Building a Product Team

Introduction

In this project, I helped a software development agency build a product design team.

Why

The agency created B2B/SaaS software for its clients - companies from the financial, industrial, manufacturing, energy and other sectors. The agency consisted of developers of various specializations mostly. Temporary freelancers were employed to design at times.

As the company grew up and orders increased, the problem with the quality of interface design and graphics began to grow. The issue has become especially urgent recently, when even for B2B software it is required a well-thought-out UX and attractive graphics. In addition, the agency began to take on orders from developing software from scratch. For this, product designers are absolutely necessary.

Objective

I was invited to help build a cohesive, cross-functional product design team that would collaborate inside the company and outside with clients to deliver a user-centered, intuitive and high-class designs.

Problem

Some might think building a product team is a piece of cake. Like just assign your HR people to browse resumes, select the right candidates and that's it. If only it was that simple!

Building a product team is challenging as you can face obstacles at various stages of the process:

• Difficulty in recruiting the right talent
• Role clarity
• Character personal views mismatch
• Indefinite or half-baked processes
• Poor communication and collaboration
• Vague goals

Strategy

When I'm entrusted a holistic, complex task like this, I usually think through some strategy. Broadly speaking, building a design team can last for years. In a given project I have 6 months at most. Taking this into account, I understood that I would need to form a team and set up processes so that everything would continue to develop as planned. Therefore, I suggested the following steps:

• Identify key roles
• Recruit talents
• Establish design and team processes
• Foster a collaborative culture
• Encourage continuous learning and growth

Roles in the team

Product and design teams can consist of different numbers of people with different specializations. Along with designers, they can include product managers, marketing managers, front-end developers, QA testers, and so on. Everything depends on the global tasks, business goals, company size, and budget.

In this case, having analyzed the company’s business objectives, the specifics and scope of projects, as well as the expected growth, I proposed the following team structure:

• Product Designer: Combines UX, UI, and business goals to create a complete product experience.
• UX/Interaction Designer: Focuses on user experience and user interface design. Works on the flow of the product, ensuring it’s intuitive and easy to use.
• User Interface/Graphic Designer: creates graphic concepts and visuals, makes product style, builds Design System.
• UX Researcher: Conducts user research, user testing, and helps validate assumptions.

Rectuiting talents

We received a lot of CVs, nevertheless I and the HR department processed every single response and profile of each candidate. If you only knew how many talented people there are among us! However, I have prepared precise criteria for each role to rely on when selecting the right applications.

Evaluating design portfolios and assessing creativity can be subjective and difficult. That's why I developed a structured evaluation process. For example, selecting a UX Designer I looked out for relevant work in the portfolio, the right skills, understanding of the UX/UI design process, problem-solving ability, research knack and other. Choosing a UI/Graphic Designer, I paid attention to the sense of style, an understanding of UI graphics rules, knowledge of the latest design trends, creativeness and so on.

Even a highly skilled designer might not fit the company's culture, leading to conflict or misalignment with the rest of the team. I searched for candidates who demonstrate not only technical skills but also soft skills such as communication, collaboration, and adaptability. During interviews, I assessed cultural fit by asking situational questions that revealed how a candidate handled team dynamics and feedback.

Team and design processes

In the end, the most talented individuals were recruited and a new Product Design team was established. By this point, I had already thought through the processes that the new team should follow. That mechanism was agreed upon with stakeholders and documented.

Design processes

I proposed several models, of which the stakeholders selected the one based on the following aspects:

• User- and customer-centered approach
• Design Thinking mindset
• Data driven desicions
• Creative freedom with responcible attidute
• Understanding of the design goals
• Continuous growth and fostering talents

The first two aspects defined the essence of the design processes for the team. For example, designers were supposed to think primarily about end users and customers. This meant that design solutions had to be based to some extent on an understanding of user problems, pain points, as well as their wishes and expectations. Designers were also required to use research results, if available, to inform or improve their decisions. Of course, I assumed unconditional encouragement of creative freedom, bold ideas and interesting desing proposals. However, I reminded about the need for validation of solutions, testing and verification.

Team processes

For the team processes, I proposed a combination of best practices for project management, Agile mindset, and Scrum framework.

• Design project initiation, planning, execution, and closing
• Sprints
• Daily check-ins, regular demo and retrospective meetings
• Backlog and prioritezation
• Task management
• Cross-functionality, self-organization and collaboration

Team onboarding and mentorship

When the team was formed, first of all it was necessary to introduce people to each other and the company, as well as to familiarize them with the processes. I've worked with many organizations and many design teams, so I know how important this is. Onboarding is essential. So, what I did?

I introduced the new members to their colleagues, key stakeholders, and leaders. This included virtual meet-and-greets and informal chats. Then shared the company’s values, mission, and culture. Clarified the roles of each member within the product team. Introduced them to the team’s development processes (Scrum, Kanban). We agreed on how our sprints, standups, demos, retrospectives, and other ceremonies would work.

As the product team consisted of talents of different levels and experience, some of the colleagues needed guidance. I became a mentor for them to help guide through the first few weeks. I was a go-to person for questions, process clarification, and design guidance.

Collaborative culture

Building a collaborative culture within a product team is essential for driving innovation, improving efficiency, and delivering quality products. The first important thing was to ensure everyone understood the product vision, goals, and the overall roadmap. This alignment ensured that the team was working toward the same outcomes. Here are the activities I undertook:

• Encouraged open communication
• Fostered cross-disciplinary collaboration
• Facilitated team members to experiment and propose new ideas
• Created a supportive environment where mistakes were the part of learning
• Created shared knowledge and resources

Result

Overall, the task of building a product and design team was completed successfully. Of course, not everything was smooth and perfect. However, we achieved the main goal. I built a creative team that significantly supplemented the purely engineering staff of the software development agency. Since then, the company has strengthened its position and its offer. It started producing both excellent development and decent design.

In addition, the company began to take on orders for the development of entire products. Now it had experienced UX, UI, product designers and researchers. It is very important that the team began to work harmoniously and follow well-thought-out processes from the very beginning.

KPIs and metrics

About a year after the new product team was brought in, I assessed its performance against key metrics. Here are some of them:

• Customer Satisfaction (CSAT): 4.6 on a five-point scale
• Stakeholder Satisfaction: 4.8 on a five-point scale
• Revenue Impact: 11% year-over-year growth
• Customer Acquisition Rate (CAR): 6%
• On-Time Delivery (OTD): 91%

Lessons I took

There were quite a few discoveries for me in this project. For example, how to properly search for and select talents. After all, there are so many designers now, and more every day. In this sea of ​​thousands and thousands of people, it is not easy to choose the one that will suit all parameters, and at the same time fit into the structure and culture of the company. However, no matter how carefully you select candidates, sometimes it may happen that a person does not fit in with the team or does not accept the corporate culture. This is normal, you only should keep it in mind.

I also found it better to hire for diverse skill sets, considering both hard and soft skills like communication and collaboration. I learnt it is fine to set a strong foundation by defining a clear vision for the team and aligning it with the business and product objectives.

I knew that design doesn't work in a silo. I reiterated the importance of fostering a collaborative culture between designers, developers, product managers, and other key stakeholders.