Design Operations
The following case studies are featured from Sunnova Energy and Hearsay Systems.
My Role
Product Designer
Applied Tools
Figma, Maze, Confluence
Completed Accomplishments
Design Quality Assurance
DS Change Management
MVP Research Repository Workshop
Duration
April 2020 - October 2024
What the goal is
A reliable framework to deliver high quality designs on and off-shores.
How I got there
There are few environments that provide the collaboration a team of dedicated product design professionals naturally exude. Facilitating workshops is my favored method of expanding mine and my colleagues shared knowledge while learning about their approach to our craft. I aim to learn and evolve alongside my team with a shared vision.
Observations from stakeholders
Engineers were frustrated that designers designed for the best case scenarios, excluding common and essential states. As a result, PMs had difficulty accurately estimating time to delivery.
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These are the fun sessions. Engaging stakeholders early provides the ability to measure how we scale the department outside the lens of Product Design.
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In regards to the current work environment (offshore +remote work) understanding what is the definition of done is critical.
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Creating and maintaining an accessible product has transitioned from a ‘nice to have’ to a requirement. To make this task ✨accessible✨, a checklist pulled from WCAG’s AA Requirements was created and shared for both Designers and Engineers.
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The dreaded “hit by a bus” scenario is avoidable if SLAs are in place. Understanding how we as a team manage and distribute design artifacts within our files creates an internal ecosystem that improves awareness and transparency.
Top Achievements
Scrum team demand
A mature product is exciting to work with. Pod stakeholders are supercharged when product design provides missing data points. Doing the work is one aspect, but crucially it’s the information sharing that is the secret sauce.
Engineering support
Engineers in particular find value in a framework that dramatically reduced the amount of repetitive questions asked in stakeholder design reviews.
Enablement
Workshop deliverables enable designers of any level (lead, senior, associate) to implement high fidelity designs. Creating a scale for designers to review expectations helps elevate designs for the entire department.