Summary
The design team at BBVA Mexico, with more than 170 designers, has the challenge of bringing design to the 600+ projects the organization works on at any given time for them to better achieve the goals of each project in a user-centered way. Because of the limited capacity of the design team, this meant that many projects with design needs were left unattended, managing to solve their needs with whatever resources they had at hand. To address this, Design at Scale was born, an initiative that aims to develop design capabilities in BBVA, through tools, processes and coaching that helps teams that meet certain criteria to work under a self-management model. Through their talk Nora and Giovanna will share their journey in implementing Design at Scale at BBVA.
Key Insights
-
•
Scaling design at BVVA involved enabling developers and scrum teams to do design semi-autonomously with mentorship rather than expanding the design team endlessly.
-
•
A dedicated Design at Scale (DAS) advisor acts as a mentor and counselor to multiple scrum teams, changing the traditional designer's role to a guide rather than a doer.
-
•
Projects suitable for the self-service model typically have concrete, well-defined design objectives mostly in the surface and skeleton layers of UX.
-
•
Complex projects with abstract design needs continue to require full-time dedicated designers instead of self-service approaches.
-
•
BVVA developed design training, documentation, design systems in Figma, and templated resources to support scrum teams' autonomous design work.
-
•
Screening and continuous reassessment of projects' fit for the self-service model is critical to managing complexity and ensuring quality.
-
•
Design at Scale advisors manage high cognitive loads by balancing around a limit of approximately a dozen projects per advisor at a time.
-
•
Clear, explicit communication and agreements about the self-service process reduce confusion and align expectations with scrum teams.
-
•
The self-service model fosters a positive cultural shift, improving collaboration and understanding between developers and designers.
-
•
Ideal DAS advisors are mid-level designers with humility, strong communication, negotiation skills, and a willingness to teach non-designers.
Notable Quotes
"Design changed from focusing only on visual aspects to bringing a user-centered design process involving multiple disciplines."
"Developers started doing design themselves because they needed to, but without design principles or user feedback, which worried us."
"Why don’t we help developers do better design, rather than try to be a bottleneck or endlessly grow the design team?"
"The magic happens when the designer becomes a counselor, mentor, and guide, not just a person who designs."
"We use frameworks like the Stacy matrix and layers of user experience to filter which projects can do self-service design."
"We provide very specific packages combining design objectives and channels, like creating new user flows in the mobile app."
"One design advisor might be assigned to 12 scrum teams, which requires constantly changing mindsets across very different projects."
"It's crucial to be very explicit in communication to prevent confusion about how the self-service model works compared to traditional design."
"Even though one advisor can work with many projects, managing the cognitive load is challenging and requires setting flexible workload limits."
"Developers who worked in the self-service model sometimes ask, what can I do to become a designer? That’s been fun."
Dig deeper—ask the Rosenbot:
More Videos
"We reward people financially rather than rely on sharebacks, as engagement remained consistent without sharebacks."
Wyatt HaymanGlobal Research Panels (Videoconference)
August 8, 2020
"We use a design checklist to show the health of each component, leaving items unchecked if they don't meet standards."
PJ Buddhari Nate BaldwinMeet Spectrum, Adobe’s Design System
June 9, 2021
"Sacramento’s Civic Enrichment Center is an artifact aligning a city around community and future workforce needs."
Sarah GallimoreInspire Progress with Artifacts from the Future
November 18, 2022
"Many product managers got their roles because they know the business or subject matter, but they don’t know how to manage product development."
Peter MerholzThe Trials and Tribulations of Directors of UX (Videoconference)
July 13, 2023
"If we continue to peak participants from homogenized groups, we risk perpetuating women’s everyday exclusions."
Dr. Jamika D. Burge Mansi GuptaAdvancing the Inclusion of Womxn in Research Practices (Videoconference)
September 15, 2022
"There’s been a convergence over the last years because everybody’s got a mobile device now and expects a certain kind of experience."
Amy MarquezINVEST: Discussion
June 15, 2018
"If you remove death in a game like Dark Souls, the game breaks — death is part of the challenge and fun."
Dane DeSutter Natalie Gedeon Deborah Hendersen Cheryl PlatzBeyond the Console: The rise of the Gamer Experience and how gaming will impact UX Research across industries (Videoconference)
May 17, 2024
"Denying the body is not an antidote to the suffering of the world. When we protect our rest, we protect our dreaming."
Zariah CameronReDesigning Wellbeing for Equitable Care in the Workplace
September 23, 2024
"Breaking tasks down into manageable chunks creates dopamine hits and makes work less overwhelming."
Jessica NorrisADHD: A DesignOps Superpower
September 9, 2022
