Taking the lead
The context
When I joined Kry / Livi, I was the only designer in the UK market, the company had only been live in the UK for about a year and was in the classic start-up mindset.
I am proud to say that during my time at Livi my work helped gain the sectors first ‘Outstanding’ rating from the Care Quality Commission for our Covid-19 response.
The role
As the first full-time designer, within a small team comprising of 1 PM and 2 devs, my role was to conduct user research, produce end-to-end designs and look for opportunities to improve Livi’s suite of products. I represented the design team (based in Sweden) in the UK market and became a strong advocate for the Livi patients within business discussions.
The Challenges
Initially we lacked the tools and process to be able to deliver efficiently and effectively, due to the fast paced and often chaotic start-up environment. Along with this, managing stakeholders expectations was often a challenge in a particularly chaotic and at times volatile environment.
Step 1
Introducing a design process
Using a simplified version of the well-known Double Diamond process was the first step to ensuring the product team had an overview of what design was doing, project briefs were written, followed and placed on the roadmap, user research was accounted for and key stakeholders were included in the design process.
Step 2
Stakeholder management
Ensuring stakeholders were brought along the journey was key to success within Livi.
I found workshops and product/design activities like post-it note sessions, crazy 8’s and collaborative wire-framing were a great way to create the feeling of shared ownership and save time by aligning teams with one goal
Step 3
Adapting our design review process
Working with the Product and Engineering Managers I set up and formalised our design review process.
Establishing these milestones increased pace of delivery and confidence in the designs produced, reducing re-work as well as errors.
Creating useful design artefacts
Artefacts
Product maps & user flows
Knowing your product flow is key as a growing business, I created these maps to help share knowledge with global designers in all markets, allow
stakeholders to find the information they required easily and give local PM’s full visibility over the product/user journey that they own.
Artefacts
Proto-personas
4.9
4.3
Key learnings and takeaways
Be vocal.
It’s all well and good creating these tools, but to ensure their use you need to continue to push for their use.
Involve the team.
The best way to get buy-in is to have the team create and use the tools alongside you. Involve the right people for the best results.
Be transparent.
Many of these artefacts and processes helped other teams in the company. Some used the flows regularly to understand the product, and others enjoyed being able to understand the design process.
People like to collaborate.
It became clear when running workshops, people like to collaborate and solve problems together, utilise this energy and bring teams together.