Shipping does not conclude design, because only the death of business is able to conclude design. That notwithstanding, there remain deep questions about what happens to design after it’s put in front of customers.
In this lesson, we’ll talk about the measurement, governance, and maintenance of quality design. Both of these are essential forms of design, and they tend to be overlooked in organizations that incorrectly believe that design “ends” once it’s been shipped or, worse, handed off to be built. How do we stick the landing?
Measurement
Obviously, there is measurement, one of the pillars of design. For design to have a future, design will be measured by designers.
We’ve written extensively about measurement in the past, but in short, value-based designers will acquire access to analytical tools so they can denote when a design decision shipped, and understand the period-over-period change in key metrics.
We will also experiment with new design decisions in order to de-risk their impact. By running experiments on our own design decisions, we’ll have clearer evidence to point to that our work will benefit the business. After all, sometimes we’ll be wrong!
Governance
Alright, now we’re into the meat of this lesson. Governance is the set of processes & guidelines that go into adapting shipped design. It includes:
Why to change design
When to change design
How to change design
Why to change design
You should make changes to your design when specific business goals mandate an improvement in your product’s quality. There should be a strategic component to all design.
In order to understand when design doesn’t fit your business’s strategy, you need a strategy.
Value-based design isn't for businesses that choose to lack a deliberate strategy. If you're just playing defense, or if your strategy shifts day to day, then you're probably reading the wrong post.
That being said, as of this writing, we're in the middle of a major shift in the economy and society. I think everyone gets a pass when changing their strategy. Heck, Draft is changing our strategy. So now is a great time to be conceiving of a strategy if you haven't done so before – or reworking a strategy that you might have set during a bygone time.
Let's talk about how to do that.
Creating strategy
When you listen to customers, you might get some of the following examples of their own needs:
Customers don’t know some important things about our product, and they need to in order to succeed.
Customers tell us they want to impress their friends with our product.
Our product tends to get used up within 5 months.
Manifested as business-focused strategies, these might look like:
We want our customers to learn as much as they can about our product.
We want our customers to take our product and impress their friends with it.
We want our customers to come back and buy from us, because by this point they’ve probably run out of our product.
None of these involve specific tactics yet. Tactics are the manifestation of a strategy in the form of specific actions taken in the business.
Breaking out that first strategic point, some tactics might look like:
Creating a knowledge base on our store
Providing an educational post-purchase campaign
Reaching out to customers with a Calendly link to schedule concierge onboarding
Are all of these the right answer? No. The right answer depends on the kind of business you’re running, and the kind of outcomes you want to create for your customers. You wouldn’t set up concierge onboarding if you sell barbecue supplies, but you would for your B2B SaaS.
When to change design
Avoid making significant changes to your design during major sale periods or promotions; otherwise, you won’t be able to measure it effectively. And by “major” I mean something on the order of Black Friday for most retailers; your fake invented Arbor Day promotion won’t cut it.
If your business is the sort that has promotions all the time, 1) why, and 2) you’ll need to recalibrate expectations. New design decisions need to be made and measured. Past performance during sale periods could potentially be used to normalize the data you’re getting in, so you can more clearly understand what your design decisions have done.
How to change design
Through measurement & experimentation, of course.
Maintenance
Technology gets old. New platforms are introduced. Refactorings happen. Design must be refreshed over time.
The maintenance of design does not fundamentally change the decisions that are made. Another coat of paint won’t change how an interface communicates & functions. But it must be done.
Maintaining strategy
Since design decisions come from strategy, it makes sense to start by maintaining the strategy. Long-term strategy is never discarded. Instead, it is maintained. Maintenance comes in the form of refinement. When we examine an existing strategy, we’re asking the following questions:
What ideas need to be clarified?
Do customer intentions only apply to a limited set of archetypes?
What are the consequences of this strategy?
How well have we already followed the strategy?
If the strategy has already been executed appropriately, what do we need to do to adapt?
These questions inform how we will be refining our strategy going forward. One is never done with the process.
Maintenance tactics
Once design has been shipped, most third-party teams have flex funds that allow you to make updates on an hourly basis. If you’re a larger business, you may wish to hire in-house in order to make more updates more frequently, while getting the benefit of a person who more intimately knows your feature set & business issues.
Regardless, it’s worth incorporating the build process into the strategic planning – especially if you’re working with in-house designers, as they will likely be planning considerable value-based work alongside executives.