Maximizing Design Value: Strategies for High-Impact Results

Q. As designers, we all strive to deliver high-impact value. What are your top three tips for achieving this?

Understand Your User Deeply:

Conduct user research and leverage data metrics to gain insights into true user behaviors.

Involve Stakeholders Early and Often & Define Clear Objectives and Criteria for Success:

1. Engage stakeholders in early design stages through workshops, brainstorming, and user research. Present prototypes and design iterations to gather input and validate decisions.
2. Align project goals, objectives, and success criteria from the start to ensure a shared vision and consistent measurement of success.

Experiment with your designs and monitor results closely to gain insights and sensibility of how Design impacts user behavior:

1. Establish specific, measurable KPIs aligned with project objectives and stakeholder expectations.
2. Track these KPIs using available tools and data Create a feedback loop to make iterative design improvements based on insights from monitoring tools.
3. By maintaining clear communication, setting objectives, and rigorously monitoring results, designers can ensure high impact and meet stakeholder expectations.

Q. What are the signs of a healthy user-centric approach in your design teams that ensure long-lasting, high-performing outcomes?

To ensure long-lasting, high-performing outcomes with a user-centric approach, design teams should exhibit the following signs:

1. Deep Empathy and Understanding: thorough user research and data analytics insights.
2. Inclusive and Diverse Perspectives: Incorporate feedback from diverse user groups and prioritize accessibility.
3. Iterative Design and Continuous Improvement: Use rapid prototyping and frequent user feedback.
4. Data-Driven Decisions: Rely on both quantitative data and qualitative research, conducting A/B and usability testing.
5. Collaboration and Cross-Functional Integration: Foster open communication and collaboration among designers, developers, and Business/Product stakeholders.
6. Clear Value Proposition: Ensure every design decision adds tangible value for the user.
7. Holistic User Experience: Focus on the entire user journey for consistency across touchpoints.
8. Post-Launch Follow-Up: Actively gather user feedback and monitor performance post-launch to make informed improvements.

Adhering to these principles ensures the design teams approach stays user-centric, enhancing product success and user satisfaction.

Q. How can we ensure real collaboration within our multidisciplinary teams while focusing on genuine needs and real people?

To truly understand the implications, challenges and perspectives of each area, its essential to involve everyone in the design process and run a joint discovery across technology, operations, and product/ business. Heres how you can make this happen:

1. Joint Discovery Work sessions: where representatives from technology, operations, and business come together to explore the problem space, user needs, and potential solutions. This collaborative approach allows for a shared understanding of the challenges and opportunities.
2. Cross-Functional Brainstorming: Encourage brainstorming sessions where teams from different disciplines can contribute their ideas and perspectives. This helps to generate a wider range of solutions and identify potential roadblocks early on.
3. Shared Decision-Making: Involve all stakeholders in the decision-making process. This ensures that everyone feels heard and that decisions are made with a holistic understanding of the projects implications.
4. Open Communication Channels: Establish open communication channels between teams, allowing for regular updates, feedback, and discussions. This fosters transparency and helps to avoid misunderstandings.
5. Shared Ownership: Encourage a sense of shared ownership of the project across all teams. This motivates everyone to contribute their best work and to work together towards a common goal. By involving everyone in the design process and running a joint discovery, you can create a truly collaborative environment where everyone feels valued and empowered to contribute. This will lead to a deeper understanding of the projects implications and a more successful outcome.

Q. How do you typically explain service design to someone who is completely unfamiliar with this emerging discipline?

Explaining SD to someone unfamiliar with it can be done in a simple and relatable way. Heres how Id approach it: Imagine you're visiting a hospital. You want the experience—from checking in, seeing the doctor, to checking out—to be smooth and stress-free. Service design is about improving this entire experience. It involves understanding every step you take, identifying pain points, and making improvements so that your visit is efficient and pleasant. In short, service design focuses on creating seamless and enjoyable experiences for people using any type of service.

Here is an analogy:

Product Design: Designing a beautiful and functional chair.

Service Design: Designing the entire experience of buying, using, and maintaining that chair.

In short, service design is about making services more human-centered, efficient, and delightful.

Q. What makes working in the fintech industry unique compared to other sectors?

Fighting Financial Complexity can change lives! The opportunity to help people navigate their finances and make a real difference in their daily lives by empowering them to make better, more informed financial decisions.

While the technological and regulatory landscape presents significant challenges, it also demands constant creativity and innovation.??????

Q. How do you help your team foster a design-driven culture at work?

Fostering a design-driven culture within a company requires a multi-faceted approach. Here are several strategies to help achieve this:

1. Embracing the Political Nature of Design: Recognize that design is inherently a political act because it challenges organizational norms and drives change. Embrace this aspect and act accordingly by actively advocating for design's role in transforming the organization. This means being prepared to navigate resistance, influencing stakeholders, and demonstrating the long-term value of a design-centric approach.
2. Cross-Department Collaboration: Encourage collaboration between designers and other departments, such as engineering, marketing, and sales. This helps to integrate design perspectives into various aspects of the business and fosters a holistic understanding of its value.
3. Education Through Design Acts: Treat every design action or working session as an opportunity to educate stakeholders and shift their mindset. Explain why certain design decisions are being made and the importance of specific design tools or methodologies. Clearly articulate the goals and expected outcomes, helping stakeholders see the value and fostering a deeper appreciation for the design process.
4. Celebrating Success: Recognize and celebrate the accomplishments of design initiatives. This could be through internal awards, showcasing success stories in company meetings, or promoting them in internal communications (This is also to create awareness of the impacts design can achieve)
5. Empowering Designers: Encourage designers to seek out the authority and resources they need to experiment and innovate. Rather than waiting for empowerment, they should proactively step out of their comfort zones, socialize their efforts, and highlight the impacts of their work.
6. Strategic Alignment: Align design goals with the companys strategic objectives. Ensure that the leadership team understands and buys into the value of a design-driven approach, making it a core part of the business strategy.

By implementing these strategies, you can help your team cultivate a design-driven culture that not only transforms products but also influences the overall mindset and direction of the company.

If you want to know more about Priscila Williams ?? :

With a background in User Experience Design, Customer Research, Service Design, Product Design & Marketing, I help companies build better products and services through design strategies. I discover innovative solutions for business challenges. My intention is to design strategic and insightful solutions using human-centered design approaches that help products and services become the best they can be. I have always been a strategic thinker, even before I knew what that meant. Part of who I am is loving the challenge of solving problems, looking at things from different perspectives, and figuring out the mystery of emotional connections—what makes us take action—we have with products, services, people, causes, etc. My goal has always been to create enjoyable, richer, and seamless experiences, either designing something small to make your day better or designing complex systems that can have a tremendous impact on your life.