Johanna Evans

How do design system teams prove their value? Finding hard metrics around the impact of design system teams has historically been a challenge. A year ago, I met the design system team at Eventbrite who could confidently say that they saved 534 days of engineering effort with their design system. Here's their calculation: Time spent to develop a component pre-design system - time spent to install the design system component = Time saved In order to extrapolate this number, though, you need to know how many times a component has been used. And, that used to require a savvy dev on the team to build something custom. That's no longer the case. We built something at zeroheight that will allow you to track component use in a single repo or across all of your repos. This should help teams show how valuable they are, plus do things like: see which components to prioritize based on use see which product teams are adopting As an added bonus, anyone using the new feature set can also monitor design system packages, allowing them to quickly see which teams are using outdated packages. On a personal note, I'm hoping with data like this, more teams can confidently quantify their impact. And along the way, we'll get better as design system practitioners at identifying the right things to work on. This new feature set is in beta and totally free. Even if you aren't using zeroheight to document your design system, you can use it. Takes like 15 minutes and you've got rich data. Here's the sign up:

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🔥Hot Take for PMs: Please don't hand me a solution to a problem. Instead, focus on detailing the problem and help me understand the why. We will ideate and find a solution together. Next week, in our first episode of ⚫️Bounce, Claire and I continue to unpack the PD + PM working relationship. Buckle up. Subscribe today - links in comments 👇

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Just listened to this interview with Katie Dill, Head of Design at Stripe - a great listen. 😊 If you're interested in UX leadership and knowing where to add value - this is definitely worth listening to! #uxleadership #designleaders #uxjobs #designvalue #product

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As a design leader, I've always been driven by a company's vision and mission. It's deeply meaningful to me, and I've found joy in igniting that same passion in others by sharing our North Star. Over the years, I've come to realise that nothing is more fundamental than the essence of a brand itself. Inspiring others stems from a shared understanding of who we are and why we do what we do throughout the entire organisation. But how do we achieve this alignment? Sometimes, big changes don't require massive efforts. Investing just three hours in the right discussion with the right people can lead to transformative outcomes. The Brand Sprint: a concise three-hour brainstorming session aimed at making tangible what "our brand" truly represents. Surprisingly, there's a lack of accessible templates for this process. So, I created one myself. In my latest video, I walk you through it and share some valuable insights. Feel free to utilise it and share your feedback.

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The Jobs to Be Done framework is crucial for product designers, especially as the line between product managers and designers continues to blur. This article can revolutionize how we approach problem discovery and opportunity identification, offering deeper insights during the design phase. It's a must-read for anyone looking to elevate their design process and deliver exceptional results.

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My top 3 project selection tips for design leaders doing portfolio presentations: 1. Pick projects that have a good mix of what you did directly plus what the team did. Very rarely is anyone looking for a pure people manager while hiring a design leader. Your personal contributions need to stand out in your work. It doesn’t have to be IC work (but if you do that, show it). It could be a doc you wrote, an insight you uncovered, a strategy you formulated etc. Differentiate between what you did yourself, what you directed the team to do, and things the team might have driven independently. Make this distinction clear as you present your portfolio. People want to see you can do smart stuff yourself, can direct a team well, but will also build a high functioning team that does good work. Also, if you would like I can do a separate post in these 3 modes of operation for any design leader. 2. Pick projects based on the role you’re applying for. It doesn’t have to be and most certainly won’t be a 100% match. But for example, if what the team needs is scaling a successful product, pick examples where you enabled scale. This needs to be deeper than “I’m applying for fintech so here’s another fintech project”. Your project selection should show you understand the challenges for the company and have transferrable skills. 3. Pick projects where you can show both macro and micro user insights. Scale the macro according to your seniority and level. For example, if you’re applying for a Director role, you better have projects that show you driving user insights at Director scale (for instance something that drove resourcing decisions). At the same time, the project should also show micro insights appropriate to role. For example, key interaction design flows redone by your team for the goal. Or even things like font/color selection and how that drove impact. Use these guidelines and apply the filter for what fits with your past experience and this new role. If you have the same portfolio presentation for completely different roles, something is off somewhere. You only need to present 2-3 projects in a presentation, pick the most appropriate ones. If this sounds complicated and like a lot of work, it is. Project selection is THE foundation for how your presentation will play out.

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I’m going through an iterative design process with a XFN team right now. We know we’re solving the right problem because we get repeadted validation that the value prop aligns to user needs, but the experience doesn’t provide that outcome in an easy/intuitive way. So we iterate and iterate some more, each time finding ways to better achieve the outcomes we’re targeting. This process is messy. You learn that your initial assumption were off so you lean on failure to improve incrementally. It means as a designer you need to be vulnerable…that it’s not about you providing all “the answers” to your team in a beautifully packaged deck/speck. You need to show what’s “behind the curtain” and bring them along during your process. Show your thinking and learn to interpret feedback. Approach everything as a hypothesis, remain curious, explore and share.

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It’s Thursday! Let’s talk about DESIGN DISCOVERY and how to make it PRACTICAL. Discovery is an essential part of the design process. In discovery, designers build a shared understanding of the problem and the design direction, establishing a foundation for all future design decisions. What does that foundation look like? In PRACTICAL DESIGN DISCOVERY, I describe three kinds of things to put into this foundation: → Principles: Enablers that help you make decisions → Concepts: Ideas that establish a big picture or north star → Models: Representations of the user experience When you draw a conclusion from user research, that’s a principle. When you say “our product is like a concierge for kids activities,” that’s a concept. And when you sketch out a flow chart or wireframe an important screen, that’s a model. Each of these contributes to the foundation that informs further design decisions. You’re not just creating these for yourself. The other people on your team – product managers and business stakeholders and developers – need to contribute to this foundation. These things – principles, concepts, and models – are the way you draw others into the discovery process. Sometimes managers tell designers to cut principles and concepts out of their process. I get it: Models are accessible because they are tangible representations of the final product. Even a flow chart is easier to react to than an unmoored design principle or a big idea. In discovery, however, you can’t model every aspect of a product. The point of discovery is to set the direction. Models provide enough of a view into the final product to get buy-in on that direction. But they’re not the whole picture. Principles provide guidelines for making decisions that the models do not cover. They establish constraints on the design process. Concepts align everyone around the product’s purpose or essence. They paint a picture of what the world looks like with the product in it. Both are helpful for decision-making. You don’t need to break the bank creating principles or concepts, or even models. Use a text file to capture statements as they jump out during the design process, like “never show a data visualization without context or explanation [a principle]” or “this is a mash-up between a to-do list and a calendar [a concept]”. Use models to illustrate principles and concepts. When folks provide feedback on the models, ask them about the concepts and the principles. “You said you were worried about the fields on this screen, but it aligns with our principle of ‘only ask for information when needed.’ Are there circumstances when the principle doesn’t apply?” Every part of the foundation – principles, concepts, and models – is a hook for a conversation with the entire team about the direction of your product. Looking for more ways to refine your discovery practice? Grab a copy of PRACTICAL DESIGN DISCOVERY! https://lnkd.in/dtar-e2

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Wow, spot on… Also consider the complexity of a “design system factory” product intended to offer design system stability to the diverse clientele of a consultancy with vastly unique clients, all with critically important needs. I often describe(d) the design tokens and design system as the CENTER of the tech ecosystem, or at minimum on par with the most critical data APIs. Few were ready for what that would cost. Financially, technically and emotionally. #outofwork

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I get asked pretty often what resources are out there that help people break into the UX field. Ryan's great and could offer some really good well informed insights. if you're curious about some interview prep, give this a look

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Well that’s a wrap on Config! It was so great to see so many folks that I’ve worked with, admired, hired, managed, led, followed and best of all loved to work and be around in one place. Last year was epic but this year was sublime. And what a delight it was to see Figma’s new design magazine and little ole’ me playing a small part in this community publication! I’m talking about my favorite topic - data. With the pomp and circumstance of LLMs and “look what I can do,” brag of GenAI people are falling silent on the most important part of all this new technology - the data that fuels it. We’re forgetting the labor that goes into collecting, labeling and making data machine ready and the class of people who aren’t getting fairly compensated for this work. We’re forgetting that entire business models are being celebrated right now that use the stealing and appropriating of other’s creative content as their foundation. First there is awarness. Then anger. Now it’s time for advocacy. Here’s a question how can we make AI development for equitable overall all by fairly compensating those unseen data producers who make the AI tree grow? Check it out! I’m Proud to be part of The Prompt, a print and digital zine from @Figma’s Story & Brand Studios exploring the intersection of AI, design, and code, which launched at #Config2024. My Q&A on the power of input in AL and ML is here:

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What are you excited for at Figma's Config? Here's my agenda for the 2 day conference. Highlights I'm excited about are Building for Developers, Advocating and Designing for Human Needs, Bringing the Craft Back to Product, and of course the Figma keynotes! What peaks your interest the most? Imprint Digital wants to know what matters for design in your business, industry, or department. #figma #design #development #websites #softwaredevelopment #config2024 #digitalmarketing #marketing #development #reactjs #nextjs #wordpress #webdesign #webdev #userexperience #ecommerce #accessibility #humandesign

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When doing user research - I love Airtable for organizing content. It allows you to do so across multiple dimensions and slice/dice your analysis how you want to. So you could in theory, mark each person/quote on a problem dimension, usability, existing tools, etc. and then see patterns and filter in lots of ways. So the organization (in whatever tool) largely comes down to what you are trying to uncover. I think unless you are doing a very coarse analysis, in airtable I would have each "row" be a response (or even a individual quote). Then there would be a column for the person, a column for the question (maybe a new columns as to what the question was trying to illicit - your intent), then successive columns for the multiple dimensions you would annotate on. This then becomes your master table. From there, you can slice and dice but you are always building on raw data that cuts nicely

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AI is the buzzword of the day, but it's simply the next step in our technology evolution. Evolving generative AI interactions are repeating human-computer interaction history. Remember those green screens and books filled with computer prompts, or learning how to use a search engine? Perhaps you do, maybe you don't, but either way AI has modified the way we do this by using natural language! #AI #technologyevolution #naturalanguageprocessing

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Who are your partners in Design process? At the start of my first job, the screens were being parachuted in. I wasn't sure about the source :-) Fast forward 2.5 decades, I play an active role in UX Design process and critique the flaws like everyone I work with. Designers have scaled the design ladder since, the way they see it. Most often UI -> UX Designer -> CXO (which is still half-a-seat at the Table, unfortunately). The push for design deliverables at every Sprint is a Costs game. Design thinking and co-design workshops didn't manage to actually engage non-designers and "doing" design returned to designers. Strategic and ownership driven designers shine while others struggle to keep up with 'deliverables'. When I think about it, "everybody designs" wasn't sustainable in the first place. I believe poor understanding of the USER GOALS further slowed the setup of Design culture in organisations. What are your thoughts?

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The reactions vary wildly when stakeholders hear the acronym, "PRD." Some folks dread them in companies with rigid ways of working. Those are our traumatized Product Managers in the crowd. The phrase, "That's not in the PRD!" rings loud on loop for them. (Poor one out for the jaded PMs out there). Other folks hate them because they represent planning work. Planning? Ugh. Defining scope? Eww. Timelines? Not very sexy. Especially when UX has "the Figmas" ...and Engineering has live demos. Some folks ask, "PR-what?" Product. Requirement. Docs. The thing that maintains alignment. It keeps your 4itB, 3itB, or maybe (but not hopefully) your 40itB on the same page. For the Fortune 1? PRDs are great for CYA. For the Fortune None? They're for tracking of your ever-changing scope (and maturing your fledgling org via forcing tough decisions). Oh yeah. And it rolls up into your roadmap. They are as flexible and adaptable as your Product leader needs them to be. And your company's SDLC maturity needs them to be. Ideally, the former drives the latter (but that's for another day). DM any questions you have on PRDs and how they could drive value for your org.

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Most designers are trained to present work to our peers, but as your career matures, your audience expands to include many other departments who don’t speak “design”. This article resonated with me and offers some sage advice about the use of storytelling and a “business lens” to craft more compelling presentations. #ProductDesign #Storytelling #UserResearch #BusinessObjectives

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Over my 20 years in the industry, one key insight has stood out: product design is not just an aesthetics —it's a critical method for validating ideas quickly and effectively. At every company, I champion the notion that #ValidationStartsWithDesign. This philosophy is built on the understanding that rapid iteration and feedback are essential for successful product development. Here’s how I approach it: 🖌️ 1 Hour Mockups: Quickly translating concepts into visual formats allows teams to see and feel the idea early on. 🔧 2 Hour Prototypes: Developing interactive prototypes helps to explore functionality and user experience, providing a tangible basis for feedback. 📞 15 Min Stakeholder Call: Engaging with stakeholders and customers early and often ensures that the product is on the right track, based on real user needs and reactions. By integrating design deeply into the validation process, we empower teams to iterate swiftly and align closely with their users’ needs. This method not only accelerates the development cycle but also reduces the risks associated with building untested products. I’ve seen firsthand how this approach can transform ideas into successful products, saving time and resources while maximizing impact. Remember, the faster we validate, the faster we succeed. #DesignThinking #ProductDevelopment #Innovation #UXDesign #Prototyping #CustomerFeedback

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