1. Definition and Discovery (ideation)

 1.1 Kickoff

Projects should start with a cross functional kickoff where the Product manager shares the business case and goals for the project. Guidance on the one-pager to bring to this meeting is outlined in a product brief template.

1.2 Gather insights and assess requirements

Product managers and Product designers use the kickoff and subsequent working sessions to define the customer/end user needs, use cases, and project. They scope the project for size, duration, complexity, delivery methods, etc.

1.3 Benchmark assessment

During this time Product design does a benchmark assessment, looks at best practices, competitive analysis, and assesses the project requirements from a UX/UI perspective. Design determines how the project fits into the overall UX landscape.

1.4 Schedules and scope defined

The schedule for delivery is determined by the cross functional team in collaboration with design ops and/or program management. If additional resources are needed for the project, we collect them in this meeting. Depending on the resource need, further steps may be taken by Design Ops or PM.

1.5. Understand use case and personas; define end to end user journey

The appropriate personas are identified, and the top tasks for each persona are defined. PM and Design start to define the customer or end user needs along the user journey. Any assumptions are identified and recorded. PM and Design Lead or Head of Research discuss where we require new insights or additional research to decide on a novel design direction.

1.6 Review and completion of product requirements

PM completes product requirements and Design checks that UX considerations are accurately represented within the PRD. The project and schedule are published in JIRA as the single source of truth for the project. Ideally, design artifacts are linked from JIRA and/or the PRD.

Output Phase 1

Key deliverables include:

• UX requirements embedded within PRD

• Schedule exists in JIRA

• Success metrics are defined

• Personas and jobs to be done are identified

• End to end user journeys mapped

• End-user involvement documentation

• Team presents discovery product review together that outlines success criteria for the project, framing of the customer needs, and approach to the project.

2. Design (crafting the UX)

After initial definition of customer needs, designers, researchers and writers can dive into the design phase. Note that all these activities should be reviewed continuously with cross-functional stakeholders.

2.1 Conduct UX Research

• In collaboration with the UX Researcher, Design defines the user research plan, its objective, and resources (such as recruiting participants) needed to execute the plan.

• If we work with customers or end users, the UX Researcher sets up the workshops, interviews, or surveys.

• The UX Researcher visualizes an as-is process with the customer to understand the key pain points and tasks to be accomplished.

• When UX research insights have been synthesized, they are shared with PM, Designer and Engineering.

• The UX Researcher refines success metrics in collaboration with the cross functional team

• The Product Designer seeks the advice of Advanced Tech, Front-end Developers, and System / Software Architects during this phase.

• Depending on the outcome, Design might work with their xfn colleagues to adjust the project requirements.

Output (depending on research questions and objectives from generative research)

• Current-state journey maps

• Persona development

• Task analyses

• Raw findings and insights

2.2 Design Exploration

• Depending on the size of the project, the design team engages in design workshops (inception or discovery workshop) with the customer, end users, PM, Engineering, and possibly other business partners to discover new approaches and solutions to the design problem.

• If the project is smaller, PM, Engineering, and Design ideate on approaches to the issue at hand.

• During the divergent phase: Design collects ideas and thinks broadly about solutions.

• During the convergent phase: Design prioritizes the ideas by arranging them in terms of importance and difficulty to identify the most valuable ideas to be pursued in future design work.

Output

• Conceptual sketches

• Journey maps

• Storytelling/Narrative

2.3 Information design

• The product designer creates artifacts that organize the flow of information for optimal findability and usability, such as flow charts, journey maps, and information architecture.

• The Designer works closely with the UX Researcher on evaluative research.

• The UX Designer reviews the work with product and engineering counterparts to ensure feasibility.

Output

• Sketches the e2e customer journey

• Visualizes the task flow and lays out wireframes

• Works with relevant stakeholders to produce a cohesive story

2.4 UI and visual screen design

Activities

• The Product Designer verifies and defines accessibility requirements, then shares with PM and Developers.

• The Product designer determines the needs for interactivity, motion design, illustration, etc. for the presentation layer in collaboration with xfn team.

• The product designer works on interaction patterns and applies them to the user flow/user story to ensure maximum usability, efficiency and expression of the brand.

• If need be, design creates or purchases digital assets and/or collaborates with Marketing, on photography, videography, and data visualization. All assets are stored in a Digital Asset Management system so all have access to it.

• If need be, requests for new UI components are filed and added to the design system in agreement with the front end team.

• Visual refinement: Product designers review each others work to ensure the layouts express the design language and typography, illustrations, colors are designed accordingly.

Output

• Click through mock ups

• High fidelity screens

• High fidelity clickable prototypes

2.5 Usability Research

• Once a user flow has been determined, the UX Researcher conducts usability research and shares findings with the product leadership team.

• UX and UI Designers iterate based on usability findings.

2.6 UX Writing

• The UX Writer works closely with UX and UI Designers to design an optimal experience by creating meaningful content in plain, natural language to help end users accomplish their tasks.

Output for the design phase 2

• Current-state journey maps

• Persona development

• Task analyses

• Raw findings and insights

• Research reports

• Information architecture

• Storytelling (to bring the project to life)

• Wireframes

• Key task flow (as click-through mock-ups)

• Finalized user stories and or JTBD

• Customer research findings and recommendation documentation

• High fidelity screens & initial prototypes

• Cross functional team presents design product review together before moving onto development

3. Development (execution)

3.1 Handoff to development

• Design delivers the user flow (wireframes or more detailed layouts depending on the project), UI guidelines, documentation, design specs, and content library.

• Design, PM, Front-end Developers, Architects, and other relevant parties (Advanced Tech, Marketing, if necessary) review the static layouts for accuracy and technical buildability.

• If changes are necessary, the UX and UI Designers and UX Writer adjust accordingly.

• Designs are broken down into dev tasks and brought into JIRA. Designers link to figma prototypes from JIRA

• Once the design layouts are approved, the Front-end Developers build a clickable prototype, if applicable this is a Proof of Concept (PoC) to be assessed for commercial viability, desirability, and technical feasibility with stakeholders. During this phase, a technical blueprint or MVP is produced for the customer’s landscape and for value assessment.

Output phase 3

• Design specs, incl UI guidelines

• Content recommendations

• Clickable hi-fi prototype and user journeys for use by QE team

• Team presents GTM product review before moving onto delivery

4. Deliver (launch)

4.1 Design/product acceptance

• Design reviews work in GitLab (to be provided by dev team)

• Design pairs with development as needed to ensure quality

• Design changes screens as necessary to accommodate changes (due to technical feasibility)

• Refinements are done, both parties continuously review the work and collaborate.

• Design checks that everything looks and behaves as it should. The design lead identifies refinements to be ticketed during pod demos.

• UX, UI, or content iterations are performed, as needed.

4.2 Testing and QA

• Testing occurs for each user story and any applicable larger context, such as epics or integration into other systems.

• Log insights and bugs in Jira. PM shares findings with Design.

• Usability testing is integrated into the testing and review phases.

• Final review by Product, Development, Content and Design.

• If necessary, the designer and UX writer go back to refine the design.

4.3 GTM Release

• Content works to make sure that all documentation is in place before launch

Output phase 4

• Backlog of bugs

5. Optimize (in the future)

Activity

5.1 Observe and measure

• Cross functional team observes qualitative and quantitative measurements to gauge the success of the project/release. Results are published on a dashboard.

• UXR debriefs on any qualitative findings relevant to usability

5.2 Retrospective

• The project team participates in a hindsight or retro meetings to share learnings.

Output

• Customer insights and next iterations to advance the design and engineering execution of the product

• Metrics for success criteria are published and shared