DesignOps Implementation for Healthy Experience Design Team Delivery and Outcomes

M&T Bank

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Competencies:

Design Leadership
Design Operations / DesignOps
Design Strategy

As the Experience Design capability was restructured to align against enterprise-wide priorities of this top 20 U.S. Bank, Design team hierarchy and structure were intentionally put in place to improve governance for newly formed design teams within the focused spaces they were being resource towards.

My newly formed manager role was brought in to lead efforts of an experience design team. This team’s mission is to deliver high-quality, efficiently designed digital experiences for the enterprise banking platform that equips branch employees to provide a personalized servicing experience for the bank’s customers.

As an experience design team manager, how do I create healthy conditions necessary for a high performing team to execute and deliver quality design solutions in an agile environment?

To quickly get the team to a place where we felt like we were functioning as an aligned entity, I decided to plan and schedule a series of working sessions. The intent was two-fold:

  • Get the team familiar with the space we were resourced toward quickly
  • Get team members acquainted with each other, and bonded, quickly

Over the span of a few months, the following workshops were scheduled and conducted with the core design team:

  1. Program & Partnership
  2. Team Purpose & Health
  3. Team Structure
  4. Team Collaboration
  5. Partner Collaboration

The short-term and long-term outcomes of those workshops included:

  • A formal team charter, including aligned vision, mission, values, behaviors & mindsets
  • Aligned team ceremonies & routines
  • An MVP sizing and capacity points framework
  • Definition and alignment around team roles and responsibilities
  • High performing team metric definition, tracking, and reporting
  • Tool hygiene guidelines (Figma, Miro)

The results of the work were so successful, that the outlined content of the workshops was socialized among all peer capability teams. Some, if not all, working session structure was then implemented into other teams. The outcomes of this work also provided continuity for the team as I moved into a new space and my role was replaced with an external candidate.

In addition, the implementation and socialization of team performance metrics built significant buy-in, and helped justify design value, with business partners within the space we were resourced toward.

This project is representative of work completed while employed at a regional United States bank. 
Design Team Team Charter Agenda
Charter working sessions were planned, and content outlined, prior to workshops being designed.
Design Team Charter Working Sessions
Five connection sessions were formatted and designed as facilitated workshops for the core design team.
Experience Design Team Charter
The outcome of facilitated sessions was a formal team charter, signed off on by all individual team members.
Design Team KPI Planning
Design team key metrics mapped to the design capability's yearly objectives and aligned around business valued outcomes.
Design Team Performance Reporting
Quarterly and year-end reports were sent to various groups to help socialize the value and impact of design.
Design Team Performance Report
The more aligned delivery teams were around processes that advocated for design, the more accurate reporting became. Feedback loops between management helped refine how reporting was presented.