Design Management Patterns

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DESIGN MANAGEMENT PATTERNS How to make your company more mature in design YURY VETROV EX-MAIL.RU GROUP

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275 NEW LAUNCHES & REDESIGNS 25 PRODUCTS 30 DESIGNERS YEARS

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FROM REACTIVE TO PROACTIVE 2011: Survival 2012: All is set up, performance time 2013-2015: Dozens of redesigns 2016: Finding new long-term goals 2017-2019: Long-term strategy

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DESIGN MATURITY FRAMEWORK

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LONG-TERM STRATEGY VALUES MISSION VISION STRATEGY TACTICS ALL YOUR LIFE 20 YEARS 5-10 YEARS 1-2 YEARS 3 MONTHS – 1 YEAR

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A BOOK An upcoming book based on UXmatters article series. http://dmpatterns.com/

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AN ONLINE COURSE 3-month online course. Homework included. https://bangbangeducation.ru/course/dmpatterns

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REDESIGN YOUR COMPANY The most common reason for bad products is that dysfunctional organizations have created them, so your first goal should be to fix your company.

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DESIGN MATURITY FRAMEWORK

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OTHER DESIGN MATURITY MODELS

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COMPANY MATURITY ❑ Resources: budget, people, time, credibility ❑ Processes: from new feature initiation and development to distribution and support ❑ Priorities: business lifecycle stage: from product-market fit search to growth to crisis

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LONG-TERM STRATEGY

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2015: SIMPLE LIST OF IDEAS Listed key product design & process enhancements. A simple list broken down by quarters. The idea to scale methods.

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2017: FUTURE WALL Depicts the backlog of UX and organizational debt, as well as the OKRs, in the form of a Kanban board.

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STRATEGY PYRAMID (2018) The best way to choose what problems to solve first. We go from long-term vision and mission to methods. VALUES MISSION VISION STRATEGY TACTICS ALL YOUR LIFE 20 YEARS 5-10 YEARS 1-2 YEARS 3 MONTHS – 1 YEAR

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VALUES ❑ Users ❑ Business ❑ Designers ❑ A healthy product team

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MISSION Mail.ru Group is one of the biggest and most successful Internet companies in Russia (and Europe overall) with a total monthly audience of 150 mln users. Design of our products should match this status and be a key market differentiator for a company, strengthening the brand.

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VISION ❑ Form a positive preconception for the brand. ❑ Scale best practices. ❑ Efficient. ❑ Proactive.

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1. FORM A POSITIVE PRECONCEPTION FOR THE BRAND Consider the whole customer journey for a product: user interface, marketing communications, ads, support. Improve employer image too.

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2. SCALE BEST PRACTICES Help products to be more mature in design and their teams to be more mature in design process. Consider diversity of their current situations.

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3. EFFICIENT Can solve product tasks quickly and in high quality, thanks to professional competence, tools and methods.

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4. PROACTIVE Initiate product updates when its design health gets worse. Can spot underserved user value that a product can solve to grow as a business. Sometimes it could lead to become a visionary of a new product.

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STRATEGY Ideas, methods, or problems defined in a broad way. ❑ Bring value to products and business. ❑ Help to deliver products with decent design faster. ❑ All employees understand the value of design. ❑ Strong product and employer brand.

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HELP TO DELIVER PRODUCTS WITH DECENT DESIGN FASTER

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PREDICTABLE TIME FOR TASK DELIVERY ❑ Short-term: Sprint planning ❑ Short-term: Jira board for every subteam ❑ Mid-term: Meet product OKR ❑ Mid-term: Retrospective efficiency tracking ❑ Long-term: Strategy pyramid HELP TO DELIVER PRODUCTS WITH DECENT DESIGN FASTER

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SOLVE PRODUCT TASKS QUICKLY AND EFFECTIVELY ❑ Paradigm design system. ❑ Constructors (landing pages, newsletters, etc). ❑ Repeatable design methods. ❑ Guidelines for static graphics (ads, marketing assets, illustrations, etc). HELP TO DELIVER PRODUCTS WITH DECENT DESIGN FASTER

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FACILITATE HEALTHY AND EFFICIENT COLLABORATION WITH DESIGNERS ❑ Involve designers in backlog grooming sessions ❑ Newsletters on product launches with stats HELP TO DELIVER PRODUCTS WITH DECENT DESIGN FASTER

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HIRE MORE STRONG DESIGNERS (IN-HOUSE & OUTSOURCE) ❑ Candidate database ❑ A tried-and-tested pool of outsourcers HELP TO DELIVER PRODUCTS WITH DECENT DESIGN FASTER

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months TACTICS: NEXT OKRS (OBJECTIVE & KEY RESULTS) We choose 3-5 key themes for each quarter, then describe each of them as a goal (objective). Next, we plan concrete actions (key results) and define metrics that will tell us whether we’ve succeeded. We choose new OKRs in the end of a quarter, then track their progress every week.

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OKR EXAMPLE: THEORY Objective: Put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. Key result: Build a lunar module weighing under 40,000 pounds by December 1965.

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ALWAYS CREATE CUSTOMER JOURNEY MAPS Improve designer engagement into product work and impact of their work because they see whole customer journey for key job stories. Talk to product managers using a shared language. ❑ A common format for job stories and CJM is defined. ❑ Pilot products have key job stories and CJMs are described. ❑ At least one product meeting about CJM optimization was held for each pilot product. BRING VALUE TO PRODUCTS AND BUSINESS → DESIGNERS PROVIDE PRODUCT INSIGHTS

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A COMMON FORMAT FOR JOB STORIES AND CJM IS DEFINED ❑ CJM: Choose a tool. ❑ CJM: Create a template. ❑ Job stories: Gather examples of Job stories about process and progress. ❑ Templates are synced with UX researchers. ALWAYS CREATE CUSTOMER JOURNEY MAPS

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PILOT PRODUCTS HAVE KEY JOB STORIES AND CJMS ARE DESCRIBED ❑ Product X: Provisional job stories. ❑ Product X: Provisional CJM. ❑ Provisional job stories and CJMs are synced with UX researchers to validate or correct them. ALWAYS CREATE CUSTOMER JOURNEY MAPS

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AT LEAST ONE PRODUCT MEETING ABOUT CJM OPTIMIZATION WAS HELD FOR EACH PILOT PRODUCT ❑ Product X: A workshop with a PM (barriers, motivators). ❑ Product X: Problem solution hypotheses with mockups. ❑ Product X: Problem solutions are implemented. ❑ Product X: We got metrics that prove or contradict hypotheses; another meeting with a PM to discuss results. ALWAYS CREATE CUSTOMER JOURNEY MAPS

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The idea is simple – we turn an abstract idea into an obvious project plan.

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WORKGROUPS AS AN IMPLEMENTATION ENGINE Each OKR has a workgroup (3-5 in a quarter). Designers can join them (1-2 max). I was a sole facilitator at the beginning. After the process was polished designers started to initiate and facilitate workgroups themselves. I’m here just to be sure they’re fine. We can do more and the team is more engaged.

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1. UNDERSTAND WHAT WE WANT Kick-off meeting helps workgroup to understand why and what for do we need this method. How it applies to our real tasks, how it’s useful for the team. Next, we describe an OKR – objective and measurable key results. After that we create a todo list for each key result and assignees for each item.

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2. GO THROUGH TODO LIST REGULARLY Workgroups meet every 2 weeks and distribute closest todo items. It drives the team towards the objective. It’s important to learn how to add these “infrastructure” tasks into a product roadmap. It allows enough time to get to the future faster, so designers don’t have to do it after work.

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PILOT → EVANGELIZE → SCALE Our key approach in implementing any methods. First, we try a method on several test tasks and projects. If they show great results – we tell colleagues about this success and get partners for new implementations.

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DESIGN MANAGEMENT PATTERNS BOOK

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PRODUCT DESIGNER UX STRATEGY FRAMEWORK PLATFORM THINKING UX STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION OUTCOME-DRIVEN DESIGN FROM DESIGN TEAM TO DESIGN CULTURE

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DESIGN MANAGEMENT PATTERNS A checklist of organizational enhancements will help you begin making changes within your own company – or, if your journey is already underway, to accelerate those changes.

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WHY PATTERNS? Methods are reusable. Many companies solve the same problems. ARCHITECTURE (1977) SOFTWARE (1995) USER INTERFACES (1997) DESIGN MANAGEMENT (2020) Design Management Patterns Yury Vetrov

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OPERATIONAL PATTERNS O: A design leader O: Credibility O: Quick wins O: Т-shaped designers O: Hiring O: Short- and mid-term planning O: A common toolset O: Design critique sessions O: A tried-and-tested pool of outsourcers

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TACTICAL PATTERNS T: Design team integration T: Team-work skills T: Stakeholder map T: A skill-knowledge matrix T: Internal marketing of design successes T: A design system T: Design debt T: UX design checklists T: Repeatable design methods T: Evaluating the quality of a solution for a problem T: Discovering problem solutions space T: Prototyping

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STRATEGIC PATTERNS S: Company-wide design literacy S: Co-design S: A design leaders' club S: Long-term planning S: Influence over product roadmaps S: Design metrics that connect to business KPIs S: Discovering unsolved user problems and opportunity gaps S: Customer journey maps S: UX insights knowledge base S: Connecting a brand and user interface S: An employer brand

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HOW DOES IT FILLS?

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EVALUATION EXAMPLE: O: DESIGN CRITIQUE SESSIONS Minimum (1/3): Designers meet regularly. Partially (2/3): Meeting is constructive, every designer presents. Perfect (3/3): Product managers are involved in design critique sessions.

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CALCULATE MATURITY 1. Evaluate maturity for each pattern (e.g., 2/3). 2. Calculate average maturity for all patterns in a level (2/3, 1/3, 3/3, etc. – 70% in average). 3. We get maturity for each level (e.g., operational at 70%, tactical at 50%, strategic at 30%). 4. Fill a maturity level according to that percentage.

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CURRENT MATURITY LEVEL

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DESIGN MATURITY CORRIDOR

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Value Improving product quality Accelerating time to market Reducing the risks of product launches Increasing products’ customer base and profit Strengthening your brand Hiring and developing product designers Recognizing the value of design BUSINESS VALUE OF DESIGN

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Value now in a year Improving product quality good enough critical Accelerating time to market critical good enough Reducing the risks of product launches good enough good enough Increasing products’ customer base and profit critical good enough Strengthening your brand unimportant good enough Hiring and developing product designers good enough good enough Recognizing the value of design good enough good enough BUSINESS VALUE OF DESIGN

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IMPROVING PRODUCT QUALITY When you improve the quality of shipped products, users receive greater value and development costs decrease.

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MEASURES OF SUCCESS ❑ Shipped products are high quality, not just the mockups. ❑ The growth of key product metrics reflects users’ better opinion of a product. ❑ Fewer resources are necessary to sustain a decent level of quality.

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SYMPTOMS OF THE PROBLEM: PRODUCT ❑ The visual design is inconsistent or incoherent. ❑ Features don’t work properly. ❑ It is unclear how features work, so users can’t use them. ❑ Products that the company has just acquired or launched are worse than older products.

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SYMPTOMS OF THE PROBLEM: ORGANISATION ❑ Engineers implement mockups carelessly. ❑ Design implementations ship before designers have had a chance to review them. ❑ Designers provide inconsistent or half-baked mockups, so engineers must solve design problems during implementation – even though they’re not design experts.

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SOLUTION: PRACTICES THAT ENSURE THE QUALITY OF DESIGN DELIVERABLES O: T-shaped designers O: Design critique sessions O: A common toolset T: A skill-knowledge matrix T: Repeatable design methods

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SOLUTION: PRACTICES THAT ENSURE HIGH-QUALITY IMPLEMENTATION T: A design system T: Design debt T: UX design checklists T: Evaluating the quality of a solution for a problem S: Company-wide design culture S: Influence over product roadmaps

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SOLUTION: PRACTICES THAT ENSURE QUALITY ACROSS THE COMPANY’S PRODUCT PORTFOLIO S: A design leaders’ club S: Long-term planning S: Design metrics that connect to business KPIs

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Problem or idea Company-wide design literacy and training for managers and engineers Media kit for ads Description of UX debt Knowledge base for design trends Designers’ participation in product-roadmap meetings A standard format for mini-hackathons File-naming conventions SVG icon generator Benchmarking your products versus competitors’ products ORGANIZATIONAL DEBT

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Problem or idea Value Level Complexity Company-wide design literacy and training for managers and engineers quality, risks, brand S quarter Media kit for ads quality, speed, growth T month Description of UX debt quality, risks, growth T month Knowledge base for design trends risks, growth S month Designers’ participation in product-roadmap meetings speed, risks, growth T month A standard format for mini-hackathons speed, growth, brand T week File-naming conventions quality, speed O week SVG icon generator quality, speed O quarter Benchmarking your products versus competitors’ products quality, growth S quarter ORGANIZATIONAL DEBT

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DESIGN MANAGEMENT CANVAS

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DESIGN MANAGEMENT CANVAS

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FROM VISION TO ACTION You choose patterns according to long-term goals. It’s the most advanced approach. VALUES MISSION VISION STRATEGY TACTICS ALL YOUR LIFE 20 YEARS 5-10 YEARS 1-2 YEARS 3 MONTHS – 1 YEAR

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CONCLUSIONS

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A GROWING DEMAND FOR DESIGN MANAGERS More and more classic businesses like banks and telecoms are creating in-house design teams instead of turning to outsourcers. When there’s more designers, a company needs to integrate them into a product team and maximize value for both sides. A design manager helps designers to perform better and stay motivated; they also help product managers to work with designers better.

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WHERE WE ARE? HOW TO GET BETTER? O: A design leader O: Quick wins T: Design team integration T: Stakeholder map S: Co-design S: A design leaders' club

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WHAT TO DO FIRST? ORG DEBT CANVAS PYRAMID Basic design training Media kit for ads UX debt Mini-hackathons File-naming conventions

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P.S. Think of your job as rebuilding a socio-technical system, not just redesigning some screens. The most common reason for bad products is a bad machine that created them, so your first goal should be to fix your company.

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DMPATTERNS.COM The goal is to publish the book in 2020. Stay tuned :) http://dmpatterns.com/