How implementing quality gates, dashboards, and team restructuring delivered 91% reduction in usability enhancing user trust and business impact.
Company:
Unico IDTech
Type of projecto:
Redesign of Digital Products Focused on Interface Quality and Product Strategy
Outcome / Output
- 91% reduction in usability debt
- Increase in team seniority from 3.5 to 5.2
Date:
June – September 2023 (4 months)
Role: Head de UX
As a leader, I took responsibility for restructuring the design team, improving the quality of outputs, and ensuring greater strategic influence of design in product decisions.
Key Actions:
- Implemented Experience Review: A mandatory product quality gate.
- Developed Metrics and Dashboards: Tools to monitor interface quality and efficiency.
- Restructured the Team: Promoted new talents to enhance team maturity.
Context
Before:
The design team at Unico faced challenges in delivering high-quality interfaces and had limited strategic influence. Products were being launched with usability debts, compromising user experience. Additionally, design was seen as a reactive function, with low involvement in product discussions. The team’s low seniority affected the quality and strategic impact of its work.
Objective:
To improve interface quality, increase the strategic influence of the design team, and align their work with Unico’s business objectives.
Problem Statement
How can we improve the quality of interfaces and ensure the design team has strategic influence in product decisions, resulting in better outputs and impactful business results?
Solution Delivered
Experience Review: Introduced a mandatory quality gate evaluating visual design, content, and usability before product launches.
Metrics Dashboards: Developed tools to monitor design quality, efficiency, and team maturity in real-time.
Radar Unico: Designed and launched a new product to alert users of fraudulent attempts to misuse their biometric data and identity, enhancing trust.
Team Restructuring: Increased seniority and expanded the design team, delivering more mature outputs and driving strategic impact across 12 products in three Business Units (BUs).
Process and Methodology
Business:
Aligned interface quality goals with Unico’s strategic OKRs, ensuring design was directly connected to business outcomes.
People:
Established a clear career development plan for designers, enhancing autonomy and seniority.
Collaborated with managers and stakeholders to integrate design into product decision-making processes.
Processes:
Created the Experience Review, a product quality gate preventing usability debts.
Implemented quality metrics and dashboards to track progress and impact in real-time.
Communication:
Fostered transparent communication with stakeholders, using dashboards to align expectations and prioritize impactful initiatives.
Quality:
Reinforced interface quality as a central metric for success, ensuring all deliveries were critiqued and usability debts were addressed pre-launch.
Efficiency:
Restructured the design team to manage 12 products across three BUs efficiently, improving delivery timelines and team productivity.
Results
91% reduction in usability debt through Experience Review implementation.
Seniority improvement: team average increased from 3.5 to 5.2 in four months.
Enhanced operational efficiency, enabling the team to lead 12 products across 3 BUs.
Radar Unico launch: a strategic product that strengthened trust and mitigated identity fraud risks.
Key Learnings
Implementing quality gates and metrics can elevate design’s role in decision-making, transforming it into a strategic function.
Structured career development increases team seniority and maturity, leading to higher-quality outputs.
Collaborative alignment between design and stakeholders ensures that initiatives address both user needs and business goals effectively.
Impact
My leadership in driving these changes resulted in my promotion to Director of Design, overseeing 34 designers across three BUs. My ongoing responsibility includes expanding the strategic influence of design and maintaining high interface quality standards.
The success of Radar Unico exemplifies how aligning design with business metrics and user experience can maximize impact and create long-term value.