Successful and happy Product Design teams

How to build successful Product Design teams?

This week, one of the Agile Coaches came to me and said: Your team seems to be working great together, you have a very good synchronisation. Also, it’s not only me noticing it. What did you do with your team, how did you make it happen?

Photo by Rod Long on Unsplash

I must admit that those were one of the sweetest and touching compliments I have ever received in a professional environment. I mean, there have been a bunch of them before but none of them triggered me to write a Medium article.

First of all, let’s reflect on my path up until this point. I have experience in many different types of environments including agencies, freelance, prop-tech, med-tech, insurance, e-commerce, startups etc as well as working in different countries experiencing different cultures and various ways of approaching and thinking of work. This has all been a journey of around 15 years by growing professionally, personally, and learning from others.

In this particular case, when someone asks me about how I do it to achieve the current state of my team and its collaboration, I don’t have a definite answer right away. Absolutely, I have learned from a lot of UX and other discipline leaders, read a lot of books, participated in a lot of knowledge sharing sessions, workshops, and other creative activities. At the same time, all the external learnings have always been filtered, tested on my own skin, and then applied (or not) in my professional environment. An appropriate use of the gathered knowledge and experience has been the way that probably was used most of the time. However, let me try to define some of the high-level elements* that are critical for building successful UX / Product Design teams with today’s (Q3 2022) eyes.

Dedication

There’s a saying that you gotta do what you got to do. I’d also like to add that you gotta love what you do. Why? Because without love and passion you won’t be able to cut the bread even with a sharp knife (I. Ziedonis reference). You have to be there at all times when possible and help the ones in need, yourself, colleagues, the company you work for, and so on. In addition, dedication towards the continuous learning and self development has also taken a great part of my focus and energy so that I can stay on top of the game and feel more confident in my decisions and actions.

Diversity & tolerance

The diversity of opinions is crucial for not stumbling on the group thinking stone. As we know, group thinking can sink a lot of companies and that’s not the way we want to go. Also, diversity in your team in all shapes and sizes will contribute to the environment where everyone feels appreciated, heard, respected, and proud of their own self, actions, and opinions one might have. Make sure to have a diverse team with diverse backgrounds while ensuring that everyone respects each other and are tolerant to fruitful discussions because that’s the source of amazing ideas and solutions.

Open-door policy

There’s not many doors one can enter or exit during the pandemic when working from home. However, being available and welcoming everyone in your team to come to you with any questions, feedback, or suggestions is something that will help set the rest of the people in a similar mindset. Working on silos is not difficult — just set your calendar to private, communicate only asynchronously and you’re reaching towards unapproachability — not the greatest path to success. On the contrary, staying collaborative is the fundamental element of internal UX activities.

Servant leadership

Are you listening to your colleagues or talking for most of your time in your 1:1s? Do you really act on fixing their difficulties? Do the members of your team have freedom of choice? And most importantly, do you help them succeed? Sure, you’ll lose some shine as a lead in the short term but you’ll establish yourself in a position as a go-to person because people will know that they can reach you out and you’ll help them. You’ll get followers quickly. And as Jared Spool says, you’re a leader once you have followers regardless the title you have.

Appreciation & gratitude

As we work together and spend time with each other even more than with some of our family members, the connections and relationships we create is something we face every day. Very often we forget to appreciate each other’s work and efforts. It is very simple and doesn’t take too much effort at all, it even makes everyone (including yourself) around you feel better and be more respectful towards each other. The environment we want to work in is totally dependent on our own wishes and actions. One cannot relax, take the back seat and expect the things happening and improving on their own. An active contribution to shaping the environment we are at will get ourselves and everyone around us closer to a desired setting.

Consistency

If we want to set our standards and follow them there’s got to be some good consistency in our thoughts, speech, and actions — either it’s from a moral, executional, or design standards perspective. We got to stay consistent and set the bar where we need to, thus showing professionalism and persistence when it comes to coworking and collaboration. Even on the personal level, there are things we let each other know why, how, and what and where it’s over the top. This is where we should take a step back for a bit. It’s like a fluid — invisible conscious common sense we all create and set together in our interactions as well as the consistent approach and standards on our deliverables.

Trust & freedom

Trust your team! It’s as simple as that. However, when the trust has been let down we need to communicate it in an open, respectful, and fair manner. If there’s been alignment on trust issues, people will understand where and how freedom and trust stand to each other and where to draw a line (or find the balance) between the two. Micro-management is way worse and you’ll have constant worry pretty much at each step. I haven’t witnessed any situation or setting in my career where the trust has been going hand in hand with controlling. It’s the freedom within a certain setting that allows us to learn and succeed.

Surely, I have missed some of the points at this very moment, therefore, feel free to provide some extra dimensions in the comments below.

Have a great day, enjoy your work, and enjoy each other!

*The list items have not been organised/listed by importance.