Process

As much as we’d like to follow best design guidelines, design in theory is often quite different from design in practice. While it should by now be a given to start with defining a problem before identifying a solution, what we usually get is a solution that we then need to reverse-engineer, re-frame the problem, get everyone aligned and engaged to carefully go through all the necessary steps, looping back and forth, and iterating as much as needed to design connected and holistic omnichannel services, products and systems.

Align > Discover > Empathize > Ideate > Prototype > Test > Implement > Iterate

As someone with a very diverse background and a multitude of experiences in divergent fields, ranging from design to programming to teaching and mentoring, I thrive on challenges and opportunities to constantly learn and grow, both professionally and personally.

What I like from the Agile principles and Design Thinking is that it's not so much about following a process, but having the right mindset and belief in its philosophy, where failures are not punished but celebrated as experiments for success, priorities are decided not reactively but proactively, and continuous improvement is the way to achieve the long term company goal.

I believe in the power of servant leadership and a safe work environment, where problems are seen as opportunities to improve. I strive for coaching the teams how to innovate and test new ideas, facilitating a transparent communication with product owners and stakeholders, and building on the user-centred and product-driven user experience.

Discovery, Research, Field Studies

I led numerous user sessions and interviews, resulting in detailed empathy maps and user personas, mapped out user journeys, user and system flows, service blueprint to show the connections between different teams, processes, touchpoints, devices, services, identifying lots of inconsistencies in systems designs, data gaps and communication gaps. I’ve worked with business analysts on process and flow diagrams, surfacing the existing issues, identifying the gaps and opportunities.

I’ve also done series of field studies, by visiting the mine sites during my work at Teck, meeting with users in their natural environment. I have gone on a service safari by “walking in users' shoes” exploring end-to-end business operations.

Working in Agile environment provides me with a much needed continuous cycle of research, implementation, feedback, iteration. Running two-week sprints and ensuring that the design team is 1-2 sprints ahead of the development team, allows everyone to be effectively engaged and contribute to the next product release.

After completing user and market research, meeting with stakeholders and subject matter experts, I start on putting together user personas, going through user flows, building wireframes, all with a continuous feedback from the team, user research, user interviews, meetings with product owners and stakeholders. Following up with low then high-fidelity prototypes and working with the team of developers on their implementation.

Kaizen is the Japanese word for a “good change” (Kai = change, Zen = good). It means constant improvement of everything starting from a product, application, process, the company, and everyone involved in the process. It doesn’t matter if the change happens one time or is constant, big or small, as long as it is a change for the better.

We were inspired by that notion to drive changes in the company, by joining forces within our small but agile team of developers and designers. I was assigned as the UX Lead, working side by side with our DevOps and Dev Lead to communicate with our business stakeholders, product owners and work with our development and marketing teams to build innovative and user-centred solutions for our customers.

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