Transforming Your Design Team: From Reactive Instruction Takers to Proactive Strategic Partners

6 Steps to empower your design team to discover the best solutions for your business

A common challenge we’ve encountered in many organisations, is that User Experience Design teams are not utilised to their full capability, and inadvertently end up merely designing the User Interfaces (UI) for solutions that are already defined by their business (and sometimes IT) stakeholders. The root cause of this is the rise of UX/UI roles, that diminishes the value that UX Design brings to the table, as well as a wave of inexperienced designers being placed in charge of design teams, mostly due to a skills shortage in the UXD industry.

?

When UX design teams fail to adopt a proactive approach and focus solely on UI design, they inadvertently limit their potential impact on the overall user experience. This narrow focus often results from a lack of emphasis on user research, collaboration, and validation, causing the team to miss out on valuable insights that could inform better design decisions. Consequently, these teams risk creating visually appealing interfaces that fail to address the true needs of users and fall short of solving the underlying problems. By neglecting to consider the broader context and complexities of user interactions, these UX teams unintentionally contribute to suboptimal user experiences and diminished business value.

?“Design used to be the seasoning you’d sprinkle on for taste; now it’s the flour you need at the start of the recipe.” John Maeda

?As a design leader, you should understand the crucial role your UX design team plays in the success of your organization. Traditionally, UX design teams have taken a reactive approach, focusing solely on creating user interfaces based on predetermined solutions provided by the business. However, this can limit your team's potential to truly impact the organization in a meaningful way. By transitioning from a reactive to a proactive approach, your design team can become valuable partners to the business in discovering the best solution to their problems.

?

Here are six strategies to help you transform your UX design team into proactive problem solvers:

?Cultivate a user-centric mindset

To become a proactive partner, your UX design team needs to embrace a user-centric mindset. Encourage your team to seek a deep understanding of user needs, behaviors, and motivations through user research. This will help your team to make informed design decisions that align with both user needs and business goals.

Foster collaboration across departments

Break down silos by encouraging collaboration between your design team and other departments. Establish cross-functional teams that bring together members from design, product, engineering, and business to work on projects collaboratively. This will not only allow your design team to provide valuable input on potential solutions but also enable them to gain a broader understanding of the business context in which their designs will be used.

?Develop a culture of experimentation

Adopt a culture of experimentation where your design team is encouraged to explore and test multiple solutions before committing to a single design. This process can be facilitated through methods such as iterative design, prototyping, and user testing. By validating designs through real user feedback, your team can refine and improve their solutions, ensuring that they meet both user needs and business objectives.

Work ahead of Agile IT development teams

Incorporate a proactive approach by working a sprint or two ahead of your Agile IT development teams. This will give your UX design team the time and opportunity to conduct research, generate ideas, and test prototypes before the development team starts implementing a solution.

?By working ahead, the design team can ensure that they are aligned with the development team's priorities, and can deliver well-thought-out and validated designs before development begins. This forward-looking approach allows your UX design team to be more involved in the decision-making process, ensuring that user needs and business objectives are considered in the earliest stages of a project.

?This strategy not only helps your design team provide valuable input on potential solutions but also improves the overall efficiency and effectiveness of your Agile development process. As a result, your organization will benefit from a more seamless integration of design and development, ultimately leading to better user experiences and increased business value.

?“My role is to find strategic insights as to where design can have the most business impact. A designer can bring a viewpoint of not just aesthetics, but economics and usage.” John Maeda

?Invest in skills development

In order to effectively partner with the business, your design team needs to be equipped with the right skills. Provide training opportunities for your team members to develop their research, collaboration, and communication skills. By empowering your team with these competencies, they will be better positioned to contribute proactively and add value to the business decision-making process.

?

Communicate the value of UX design

Demonstrate the value of proactive UX design to your organization by showcasing the impact of your team's work on key business metrics, such as user satisfaction, conversion rates, and retention. Ensure your stakeholders from both business and IT are made part of your design process and are not only shown the outcomes – this way they also buy in more effectively into your proposed designs, because they understand how the designs were informed through research and validation. By quantifying the return on investment (ROI) of UX design, you can build credibility and influence within your organization, paving the way for a more proactive role for your design team.

?

By implementing these strategies, you can effectively transform your UX design team into proactive partners that contribute to the success of your organization through user-centric design and collaboration.

Need assistance in improving your design team’s performance? Get in touch with Sand Dollar Design – we help companies design better solutions and we help design teams to grow their capabilities and maturity as designers.

?This post was originally published on the Sand Dollar Design Blog.