Every project begins with understanding. We need to understand our users, the problem space, the technology opportunities, the business canvas and, pre-existing touch points. This approach provides an informed point of view as we set forth to find thoughtful design solutions to user and business problems. Enabling the crafting of innovative experiences that provide the end user with something beautiful.

The process

Step 1 - Understanding and Requirements gathering
User, product, and business research informs the thinking, goals, and objectives of the work.

Step 2 - Write the story
Writing and telling stories is how we give the user a voice in our work. It’s how we share the vision and communicate the goals of our work. This is also when we write up our KPI’s and success criteria for the work we’re doing.

Step 3 - Do the work
High level sketches become wireframes > Test and Iterate
Wireframes become clickable prototypes > Test and Iterate
Wireframe prototypes become low fidelity mock ups > Test and Iterate
Low fidelity mock ups become High Fidelity Designs ready to move into development.

Step 4 - Keep it agile
Knowing when to cut and run is a critical skill to cultivate. There are times when an idea just isn’t viable. The sooner that’s determined in the design process, the quicker we can iterate on the concepts. There are many solutions to a problem - getting to the right one requires agility and embracing failure. Fail Fast, Fail Cheap.

Step 5 - PROFIT!
All joking aside, having a definition for what success looks like and measuring up against that definition is how we determine if we did the job well. Our work must be reviewed in the wild with the user to determine if we’ve succeeded in achieving our KPI’s.

This process has been battle tested time and time again - it informs a series of steps that must be taken for each and every feature within a product. You can increase the speed, but you can’t skip the steps. Who is involved and at what stage during production is as important to the process. Being thoughtful of this is how we keep stakeholders and teams aligned throughout the production process.