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
-
•
Acquisitions often foster an us-versus-them culture that hinders collaboration unless actively broken down.
-
•
Vulnerability and admitting 'I don't know' fosters trust and openness in high-pressure, unfamiliar environments.
-
•
UX functions can face resistance from veteran developers who perceive design as taking away a valued part of their job.
-
•
Simple exercises like design studios that involve everyone drawing help flatten hierarchies and build shared ownership.
-
•
User analytics tools like Pendo can reveal surprising user behaviors, challenging assumptions and guiding better design.
-
•
Frequent, data-driven design sprints accelerate collaboration and product alignment across newly merged teams.
-
•
Attrition and turnover during acquisitions disrupt team continuity, making shared experience vital yet difficult.
-
•
Open discussions about process and emotional challenges following failed attempts can lead to meaningful breakthroughs.
-
•
A strong UX–product management partnership enables iterative pivots that save resources and better serve users.
-
•
Leadership modeling participation in new practices is key to overcoming resistance and driving culture change.
Notable Quotes
"What gets us into trouble is not what we don’t know. It’s what we know for sure that just ain’t so."
"I’ve never done this before. I’m going to be learning as I go and I’m going to share everything I learn with you."
"If you’re going to be in this room, you have to collaborate and you have to participate."
"Thousands of users were clicking on a text that wasn’t even a link—it looked like one, but wasn’t."
"The designers were taking a part of their job away, and it was something the developers really loved."
"We made it easier for him to say yes by making it easier to say no."
"We asked people to step out of their comfort zones and do things they'd never done before."
"Despite all the insecurities, most team members were willing to show up every week and challenge what they thought they knew."
"We didn’t exploit the knowledge gap. Everyone was willing to say I don’t know. Can you help me?"
"Be the one who picks up the sharpie first, especially if you’re in a leadership position."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"You need strong regional players with negotiation skills to navigate the split loyalties in global teams."
Adam Cutler Karen Pascoe Ian Swinson Susan WorthmanDiscussion
June 8, 2016
"Playing politics in UX leadership is about maximizing relationships ethically to advance your agenda, not about being underhanded."
Peter MerholzThe Trials and Tribulations of Directors of UX (Videoconference)
July 13, 2023
"Digital is a system, not a project. It’s there all the time and you have to keep iterating on it."
Lisa WelchmanCleaning Up Our Mess: Digital Governance for Designers
June 14, 2018
"Policy change is the backbone of effective climate strategies in urban areas."
Vincent BrathwaiteOpener: Past, Present, and Future—Closing the Racial Divide in Design Teams
October 22, 2020
"The greatest sign of success for a teacher is just to be able to say the children are now working as if I did not exist."
Brenna FallonLearning Over Outcomes
October 24, 2019
"Working from home during the pandemic is hard because it’s fun only when you can actually leave your home."
Tricia WangSpatial Collapse: Designing for Emergent Culture
January 8, 2024
"We used a Python algorithm with a correlation matrix to identify meaningful clusters from survey responses."
Edgar Anzaldua MorenoUsing Research to Determine Unique Value Proposition
March 11, 2021
"We want to build teams with diverse skill sets so we can create a full picture during the knowledge creation phase."
Designing Systems at Scale
November 7, 2018
"Randomization is magic — it evenly distributes confounds so the only difference affecting results is your change."
Erin WeigelGet Your Whole Team Testing to Design for Impact
July 24, 2024
