1. U X A S C R O S S
C O M P A N Y C U LT U R E
K R U N C H T I M E
I NT E RACT IV E
2. U X A S C R O S S
C O M P A N Y C U LT U R E
UX as cross company culture
„Design is often used as a
process to drive innovation, and design thinking is
seen by many as a requirement for a company to
be truly innovative.“
3. U X A S C R O S S
C O M P A N Y C U LT U R E
UX as cross company culture
„Innovation cannot happen in pockets. Instead, an
organization-wide rewiring for innovation is
required. What’s needed next are organizational
strategies that will foster smarter humans and
release combined human potential.“
4. U X A S C R O S S
C O M P A N Y C U LT U R E
Spotify
9. U X A S C R O S S
C O M P A N Y C U LT U R E
GLUE Templates
• Aligned UI elements and UX patterns for all platforms
• Creating a common vocabulary throughout all teams
• Fast adaption to new platforms
10. U X A S C R O S S
C O M P A N Y C U LT U R E
GLUE team
11. U X A S C R O S S
C O M P A N Y C U LT U R E
GLUE team
• Responsible to update and distribute a global UI/UX
language
• Supports and aligns with the different squad teams
13. U X A S C R O S S
C O M P A N Y C U LT U R E
Product Insight
Product Insights is a
team of about 40
which works closely
together with the
squads and tribes.
14. U X A S C R O S S
C O M P A N Y C U LT U R E
Product Insight
• Separate team which gathers user data a conducts user
tests for features
• Also works closely with squads and distributes
customer knowledge throughout the teams
16. U X A S C R O S S
C O M P A N Y C U LT U R E
Soundcheck
• Soundcheck is Spotify’s name for user testing
sessions
• They conduct testing sessions in house
• There’s a form that’s accessible to everyone in the
company, so that anyone can request a Soundcheck
session
17. U X A S C R O S S
C O M P A N Y C U LT U R E
Take aways
• Autonomous squads
• Cross functional teams
• Holistic guidelines
• Product Insight team
18. U X A S C R O S S
C O M P A N Y C U LT U R E
Slack
20. „U X A S C R O S S
C O M P A N Y C U LT U R E
OUR COMPANY IS LIKE A
24/ 7 LAB FOR US
Diogenes Brito, product designer and engineer at Slack
21. r
Design process
Briefing
Vaguely defined problem
statement
“The brief is not
prescriptive but more
about asking the right
questions so we can
explore in the right way,
knowing the boundaries of
the problem,”
Pair design
A team of designers and
developers is assigned
with the task.
Each discipline starts
evaluating the solution for
the briefing separately.
Each discipline as a pair.
Both disciplines align on
the respective dimensions
for the problem solution
Prototype
Depending on the task, a
prototype is generated.
Tool and fidelity depends
on the task.
Selection of tools by
whatever fits to answer the
questions with the least
amount of work.
With this starts the
iteration to find the
perfekt solution.
23. Sprint to the finish
Once design is complete, the team moves to a
development sprint model.
24. U X A S C R O S S
C O M P A N Y C U LT U R E
Take aways
• Don’t brief the solution
• Pair design
• Dogfooding
• Tools follows task
• Flexible exploration, structured development
25. U X A S C R O S S
C O M P A N Y C U LT U R E
Airbnb
26. E P I C O R C H A P T E R
Airbnb
Service description
27. „U X A S C R O S S
C O M P A N Y
C U LT U R E"STORYBOARDS SHOW US WHAT WORDS CAN'T."
Joe Gebbia, Airbnb Co-Founder & CPO
28. U X A S C R O S S
C O M P A N Y C U LT U R E
Project Snow White
29. U X A S C R O S S
C O M P A N Y C U LT U R E
Project Snow White
• For Project Snow White, the founders of Airbnb
hired a Pixar artist, to design story boards of all the
main user stories around the service
• Until today these journeys are displayed in the
offices and story boards are frequently used
ideation tool
30. Working at Airbnb - cross functional teams
Design
Product
Mngmnt
Engineer
Data
Scientist
Product
Mngmnt
Design
Engineer
Data
Scientist
Finance
Department
X
31. E P I C O R C H A P T E R
Design Language System
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32. U X A S C R O S S
C O M P A N Y C U LT U R E
DLS
• To provide a holistic design language, the Design
Language System was created
• It contains all main elements and styles used in for
the Airbnb service
• The general design and tools are managed by a
Design Ops team
• This team makes sure that all teams can work agile
and fluently, and the UX/UI is aligned over all
platforms and teams
33. U X A S C R O S S
C O M P A N Y C U LT U R E
Air Shots
34. U X A S C R O S S
C O M P A N Y C U LT U R E
Air Shots
Air Shots is an internal tool, which allows each
employee to find the most recent state for any
screen or component, for a respective platform and
language.
35. „U X A S C R O S S
C O M P A N Y C U LT U R E
BE THE PATIENT
Joe Gebbia, Co-founder of Airbnb
41. U X A S C R O S S
C O M P A N Y C U LT U R E
Samara
• Airbnb’s in house design studio
• Tackling new project, loosely connected to the
Airbnb service
• First project was the „Cedar House“ - a community
focussed project in a rural village in Japan
43. „U X A S C R O S S
C O M P A N Y C U LT U R E
DO THINGS THAT DON’T SCALE
Paul Graham, Y Combinator
44. U X A S C R O S S
C O M P A N Y C U LT U R E
Take aways
• Cross-Functional Teams
• Visualize Flows
• Become the patient
• Co-create with users
• Integrate research from the start
• In-house Design studio
45. U X A S C R O S S
C O M P A N Y C U LT U R E
Adobe XD
48. U X A S C R O S S
C O M P A N Y C U LT U R E
Development process
Adobe XD
Releasing Beta versions and working up to a 1.0
Non-ideal scenario:
Building shallow features early and growing quality debt
49. E P I C O R C H A P T E R
Subtopic or example
This team, too, has a culture of customer listening and
relies on it to make product decisions.
beginning to understand that such practices are not
only critical to building the right product, but also
have the side effect of transforming customers from
mere users to advocates and evangelists for both the
product and the team.
CREATE A
CULTURE OF LISTENING
51. U X A S C R O S S
C O M P A N Y C U LT U R E
Digital conversations
Adobe XD selected Twitter, Facebook, and the
product forum as the three channels that work well
with the target demographic.
53. U X A S C R O S S
C O M P A N Y C U LT U R E
X D
Feedback sessions
Next to digital channels, workshops and working
groups are conducted, to receive feedback on the
service.
For this Adobe partners with design organizations as
well as individual designers.
54. E P I C O R C H A P T E R
UserVoice
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55. „U X A S C R O S S
C O M P A N Y C U LT U R EWE TRY TO FOCUS ON WHAT CUSTOMERS WANT
TO ACCOMPLISH, NOT NECESSARILY HOW THEY
WANT TO ACCOMPLISH IT.
Elaine Chao, product manager at Adobe working on Adobe XD
56. U X A S C R O S S
C O M P A N Y C U LT U R E
Take aways
• Create a culture of listening
• Build customer relationships
• Focus on what to solve before thinking on how to solve it
• Smaller, but high quality feature updates
57. U X A S C R O S S
C O M P A N Y C U LT U R E
Netflix
58. E P I C O R C H A P T E R
Personalized video streaming
59. Working at Netflix - not so cross functional teams
UI
Proto-
typer
UX Engineer
60. U X A S C R O S S
C O M P A N Y C U LT U R E
Team structure
• Platform specific teams (UX/UI/ prototypers)
• No direct collaboration with engineers
• No “senior” or “junior” titles someone’s seniority is
evaluated based on the input they can have for a
project or a product
• People should not be limited by giving them a
‘junior’ title.
61. U X A S C R O S S
C O M P A N Y C U LT U R E
E P I C O R
C H A P T E R
A/B esting
Default Alternative 1
+14%
Alternative 2
+6%
62. U X A S C R O S S
C O M P A N Y C U LT U R E
A/B testing
• Every feature is A/B tested, before being released
• Only features, which show a superior performance
are implemented
• An internal test-tool was created, where each team
can set up and schedule tests
63. U X A S C R O S S
C O M P A N Y C U LT U R E
Take aways
• No hierarchies in the team
• Test high fidelity prototypes for authentic feedback
• Validate iterations through A/B testing
64. U X A S C R O S S
C O M P A N Y C U LT U R E
Key Take Aways
65. U X A S C R O S S
C O M P A N Y C U LT U R E
To take home
• There not ONE right method
• Brief the problem to be solved, not the outcome
• Be the patient
• Create a culture of listening
• Validate your ideas quickly
• Don’t build silos