My Process
The process varies depending on the specific problems we are trying to solve, but I always engage with users, product stakeholders and engineers along the way.
- Understand the context and basic requirements from product managers. Ask questions to figure out the What, Why, What-if and How.
- Reach out to users to learn about their current workflows and pain points, map out use cases and scenarios. Circle back with product managers on user input, call out what’s missing from the initial requirements. Define problems, users, goals and metrics together.
- Explore design options, brainstorm with PMs and engineers. For workflow-heavy features, come up with wireframes and flowcharts driven by use cases; For reports, charts, data grids and other modules, explore different visualization options. Optimize for clarity and actionable insights.
- Build prototypes to show end-to-end flows or micro-interactions.
- Run critiques with the design team and present designs to product stakeholders along the way to get feedback from different angles. Share works-in-progress with engineers to find better and more feasible options.
- Share designs with users, let them play with the prototypes, get user feedback and iterate. Try and land on options that fulfill optimal value for users, business, and engineering.
- Work with engineers on edge cases, error states, loading & empty states etc. Make sure designs are consistent with the design system.
- T-shirt size the vision, come up with the viable version for phase 1 and plans for enhancements.
- Provide designs and specs. QA and work with engineers on fixes and tweaks.
- After launching the feature, track usage metrics and user feedback, work with PMs to define enhancements and opportunities, come up with improved designs and work with engineers to implement them.
