Recalibrating collaboration

ADRIAAN FENWICK | SENIOR DESIGNER | @ADEFENWICK
Recalibrating collaboration

Where do new ideas come
from? The answer is
simple: differences.
NICHOLAS NEGROPONTE

Creativity comes from
unlikely juxtapositions.
NICHOLAS NEGROPONTE

Hetty Stellingwerf; Unsplash (https://unsplash.com/photos/BEFZeSrSzP4)

Mike Erskine; Unsplash (https://unsplash.com/photos/WoLQAz_Zuvk)

Christopher Burns; Unsplash (https://unsplash.com/photos/215Fiqh6hRc)

Phú Nguyễn; Unsplash (https://unsplash.com/photos/6zpzFjKk6GE)

Jim Bowen; Flickr (https://flic.kr/p/9gftA6)

CloudVisual; Unsplash (https://unsplash.com/search/photos/fight?photo=DCtwjzQ9uVE)

Cosmic Timetraveler; Unsplash (https://unsplash.com/photos/vU4R5PyEO4k)

Pablo Heimplatz; Unsplash (https://unsplash.com/photos/BQHDV90GLPo)

Rob Bye; Unsplash (https://unsplash.com/photos/0B_S1vTY0NU)
Design is a team sport

We believe behind every great human
achievement, there is a team. Our mission
is to unleash the potential in every team.
OUR MISSION

WHAT WE DO
We build
collaboration
software for
every team

New YorkManila
Locations
Sydney San Francisco Austin Yokohama Amsterdam
Gdansk Mountain View Remote

TEAM STRUCTURE
Dev Design
Support 
& Ops
PM Marketing
Operate Sell
Make

Friso Baaij; Unsplash (https://unsplash.com/photos/GBNRsIc6Wq8)
Triads

TRIADS
Dev Design
Support 
& Ops
PM Marketing
Operate Sell
Make

Triads are responsible for
making sure that we look at
problems from all three
sides
ROSS CHALDECOTT

Designers
Other designers, IXers and
researchers in the team
Collaboration
Cross-organisation
Temporary teams that span
across the organisation
Cross-functional
A product team that includes
PM, dev & design

Lance Anderson; Unsplash (https://unsplash.com/photos/7DITOdv_Uxo)
Collaboration is important

Alone we can do so little;
together we can do so
much.
HELEN KELLER

It’s not design by committee
COLLABORATION

I recognise that the Council has
made a decision. But given that
it’s a stupid-ass decision, I’ve
elected to ignore it.
NICK FURY, THE AVENGERS

Different perspectives
Different backgrounds will help you explore
paths that you wouldn’t have considered.
Shared understanding
Working closely together on the same problem
will help the team be aligned.
Better solutions
Different skillsets and strengths will lead you to
better ways to solve a particular problem.
Why is it
important to
collaborate?

Medena Rosa; Unsplash (https://unsplash.com/photos/teQlGfCSa0Q)
Challenges

Lack of focus
Collaboration occurs randomly with no clear
purpose and is often derailed by interruptions.
No agenda
Sessions that don’t have a structure or goal tend
to yield underwhelming results.
Too busy
We’re all too busy with our work and between
meetings there is no time to collaborate.
Challenges
to be able to
collaborate

Richard Horne; Unsplash (https://unsplash.com/photos/QJ8xjeIjROk)
Collaboration strategies

Design detention
Concentrated time,
designers only.
Design plays
Design spikes
Adapted design sprints that
fit into Atlassian’s culture.
Disrupt play
Rapid brainstorming session
to come up with lots of ideas.

Disrupt play
COLLABORATION STRATEGY

Design depends largely
on constraints.
CHARLES EAMES

Jamie Street; Unsplash (https://unsplash.com/photos/dQLgop4tnsc)

What if there was a way to
come up with brilliant ideas
faster?
DISRUPT PLAY

What’s a disrupt play?
A session where teams brainstorm on
a theme, while constraints get
introduced at intervals to push their
ideas in a new direction.

Quality ideas
Everyone can come up with an idea, but coming
up with good ideas is hard. Really hard.
New ideas
Themes & constraints constantly push teams
into new directions with fresh ideas.
Innovate, innovate
We're constantly being pushed to innovate, but
it’s much easier said than done.
Value of the
disrupt play

How does it work?
DISRUPT PLAY

Small teams
You’re going to need 6-8 people that
you can split into two groups.

Disrupt cards
Download “Disrupt cards”
from the Atlassian playbook.
You’re going to need
Themes
Choose specific themes that
the team need to ideate on.
Timer
It’s fast-paced; you’re going
to need to be strict on time.

Warm up, go broad
Choose a theme and generate as
many ideas as possible, with no
constraints. The idea is to go broad.

Silent culling
In silence, each team goes to the
other team’s board and remove any
ideas they don’t support. Don’t be shy.

Add constraints
Gradually add constraints as
the loops progress.
Disrupt loops
Move team member
Swop team members at
every second loop.
10 minutes
Loops are fast paced and
rapid - 10 mins each.

Don’t be precious
Remove any ideas that are
not feasible/desirable.
Culling
Keep ~10% of ideas
Get rid of 90% of the ideas
on the walls.
Be ruthless
There’s gonna be a tonne of
ideas. Be ruthless.

Document ideas
Group any similar ideas into themes
and assign an owner to each idea.
Organise the brilliant ideas by
capturing everyone’s thoughts.

Your biggest risk isn’t
occasional failure it’s
sustained mediocrity.
LUKE W

It often takes many bad
ideas to get to the good
ones.
MARIE-CLAIRE DEAN

Disrupt play / recap
Constraints
Use constraint cards and themes to
help teams zoom their focus.
Disrupt loops
In 10min loops, use constraints and
swop members to get many ideas.
Warm up
Get the team to warm up by going
broad without any constraints.
Culling
Be ruthless and remove ideas that
aren’t feasible or desirable.
Silent culling
In silence, teams remove each other’s
ideas that they don’t support.
Document ideas
Group similar ideas together and
assign owners to each idea.

Design detention

Find a group of people who
challenge and inspire you,
spend a lot of time with them,
and it will change your life.
AMY POEHLER

What is design
detention
A partial or full day where designers
comes together to spend time
working individually, or together as a
team without any interruptions.

Pair strengths
Designers can lean on each others
complimentary skills to tackle hard problems.
Relationships
Sitting together and working on problems
creates strong bonds between designers.
Focused work
Dedicated time without interruptions such as
email, meetings or 1:1s to focus on deep work.
Value of
design
detention

Here’s how it works…
DESIGN DETENTION

Colocated space
Ensure that you’ve booked a big
enough space where the team can
work during that time. It helps if it is
not a meeting or board room.

No interruptions
Get buy-in from the bigger team to
ensure that there are no interruptions
and set the expectation that the team
is inaccessible during that time.

Flexible
Let the team self organise,
encourage pairing skills.
Structured
Choose a specific theme that
the group needs to work on.
Flexible or structured

Playback to team
Set up a way for the group to
playback the work they did to the rest
of the team through sparring sessions
or blog posts.

Socialise
Encourage the team to do coffee runs
together or organise a lunch to get out
of the office together to talk outside
work. This builds bonds and trust.

Here’s an example…
DESIGN DETENTION

Design detention / recap
Colocated space
Set up a pleasant environment where
the team can work during that time.
Structured
Set specific goals for the team with a
desired outcome.
No interruptions
Give the bigger teams a heads up to
avoid unplanned meetings.
Playback
A milestone helps the team focus
towards achieving something.
Flexible
Let the teams self-organise, but
encourage collaboration.
Coffee and lunch
An opportunity to let the team bond
and know each other better.

Design spikes

You can shortcut the
endless-debate cycle and
compress months of time
into a single week
GOOGLE VENTURES

What’s a design
spike?
A sharp concentrated period where a
team with complimentary skills try to
solve a specific problem in three days.

Rapid & quick
The constraint of time during a spike drives
teams towards making quicker decisions.
Better solution
Different perspectives and strengths will lead to
better ways of solving the right problem.
Having a cross-functional group working on the
same problem gets everyone on the same page.
Value of
design
spikes

Rapid & quick
The constraint of time during a spike drives
teams towards making quicker decisions.
Better solutions
Different perspectives and strengths will lead to
better ways of solving the right problem.
Having a cross-functional group working on the
same problem gets everyone on the same page.
Value of
design
spikes

Here’s how it works…
DESIGN SPIKES

Complimentary skills
In order to have a successful design
spike, make sure that the skills of
individuals in the team compliment
each other (usually cross-functional).

Timer
Keeping track of
time is essential to
keep moving.
Agenda
A structured agenda
will keep the group
focused on the task.
Whiteboards
Sketching on
whiteboards, post-its
& paper is essential.
Playbacks
Regular check-ins
with sponsors will
drive motivation.
You’re going to need

Structured agenda
A clear agenda is vital, which will help
the team stay focused towards
specific outcomes for each day.

STRUCTURED AGENDA
Outcomes
Make sure that not only the
goal for the spike is defined,
but as well as for each day.
Activities
Break down each day into the
specific activities that need to
get done - remember breaks!
Flexible
Keep in mind that even though
the agenda provides structure,
adapt when required based on
the team.

Day 2: Ideate
Go broad on ideas through
lots of sketching.
Three days
Day 3: Prototype
Create an end-to-end flow
that captures the solution.
Day1: Immerse
Understand existing research
and requirements.

Day 1: Immerse
Its challenging to build a shared
understanding in one day, so creating
a journey map helps distill the
research, data and requirements.

Post-it #allthethings
Ask the group to capture any
questions, comments or insights on
post-its throughout the day in leading
up to the journey mapping activity.

Data
Analyse and review any
existing usage data.
Immerse
Requirements
Walk through the business
requirements and goals.
Research
Discuss existing research and
look at your competitors.

Tasks
Map tasks into the
different phases of
the journey.
Pain points
Highlight any pain
points that might
occur.
Opportunities
Define possible
opportunities that
may come up.
Sentiment
Draw a customer
sentiment line across
the journey map.
Journey mapping

Day 2: Ideate
It’s important that the group explores
many ideas before converging onto a
single solution. 6-up sketching allows
the team to do this effectively.

Diverge
Go broad and sketch ideas
using 6-up’s / crazy-8’s.
Ideate
Converge
Select potential ideas that
best match the goals.
Define
From the journey map, define
the specific problem areas.

Day 3: Prototype
Getting everyone to understand the
end-to-end experience is vital to
making better decisions. A clickable
prototype can achieves this.

PROTOTYPE
Solution
Show how you are solving the
problem.
Flow
Capture the end-to-end flow of
the specific problem.
Interaction
How the experience unfolds is
an important factor that
compliments the solution.

Here’s an example…
DESIGN SPIKES

Design spikes / recap
Structured agenda
Invest the time to come up with a
structured agenda.
Immerse
Build a journey map to understand
the research, data and requirements.
Complimentary skills
Make sure that individuals’ skills
compliment each other in the group.
Ideate
Go broad first and then refine ideas
by sketching the whole day.
Playbacks
Hold regular playbacks at the end of
each day to motivate the team.
Prototype
Create a tangible end-to-end
experience to show the solution.

Soft skills

Ice breakers
Loosen the group up by
running an ice breaker.
More things
Health monitors
Highlight improvement areas
that teams can work on.
Meditation
Group meditation help teams
think and focus together.

Coming together is a
beginning, staying together
is progress, and working
together is success.
HENRY FORD

Robin Vet; Unsplash (https://unsplash.com/photos/MdFBcEMBytc)

Thank you!
ADRIAAN FENWICK | DESIGNER | @ADEFENWICK

Recalibrating collaboration

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