UX LEAD / UX STRATEGY

Scaling a Design Team from 2 to 20+:
Challenges, Leadership, and Solutions

 

Mission

Improve UX maturity by expanding the design team and implementing user-centered processes for a global client

Key Focus Areas

Recruitment and mentoring
UX Processes
UX Strategy

Duration

October 2021
July 2023

 

1) When I joined the client AGCO, the UX team was just two designers. Within 20 month, we scaled to over twenty designers.
This required strategic onboarding, process development, and leadership to keep the growing team aligned.

2) When I joined AGCO, the UX team was just two designers, and the company was looking to improve its UX processes and shift towards a more user-centric approach.
Over the next 20 months, we scaled the team to over twenty designers.
This growth required strategic onboarding, process development, and leadership to not only keep the team aligned but also to elevate the company’s UX maturity.
Through the introduction of user-centered design practices and consistent processes, we helped AGCO move closer to its goal of creating a more user-focused product experience.

 
 

⛰️Challenges

Limited Team Size

The team, initially just two designers, lacked the capacity to support the wide range of digital products, from e-commerce platforms to advanced B2B configurators.

Skill Disparity

New hires brought varying levels of expertise, particularly in the area of design systems, creating inconsistencies in the work produced.

Onboarding Delays

The rapid expansion of the team often outpaced the technical setup, causing delays in providing new hires with necessary tools and resources.

Risk of Silos

As the team grew, maintaining open communication and collaboration across various project teams became more challenging, risking duplication of efforts and misalignment.

 

🗺️Actions Taken

Team Growth Strategy through a Customer Journey Map

To structure the team and guide our expansion strategy, I created a customer journey map.
Based on user research and interviews with global farmers, this customer journey map details the tractor's lifecycle from purchase to resale.
This artefact would outlines the potential frictions in the process, defining the strategy to the future UX team.

Building the team

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Onboarding Process

I created and implemented a comprehensive onboarding process, ensuring new designers were quickly integrated into the team. This included both technical setup and one-on-one briefings to align new hires with the company’s design vision and workflows.

Knowledge Sharing

Monthly meetings were organized to allow experienced designers to share their expertise with the broader team.
In addition, I established common asset libraries to standardize resources and ensure consistency in design outputs.

Communication Strategy

To prevent silos and ensure ongoing alignment, I introduced weekly alignment meetings and monthly case study presentations. These initiatives promoted continuous collaboration and knowledge sharing, helping to unify the team’s efforts across different projects.

Training Initiatives

I advocated for targeted training sessions to help less experienced designers improve their skills, particularly in creating and managing UI design systems, which were crucial for the scalability of our digital platforms.

 

⛰️Results

Successful Team Expansion

The UX team grew from 2 to over 20 designers within 20 months, significantly enhancing our ability to manage and deliver complex digital projects.

Improved Onboarding (???) better ux processes

The streamlined onboarding process facilitated quicker integration of new hires, leading to better team cohesion and productivity from day one

Enhanced Communication

Weekly and monthly meetings helped maintain alignment across the team, reducing duplicated efforts and ensuring that all projects adhered to a consistent design vision.

Skill Development

The targeted training sessions effectively elevated the expertise of less experienced team members, resulting in higher-quality design outputs across the board.

Positive Client Feedback

The client consistently praised the high-quality, innovative designs delivered by the expanded and well-aligned UX team, reflecting the success of our strategic approach.

UX maturity

user centered design

 

The impact of these initiatives was significant. The shared UI library reduced design inconsistencies and sped up the design process by over thirty percent. The structured onboarding process allowed new designers to become productive within their first two weeks, compared to a month previously. Regular meetings helped the team stay connected and fostered a strong collaborative culture, despite the geographical distances. As a result, we were able to deliver higher-quality work more efficiently, with a more cohesive team.

 

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