Enabling Design Maturity in a Rapidly Growing Organisation
Sinch is a global cloud communications platform as a service (PaaS) company with a headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden and offices in over 30 cities worldwide. Their rapid growth and expansion through acquisitions created a large design team. With Design Managers overwhelmed by managerial responsibilities, Sinch recognized a need for dedicated oversight and support. I took on the role to address these challenges and make meaningful contributions to the design ecosystem.
Client
Sinch
Date / Duration:
3 Months
Role:
Principal Product Designer
Background
Sinch experienced rapid growth and expansion through acquisitions, resulting in a large team of designers. With Design Managers being overwhelmed by managerial responsibilities, there was a need for someone to provide detailed oversight and support. I was brought in to address these challenges and make meaningful contributions to the design ecosystem.
Responsibility:
- Defined and enhanced design processes and practices.
- Mentored and guided junior designers.
- Advised them on their mega project of consolidating all their different platforms.
Audit findings
- The existing design system failed to prevent design inconsistencies across the platform.
- Frequent misunderstandings with developers led to extensive follow-up meetings, hindering development efficiency.
- Vague task definitions resulted in inaccurate estimations, disrupting project timelines.
- The lack of a defined design process led to confusion and inefficiencies.
- The absence of documentation created knowledge gaps and slowed progress.
Solutions
- Established a standardized design process (outlining distinct phases like research, ideation, prototyping, etc., and clarifying deliverables for each stage).
- Focused on problem definition (ensuring user stories and problem statements are clearly articulated before solutioning).
- Documented rationale and design decisions (fostering transparency, aiding future reference, and streamlining collaboration).
- Implemented structured feedback mechanisms (defining how and when feedback is gathered, integrated, and communicated).
- Created clear completion criteria (defining what “done” looks like for each design task or project phase).
- Outlined deliverables and expectations (specifying required formats, content, and any accompanying documentation).
Results
- Within just two weeks, meetings with developers and other stakeholders decreased significantly. Development syncs specifically for clarifying design were eliminated by the third week.
- Junior designers gained a clear path to follow. Established a new structure to enhance existing processes, even though some digitisation efforts and a central database remained as future goals.
