was promoted to design director was to focus on the product life cycle. I worked very closely with the VP of product and VP of operational. My goal was to establish an efficient, collaborative way that my team could deliver the highest quality experiences while also sustaining operational efficiency within an agile environment. (In other words, doing the best possible work, without unnecessary expenses. Who doesn’t want that?)

We started with In-Depth Interviews (IDIs) with each team member (including: Product Designers, Product Managers, Project Managers, Engineers, Data & Analytics, QAs, and Webops) to understand breaks in the previous process. Using this input, we defined and revised processes and workflows with the Product Manager, Engineering, Product Design, Data & Analytics, QA and Webops teams.

After a few reviews and revisions, including revamping ways for accepting experience changes (large and small alike) in output, peer and creative reviews, and a new approach to experience design, in which we efficiently aligned within the agile Product teams, efforts were successful. Survey results showed significant improvement in associate satisfaction (Yeah!).