Product Design as a Team Sport: Moving Fast and Staying on Target

Recently, a group of LinkedIn Marketing Solutions (LMS) designers were tasked with creating a new campaign creation experience. One of our primary goals as designers in LinkedIn’s advertising business is to simplify the complex. The process of creating, managing, and optimizing ad campaigns is intricate—advertisers refine these skills over years of experience using platforms like ours. With the advent of AI, digital ad platforms are now racing to leverage new technologies that reduce effort, fill knowledge gaps, and ultimately improve return on ad spend.

To develop this new product quickly, a team of designers came together to create an MVP for a simplified campaign creation tool, called Accelerate. This tool would introduce AI to automate aspects of the campaign, such as audience targeting, bidding, and ad placement, while also using generative AI to craft creative assets, including copy and images. Given the tight timeline, multiple designers were assigned to independent areas of the design. This was a departure from our typical approach, where one designer partners with a PM and a team of engineers. Instead, we adopted a version of the pod operating model—a group of designers at various levels working with a principal designer and design manager to collaborate and cover all the required areas. We began with a clear vision, guiding principles, and a cross-functional team to support us.

To make this model work, we held daily standup meetings alongside twice-weekly review sessions (or ad hoc meetings as needed), all while working remotely. One of the great aspects of design at LinkedIn is the comprehensive design system in Figma that we have at our disposal. However, for this new version of the product, we were using a new version of the system, which introduced a different look and feel. This gave us an exciting opportunity to push the boundaries of what was possible for an enterprise-level product. Our goal was to make the experience as simple as possible, leveraging AI to handle much of the complexity for advertisers creating their first campaigns. We introduced a new chat-based UI to guide users through the campaign setup process, addressing any knowledge gaps along the way.

Even with the support of an atomic design system, it can still be challenging to ensure designs are cohesive. Small details like spacing, type styling, or new component introduction can affect consistency if not carefully managed. As a staff designer on this project, my role was to ensure all designers adhered to the same guidelines for layout, spacing, and consistent UI pattern adoption—essentially defining the new design language for Accelerate. I began by standardizing layouts (it’s a responsive product), structuring components, and creating guidelines for the team to follow. This established a shared understanding of how the layouts worked and how modules were constructed, reducing the risk of inconsistencies at a foundational level.

Ensuring quality when moving fast

A key aspect of this process was adopting a holistic prototyping approach, building out the entire flow to help us stay focused on the end-to-end user experience. We had various independent flows to manage, from determining the campaign’s placement within the hierarchy to creating a product description using AI. This description would serve as a prompt to generate the operational aspects of the campaign—targeting, bidding, and ad creation—many of which had their own workflows.

We began with low-fidelity mockups using Figma components. As each feature progressed through review and iteration cycles, components were updated and incorporated into the prototype. Structuring the design process in this way made integration more seamless, and it helped highlight inconsistencies early. We used the prototype to review as a team, share progress with stakeholders (via shareable links), and solicit feedback. Keeping the prototype updated and functioning from an interaction design perspective was one of my key responsibilities. As a team, we all reviewed each other’s work, identifying areas for improvement and alignment. With new iterations produced daily and weekly review milestones, maintaining the prototype’s functionality required effort. Having a dedicated person responsible for this aspect allowed other team members to focus on their specific design tasks. An additional benefit of working this way as a team was the ability to share Figma tips, such as constructing components, working with variants and self-contained interactions, and using conditional logic to reduce the number of screens. Elevating each other’s skills is one of the greatest advantages of a collaborative design process.

Reflection

In my 15 years as a UX designer, it’s been incredibly rare to experience such a high level of design collaboration. We approached this project with an open mindset, embracing ideas, feedback, and opportunities for personal growth. No one was overly protective of their work or too serious; we had fun throughout the process, building camaraderie through our shared efforts. Our collective focus remained on delivering a high-quality, holistic experience, underpinned by trust and a mutual understanding of our goals.

From these learnings, my process has evolved—I now prototype quickly and early. Seeing designs come to life in a flow, rather than as static mocks, always enhances the experience. As product designers, we should prioritize solutions over individual features. Prototyping connects the dots, fills gaps, provides context, and helps us see the bigger picture.

Moving forward I'll advocate for this approach, especially when working in tandem with other designers.

I would like to highlight the exceptional work of my team who went above and beyond to create an incredible tool that helps our customers productively and effectively accomplish their goals: Brendan McWeeney , Shannon Bain , Matthew Bice , Nicholas Smith , Beijuan Miao , Tracy Dai , Alex Arias , Katie Jacquez (Jah-kay) , Ethan Dow , Jeffery Willoby , and Adi Shilo . And of course our Research and Content Design partners who ensured that Accelerate resonated with customers: Batu Sayici , Paola Padilla , Nicholas Santer , Aubry Ellison, Erin M. , and David Williams . Finally, a huge thank you to all of the partners who collaborated with us to get to this milestone.