Rosenverse

This video is only accessible to Gold members. Log in or register for a free Gold Trial Account to watch.

Log in Register

Most conference talks are accessible to Gold members, while community videos are generally available to all logged-in members.

Getting in Flow with Your Team
Gold
Monday, January 8, 2024 • DesignOps Summit 2020
Share the love for this talk
Getting in Flow with Your Team
Speakers: Ruzanna Rozman
Link:

Summary

A design process is only as good as the people who run it, no matter how "efficient" the process claims to be. This talk will cover the circumstances of a case study and the strategies that took place to establish and maintain momentum on a product that didn't have a direction. With the collaboration of a team in "flow," the work seemed (sometimes unbelievably) natural, enabling and empowering everybody not only to trust each other, but also to trust themselves in their own decision making and their own exploration of their craft and strengths with mutual trust and respect.

Key Insights

  • Frameworks help non-designers understand design decisions and foster team inclusivity.

  • Team flow differs from individual flow by emphasizing interdependence, not independence.

  • Achieving flow requires balancing challenge and skills along with clear goals and feedback.

  • Open communication and early involvement of all team members strengthen alignment and trust.

  • Strong team relationships allow teams to pivot quickly without losing momentum or morale.

  • Individual states of flow vary based on personal belief in purpose, scope clarity, and feedback.

  • Team flow benefits when members can feed off each other's energy and adapt communication styles.

  • Replicating team flow can be challenging with frequently changing teams due to lack of familiarity.

  • Respect, trust, and alignment empower teams to balance seriousness and casual connection.

  • Developing team flow shares similarities with dating or athletic instincts, requiring intuition and practice.

Notable Quotes

"I am usually the only designer on the team, and it gets difficult to get the information needed for design decisions."

"Frameworks are a team sport; each player brings unique strengths that help create innovative solutions."

"Surgeons say during difficult operations the whole team feels like a single organism moved by the same purpose."

"To get into flow, I need a strong belief in the purpose and the work we’re doing."

"We started with almost nothing and didn’t really know what goal we were trying to achieve."

"Getting everyone involved early helped reduce the need for me to explain why we do things."

"When we pivoted because of business decisions, we felt anxious but kept adapting together."

"Respect, trust, and alignment helped us feel empowered and comfortable talking about anything."

"Flow is different for each person; you have to adjust your style based on who you work with."

"Developing team flow is a lot like dating—you have to nurture it, build instinct, and practice."

Ask the Rosenbot
Nalini P. Kotamraju
An Organizational Story: Salesforce Lightning Design System
2016 • Enterprise UX 2016
Gold
Nalini P. Kotamraju
Two Jobs in One: Being a “Leader who is a Researcher” and a “Researcher who is a Leader"
2021 • Advancing Research 2021
Gold
Andrew Webster
Scaling Design Capability: How Involved Should You Be?
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Gold
Michael Weir
Mixed Methods and Behavioural Science
2023 • Rosenfeld Community
Victor Lombardi
Bridging Design and Climate Science
2024 • Climate UX Interest Group
Stephen Pollard
Closing Keynote: Getting giants to dance - what can we learn from designing large and complex public infrastructure?
2017 • DesignOps Summit 2017
Gold
Liwei Dai
The Heart and Brain of the AI Research
2020 • Advancing Research 2020
Gold
Sarah Brooks
Theme Three Intro
2022 • Civic Design 2022
Gold
Kara Kane
Communities of Practice for Civic Design
2022 • Civic Design Community
Bryce Benton
[Demo] AI-powered UX enhancement: Aligning GitHub documentation with USWDS at Austin Public Library
2024 • Designing with AI 2024
Gold
Susan Simon-Daniels
War Stories LIVE! Susan Simon-Daniels
2020 • Advancing Research 2020
Gold
Victor Udoewa
Theme One Intro
2023 • Advancing Research 2023
Gold
Craig Brookes
"Just Make it Look Good" and Other Ways We're Misunderstood
2021 • Design at Scale 2021
Gold
Matt Duignan
Atomizing Research: Trend or Trap
2020 • Advancing Research 2020
Gold
Joshua Graves
We Need To Talk: Addressing Unmet Expectations (Part 2 of 3)
2025 • Rosenfeld Community
Richard Buchanan
Creativity and Principles in the Flourishing Enterprise
2018 • Enterprise Experience 2018
Gold

More Videos

Nalini Kotamraju

"We made this move in January 2020 — our research and insights team moved out of UX but stayed within product organizations."

Nalini Kotamraju

Research After UX

March 25, 2024

Dean Broadley

"Availability bias means hiring managers often pick fruit from a tree they haven't planted."

Dean Broadley

Not Black Enough to be White

January 8, 2024

Denise Jacobs

"If you’re not doing the work of addressing your own pain, you won’t be effective in helping others."

Denise Jacobs Nancy Douyon Renee Reid Lisa Welchman

Interactive Keynote: Social Change by Design

January 8, 2024

Kim Fellman Cohen

"Design thinking helped us empathize, define problems, co-create ideas, and then test them like products."

Kim Fellman Cohen

Measuring the Designer Experience

October 23, 2019

George Aye

"Power is the ability to change another person’s reality."

George Aye

That Quiet Little Voice: When Design and Ethics Collide

November 16, 2022

Nathan Curtis

"Short-term pairings with different design people help bring back contributions into the central system."

Nathan Curtis

Beyond the Toolkit: Spreading a System Across People & Products

June 9, 2016

Greg Petroff

"We focus on delivering high quality but also moving fast—being comfortable negotiating that tension is important."

Greg Petroff

The Compass Mission

March 10, 2021

Chloe Amos-Edkins

"We have this collective superpower navigating the breadth and depth of human experience across cultures."

Chloe Amos-Edkins

A Cultural Approach: Research in the Context of Glocalisation

March 27, 2023

Mackenzie Cockram

"We are not collecting vanity analytics, the data is doing real work on informing design."

Mackenzie Cockram Sara Branco Cunha Ian Franklin

Integrating Qualitative and Quantitative Research from Discovery to Live

December 16, 2022