Leadership of the group can be a significant challenge with cross-functional teams, and in large organizations, a governance model may be required. At the outset, and any time the focus of the work shifts, ensure that there is someone responsible for making decisions and articulating the rationale. At Adaptive Path, we utilize stakeholder maps (Figure 9-1) at the outset of an initiative as a scoping and planning tool to define core, direct, and indirect stakeholders as well as understand business needs/value and customer needs/value.

Figure 9-1. Stakeholder map and scoping poster used to collaborate and guide planning discussions. Perhaps most important for the design team to define and articulate are: Customer Needs & Value and the Customer Experiences that this initiative will create or improve.

We’ve found this simple tool effective in driving the conversation and decision about who will ultimately be responsible for approvals. It’s also useful in identifying gaps in knowledge or alignment. If significant gaps are identified, that signals that the program isn’t ready for kickoff.

We have worked at companies that tried to do too much with the teams they had. As a result, designers were spread thin, projects were half-baked, and once something was launched, it was then neglected. We’ve also seen improbable ratios of 20 product managers to 1 designer assigned with a never-ending backlog. Instead, focus on what’s achievable by examining the design team’s skills alongside the constraints of time and budget to focus on what’s achievable. Design’s role in the planning process should have three key elements:

In order to focus, the design organization must have mechanisms in place for saying “yes,” “no,” or “not yet” to the work itself. Kristin spoke with a design leader who, when she first joined her new company, had a team of 14 designers. In her first few weeks, she observed that a single designer was assigned to support, on average, 5–7 “technology pods,” each led by a product manager and a development lead, and composed of developers and testers. At the same time, the frequency and variety of additional requests for design support overwhelmed the number of designers on the team.

She soon hired two design program managers to focus on intake (qualification, prioritization, pipeline) and capacity planning. Over the course of eight weeks or so, they met with each business leader to better understand their roadmaps and top one or two priorities. They then led full-day, deep-dive sessions to understand the problem space, human and business objectives, and stage(s) of work. With this data in hand, they could assess skill sets needed and align design talents to formulate a design portfolio plan.

The plan, easily captured in an Excel file to enable collaboration and revision history, included top-level initiatives, value to the customer, value to the business, a team-based approach and clearly defined team structure, skills needed, timeframe, and a hiring plan. By modeling human-centered design practices to better understand and scope the work with partners, they were able to articulate and support the #1 and #2 priority within each business group, enable and improve the partnership between design and product management to frame problems to focus on both the business and human value, align the right design skill sets paired with the right project(s) at the right time, and provide transparency across the business of the highest priorities for which design was aligned. This effort, while substantial, took about four months but allowed them to see connections and make better informed decisions. And in taking the time to understand the problem space and phase of each initiative, they were able to cover more with the same team.

While quality is everyone’s responsibility, it is the designer’s responsibility to articulate, demonstrate, and uphold what quality means for the experience. This can run counter to the behaviors and processes that non-design team members—accustomed to being valued for delivering with speed and efficiency in their roles—bring that can discourage the quality of the experience.

Quality can be broadly interpreted to mean a standard of something as measured against something similar. In the design organization, it’s easier to define and assess quality against other designs. But when in a cross-team setting, each team will bring their own definition and standards for quality. Take the time to ensure that everyone on the team understands what is meant by quality.

Ideally at the outset of the project, define what quality means by giving everyone on the team something to reference. This simplistic approach is especially important for teams working toward common goals, but from different disciplines. In our experience, we’ve addressed quality in several ways. We collected examples of high-quality design on our Basecamp site. The working space included an area for examples. And we included quality assessment as a lever for moving work from in-progress to ready for production.

Clear goals, aligned leadership, focus, skill sets, and quality standards are essential for successful cross-team collaboration, but perhaps most important is the definition of roles and expectations for participation. Once the team has been identified, spend some time getting to know one another. Margaret Gould Stewart, now VP of Design at Facebook, created a set of attribute cards to use for setting expectations for individuals on teams. At Adaptive Path, we often used these sets to guide a “what we want from you” exercise to help set expectations about roles.

Figure 9-2. A subset of printable attribute cards created by Margaret Gould Stewart and used by teams at Adaptive Path to help set expectations for team members

In the set there are 15 cards (Figure 9-2), each with an attribute and a description. At the outset of a project, the team would discuss and select the top 1 or 2 attributes we expected from each team member. We’d capture images of each team member holding their selected cards and post them somewhere prominent in the project space or via our project management site (Figure 9-3). Ideally, this exercise sparks conversation that flows to interests, strengths, and opportunities for growth and better collaboration. This can be especially useful on teams where people may not have yet worked together, and come at the problem from very different perspectives. Whatever the activity, it’s important that teams have the opportunity to meet one another as people, rather than just showing up to play a role.

Figure 9-3. The cards in use—teammates choose 3–4 cards that describe the traits they most need from you, and photograph you holding up those cards

With clear goals, decision making, and roles and expectations defined, a clearer plan will evolve for the cross-functional team. It’s during this stage that folks have a better sense of marching orders, and more typical design and engineering processes come into play.

In discussing design team culture, we mentioned the importance of protecting maker time within the design team. When a designer is working on a cross-functional team, the frequency and volume of meetings can increase exponentially, as the designer is inevitably juggling being part of both the design team and the cross-functional team. This can lead to zero time for actually doing the design work. As a team, take the time to decide how to structure each week. Refer to the cadence we discussed in Chapter 8 or look to other teams who may already have a good solution. Identify blocks of protected time for doing the work and blocks of time for reviewing the work. For meetings that affect the team’s work, but don’t require designers to share out or collect feedback, send the design leads who can make decisions on behalf of the team and bring back information. Most importantly, ensure that the rest of the cross-functional team understands and respects the cadence of “making” versus “meeting” time, and that there is someone on point paying attention to and resolving any tensions that may arise.

Design leaders must remember to have frequent conversations about drawing boundaries, taking time to recharge, and setting a strong example of what proper work hours look like. Teams and individuals need to know that it’s acceptable and encouraged to have a balanced work life.

Consider using an operating agreement to outline how to interact with one another and think about problems, and productively escalate issues for resolution.

Example of topics to include in an operating agreement:

To create an operating agreement, facilitate two sessions with the full team. In the first session, brainstorm ideas without judgment or discussion, then discuss ideas and build an affinity diagram. Let ideas rest for at least a day, then reconvene to review the work, discuss and modify any ideas or categories, and finalize the list. Finally, publish the operating agreement alongside or within your team charter as a one-pager or slide in a deck.

Key to successful collaboration and healthy team dynamics is keeping everyone in the loop. Even if the updates are brief, daily or semi-daily communications through a project management tool like Basecamp go a long way to provide insights and confidence to other team members and stakeholders spread out across the organization.

Ensure that everyone on the team can speak each other’s language. In large organizations, jargon can take on a life of its own, so encourage everyone to clarify terms. Create a document to capture terminology and frame discussions around goals and objectives.

When a design organization grows beyond 40 designers or so and is spread across different geographies, the challenge of staying connected grows exponentially. To address this, be explicit about expectations around insights and knowledge sharing. Designate a team to create and manage a shared insights repository for customer research. Create or carve out a role dedicated to “communications” or “storytelling” with responsibility for things like consistency of voice and tone, internal blog posts, guides and checklists for facilitating cross-team shareouts, newsletters, and internal event planning and coordination.