Minch Studio

As the design team is gradually expanding, there is a growth in designers with diverse levels of experiences and skillsets working on various projects for different departments. We started to notice that designers are very much working solo, and often needing to wear different hats when working on a project. This resulted in the team not having much interaction other than our weekly syncs and critiques, and valuable knowledges not being shared and learned from each other effectively.

After noticing this issue and discussing with the team, we decided to introduce a new concept Design Pairing. Referencing from the pair coding concept common in the dev world, we pair designers up in a project, assign distinct design responsibilities, but still have designers towards the same goal, in the hopes of building a more collaborative environment, and to help the designers grow by supporting each other.

Break down of the implementation:

Get Started - Define project types and pair dynamics
Implement & Iterate - Assign team members based on pair design mentality
Auditing - 1-1 follow ups and reviews with team members

Part 1: Define project types and pair dynamics

First I broke down the types of designs projects that are commonly worked on by the team, and further categorize them in terms of project complexity, frequency and such. So I can get a glimpse of how the designers can potentially co-work.

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Part 2: Assign team members based on pair design principle

After doing a deep dive of how various design projects can be broken down, I did an analysis of the team members’ strengths and career goals, to identify what roles and potential pairing dynamics would be suitable for each and every one of them.

With a breakdown of project types and team member dynamics, I can then assign projects to suitable members accordingly.

While assigning members, it is also key to communicate clearly with the designers about their respective roles, and setup checkins for them to talk to each other, or setup pair working hours. It is also vital to introduce project managers about how the roles are assigned, and who to talk to about certain topics, in order for them to familiarize with the new system implemented.

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Part 3: 1-1 follow ups and reviews with team members

While it is exciting to launch a new way of working, it is also important to learn from it and continue to tweak the process for the better. Here are some feedback I got from different departments and how I proposed to address the issue:

Designer Perspective

“More collaboration will lead to more spark and creativity, but might also decrease the efficiency of the project. Sometimes more discussion might lead to more time spent“

→ Proposed Solution: Checkin with different design pairings occasionally to ensure the project is on track, and keep flexibility for adjustments

“Not all projects should be forced to have a pairing mechanism, some projects that has a tighter deadline will work better if only assigned 1 designer.”

→ Proposed Solution: Review the timeline of each project, and refrain from assigning pair designers if the project has a tight deadline that requires a lot of context sharing and training

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PM Perspective

"Even though it is communicated initially, there might also be situations where the point of contact, or the roles & responsibility may still be unclear "

→ Proposed Solution: Assign a point of contact on the design side for the PMs to communicate with, and have the assigned designer be responsible to sync with the paired designer.

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Overall the design pairing mechanism lead to more collaboration within the team, and the outcome for the projects are also proven to be more fruitful and creative than before. The team had continue to use this principle when working on bigger scale projects, and hoping to continue improving our design pairing process so that the team can achieve and excel even more as a whole.

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