Three moves, in a fixed order: the team, then engineering, then product. I build it at Nextens as a senior designer, before I have the lead title, so it needs no title to start.
Seven people work on UX side by side, with no view of who works on what. One board and four rituals change that. I ask product for nothing yet.
Trade-off: for the first months, product sees almost no change.
The board shows that the legacy parts of Nextens need no dedicated designer, so both contractors leave. In their place: a new intern every six months, five in total.
Trade-off: growing people is slower than hiring experience.
In pre-refinement UX, product and tech (the three amigos) shape a story together. It stops bouncing between designer and team.
Larger features, by team count. Small features go from 3 rounds to 1. Component reuse from the design system is the other half of the story.
Product managers see what prototypes give them, and the next team asks for it. With our UX researcher I add one tracker for every study, and results go back to the teams.
On a PM's laptop our UI looks too big, and the PM wants it smaller before release. The most common user viewport says otherwise.
In December 2023 UX joins the yearly roadmap session for the first time. We bring user problems, the group dot-votes, and accessibility makes the roadmap.
Trade-off: designers now spend hours in planning that used to go to design.
The lead title arrives in October 2024 and confirms a role I already do.
Team, then engineering, then product. A board, a standup and a seat in refinement need no title and no budget, so it starts in week one.
The research tracker starts two years in. Next time, the baseline comes first.