Best Practices
I’ve been so fortunate to work with exceptionally talented, diverse and high-performing teams. Here are some best practices (in no particular order) for creative leadership, team & studio building, design/user/product validation, creative direction and 💡 that we’ve learned along the way.
User research & feedback is a gift
Receiving feedback from your user or audience helps you identify the opportunity, not the problem. Establishing parameters for success can only come when we ask questions and listen.
Feedback can be part of the culture
Create a safe space for creatives to be in-progress and imperfect. Celebrate the exchange of feedback, and you’ll find that design as a practice will have a proud identity within your organization. Pro Tip: The most sacred meeting of the week is always “Creative Show & Tell” - a platform for social reinforcement, creative identity, knowledge-sharing, presentation, and celebration of a job well done.
Consider and assess the “Jobs to Be Done”
Breaking down the “Jobs to Be Done” for each user persona, segment or consumer group is an invaluable exercise. Consider what it takes to enrich that consumer’s unique needs, provide a meaningful solution and offer a sense of purpose & progress.
Learn more about the “Jobs To Be Done” from the great Clayton Christiansen here:
Champion diversity within your team
Making successful products requires care, empathy and a diversity of thought for a diverse population of users. Evangelize differences of skill, background and experience, then work for the best idea.
Data & quantitative insights are a designer’s friend
Simple data from comparing clickthrough rate (CTR) on ads, A/B testing UI or UX flows, install conversion on an App store landing page, funnel analysis on a FTUE flow, or engagement, retention, sharing and monetization results can inspire creative decision-making without the subjective “artistic” voice. When art and science play together, they can have a lot of fun!
Interactive prototypes articulate the experience
Don’t we all love to be sown rather than told? Intuitive programs such as Sketch, InVision, Adobe XD & Figma can help designers optimize and test their experience, product stakeholders sell their concept, and engineers to assess the complexity of work. They’re also far more cost-effective for testing than full development.
Establish a visual target
Budget time to establish a visual target with concept art or visual development. This can apply to gameplay, characters, UI, branding and even text. Style guides and thoughtful documentation will mitigate inconsistency, and offer some objective guidance in a room full of subjective preferences. It also gets the team aligned on quality, flavor and personality from the very beginning. Test your imagery early via surveys to make sure you are the right tone for your users!
Qualitative testing is priceless
Feedback from your users on their needs, aspirations, friction and purpose is the most meaningful direction you will ever receive. From a design intern to a CMO, affinity feedback from your consumers is the best target, and will inspire KPI’s not only for the product, but for visual and experience targets (engagement, retention, monetization, virality, etc.) as well.
Find ways to approach a usability problem as a group
Two minds are better than one, from an epic on-boarding flow to a simple button color. “Our challenge” sounds much better than “my challenges” when it comes to design.
Draw it out
One hour on a dry erase board with your cross-functional team can can be far more efficient than everyone working in silos. It can also support the direction, alignment and action items worthy of next steps. Fun fact: Windows make for great ad hoc dry erase boards.
Test relentlessly to see the experience in-context
Many devices + multiple sizes + several platforms = test early, often and everywhere! What looks good on X might look sub-optimal on Y.
Sketch & wireframe before committing real time
A highly-polished mockup with poor experience < a wireframe that works great. It also is much more cost-efficient (turnaround time and designer utilization) to revise drafts than finished work.
Coordinate & Conquer!
Common language and coordination creates synergy within diverse teams, and organizational tools such as JIRA, Trello, Basecamp, Confluence and even Post-it notes can help get the job done (and tell you the status along the way). Consider these tools for having “one source of truth” for feedback with your outsourcers - this documents your feedback, ensures accountability on deliverables, and provides macro-to-micro view for your stakeholders.
A effective core loop engages & retains users
You’ve connected your user to a solution - great! Now what?
An effective, “virtuous” core loop incentivizes the user to complete the primary action of your product, and simultaneously accrue benefits and mounting losses by engaging with your product. Award the user with something upon completion of the primary action, and they start collecting, which adds stickiness.
Here’s a favorite article on the “completion of the core action and virtuous loops” by Sarah Tavel:
Is your core loop intuitive, or cluttered with distraction?
Is your user’s solution clear, purposeful and intuitive, or over-loaded with peripheral noise? Adding more features or mechanics likely will not help if the user’s primary goal is not fulfilled with purpose.
International teams can unlock possibilities
Partnering with international teams can unlock your studio’s ability to scale output. With proper management, marketing/consumer guidance, feedback loops, project coordination and knowledge-sharing, your colleagues & partners overseas can successfully own an entire product or content pipeline.
Sharing knowledge has an ROI
Designers & artists sharing knowledge cross-pollinates best practices, builds rapport, and offers context to the dependencies other specialists may have.
