I designed and implemented a discovery process that has proven to deliver innovative solutions at a faster pace, improve communication across the company, and increase the happiness of the team.

Situation

On a few projects previously, major obstacles had arisen late in the development process and the Product and Engineering teams had to hit pause while we figured out how to overcome them, sometimes backtracking significantly as a result. 

When this happened we lose momentum and it is demoralising for everyone on the team.

Objective

Identify how we might prevent big technical issues arising late in the process by defining a discovery process that will ensure faster delivery in future. 

• The process must encompass all key Product and Design activities from problem exploration to designing a solution.

• The process must clarify how Engineering should be involved in the Discovery phase.

• The terminology must assist communication between Product, Design and Engineering.

• It should also support reporting of project progress to the Senior Leadership Team.

Approach

I facilitated conversations with Product, Research, Design and Engineering to clarify an end-to-end product design process:

• Specifying and retaining what works well in our current design process.

• Identifying where major issues could have been spotted earlier.

• Defining key activities, who needs to be involved, deliverables and decision-making points.

• Ensuring milestones are in place for critical activities with assigned owners and deliverables.

Challenges

• Ensuring flexibility and agility for different sized projects.

• Making it memorable for everyone.

• Convincing team members that these new steps aren’t intended to remove autonomy.

Outcomes

• A clear process, with agreement across Engineering, Product, Design and SLT that we use this process to encourage delivering at pace.

• Distinct stages that is continually referenced to guide the team in meetings and discussions.

• Terminology that is recognised by the SLT and the Board and used in business reporting.

• A reduction in obstacles arising late in the process.

• Proven to be robust and flexible for a variety of successfully launched projects.

• Positively impacted employee confidence and happiness in the team.

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