The way the professional UX/UI design agencies organize their teams depends on their ability to deliver the desired product to the client, their work’s success, and adapt to changing conditions quickly. A well-coordinated design team is a working living mechanism that achieves tactical and strategic success.
What is important
A UX/UI designer identifies users’ needs and finds the most attractive design solution to address these needs. In the rapidly changing modern reality, it is necessary to improve the formats of interaction with consumers, adapting to a specific task that the customer offers. A dynamic production process is impossible without three things:
- a properly organized team;
- a responsible leader with the right authority and a broad vision for problem-solving;
- the overall culture of the team, as a guarantee of the long-term progressive development of the agency.
A well-thought-out design process is also essential, but for professionals, it is instead a self-evident requirement. The main thing is that it fits seamlessly into the overall production chain of creating a product.
In the early stages of development, a team of 10 people is involved in delegating tasks. As you grow, responsibility is delegated. In large agencies, the successful management indicator is a proper bureaucracy, tracking processes, goals, and hands. The success of the agency encountering more than 10,000 people is determined by the correct values and culture. Each of these indicators is important for any team, but the focus depends on the organization’s stages of development.
Composing the team
A professional agency employs strong designers. The team’s structure is well described by Brad Frost, drawing an analogy with the table legs. The table must have solid and reliable supports, without which it will simply fall. It is better if the designer has several title skills and can do visual design and information architecture, conduct research, etc. Several specialists of a comprehensive profile will make up the optimal combination of their skills so that the” table ” does not fall.
In a severe UX agency, designers can be assigned the following functions:
- analytics;
- frontend;
- visual design;
- target audience research, marketing, PR;
- information architecture;
- quality control;
- content, copywriting.
For fruitful and practical work, each designer’s strengths are evaluated so that together specialists can make a breakthrough and create a product that fully satisfies the customer.
Designers can be included in the production cycle on a centralized basis or by the method of immersion. Depending on the tasks, one or the other approach is used, or a combination of both. The main thing is that at each stage of creating a product using the Agile method, all the customer’s wishes are taken into account. A transparent and understandable scheme of interaction with them is built.
Leader tasks
The team leader is not the boss; he is a “playing coach.” He has an idea of what the product should be, how the design should develop. The leader inspires and supports the team, corrects mistakes, puts a shoulder to it, and, if necessary, gets involved in the work at any stage if problems are detected.
In large agencies that deal with large-scale tasks, the leader’s authority is divided. The Design Manager deals with management issues and is responsible for the team’s development; the art Director sets the direction of design creation.
The team leader can imagine how the team will act tomorrow, in a month, in a couple of years, introduce new methods and processes, and cope with all difficulties. He is a good design specialist. Otherwise, you will not be able to respect the team and create a quality product. A professional agency leader is characterized by responsibility, resistance to stress, a systematic approach to work, sociability, and other valuable properties.
Why design culture is needed
With the right approach to creating a cultural environment, it becomes such that it takes the product’s quality to a new level. If every marketer, tester, and developer knows what the designers aim for, then a favorable environment is created with friendly understanding, empathy, and support.
With this approach, all issues and business problems are solved quickly, non-designers share their comments and considerations, sometimes very valuable. A well-designed process will allow you to control the quality of the product at each iteration and, as a result, create a model that meets all the customer’s wishes as much as possible.
