Design check process
When I started working for inDrive, I created a plan to improve the design quality of our services.By interviewing designers about their process in product teams, I realized that there was no design check process in most teams, which led to a lot of differences between the production version and Figma designs. By design check, I mean the process when a designer checks if the developed result looks the same as in Figma layouts.Although the design check is a common process in the market, it's not easy to incorporate. I faced resistance from developers because the process lengthens the lead time of any feature.
Context
To improve the design quality of our design services in production.
Goal
Easiest way to boost design quality
Process
Challenges
- The Design check process shouldn't be a blocker for further steps
- Developers weren't ready for changes
- The main service is a ride-hailing app, which means it takes extra effort to emulate a real ride on both platforms
- I started by purchasing an extra smartphone for each designer who works with the app (our company is fully remote so it's impossible to share devices).
- The process of distributing test builds includes a series of steps such as VPN installation, permission granting, setup, etc, so I created a detailed instruction for that process.
- Firstly, we launched a 'soft' process to allow teams to operate with these changes and let them define how the process would look like in their teams
Step 1 — MVP
What was undertaken
Problems
- Some teams chose to postpone design check edits for the next sprint, and the edits were collected and seldom taken to work.
- It took too much time to set up design checks on test builds, which was the main reason why teams didn't manage to undertake tasks in the current sprint
Intermediate result
Anyway, the MVP process didn't work as efficiently as designers wanted, so I failed to reach the goal at that time.
Together with a scrum masters team, we defined a healthy base process:
Step 2 — Base Process
Result
- The Design check stage should be implemented into the Jira workflow. The team can choose between what stages it would be better to implement the design check (we recommended after QA)
- Any corrections should be highlighted in a dedicated Jira task
- QA engineers should attach screenshots and videos to the design check task to save time for design check
This is our jira workflow. It illustrates that we can move to design check from any status
Negotiations with all participants in the workflow took some time, but as a result we got a market- normal process
- All teams follow the defined process. Except for one team that has a design check at the same time as the QA stage, allotting 4 hours SLA to the design check task, but all teams have the same result
- All edits are undertaken during the current sprint
- It is obligatory to take all edits during the current sprint.
- Our Ux Debt backlog isn't refilled with non-finished design check edits. Finally, our services completely match Figma layouts.
- Design Check task takes 1 hour designer's time. It used to take 3 times more
- Designers used to check the entire flow in one go, despite the fact that developers usually decompose one flow into several smaller tasks. I suggest conducting a design check as soon as the developer finishes each of their decomposed tasks. This way, a designer has several design check tasks per week, but each of them is really small and usually consists of one screen or change.
- Designers noted that team members became more attentive towards their work results, e.g developers became more focused at grooming sessions and highlight restriction earlier.
Personal outcomes
Overall, there were a few main learning points for me. Firstly, I made sure that proactive skill is a must for a manager, e.g. if you are an owner of a process that impacts a lot of colleagues, you need to be the main person who cares and who motivates others to move. Secondly, I realized it's really important to have a developed problem solving skill, because often it is not enough to succeed to launch a process, you need to overcome a lot of obstacles to make it work in a mature way.
Overall, there were a few main learning points for me. Firstly, I made sure that proactive skill is a must for a manager, e.g. if you are an owner of a process that impacts a lot of colleagues, you need to be the main person who cares and who motivates others to move. Secondly, I realized it's really important to have a developed problem solving skill, because often it is not enough to succeed to launch a process, you need to overcome a lot of obstacles to make it work in a mature way.
