Building High Performing Teams.
Ubisoft Toronto | 2024
UX Director.
Inherited baggage.
This is a case study of how I built a process that guaranteed stakeholder approval and reduced time-to-approval by 300%.
I inherited a UX UI team that was relentlessly understaffed and lacking cohesion.
I was aware there were many flight risks on the team, as well as the lack of any process that would deliver good results consistently.
While I attempted to support the UX designers, it was when I was embedded in the [redacted] team that I was able to make a significant impact.
I identified that there was no formula for successful design approval.
Angles of attack.
It was clear very early on that the process was broken, if there was ever any.
The team was often guessing, flailing and in their frustration, infighting.
There were three major areas I identified for improvement.
Transparency and buy in.
Meeting structure.
Soft skills and documentation.
Transparency & buy in.
The team needed to support the ideas that made it to approval. This helps reduce disruptive comments at critical moments like stakeholder approval meetings.
To create buy in, I began the practice of conducting “first look” meetings, where anyone interested is able to attend and observe how the UX UI team reads through Game Design Documents (GDDs) and ideates on potential solutions.
Meeting structure.
If no one likes meetings, its not because meetings are a waste of time; its usually because their time is being wasted in them.
After a month of observation, I realized the team was missing 3 key components from their meetings:
Intention of why they meet.
Outcomes to align on.
Action items, post meeting.
Soft skills & documentation.
Arguably the one thing that supercharged the team’s ability to gain both buy in, but also enthusiastic approval from stakeholders.
Often times, my team would have several complicated features approved with zero questions or push back in the same approval session. This was an incredible improvement for a team that was struggling to convince stakeholders to approve feature designs a mere 5 months ago.