Building a Skilled & Joyful Team
Overview:
In 2021, I took on the responsibility of establishing the founding product design team for a majority online university. Our university had never before had a software design and development organization, and I had to not only hire talented individuals but also create entirely new processes, norms, and team culture within the existing business framework.
Most of the digital tools and systems used for online learning developed naturally as the university expanded. These tools were a patchwork of third-party tools and integrations. As time passed, this created a frustrating and confusing experience for both students and staff.
Our research uncovered various issues in the current experience, such as having to switch between different platforms, using multiple logins, dealing with separate systems, and disconnected tools. These problems could be improved with the dedicated work of a team of UX designers and architects.
The Opportunity & Solutions
My Challenge:
I was to find, hire, onboard, and train a cross-disciplinary and fully remote team of UX architects, designers, and managers, UX writers, design operations managers, learning experience designers, and communication strategists, to quickly align the team around a common vision, and to retain and upskill the team for both their improvement and ours.
The Product Design Career Ladder
While hiring the team, it was critical that each new hire provide a new strength to balance out the skills already present on the team. Diversity of skillset, level, and expertise were critical to forming a well-rounded, supportive, and effective product design team.
To best understand what this matrix of skills and expertise should look like, I worked with the team to build a product design career ladder. The career ladder describes both individual contributor and management career tracks and was critical in annual performance evaluations and defining opportunities for promotion or career advancement.
A Culture of Learning
Recognizing the diverse skills and perspectives of the talent on the team, I designed and implemented a monthly professional development workshop series. Each workshop was led by someone on the team and aimed to expand each designers knowledge base while providing opportunities for individuals to be mentors and leaders. The series included workshops in motion design, typography, color theory, usability heuristics, learning science, and content voice/tone to name a few.
Additionally, I supplemented this series with workshops and discussions with external experts to broaden the perspectives and skills of the team. For example, we engaged with Ustwo to learn about PlayThinking, Joel Christian Gill to experience storytelling as a tool for empathy in diversity, plus more workshops in visual design, effective writing, journey mapping, and more.
Results & Outcomes
Between July and December 2021 I hired and onboarded 13 new UX designers ranging in level from Associate through Senior, and including two managers and one UX architect. I worked closely with HR to identify key skills to target in applicants, define and meet diversity metrics, and scaffold out a detailed career ladder.
Over the following two years, I continued to build the team to three Architects (UX, learning experience, content strategy), a UX Design team of six, a Design Systems and multimedia team of five, a Learning Experience Design team of five, a UX Writing team of three, two Communication Strategists, and a Design Ops Manager, each managed by a hands-on Director. The fully remote team spanned three timezones and ten states, yet worked closely as a single unit.
I stood up a comprehensive professional development program which included monthly targeted workshops, guest speakers and trainings, 30/60/90 degree plans for upskilling in specific areas, mentoring programs, focused retreats, and online resources. Many of the senior members of the team were both training facilitators and participants.
During my tenure as manager, there was no team attrition. Additionally, five members of the team became eligible for advancement through continued learning & demonstration of core UX and product competencies at a level higher than their role.
Working with the team, we built a culture where everyone was generous with feedback, open to each other’s input, valued co-working and designing together, weren’t afraid to ask questions or say they didn’t know, encouraged and supported each other, pushed each other to strive for better, and found joy in the small and large moments of working together to create something meaningful and impactful to the world.