Roles / tasks _ Creative direction / design culture implementation.

The project _My task was to implement a sustainable design flow that started with the question “How to write a good briefing for the design team?” and ended with the implementation of a quality check data analysis done once the project was finished. Basically defining what the design team needed to deliver and/or receive from strategy, concept, UI, and development, from briefing to after-sales.

In short, my job was to understand what the company needed from its design team and how to bring the current team there.

The client _ Abteilung Digital is a very young and small agency specializing in digital projects.

The challenge _ This business is made of people, so investing in shaping up the existing team was quintessential. Providing in-house training and shaping talents was not an easy task, especially when it has to be done in parallel with regular projects, and with a team constellation with different levels of involvement.

Because of its essence, a digital design team has so many touchpoints with different areas, that it was easy to get lost along the way. Understanding and balancing skills were really necessary: designers who can code, designers with strategical mindsets, and so on. Selling to the stakeholders the value a quality design can bring, and its requirements such as more time for tasks, more collaboration and investment in training was also an important part of the process.

Another challenging point was how to foster a creative and collaborative environment, where we could cultivate the best of what each person had to offer in a fast-paced environment.

The solution _ I was responsible for teaching a team of juniors and interns with no digital experience to navigate complex topics. I showed them how to concept following heuristic and user-centred ideas, at the same time designing interactive interfaces following the material design principles. To achieve that, we had workshops where complex ideas were broken into small pieces because of our time constraints. Repetition, feedback talks and follow-ups were also necessary to make sure everyone was on right track.

Understanding how different people learn and at what pace was key to achieving success here. Some people learned better in one-to-one meetings, some required a checklist, and others liked group feedback. Adjusting the method for each person was an interesting learning.

Moreover, providing a structure for the design team to shine did not stop at training. I organized career paths with progress milestones, alongside defining team goals and setting the skills to be looked for in future hires. I implemented feedback meetings that worked both ways, not only from company to employee but also from employee to company

Templates that could improve our daily work, save time, provide quick onboarding for new team members, and improve the development hand-offs were also another set of tasks that we were able to complete.

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