Project Process

Hiring & Building Design Culture.

After an agreement was reached on the process to be implemented and the velocity that development teams could handle, bandwidth became the next issue to address. Within three weeks, job descriptions were written, the positions were posted, portfolios were reviewed, interviews were conducted, and multiple positions were filled (Jr UX and Sr UX). After ramping up the new hires, we transitioned the current designer to a marketing role, where he was able to make the most of his skills and improve the visual brand quality of our marketing content.

To retain newly hired UX designers, we implemented several initiatives. The team set up pair designing mentor sessions, where new hires could learn from and collaborate with more experienced designers. They also provided space for learning and development. Additionally, we began holding blue sky creative sessions, where designers could experiment with new ideas and take risks. These initiatives helped to create a positive and supportive work environment where UX designers felt valued and encouraged to grow.

Creative Strategy & Design Maturity

In addition to working with the design team, we also partnered with RocketReach's founders, head of product, and C-suite level partners to help organize product priorities, personas, user journey maps, and product priority roadmaps. This was done in order to ensure that the new design process was aligned with the overall business goals of the company. The result was a set of clear and concise roadmaps that helped to guide the design team in their work and ensured that the final product met the needs of both users and stakeholders.

After the initial onboarding and ramping up of new hires, RocketReach implemented bi-weekly demos where designers presented their recent work. These demos provided an opportunity for designers to receive feedback from stakeholders across the organization, which helped to improve the quality of the designs and ensure that they were aligned with the company's overall goals. Additionally, the demos served as a way to showcase the progress that was being made on the product roadmap, which helped to build excitement and momentum among team members.

* Some image details cannot be shared due to NDA.

Merging Agile & Design

Though working with agile development teams can be challenging for designers, it is possible to overcome these challenges through effective communication. One key to success is transparency in strategic planning sessions with stakeholders. This allows designers to gain a better understanding of what is coming in the future, so they can better prepare their designs. My team was able to research, wireframe, and analyze our current solutions and competitors' flows before jumping into our design sessions because we had a clear picture of what the team was planning. This level of collaboration and communication helped us to create designs that were more effective and efficient.

* Some image details cannot be shared due to NDA.

One example of the many ways we improved RocketReach was by enhancing the "bulk add flow." This feature was originally named and executed poorly, and we believed that it was underutilized as a workflow. Our team decided to redesign the flow, and we were able to decrease the number of clicks it took to complete the task from 17 to 3. We also made the feature more visible by changing its starting point. These changes resulted in a significant increase in credit spending, with a 200+% increase within a month of launching the new flow. This is just one example of the many improvements we have made to RocketReach since I started here.