We've Never Done This Before
Summary
An acquisition can completely upend an organization, changing how we work—and whom we work with—often with no plan to manage the shift. When Accela acquired eight companies in 2015, we brought on hundreds of employees and dozens of products, but only one designer. Our UX team was now faced with integrating products from unfamiliar industries by working with teams unfamiliar with UX. Ken Hoffmann and Nova Wehman-Brown will discuss how setting aside their egos, and leaning on concrete data and user-centered design (internally and externally) built trust among teammates and turned chaos into collaboration in a fairly short period of time.
Key Insights
-
•
Trust and openness, such as Noba sharing slides early, helped break down barriers between acquiring and acquired teams.
-
•
Long-term knowledge of business domains inspires confidence but is challenged during acquisitions with shifting priorities.
-
•
Introducing UX to a product team never exposed to designers requires humility and asking basic questions to foster learning and trust.
-
•
The 'us versus them' mentality quickly emerges in acquisitions along lines such as location, company size, and culture, but must be actively dismantled to succeed.
-
•
Engaging all participants in hands-on workshops like design studios creates shared language, flattens hierarchies, and builds commitment.
-
•
Resistance from leadership and team members to non-traditional collaboration methods is common but can be overcome with persistence and playfulness.
-
•
User analytics tools can uncover unexpected behaviors that challenge team assumptions and improve product focus.
-
•
Regular design studios every sprint increase team alignment and empower new members to onboard faster.
-
•
Failing to recognize developers' pride in their design contributions can breed resentment and tension in collaboration.
-
•
Strong UX-product management partnerships enable strategic pivots and better outcomes during uncertain roadmaps.
Notable Quotes
"Noba submitted my name without asking me to present today, which shows how much we've grown to trust each other."
"This is all new to me. I've never done this before. I'm going to be learning as I go and share everything."
"A link in the header said log in but it wasn’t actually a link, causing thousands of confused clicks."
"The fastest way to break down 'us versus them' is to ask people to do something they’ve never done before."
"Everyone had encyclopedic knowledge of their product and they didn’t exploit that knowledge gap."
"I had to ask what wind forms were, which was pretty humbling."
"If you’re in this room, you have to collaborate and you have to participate."
"What gets us into trouble is not what we don’t know, it’s what we know for sure that just ain’t so."
"Developers had been designing the product for years and we didn’t recognize that we were taking something away from them they loved."
"Be the one who says I don’t know too. Be the one who picks up the sharpie first."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Sometimes it’s reasonable to consider your design as strategy and ship a piece now and other pieces later."
Scott Jensen Sarah Delaney Carmen LiuShort Take #2: UX/Product Lessons from Your Industry Peers
December 6, 2022
"Designing services increasingly span these blurred lines between our digital and public worlds."
Sarah BrooksTheme Three Intro
November 18, 2022
"Define who you are and who you need to become. Lean into the change because for better or for worse, design ops is changing."
Jon FukudaTheme One Intro
October 2, 2023
"We’re obligated to treat each other with kindness and respect."
Bria AlexanderOpening Remarks
March 29, 2023
"Anger doesn’t mean you have to yell—it’s about speaking clearly to the problem you see."
Joshua GravesWe Need To Talk: Navigating Conversations with Your Boss (Part 1 of 3)
April 14, 2025
"Government cannot be the only solution—we needed community groups, nonprofits, and for-profits all involved."
Kyria Stephens Marlon KernerPower to Heal: Civic Design in the Aftermath of Tragedy
November 17, 2022
"At IBM, projects felt like following a recipe, but at Compass, I can promote my ideas and see how they work, which is very satisfying."
Caitlyn Hampton Monica Lee Jina YoonCompass 101: Growing Your Career In A Startup World
June 11, 2021
"The Etsy postmortem is not about blame, it’s about open-ended discovery and learning to do better next time."
Louis RosenfeldDiscussion: What Operations can teach DesignOps
November 6, 2017
"When constraints are all you’ve ever known, moving fast and breaking things just isn't possible."
Rachel GarbExit Interview #7: Facing a blank slate in retirement when constraints are all you’ve ever known
August 5, 2026
