From Good to Great: How to Make Your Design Team Love Changes
Change is often a stressful event. Changing jobs, breaking up, or moving to a new city or country requires resources, bravery, and faith. However, changes are essential; they can be life-saving.
Humanity possesses remarkable resilience and the ability to adapt to changes. In today’s fast-evolving market, quicker and more effective adaptation can provide a significant competitive advantage. Altering the status quo within a company can be challenging and fraught with uncertainty, whether introducing AI technology to boost performance, restructuring the team, or transitioning to a new task management system.
When managing a design team, it’s crucial to consider several key factors before implementing any changes. Without these factors, you might kill your team's creative spirit and motivation.
In this article, I will analyze the change process for design teams based on Kurt Lewin’s change model, which involves three steps: unfreezing, changing, and refreezing. For Lewin, the change process consists of first understanding that change is needed, moving forward to change, and finally solidifying that new behavior as the norm.
There are the main stages of change implementation for the design team that we will analyze:
Through this article, I aim to reflect on my past mistakes and hopefully spare countless neurons of our dedicated managers striving to “unfreeze” the status quo.
Define the problem
What if we treat change management as a design project? It shall provide control over the execution of the change and bring measurable results. Recognizing the necessity to implement changes is the first crucial step.
Design teams often face multiple problems, and it’s important not to try to solve them all simultaneously. For example, your design team might face an increased workload, a feedback loop and difficulties in communication with stakeholders. It can be challenging to address them all at once. Instead, analyze, prioritize, and address them one by one. Which problem poses the most immediate threat to the team? Which problems can wait?
If you have trouble identifying causes for change and have doubts, you can use one of the frameworks described in this Structured Problem-Solving Using Frameworks-2 article by Sharan Harsoor. Personally, I find SWOT analysis the most efficient when working with an in-house design team. However, business model canvas can also be beneficial, especially for design agencies and outsourcing companies.
Engage the team from the start. Ask them about their daily challenges, involve them in brainstorming sessions, and allow them to participate actively in the change before it happens. Designers thrive on creativity, solving existing problems by rethinking and brainstorming innovative solutions. Just trust your team.
Skipping this stage is like neglecting user interviews; you risk investing in an unfit, invalid solution. However, remember that the manager, not the team, is responsible for the introduced changes.
Prepare the team
Involving the team in finding a solution helps gain their support from the beginning and generates creative ideas. However, the manager must know when to end the discussion and move to actual changes.
I have witnessed managers introducing changes rapidly without consulting their teams. Even with unshakable trust, these changes often required extensive discussions and adjustments during the transition. In the worst-case scenario, teams resisted the change, failed to adopt it, and consequently lost trust in management.
Involving the team requires time and patience, but it’s crucial. As the saying goes, you get a chicken by hatching an egg. You will benefit from not rushing into changes.
Remember, designers are creators. To produce great designs, they need ample time, good coffee, and, occasionally, a muse. Changes can often disrupt our usual workflow, requiring time for adjustment. Therefore, preparing a comprehensive, step-by-step schedule for adopting changes in advance is wise. It can also be helpful to temporarily reduce the design team’s production volume until everyone has adapted to the new rules.
Additionally, ensure you have the support of your management team. Present your action plan to your superior manager to gain their backing.
Introduce the change
Have you ever seen users happy with a radical design update in their favorite app? If so, please let me know so I can restore my faith in humanity. People often feel a loss of control and dislike surprises even if they will love the new update later.
This phenomenon is well explained by the Change Curve model (attributed to psychiatrist Elisabeth Kubler-Ross). This model describes how people react to changes: shock/denial, anger/fear, acceptance, and commitment. As the change hits, people will experience fear of negative consequences, inner protest, and resistance. Moreover, these feelings might grow and expand inside the team due to the ripple effect even before the introduced changes bring positive results.
If you didn’t onboard the team before making a change, now is the time. Explain in detail what the change will bring to each team member. Major changes affecting workloads, skills, and tasks can be challenging. Lead discussions and be transparent about ongoing changes, which will help the team adjust faster.
Document your change if you want it to survive. Numerous instances have occurred where a new UX flow or design system change was introduced but went unused because people reverted to their old working methods. Therefore, documenting new changes or sets of rules is vital for ensuring sustainable and effective change.
Documentation can be preserved in a central location, such as your company’s wiki or Confluence. This resource should be accessible for team members, especially for new employees and interactions with other departments.
Transition period
The transition period helps the team adjust, answer questions, and learn new rules. Managers must educate their teams on the new system's advantages and disadvantages. Providing this adjustment period helps ensure a smoother transition and allows the team to integrate changes more effectively and sustainably.
According to Rosabeth Moss Kanter, professor at Harvard Business School, “In the middle, everything looks like a failure” (Kanter’s law). During this period, the team might lose faith and energy. They need the solution to be successful and stay motivated, but they also need motivation to make the solution successful. It’s a challenging cycle.
Addressing problems created by the change, such as increased workload or miscommunication, is crucial. Caring for your team’s needs builds trust and motivation.
Gaining support from informal leaders within the team can be beneficial. These are individuals with experience, seniority, or influence whom others listen to. If informal leaders are on board, they can help with documentation, create educational materials, and actively participate in the changes.
If the change considers some established design processes or systems or requires further professional development, allocate time and budget for training. Provide a clear and transparent adaptation plan. For instance, when we transitioned to Figma, we implemented a month-long adaptation period that included time for education and training.
Measure results
Don’t wait three months to measure the change's success. Depending on the team size, there will likely be 1–2 turbulent weeks of adjustment. However, start measuring results from day one.
For instance, when our team transitioned to Jira for task management, several issues became apparent in the first week. One major problem was that not all our reporters were familiar with or had used Jira before. We addressed this promptly by creating guidelines and educating our reporters on collaborating effectively with the design team using this new system.
Providing regular and easy feedback methods to address concerns promptly is crucial. For instance, you could implement an automated bi-weekly survey to assess the team’s condition and gather their feedback. Despite being open and professional, people may hesitate to voice their issues directly to their manager, especially in a group.
Finally, if the change creates more problems than it solves, be prepared to revert it. Admitting mistakes can help regain the team’s trust and find a solution.
When the change is established, problems are resolved, and the team is content and motivated, celebrate the success and share what you learned within the company. Ideally, the team’s success can inspire other teams to improve.
Conclusion
Managing change effectively in a rapidly evolving market is crucial for maintaining a competitive edge. By following a structured approach like Kurt Lewin’s change model, leaders can navigate the complexities of change management with greater confidence and success. Clear communication, team engagement, adequate training, and continuous support are vital components of this process. Humans are adaptable, which is why we have survived for so long.
Remember, change is not just about implementing new systems or structures; it’s about guiding people through the transition. This is especially true when working with a design team, where it is crucial to preserve the creative spirit. Managers can lead their teams through change more smoothly by prioritizing team members' needs and concerns, fostering a culture of flexibility, and being prepared to adjust strategies.
Useful resources:
Head of CRM at Startups | ex-Google, Virgin & Sky | Mentor & Coach | Speaker: CRM & Lifecycle Strategy
1yGreat article Chris. I love the way you blended theory and real-world practise. In terms of future topics I’d be interested in exploring the complexity which comes from data driven decision making. Marketing and product teams increasingly rely on data to drive decisions. While data is valuable, it can sometimes lead to a preference for what has worked in the past rather than exploring new, creative solutions. Designers may find it challenging to justify innovative ideas that are not directly supported by existing data. How do you balance this scenario? Keep going, looking forward to reading more as you have a incredibly interesting perspective to share.