The Key to Successful Collaboration
Great designers empower their teams to bring ideas to life
“The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” –Aristotle
Collaboration is a practice where individual contributors
work as a team to achieve a certain goal. It relies on the individual qualities
such as self-organization, motivation, engagement and ability to deliver the
work. It is essential to be focused and open in order to collaborate
successfully.
The magic of a collaborative environment creates real value
and enables the team to deliver the work faster. Collaboration brings
alignment between team members on product goals, removes
roadblocks such as unnecessary debates, and increases
productivity so that the team can get their product into the hands
of users faster.
To be a collaborative team player you should understand the
perspectives, goals, and objectives of your team members. Your Project Manager
cares about shipping the right product in a timely manner but your engineers
want to deliver quality code that is functional and reliable at scale. At the
end of the day we all are working towards one goal : making a successful
product. It’s often the designer who can make this process smooth and
effective.
Collaborate with your teammates to reach product goals
- Lean
on your Product Manager to understand the user problem. You
should work with your PM when you feel stuck and need to make sure you are
going in the right direction. The best way to your PM’s heart
is to be reliable and meet the deadlines you committed to. Don’t
over promise, instead you should set clear and realistic expectations so
that the PM can plan the project accordingly. At Shyp we are in the
cadence of having weekly product reviews with PM, Engineering leads, CX
leads and other stakeholders where we gather feedback, resolve conflicts
and make sure we’re aligned on goals. The designer presents the project
he/she is working on and the group discusses it. The earlier the stage of
the project , the easier it is to cut loose ends.
- Test
your hypothesis through research. The best way to
make sure you’re building the right product and solving real user problems
is to know your audience and what your potential customers are facing in
day-to-day life, what their struggles are. The bigger the audience (and
potential impact of the project ) the more you should know about who your
users are and what their current workflow is. At Shyp we do extensive user
research to make sure we solve the right problems and address the pain
points of our customers.
- Partner
with your Engineering team to bring ideas to life. At Shyp we
value true Design + Engineer teamwork and strive to build strong
collaborative environment between the teams. The Design team’s
responsibility is to create a Style Guide that facilitates
product development and iterations. We hold ourselves accountable for
keeping the Style Guide up-to-date and add new elements and rules per the
requests of our engineers. Designers are seen as true partners to the
engineering team at Shyp.
- Work
with your Design peers. I intentionally saved this one for
last as it should be a no-brainer. Design teams are at their strongest
when there’s a strong team spirit and collaborative environment. We
organize ideation sessions to generate ideas for upcoming projects, hold
design roundtables where we provide feedback, and make ourselves available
on an ad-hoc basis to provide feedback and solve the problem as a team.
We’ve executed many successful projects where we
supported each other within the design team and learned from working closely
together.
Collaboration is act of balance
Being a collaborative designer doesn’t mean you agree with
everyone all of the time. Neither does it mean to ignore the ideas of others.
To collaborate means to work together as a team; to ideate, learn and iterate.
Have a conversation!
If you feel strongly about a certain idea/product/feature
work with your team to define what it means to execute on it — how much effort
is required? What value will it bring to the business? As a designer, you are
responsible for communicating your ideas to your teammates and proving they are
worth pursuing.
For a designer, it is tempting to get into a creative groove
and re-design the product from the ground up. You might even strongly believe
that this is what the product needs. But if you want to be perceived as a team
player, be heard and be considered when the next big decision for the product
is made — have a conversation with your teammates why you believe that it’s
what the product needs.
How to create a collaborative environment?
- Make
people feel included. Every opinion counts even if it’s not along
the same lines as yours. In fact, especially then.
- Debate
if you disagree. But please don’t bring a paintbrush to a
gunfight.
- Seek
for honest and open feedback. This is how we grow and become
better inside and outside of the work environment.
- Show
an example of how to be a good team player. Your teammates will
appreciate your honesty, openness and ability to compromise when possible.
- Share the knowledge. If you came across a certain problem before and have experience solving it, share your wisdom! If you’ve picked up some new tools, or want to teach your engineering team some new Sketch tricks, set some time aside to teach people what you’ve learned. Your contribution to the team’s “knowledge base” won’t be unnoticed.
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