The team setup according to the Thinkmill Method vs what worked best for our team.
Our journey to build a ledger feature through application of the Thinkmill Method gave us the following key insights:
We strive to keep design as close to the finished thing as early, and as much as possible. Our team was comfortable with this as a standing goal, and throughout the project we were able to do just that. This mostly looked like prioritising design effort towards working in the browser, instead of static tools like Figma. By working this way:
Our team set out with the mutual agreement to work in an open and cross-disciplinary manner, but living up to our plan ended up being more difficult than we’d anticipated for. In the early phase of the project we found it hard (as consultants) to make an impact on what appeared to be a cultural preference for our client-colleagues to stay in their respective roles (preferring more siloed ways of working).
After finding that mutual intent wasn’t enough to get us where we wanted to be, we managed to find a breakthrough by co-designing the feature‘s user journey from beginning to end in a collaborative white-boarding tool.
Timelapse of the core team co-designing the user flow from a user experience, technical and business perspective.
As the process evolved we found that our team had a range of differing mental models around the what and how of the user journey. By documenting it as a cross-functional team, and working from an empty canvas, we were able to fast-track our shared understandings, check our assumptions, and bring one another into a deeper and more trusting engagement with the project. We came out of the journey-mapping exercise in a much better place, and working across roles and silos got progressively easier as time went on.
Even though we were working within a well established architecture, we still wanted to gain a deep understanding of the existing systems, processes, and user experiences that informed it. A schema-first approach helped us unravel the complexities of the current environment, and let the team connect to the user’s domain more comprehensively.
By employing a schema-first approach to this project we were able to:
Object model diagram of the ledger product core entities and how they relate to one and another.
The benefits of our schema-first approach were key to “winning-over” some team members who were accustomed to a code-first mindset, and gave them the courage and inspiration to opt for a better way of working in the future.
The Thinkmill Method is a useful way to work, and has the potential to create an environment where teams become more productive and empowered over time.
Every project brings its own unique challenges and team dynamics. Understanding how the method can and should adapt to meet those unique needs is just as valuable as possessing knowledge of the method‘s fundamentals.
Cultural habits can be hard to change within a short span of time, but moving towards more synchronous, trust-based, cross-functional ways of working always provides some degree of benefit.
The task of creating optimal conditions for fully empowered cross-functional teams is never ending! But that‘s a big part of what makes our work so fascinating.
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