Promoting Collaboration and Ensuring Quality in Design
There's a potential pitfall when designers work in isolation: the risk of succumbing to the "never wrong" syndrome. This phenomenon arises when a designer, unchallenged by peers, might hastily mark a task as completed and swiftly transition to the next task. It's a natural inclination, especially since designers often have a propensity to shoulder abundant workloads.
To mitigate this, I've employed various strategies within my teams. At SolarWinds, we utilised a software named Jira by Atlassian for monitoring projects and tasks. These tasks progress through a sequence referred to as a workflow. While Jira offers numerous standard workflows tailored for developers and project managers, the options for designers remain scant.
This gap presented an opportunity: to define the distinct stages and touchpoints specific to a design task. Establishing this structure aimed to spur collaboration, facilitate design reviews (akin to how developers review code), and promote iterative refinement to achieve optimal results within the available timeframe.
One of the two bespoke workflows I introduced was geared towards promoting peer reviews at crucial stages of design development. Once a design reached a significant degree of completion, designers were prompted to solicit a peer review. Upon updating the task status to 'Peer Review Requested', design colleagues were instantaneously notified via both email and Slack. While this step wasn't obligatory, I was heartened to observe that a vast majority of designers were eager to engage and offer constructive feedback.
Post-feedback, designers would update their Jira task status to 'Revisions Happening'. This served as a clear indication that the design was undergoing further refinement based on the feedback received. After one or perhaps several rounds of feedback and subsequent iterations, the designer would then seek approval from the relevant Product/Project Manager, often the individual who penned the original task. I'll delve deeper into this aspect of the process shortly.
To facilitate seamless communication and transparency about individual workloads and ongoing responsibilities, I equipped both designers and managers with a tailor-made Jira Dashboard. This dashboard offered a concise overview of all active design tasks, categorised by owner and current status. This initiative not only fostered greater accountability but also enhanced the team's efficiency and collaboration.
Promoting Transparency through Continuous Feedback
Meetings can often polarise opinions; some relish them while others could do without. Personally, I am inclined towards concise and fewer meetings. When a team, with both co-located and remote members, leans heavily on spontaneous face-to-face meetings, the remote colleagues can inadvertently be sidelined. They might miss out on essential information and the chance to partake in pivotal conversations. Therefore, I champion the use of Slack for the bulk of team communications. This ensures that there's a consistent record of all discussions, offering both clarity and inclusivity. While it might feel unconventional initially, especially when teammates are just an arm's length away, over time it becomes an intuitive way to prevent communication lapses.
At SolarWinds, I instituted daily design stand-ups via video conferencing. These brief, 30-minute sessions enabled the team to discuss, share updates, and highlight potential project obstacles. Moreover, these daily interactions ensured that remote team members stayed connected, bridging the gap of geographical distances and minimising feelings of isolation.
