User Experience Design

CHAPTER 46A DESIGN LEADER’S GAME PLAN: Two journeys: Mature bv.d vs. Immature bv.d

To continue illustrating the power of the UXD Playbook, let’s go through a couple of real‐life scenarios that design leaders in different contexts would have to deal with and how they should leverage this Playbook to get to their intended outcome.

Joe leads a small design team in a health care company. Isaac is part of a large organization and wants to make a larger impact on his business.

Joe: Leading Small design to BIG DESIGN

Joe is a design leader in a mid‐sized (500‐employee) health care payments company. His original training and background were in graphic design, and he has very strong creative and visual skills. He initially joined the company as a marketing visual designer; over time, as the company continues to grow, he has evolved to support product design. Last year, he got promoted to UX design manager, with responsibility for two full‐stack designers (individuals who are responsible for the full range of design skills). His team’s primary goal is to ensure that the engineering teams are being “fed” constant design specifications, in accordance with the product requirements prioritized by the product managers, so they can build the product without the loss of engineering cycles.

Recently, a new manager of product management was hired into the company. This person believes in leading ...