LEADERSHIP AND STRATEGY
Human-Centered Design Advocacy
Promoting design approaches that prioritize the needs, experiences, and perspectives of people. Advocates work to embed HCD principles within organizations, policies, and decision-making processes.
The Challenge
The product teams are busy and are already challenged with continuous technical learning. We needed to make our ask easy and encourage participation. We also wanted a method that would advertise and encourage participation beyond the product department.
Users / Audiences
Our main audiences were the product teams: Software engineers, quality assurance, dev ops, and product management, but we hoped we might catch the interest of other groups in the organization.
Scope and Constraints
We wanted a plan that would be repeatable and sustainable, fit into our busy schedules and would effect positive change.
Organizations
Sterling Identity
My Role
UX Design Lead
Date / Duration
Nov 2015 - Mar 2016
My Process
I proposed my idea to the team.
I gathered the designers and we talked through the idea and how it might elevate our work and our team.
We studied the problem.
We met again to allow each person time to cultivate ideas. Proposals included weekly or monthly 'Design Tips' emails, a new 'Design Learning' section on the organization's intranet, and other solutions, but we wanted our effort to be more interactive than those methods. In the end, the idea we agreed on was to host monthly brown-bag lunch presentations in one of the conference rooms.
We made a plan.
We created a list of learning subjects that we could present in one hour like gestalt principles and best practices for accessibility. We included sessions for success and fail stories to walk through ways our team identified problems, proposed design solutions, and the outcomes. We designed the presentations to be informal and friendly, with a hope of generating lively discussions.
We took turns.
We each led sessions and supported each other, which allowed plenty of upfront time to prepare—even with busy schedules. Also, a rotating the presentation lead gave everyone on the team an opportunity to grow their presentation skills.
Outcomes and Learning
We had fun.
We showed videos, we conducted activities and played games, and, yes, there were the expected PowerPoints. Each session ended with Q&A—which we found quickly to be fertile grounds for next session ideas.
We garnered interest.
At first, we had a few people show up from our teams. Then a few more with a couple of folks from management. For one subject a number of people from the customer service group attended.
It ended too soon.
Changes in the team and for the organization brought our sessions to an end, but we felt we had made progress with our goal. We shared best practices and methods, made new internal contacts, and helped our team and our work to be seen and understood more broadly within the organization.
