Here’s an example of how I structure my research and designs to team members such as my direct manager (creative director), founder & CEO, CMO, and the rest of the design team. I value accessibility and bringing people into the process, even if someone wasn’t part of the project from the start (which happened often with busy C-suite stakeholders), or if someone isn’t familiar with design terms. First, we state our purpose: It’s our north star to guide us in decision making. Why are we doing this? What are we trying to communicate? Where will these designs live? Now that we’ve aligned on purpose, we diverge: research and find references. Collect inspiration from different corners of the internet, see what direct competitors are doing, what non-industry brands are doing that we can learn from or freshen up our perspective. Then, we converge: assess our findings and narrow down our choices. Are any common themes popping out? Is there a specific concept that people are connecting with? I’ve found that this approach helps our design team collaborate better with other teams, and grows trust between them.
