What I do, How I work and Co-lab to create impactful solutions

When confronted with many unknowns or the need to deepen our understanding of users, I adopt a thorough and holistic approach. I begin by creating a comprehensive research plan, where conducting qualitative research and attentively listening to users' experiences, frustrations, and aspirations play a central role. Simultaneously, I delve into data, meticulously analyzing patterns in user behaviour. By combining these quantitative findings with qualitative insights, I uncover hidden truths and generate actionable insights that significantly enhance our understanding.

As I sift through user findings and data points with business and product people, we begin to see the outlines of a larger narrative that highlights opportunities for goals and our vision journey.

With a treasure trove of insights, we start the journey by crafting a compelling "How might we..." statement that captures the most promising opportunity. This becomes our North Star, guiding our exploration and innovation towards creating solutions that truly matter.

"How might we address [user finding] to improve [selected goal]?"

In this step, I prepare and orchestrate an ideation session and invite participants from various functions who can contribute with ideas and creativity from different perspectives on our defined How might we.. - design problem to solve. I set the stage for an atmosphere of open-mindedness and creativity, where free thinking is encouraged, and diverse ideas can flourish.

At the end of the session, we meticulously sift through the ideas, evaluating them to identify the onces that best align with the "How might we...". At this point, we also consider viability and feasibility aspects. Other ideas are preserved for potential future use.

From there, we weave together a story map for the chosen concept that captures the high-level user experience we want to create from beginning to end. This narrative captures the user's journey and provides a tangible structure for gathering early internal feedback. This also allows us to make iterative adjustments to the user flow, refining the experience as we move forward.

Building on the high-level beginning-to-end user experience, I begin to designing multiple preliminary versions in Figma for the interactive design of the solution, initially prioritizing functionality over aesthetics. This iterative approach enables quick adjustments based on early feedback from colleagues and users.

As we collect feedback, I refine the designs, incorporating more detail and nuance.

The final design evolves into a polished version supported by our design systems to ensure consistency and coherence across the interface. It meets user needs and is ready for development. It accounts for various user scenarios, including edge cases beyond happy flows, ensuring a comprehensive and well-rounded user experience.

In this phase, I work closely with developers to ensure the final design is accurately realized and developed efficiently through sprints. When the design encompasses multiple functionalities, we prioritize those with the highest user value first and most contribute to our desired results. We also discover the possibilities for scoping down to several launches to rapidly add real user value and be able to start tracking results early.

I provide detailed design specifications and assets derived from the Figma sketches and frequently review various design aspects with the development team. This collaboration maintains alignment with the original vision and allows us to rapidly adapt the scope or design if new feasibility issues arise.

Additionally, I outline key measurement points to support post-launch tracking. This setup enables us to monitor desired outcomes and observe real-time user behaviour, providing valuable insights for future enhancements and helping prioritize product developments.

When it’s time to ship the solution, I collaborate closely with the product owner and other relevant people for a seamless product launch.

I contribute to crafting key messaging and shaping the narrative around the product for both external and internal communications.

My efforts help ensure a well-executed and successful launch. By coordinating across departments and preparing thoroughly, I contribute to creating a positive experience for users and facilitating a smooth transition for the product into the market, laying the foundation for its long-term success.

As an integral product team member, I focus on conducting analytical work to identify user pain points using quantifiable methods like real-time user behavior analytics, targeted surveys, and insights from customer support interactions.

By analyzing these data sources, we uncover underlying issues and opportunities for improvement, which are translated into How might we.. statements and then repeat from step 2. This iterative, data-driven approach empowers the product team to prioritize enhancements, balancing effort and value, ensuring the product consistently meets and exceeds user expectations, aligns with the company's strategic objectives, and adheres to the product vision.

A design system is a strategic and foundational collection of standardized design assets that enhances consistency, efficiency, collaboration, scalability, and quality. It supports creating user-centric products while reinforcing the brand's identity among developers and UX designers.

In some of my assignments, I played a pivotal role in establishing the design system. By doing so, we drastically reduced the time and effort required to design and develop new features or products, allowing more time and greater focus on the actual user experience. This ensured all products reflected the same values and aesthetics, upholding a consistent standard that fostered brand recognition and trust among users. As a result, users enjoyed a seamless experience, regardless of where they interacted with the brand.

In other assignments, I contributed to improving existing design systems and, more commonly, harnessed their assets to craft the user experience for new or enhanced products and features, ensuring a user experience that was both consistent and delightful.