Nurturing a design team

What goes into building a great team?
What is the cohesive glue which makes a team tick?
How do you keep the fire alive?

In 2018, I was tasked with building a design team from the ground up. The number of designers was less. We did not have the right expertise to rethink a product afresh. We first got the business stakeholders' buy-in to invest in a design budget distinct from product management.

We hired skilled people gradually across interaction design, visual design and user research. While individual designers are good at what they do, a team needs to come together to have a shared experience of learning from each other and collaborating daily. It is also important to build a personal rapport which goes much beyond work.

1. A Learning environment

It is good to have learning sessions every week wherein one of the designers is tasked with sharing his/her point of view on a topic of interest. This helps other team members gain a more nuanced view and understanding of the subtleties involved in each other's process.

John conducted a workshop on calligraphy for the rest of the designers.

Shwetha gave a lecture on Indian dance and introduced the team to mudras for communicating meaning.

Manuel shared his expertise in colour theory and visual composition with the team.

2. Freedom to experiment

Encourage team members to experiment and shed their inhibitions. Quite often people think they are not good at something. They say they cannot draw. But prodding them to try it out can help them gain confidence and more importantly they feel happy being part of the process.

Shaan created a few illustrations although he said he was not good at drawing.

3. Participatory & Challenging

Provide opportunities for team members to participate and adopt new design methods. They need to be challenged so they come out of their comfort zones and acquire new skills. It is also important to involve people from engineering and product management as well.

Divya was the sole researcher on the team. He would involve others in card sorting and synthesis exercises.

4. Rewarding

Small gifts and letters of appreciation can go a long way to boost individual morale. It motivates others as well to go beyond work to pick up their new initiatives. We used gift vouchers and a certificate to recognize the team's contributions. Many a time an individual is thrilled at the opportunity to undertake informal creative tasks. It appeals to their intrinsic motivations and happiness.

Shaan made hiring posters. Manuel defined the design language for product illustrations.

John designed the illustrations while Sharat designed the signage for the new office.

5. Work is play

While it is important to be aligned with the OKRs every quarter, the workplace needs to be fun. Spring surprises by celebrating birthdays and ensuring people come together for every social occasion within the team. Create opportunities for the team to be informal. Fun ought to be a daily activity.

A quick round of ice cream to aid brainstorming. Friday lunch was a weekly ritual for the team to wind up the week in good spirits.

Culture

Culture takes years to cultivate. But design starts to manifest itself across the organisation in every little task they undertake. Teams develop a shared understanding of the language, style and benchmark for design. They collaborate effortlessly across teams on multiple products to deliver a uniform and consistent experience.

See more of the lively moments on the team page here.