The document discusses challenges faced by design teams and proposes adopting engineering best practices to improve collaboration, engagement, and productivity. It identifies six challenges design teams often face: designers focusing on individual craft; designing in a vacuum; low perceived productivity when files are shared; lack of open communication; lack of transparency in others' work; and constant hustle with no reflection. To address these, the document recommends practices like partner designing, peer reviews, source file control, regular design standups, show-and-tell sessions, and design retrospectives. The outcomes of implementing these practices on one team included improved collaboration, engagement, and productivity as well as a visibly better culture and morale.

1. ENGINEERING
A DESIGN CULTURE
Yvonne So
Product Design Manager, Intuit
yvonneyso@gmail.com
UXDX 2019

2. ENGINEERING A DESIGN CULTURE, UXDX 2019 2
Introduction
A story about a team
What can engineering best
practices teach designers?
Leading your team on the path
to happiness

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Perceived dichotomy
ENGINEERS
Generally happy
More actively engaged
Motivated to solve
problems
Productivity is high
DESIGNERS
Stressed out and losing hair
Low engagement or disengaged
Passion for design, but apathetic
toward projects
Constantly under deadline

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BUT WHY?

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Cross-functional collaboration
Designers working with
Business Analysts
Content Strategists
Designers
Developers
Leadership
Product Managers
Marketers
Data Scientists

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Design deliverables
• Wireframes
• Conceptual Mockups
• Storyboards
• Functional Specs
• Personas
• Final Assets
• User Testing
• Prototypes
• Research Decks
• Journey Maps

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Agile operations
Agile methodologies are an alternative to
waterfall, or traditional sequential
development
Agile is a mindset, not a process
Focus on experimentation and
collaboration over deliverables and
documentation

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Varying processes

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Differing goals
Sometimes in an agile
environment…
Designers often feel in a
constant state of hustle and
grind
Designers crave more time
to think, create, strategize
Every release feels subpar
or could be better

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WHAT CAN WE LEARN?
WHAT CAN WE DO?

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Designers focused on
individual craft
CHALLENGE #1

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PAIRED PROGRAMMING
Two programmers work together
as peers at a single computer,
focusing on writing quality
software
PARTNER DESIGNING
Interaction and visual designers
communicate regularly
Clearly define roles and share the
workload or divvy up work into smaller
tasks
CULTURE OF QUALITY

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Partner designing
Analyzing competitorsIdeating on options Making and creating

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Designers designing in a
vacuum
CHALLENGE #2

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CODE REVIEWS
The main purpose of code reviews
is to keep code quality and
readability high
PEER REVIEWS
Give and receive feedback
System of checks and balances
Alignment on brand, illustrations, style
guides, patterns, and components
CULTURE OF ACCOUNTABILITY

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Peer reviews
Reviewing ideas of solutionsReviewing iterations Reviewing fit and finish

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Designers feel productivity is
low when files and projects
are shared
CHALLENGE #4

18. ENGINEERING A DESIGN CULTURE, UXDX 2019
CULTURE OF EFFICIENCY
18
REFACTORING
Paying down technical debt, restructuring
and cleaning up an existing body of code,
altering its internal structure without
changing the functionality
SOURCE FILE CONTROL
Revisit source files and clean them up
Make sure layers are adequately and
logically named, get rid of unnecessary
layers and metadata

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Source file control

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No op mechs in place for open
and regular communication
CHALLENGE #4

21. ENGINEERING A DESIGN CULTURE, UXDX 2019
CULTURE OF REGULAR COMMUNICATION
21
DAILY STANDUP
Every workday at a specified time, the team
meets at a daily standup to bring everyone
up to date on the information that is vital for
coordination
DESIGN SYNC
Regularly schedule standups so everyone
has visibility into each other’s
workstreams
Share out status, designs, feedback,
foster quick sketches, ideation sessions

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Design sync
Status updatesDocument deadlines and progress Deep dives

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Designers don’t know what
other designers are working on
CHALLENGE #5

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CULTURE OF TRANSPARENCY
24
FEATURE DEMO
Keeps stakeholders, executives, and
customers up to speed with the
progress of product development
SHOW-AND-TELL
Visually show mocks, prototypes, vision,
intended functionalities
Allows leaders and ecosystem teammates
to give feedback, gain insight, and avoid
duplication of work

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Show-and-tell
Showcase innovation and work in progressDemo the prototype/product/feature Share vision and provoke what-ifs

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Designers are in a mode of
non-stop hustle & grind
CHALLENGE #6

27. ENGINEERING A DESIGN CULTURE, UXDX 2019
CULTURE OF REFLECTION
27
RETROSPECTIVE
A sprint retrospective allows a team to
continuously evolve and improve
throughout the product lifecycle
DESIGN RETROSPECT
Reflect upon what you’ve accomplished,
think of new ways to improve workflows,
identify anything you should continue or
stop doing

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Quarterly design retrospect
Think about the futureInclude x-functional partners Write down our thoughts

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SO THEN WHAT
HAPPENED?

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Outcomes
Improved collaboration
(+3 pts in NPS, increased in-person
communication, willingness to give feedback
and help others, more sharing of files, shared
goals)
Increased engagement
(daily team lunches, regular sketch fests,
weekly team check-ins, ad-hoc 1:1s)
Boosted productivity
(knowledge shareouts, cleaned-up files,
aligning roadmaps to reduce duplicative work)

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Culture and morale visibly improved

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From - Do - To
Quality
Accountability
Efficiency
Regular Communication
Transparency
Reflection
Paired programming -> Partner designing
Code reviews -> Peer reviews
Refactoring -> Source file control
Daily standup -> Design standup
Sprint demo -> Show-and-tell
Retrospective -> Design retrospect
Individual craft
Designing in a vacuum
Low productivity
Very few team check-ins
Low visibility
Non-stop hustle & grind
WHAT WE DID TO A CULTURE OFHOW IT WAS

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What next?
START TODAY.
Be surprised tomorrow. Small tweaks in op mechs
can go a long way. Start implementing engineering
best practices into the creative design process.
STICK WITH IT.
Persistence is key for any change to happen. Rome
wasn’t built in a day!
ANYONE CAN.
You don’t have to be a leader or someone that
specializes in organizational culture. You have the
power and ability to influence and foster change.

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Thank you!
Stay in touch:
Yvonne So
Product Design Manager, Intuit
Email: yvonneyso@gmail.com
Twitter: @yvonniks