Product Design's Ability: Design Collaboration


Description

You collaborate with grace and enthusiasm, representative of our company values (get agreements, tough discussions, highlight what's working). As a reviewer, you are thorough, seek to understand, and gently teach when called for.

Milestone 1

(adds 1 mile to your journey)

I have observed this person showing a consistent, comfortable, continuous, and clear positive impact to a squad when wielding this ability, and therefore I would put them in situations where they can employ this ability with only a small amount of guidance


DESIGN

  • You treat your design reviews as a collaborative discussion rather than demands.
  • In design reviews, you ask clarifying questions about anything you don't completely understand.

TEAM

  • Your UI and UX design notes to developers and story writers clearly explain all of the designs made.

Milestone 2

(adds 3 miles to your journey)

I have observed this person showing a consistent, comfortable, continuous, and clear positive impact to a squad when wielding this ability, and therefore I would put them in situations where they can employ this ability, with no assistance as well as being a trusted active or passive mentor to others


DESIGN

  • You're thorough when you review others' designs.
  • Your suggestions are phrased in a way that stays true to our company values but is still business and user-goal oriented (ex: less debate over pixel perfect, more debate over value)

TEAM

  • Your design notes provide the full context necessary to understand the design's functionality.
  • Your design notes are clear, thorough, and sometimes include edge cases.
  • You collaborate with team members to solve problems together before moving forward in design.

Milestone 3

(adds 6 miles to your journey)

I have observed this person showing a consistent, comfortable, continuous, and clear positive impact to multiple squads when wielding this ability, and therefore I would put them in situations where they can employ this ability as well as being considered an expert within this discipline


DESIGN

  • You offer resources when reviewing other's designs when it helps illustrate your suggestion.
  • You consistently improve the designs you review, using reviews as an opportunity to teach teammates about the app and more general platform considerations.
  • You're sensitive to the level of experience of the person you're reviewing and tailor your explanations accordingly.

TEAM

  • Your design notes anticipate questions and proactively document anything that won't be obvious to a reviewer.
  • Your designs are clear, thorough, and include edge cases.
  • You proactively reach out to team members to solve problems together before moving forward in design.

Milestone 4

(adds 12 miles to your journey)

I have observed this person showing a consistent, comfortable, continuous, and clear positive impact to a squad when wielding this ability, and therefore I would put them in situations where they can not only employ this ability but where they set the tone for this at the company level


DESIGN

  • You inspire others' work to be better with resources, questions, and challenging their assumptions
  • You create a safe, positive culture with your expectations and behavior.

TEAM

  • You create standards and expectations around design documentation
  • You seek to improve and create moments of collaboration at a strategic level, closing the gap between design and other disciplines.

Milestone 5

(adds 20 miles to your journey)

I have observed this person showing a consistent, comfortable, continuous, and clear positive impact to not just internal teams but the community/industry in general when wielding this ability, and they are recognized by the community/industry as an expert


  • You influence executive-level members in the organization to change what it means to collaborate with product design and product in general.

Configuration Health

  • ✅ Associated with 8 roles
  • ✅ Has been referenced in 4 pieces of public recognition
  • ℹ️ No one has achieved a milestone on this ability
  • ⛔️ Last updated: over 5 years ago
  • ℹ️ Never conversed about

Role & Position Requirements

Examples / Observations

  Observation created over 5 years ago

https://lessonly.slack.com/archives/C8H3ENQ2J/p1583353040120300

I hope this doesn't get annoying, but hot damn I love this style of collaboration!!!

Stating the context, and making it clear what you are asking for, and then asking ALL of the other disciplines!

Really looking forward to seeing what happens next. The golden standard (in my mind) is how the end of this interaction lands. Do folks feel heard, did we have a better end solution because of the early discussion, or do folks feel like this was an empty gesture? Time will tell, but I'll be watching with all of the hope I can muster!

(edit)

The thing I love the most is that it is digestible.
Small chunks allow everyone to participate without feeling overwhelmed.

  Observation created over 5 years ago

https://lessonly.slack.com/archives/C8H3ENQ2J/p1582565374007400

Just wanted to give a quick shout out to Ashley on something small, but amazing.

I'd love for us to do more of this style of collaboration. Small bits along the way. Sharing early and bringing in feasibility and viability as you go. I believe this is vital to the continuous discovery/design/delivery methodology we are striving for.

I absolutely love this!

Keep it up!!

  Observation created almost 6 years ago

I am grateful for how these 4 have been communicating on this project. This is a complex project for a variety of reasons. We are splitting up the frontend and the backend. Linking elements in our app is a difficult endeavor. The way these four have communicated to one another and to me has been such a joy. Whether it be Waseem posting killer updates in the channel, Joshua and Joseph presenting their findings on technical deep dives, or Ethan walking me through expectations on epic breakdown, everyone has chipped in to really get this off the ground.

I have been inspired to bring the level of clarity I have found here in other aspects of my job.

  Observation created almost 6 years ago

In last week's Learn Squad weekly huddle, the topic of a bug (dubbed "a hole in the spacetime continuum") came up. This bug came to life as a result of a story I had recently done in the Accessibility epic, but Tom had taken the initiative to fix it shortly after it was noted as an issue in Slack. I greatly appreciated him taking this on, but found myself feeling even more appreciative in Monday's meeting during the conversation around what happened/why the bug occurred. He explained that he guided me down the wrong path when I consulted him on some Ruby syntax while working on the ticket, and explained the fix. Prior to this, I had never seen someone take so much ownership over an issue that occurred from assisting another engineer. In my past work, the responsibility would've fallen all on me, so this experience left me in awe. I am very thankful to work alongside someone like Tom, who a) understands we're all human, and b) takes ownership of his work (whether that's in the codebase, or offering help to others)!

Conversations about Design Collaboration

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