Discussing the challenges faced by in-house design teams, whether a team of one, or a team of many.
Excerpts from the Design at SEEK MeetUp in Kuala Lumpur, hosted by Riz Ainuddin
Riz: SEEK’s design culture didn’t happen overnight. Tell us about a specific moment or challenge you faced while SEEK was building its design foundation – maybe when you had to fight for design to be taken seriously – and how that experience shapes how you advocate for design today.
Rod: We’re fortunate to have such a strong team culture at SEEK, which helps us get through a lot of challenges. As they say, “culture eats strategy for breakfast”. The challenge we have is about managing scale. Since starting at SEEK about 4 years ago, our design team has grown significantly, with designers assigned to particular portions of the experience. This distribution of attention makes it harder to achieve UX cohesion.
But where it comes to being taken seriously as a design function, the thing I often try to do is stretch the metrics conversation. There can often be an over-emphasis on a single core metric. Something that is usually associated with a BIG conversion button on your product pages. I find this type of focus frustrating, because it IS essential to manage that metric carefully, but it doesn’t tell the whole story of the product experience. There are so many opportunities to drive additional value before hitting the end of the conversion funnel.
where it comes to being taken seriously as a design function, the thing I often try to do is stretch the metrics conversation
So here and elsewhere I try to broaden metric conversations by generating experience metrics, like satisfaction, ease and effectiveness, that can become part of the conversation with your stakeholders. The way you do this is to target the key moments that matter in your customer journey and MEASURE them. You can output scores based on how customers rate these experiences and gather feedback at the same time. Usually when stakeholders see that, for example, the satisfaction rate is poor at 50%, they’ll get inspired to move the needle higher by addressing the problems identified.
Riz: With your 20 years of multi-sector experience, you’ve likely seen companies at different stages of design maturity. What’s been the most effective way you’ve found to demonstrate design value to business leaders who think in numbers and metrics?”
Rod: I’ve experienced Design reporting into org structures in a variety of ways and often I’ve had to stand up the first design function within them. This means starting on the bottom rung of design maturity! Moving to SEEK a few years ago it was a relief to not be in that position.
At different times I’ve reported into IT, Marketing, Operations or into Product. These different reporting lines each lead to different types of challenges. The overarching issue is that the parent function will naturally want to emphasise the purpose of their domain within whatever design work you’re doing. For example, reporting into IT you might find yourself narrowly focussed on solving tech issues and working through a backlog.
To demonstrate value within your particular design team context, you must learn to speak the language of the business, understand what drives it and do some systematic design impact reporting. This will give visibility of work whilst also showing the impact it is having.
Riz: For designers in the audience who might be the only design voice in their company, reporting to a CTO or PM rather than a design leader – what’s one practical thing you wish you’d known earlier about making design matter and getting your voice heard?”
Rod: In my early days as a designer, I’d say that I definitely over-indexed on craft. I think this is only natural. It means doing solo work and creating beautiful design artefacts for projects to carry forward. This is what we’re taught to do in design school.
On reflection, I should have included more effort on what they DON’T teach you in design school
On reflection, I should have included more effort on what they DON’T teach you in design school. How to work in the business context, where communication is as equally important as craft.
If you’re a lone design voice in a company, then this is even more important. You need great communication skills and be able to articulate the business impact of the work you are doing. You’ll need to talk like a Product Manager, whilst still creating like options like a Product Designer.
So this might mean getting comfortable with the uncomfortable. You must continue to be strong in your craft, whilst developing a strong voice that advocates for customer needs whilst also showing a clear understanding of the business context.
Riz: Last question – what’s one piece of advice you’d give to designers here who are striving to build design culture in their organizations while balancing the demands of tight budgets and skeptical stakeholders?
Rod: If you’re not in a pure digital business, then budgets for digital work are always under pressure. Their core business – a product or service being sold – will always receive the first wave of funding.
The key to getting through this could be in our design ways of working. Given that good design happens as a team sport, lean into that style of working. Run design thinking workshops, gather requirements collaboratively and in the process build your relationships and influence.
After all, we can only lead by influence.
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