November 27, 2019
3 min Read
Benas B.
About a year ago, we couldn’t deliver a new design as fast as we wanted to. It wasn’t clear what should we do and what has been done. We tried implementing Kanban boards, agile scrum methodologies, but none of them fully fit our needs. However, we started mixing some detailed guidelines from Fortune’s 100 Best Companies list and came up with our version of design sprints.
Today, we want to share the most important lessons we learned from this journey.
We began brainstorming about the best design process we can think of – fast-paced, high quality, and non-exhausting planning methods were the first things that came to our minds. We wanted tasks to be easily adjustable, capable of being estimated enough so that other teams could plan their work. Here are some of the key deliverables that we needed to use in our system:
We decided to use five elements in our design sprints:
Every step is carefully designed to achieve designers’ personal growth and to raise new challenges. We track every task, plan, and participate in evaluation processes together.
For planning, we use GitHub and Google Sheets. Our developers use GitHub, so for the designers, this is a must-have at Hostinger. Other teams assign our designers when they need something in particular, and we add those issues to our backlog.
We create a project on GitHub to reflect this timeline. We divide tasks into three different columns – Backlog, Sprint Tasks, and Done. The Backlog is where every issue is added, while Sprint Tasks is used for planning for the following week. Once we are done, we drop the issue to the Done column.
Every Monday, we have a short 30-minute meeting to prioritize tasks for the upcoming week. We find a cozy environment for all of us to meet. Bringing a cup of coffee along is essential! We mark tasks that are crucial and need fast fixing.
We assign tasks throughout the team and make sure everyone is confident with the task that they get. If there are any questions about the job, they should be answered before the design creation process.
We do believe that work doesn’t reflect your personality, and it only shows your result on a specific task. We try to empower critical thinking and give brief feedback to each other by endorsing a design critique session.
Throughout the week, there are many different types of tasks – from banners to website designs and even product design systems. In order to improve, we look at our weaknesses and check what we have learned, making any changes to achieve better results.
It’s crazy to think that only a year ago we didn’t have any clear vision on how to handle large scale tasks with other teams. Today, we successfully cooperate and deliver the product that is expected – from planning to execution.
February 18, 2020
Wow very exciting to read, very important information. Great plan for building your business.
Andrius S.
Replied on February 19, 2020
Pleased you liked it!