Why planning together matters
Reflections on the importance and benefits of quarterly planning as a team.

The story behind it

When I took on the role of design manager there was a major shift in the whole UXDR org at company. We aligned directly with the product teams and were less of a service to other teams but rather a vital partner in the product lifecycle. This brought visibility of how product and engineering teams were planning on a yearly and quarterly basis and we needed to find a better way to work together.

I worked closely with another design manager from the wider design team as we needed to find a consistent way to plan that gave us overall flexibility to move designers from area to area if need be. 

We received a list of initiatives from the product team and it became apparent that what they wanted to achieve in the quarter was beyond our capacity. We went back to the team and asked them to prioritise their initiatives. This was going to give us the starting point for planning.

Each product manager prioritised their wishlist of initiatives using the MoSCoW method but there wasn't an overall priority list across the verticals. With the design team being quite small in comparison to the product team, and with single designers sharing their time across multiple verticals this was going to make it more difficult to plan.

This was our first step into planning but we knew that working solely on what product prioritised was not where we wanted to be.
It was important for us to be partners in deciding which initiatives we would prioritise and why.

Today we've come a long way from when we started planning 1.5 years ago. We started off by taking the Product teams lead on what we were going to do in the quarter. Today we actively drive these decisions in partnership with product.
The planning process has given the design team clarity on the business roadmap and allowed us to expose stakeholders to the UCD process and the power of our insights. It has opened the doors to more honest discussions and has allowed us to collaboratively achieve a roadmap which we all believe in.

How we plan as a design team today

 We use Miro to plan, it is a familiar tool that design, product and other stakeholders can collaboratively work on and view at any time. I have created a template that my team and other teams can duplicate and use every quarter.

The process for planning starts a 1.5 months before the quarter starts.

1. I link up with the product team lead on how the initiatives of the current quarter are progressing and we discuss and agree what we aim to tackle in the next quarter.  These agreements are based on our OKR's, ongoing work, wider business initiatives and new insights. 

2. 1 month before the quarter starts the product team share the list of initiatives based on our alignment and alignment with the engineering team. These are shared in a forum where all designers are present and it is an opportunity to ask questions, discuss the initiatives and clarify any dependencies.

3. Over the next 2 weeks UX design and research planning takes place. These are multiple sessions I set up with my team where we collaboratively plan the initiatives.

We look at the initiatives in priorty order and ask ourselves the following:

Is it an ongoing or a completely new initiative?

What is today's state of play? 

What do we know about it? 

How can we apply UCD process to it?

Do we need discovery? 

Will we need to involve other teams?

Is it connected to another initiative and has dependencies?

What workshop will we hold?

Will we run a design sprint?

I encourage the designers to think about how they want to do to tackle the initiative, to think about their time management and express freely their thoughts and concerns. At the end of the process they will be committing  to plan and so it is vital the plan reflects their practice and capacity. For some designers this is not an easy task and can take getting used to. I guide them along the way and quarter by quarter it becomes easier. 

Aligning with stakeholders

Planning isn't a closed room affair and it is my job to make sure that we reach the end of this planning process with absolute clarity. I keep contact with the product managers and other relevant stakeholders throughout the process. I let them know if there are priority clashes between initiatives, we discuss how to resolve them and I feed this back into the planning sessions with my team.

Once the process is complete I plan a session with all the design team and product team to take them through the final planning board. Discussing the different milestones and what we aim to do for each phase of the project. This is also the moment in which we make clear what is out of scope from a process and a resource perspective

Having this final session is important as it establishes the plan and get buy in from all team members. The board is freely shared with our stakeholders who can refer back to it.

What happens next?

The design planning board is a living a breathing document. We know that sometimes priorities change, there are uncontrollable blockers or time lines may slip due to the nature and complexity of the project. As the quarter progresses we look back at the board every 2 weeks and adjust as needed. We communicate these changes to the stakeholders and let them know if these changes affect other dependencies.

Final reflections

Overall UX planning is beneficial to all those involved and as a design manager I can say it is a core capability of my job.
The process of planning creates space for discussions to happen and agreements to be made. It is where everyone plays a key part and fosters ownership of work and time. These elements I believe are fundamental to productivity and produce a whole host of benefits which I list below.

The benefits of UX planning:

• Clear direction

• Agreement and buy-in from stakeholders from the start of the period

• Fosters collaboration

• Clarity on capacity and no surprises

• Designers have ownership of their projects and processes

• Improved time management for designers

• Encourages transparency and freedom to challenge

• Opportunity to display resourcing needs and have meaningful conversations

If you have any questions about the project get in touch 😀 vera@veramarin.com