Company: T-Mobile
Role: Design manager, information architect, art direction
Dates: February 2008 – January 2012
Situation
T-Mobile was looking to create a unique and exclusive franchise device for its product portfolio. By leveraging its investment in Android and the relationship with HTC, the design team supported the product development team to deliver a fully skinned UI and heavily customized device experience.
Task
By leveraging its investment in Android and the relationship with HTC, the design team supported the product development team to deliver a fully skinned UI and heavily customized device experience.
Unfamiliar with Lean or Agile processes, I needed to define a collaborative, product design process (a type of precursor to the Design Sprint) to work cross-functionally with Product owners, Engineers and executive stakeholders.
Action
As design manager, I led a team of 5-7 designers through concept development, testing, prototyping, specification, asset production and final delivery.
I redefined the way the business engaged the design team and drove us towards a new and highly collaborative approach. The Design Point of View (POV) process and document I defined has become the de facto way of engaging design for product development at T-Mobile. By applying the 80-20 rule, the design team could focus on the key use cases responsible for the bulk of the experience.
Unlike the Design Sprint, the POV process spread out the tasks of vision-setting, use case definition, concept sketching, prototyping and testing over a 4 – 6 week period. This was a much lighter lift for the organization and much less disruptive. At the end of the process, there is a slide deck covering all core use cases, a validated conceptual direction, and any key decisions that were made along the way. This becomes the “source of truth” for the team and a great design brief for moving the design forward.
Results
Quicker decision-making, more buy-in, less design churn and a more efficient use of design resources overall.
Delivered the first in a series of uniquely differentiated franchise devices while implementing a new, agile, design engagement model and process (POV).