Desmystifying UX Teams

Seems like there are as many ways to build and organize UX teams and UX processes as there are companies that have them. Alongside UX leaders from HUGE, Philosophie, Kaiser Permanente and Appfolio, I gave an inside look at how Fullscreen does UX at the April 2, 2012 UXPA Los Angeles event.

Transcript

1. UX at Fullscreen DEMYSTIFYING UX TEAMS UXPA LA | April 2, 2014
2. HI THERE
3. JAY STAKELON VP Product Design @Fullscreen ! ! ! ! ~10 years digital design, web engineering, product management, startups @stakelon
4. www.speakerdeck.com/stakes
5. FULLSCREEN A media company that powers the creation and sharing of video with the connected generation.
6. 6 When it comes to our business model, we are reaching scale.
7. 7 3 product designers
8. 8 When it comes to how we approach product design, we are definitely a startup.
9. WHAT WE BUILD
11. 11 Fullscreen’s product design team builds software for video content creators 
 that powers collaboration, audience development and earnings growth at scale.
12. OUR ROLES ROLE
13. 13 At Fullscreen, “Product Design” = “UX”
14. 14 ▶ USER RESEARCHER What users need from it INFO. ARCHITECT How it’s organized UI DESIGNER How it appears to work INTERACTION DESIGNER How it works when I use it VISUAL DESIGNER How it looks USABILITY ANALYST How successful it is UX as a discipline encompasses many roles.
15. 15 ▶ PRODUCT DESIGNER At Fullscreen, we have one role on the product design team.
16. T T T 16 UX generalists with deep visual design and UI design expertise.
17. 17 USER RESEARCH PM + Designer + Business Owner INTERACTION DESIGN Engineer + Designer USABILITY Designer + PM + Engineer IA + CONTENT STRATEGY Product Marketer + PM + Designer There are a lot of shared responsibilities.
18. 18 Well, most of them. ▶ UI DESIGN Product Designer VISUAL DESIGN Product Designer
19. OUR DESIGN TOOLKIT
20. 20 USER RESEARCH SPEC PROTOTYPING CONTINUOUS
 DESIGN DESIGN WORKSHOPS
21. 21 USER RESEARCH PROTOTYPING CONTINUOUS
 DESIGN DESIGN WORKSHOPS SPEC
22. 22 Spec ensures shared understanding of what we are building.
23. 23 WORK SESSIONS MOCKS PROTOTYPES SITEMAPPING WIREFRAMES LESS MORE
24. 24 The only deliverable that matters is the product that we release.
25. THE TOOLS IN ACTION
27. 27 DESIGN WORKSHOP Includes designers, eng, PM, biz. Requirements gathering, stakeholder feedback, sketching, flows, wireframes.
28. 28 PROTOTYPING Lo-fi or die. Intended to validate hypotheses as cheaply and quickly as possible.
29. 29 USER RESEARCH Hourlong 1:1 sessions. Test lo-fi prototypes developed during the weeklong design sprint.
30. 30 MOCKS Visual design polish, fit and finish. Focus on main views and recurring
 design patterns.
31. 31 MORE PROTOTYPING Detailed interactive prototyping. Helps ensure shared understanding of more complex user flows and animation/motion.
32. 32 CONTINUOUS DESIGN Product designer embedded with the engineering team shipping product.
33. INSIGHTS
34. Avoid analysis paralysis. Don’t get hung up on finding the perfect process. Iterate on process just like product.
36. Small, empowered, matrixed teams. Product design is a team sport. All participants, no observers or approvers.
37. Involve business stakeholders. Make them first-class citizens in the design process. Have a business owner who is an active participant.
38. Externalize often. Externalizing brings shared understanding. Balance alone time and group sessions.
39. Continuous design FTW. But you need a high design:engineering ratio to make it work on an ongoing basis.
40. THX