Project overview

This was a self directed research project aiming to improve the practice of my team by learning about the needs and pain points of my colleagues.

Sometimes I found our team diving into the design process without taking a step back to understand why we’re doing something, or what the problem we’re trying to solve is.

It’s important for me to know how we measure the success of design in order to demonstrate business value.

Whilst there is a clear understanding and documentation of the outputs and deliverables from the design process, the inputs can sometimes be less clear. Inputs into a design project can vary greatly from project to project, team to team and designer to designer.

My goal was to identify how we can remove ambiguity when it comes to project inputs and how they feed into the  design process. 

Project approach

🎤 Team interviews

Interview team members with the objective of understanding if this is a shared problem that exists with other designers.

🔎 Define opportunities

Synthesise research with the objective of defining needs and pain points around the kick off process and what the opportunities are.

✏️ Prototype

Create a prototype framework with the objective of exploring options for format and content.

🧪 Test

Use the framework for a live project with the objective of getting feedback on the prototype and seeing if it meets the needs of designers.

🎤 Team interviews

Participants:

• 10 designers across 4 teams.

• A mixture of UX, UI, associate, mid level and senior designers.

Research objective:

• Understand designer’s project processes

• Validate the need for a project kickoff framework or template

• Define needs and pain points designers have during project kick offs

I conducted 30 minute one to one interviews with designers. I used a spreadsheet to document the findings of the research, this made it easier to holistically review the feedback and synthesise the results.

🔎 Define opportunities

Journey mapping
using the insights gathered I was able to compile a journey map of the existing kick off process. There were common themes that emerged that most designers described. This helped me to spot where the opportunities were in the current journey.

Designers were asked: “What is the most important information you need before you start a piece of design?”

There were two clear needs that each participant mentioned:

Designers were also asked to describe a dream project kickoff. Rather than fragmented and ad hoc steps to the process, there is a desire for a clear structure in order to gain the information required to begin design. I mapped out the key activities mentioned in this dream scenario:

 Principles over process

I found from the research that sometimes it is not possible to get everyone in the room or follow a specific process. Designers also mentioned they did not want a kick off to feel like a rigid framework or filling in a form.

When process is not possible or desired I established three key principles that anyone can follow for a successful project kick off:

✏️ Prototype

I asked participants about any frameworks they currently used. The canvas structure was something people were familiar with. However they said they didn’t want a kick off to feel like a long process or filling in a form - it should be organic. To supplement the kick off meeting I’m looking to create a framework which will aid with facilitating the conversation.

From the research it was clear that a framework should be modular so that the designer can build a kickoff phase to suit the needs of the project. Using the established principles I broke the needs into three ‘pillars’ that could guide the framework. Here I could bucket potential ‘modules’ for each pillar. I wanted the framework to feel modular and open to interpretation, not prescriptive.

Outcome - a new input

The kick off canvas  
I designed a project canvas that has three clear areas of focus, but which is flexible enough to suit the needs of different projects. The framework aims to answer three questions: why are we doing this, who is involved and what has been done before?

Users of the canvas can choose to add as much or little information as required to answer these questions. Suggested pieces of content or activites are given but are not always required

🧪 Test

I wanted to ensure the canvas could be used in a live environment. I tested it first myself with a new project I was working on. I found it helped myself and other team members organise our thoughts and get back to the root problem. In a world of remote work on Miro it also helped to anchor the framing of the project for anyone joining.

I then invited people from outside my team to test the canvas and to see how it would work in the wild.

From testing with others a benefit that was highlighted was stakeholder collaboration. I got positive feedback that this helped aid conversations with stakeholders in the kick off phase.

Key project takeaway

Involving other disciplines
The scope of this research was to focus on designers and the design process. However in future I would like to test the framework with other product areas such as Product managers and get their feedback.