Charles Warren

When Dropbox shifted to #VirtualFirst, my Design team helped lead the efforts to create the new model in a way that actually reimagined modern work. By applying a human centered design approach to build Virtual First—understand what users need, develop hypotheses, design and pilot solutions, observe results and iterate— what we saw as a result was true cultural transformation. This way of working is intentionally designed to make space for creativity, tinkering and deep work, while also reserving time for synchronous collaboration and IRL time when we need it. Through this process, we quickly realized there was a need for more conversation around the unique challenges of working in distributed ways. That’s how we came up with the idea for Remotely Curious—a podcast where we dive deep into the world of remote work and the struggles that come with it. One of my favorite episodes is on the topic of setting boundaries, an art that can take practice while working remotely. It’s something we’re laser focused on here at Dropbox—83% of employees feel successful in designing their own work schedules, but we know our employees want continued support around boundary setting between their work and personal lives as we continue in our Virtual First journey. Psychologist, professor, and best-selling author Andrea Bonior joined Remotely Curious to guide us through the specifics of setting boundaries in the workplace. One lesson that really stuck with me from the conversation was the idea that "clarity is kindness." It’s easy to fall into the trap of people-pleasing, where we start equating saying “yes” as being nice and saying “no” as being “difficult” or creating an uncomfortable environment. But clarity—being clear about your limits and expectations—is actually one of the kindest things you can do for yourself and your team. As leaders in a distributed environment, this is incredibly important to maintaining balance and remaining in control of our work. Creating healthy boundaries in my life enables me to be both a better leader for my team, and a better father and equal contributor at home. By being intentional in supporting myself as well as having a support system, or a “Team Alastair” around me, I can maintain better balance so that I can be the best version of myself, maintain peak-level performance and continue to scale both professionally and personally. I highly recommend giving this one a listen, and would love to hear your thoughts. https://lnkd.in/dn8As9zG #productivity #innovation #futureofwork

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I'm thrilled to share that my latest product and design discovery article is live on Mind the Product! As a consultant, I've observed that the term 'Discovery' can have varying interpretations across different teams. It's not uncommon to encounter a team deeply immersed in a solution yet lacking a shared understanding of the customer opportunity they're addressing. At Lab Zero, we meet clients where they are and advocate for discovery while maintaining flexibility. We often employ lightweight methodologies to foster a shared understanding, even when work is already underway. Teresa Torres' book “Continuous Discovery Habits” is a guide to developing the mindset and practices that enable teams to discover and deliver value to their customers throughout the product development process. Her explanation of the 'Opportunity Solution Tree' helped me articulate a process for asking questions and bridging gaps when joining a new team. The first part of this two-part series looks at reversing the 'Opportunity Solution Tree' to establish a connection between the ongoing solution, customer opportunities, and business outcomes. The second part (coming soon!) will explore strategies for identifying gaps in your team's understanding of customer needs and the necessary measures to mitigate risks before launch. This series will help consultants, new team members, or a struggling team connect with that all-important why and launch valuable experiences for their customers and their orgs. Have you tried something like this with your team? Feedback is appreciated! If you haven't explored Mind The Product's extensive content library, I highly recommend it! In addition to articles about discovery and understanding customer needs, the community has shared insightful perspectives on product leadership, business, and teams. It's a great place to see perspectives on processes and theories informed by real-world use.  #ProductDiscovery #Design #Discovery #ContinuousDiscovery #Onboarding #Risk #CustomerOpportunity #Value #BusinessOutcomes

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“Be who and where you are.” I’m still processing all of the amazing insights that came out of Clarity: A design systems community conference last week but several themes have been bouncing around in my head since then. → Get smaller and connect - Dan Mall and others talked about a trend towards smaller core design systems with surrounding layers of shared patterns like recipes, all being consumed by teams managing their own local libraries. This results in teams being able to move faster and eliminates the need for design systems folks to feel that have to be a bottleneck. → Be who and where you are - John Voss and others talked about building the system that your users and team need rather than conforming to what larger companies are putting out there or the oversimplified “stereotype” you yourself have unintentionally created for your product. → Listen - Ben Callahan and others talked about the need to reset our current mental models for how design systems teams see our roles and responsibilities. How do we move away from our perceived tactical responsibilities towards more listening and validating of the needs of our consumers and users? 💎 My personal takeaways from all of this have me reframing my own journey with my team from "a series of mistakes" towards "the necessary growth to become the team we are today." → When we implemented that now outdated framework, tried to centralize everything into a single bloated design system, or wrote all of that verbose documentation, we were doing what we needed to do to mature and are a better team as a result. → What my team is going through, we're all going through. The role of design in general is changing across the industry, not just in my organization. How lucky are we, that we have the opportunity to learn from each other as designers? → As team roles change, I’m curious to pivot my default stance away from “defend the designer's role”, and would be curious to see how I can facilitate “design” activities regardless of whether they are done by a designer, product manager, or engineer. I feel so very fortunate to be a part of such an amazing community and love the reminder that when you get a bunch of systems thinkers together in the same room, you're going to see patterns. Thanks again 🖤 Jina A. and all the speakers last week. #clarity2024 #designsystems #design

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Missed our last episode? Don't worry, you can still catch up! 🎙️ Join me on Brave UX as Greg Petroff dives deep into the world of design leadership. Learn how his background in architecture informs his approach to leading design teams at top tech companies. Greg also shares his thoughts on the evolving role of AI in design and the importance of outcome-based thinking. It’s really not one to be missed! Don't miss out on learning from one of the best in the field! Tune in to discover: Greg’s journey from architecture to design leadership. Key strategies for integrating AI in UX. How to build and maintain high-performing design teams. #BraveUX #UXStrategy #ResearchLeadership #Podcast #Innovation #TechLeaders #Enterprise #CreatingCulture #Architecture #NewEpisode #NewZealand #BusinessPodcast #DesignLeadership #UX #UXDesign #ProductDesign #CDO #CPO #ProductLeadership Apple podcast: https://bitly.cx/DM0fg Spotify: https://bitly.cx/5Chh For more relevant and practical insights, check out https://lnkd.in/gxBcq96j

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I'd like to share some valuable lessons that have completely transformed the way I approach communications. Plus, I've added some tips for product designers and design partners. 💡Case 1: Answer the Question I thought I knew how to answer questions until I got this feedback: "When an executive asks you a question, start with a clear 'yes' or 'no', or state 'I don't know, but I will get back to you by X date'." While variations exist, the key is to answer the question first. Too much information usually doesn't help - Answer the question, then let them ask probing questions. This advice resonated with me so much that I created a desktop wallpaper to look at it every day. 🤝 Case 2: Manage Meeting Effectively Another tip I learned is how to manage meetings. Based on tips from mentors and coworkers, here are three essential points to remember: 1. Why we are here: Ensure every meeting has a clear purpose. No one has time for irrelevant meetings. 2. What we aim to achieve: Clearly define the meeting's objectives. 3. What decisions we will make: Identify decision-makers and criteria.
 Applying this to design meetings, merely sharing in-progress designs often lacks value. Instead, structure the meeting to: 1. Clearly define the meeting's purpose and type: For example, specify if it’s a review and instruct people on the type of review you need. 2. Clarify the objectives: Are we finalizing designs to send to engineering, or aligning on problem statements with products? 3. Identify decision-makers and criteria for decisions: Then, make a decision. Of course, in both cases, summarize the outcome of the meetings and share it right away. ✨ Case 3: Clarify Expectations At workplaces, confusion and fires happen. Sometimes you're not sure what's going on. You don't want to overpromise or overstep, but you need to know what action is required. When I heard this question "What am I accountable for?" in the middle of a foggy meeting, my brain just cleared. Yes. We need clear ownership and accountability to navigate ambiguous situations. It was a sentence that resonated with me, and I still remember how we were able to move on to the next steps. To build on this, I also advise my partners to communicate their asks clearly. I hear a variety of design requests. Some people articulate their asks with intended outcomes, expectations, and timelines, while others just share desires and disappear. Clarity in your asks is key—it's almost a job requirement. Remember, others can't read your mind. If you believe in your idea, it's important to articulate it clearly. #CommunicationTips #ProductDesign #DesignPartnerships

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The more I learn about business the less I understand why any company would go public when they can instead run their business 

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🚀 Grateful for the opportunity to complete the Measuring UX and ROI training with NN/g! In today’s competitive landscape, UX designers need to not only create great experiences but also prove the value of those experiences to stakeholders. The biggest takeaway from this course? Learning how to marry business metrics with UX metrics. This will help me better communicate the value of UX design in terms that resonate with stakeholders and align directly with business goals. Understanding ROI in UX is critical for making data-driven decisions and securing buy-in for design projects. I’m excited to apply these insights to my work, ensuring that the impact of design is measurable and directly tied to business objectives. Looking forward to learning more from Nielsen Norman Group in the future! 🙌 #UXDesign #UserExperience #ROI #DesignStrategy #BusinessImpact #ContinuousLearning #ProfessionalDevelopment

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It’s Thursday! Let’s talk about DESIGN DISCOVERY and how to make it PRACTICAL. Discovery is an essential part of the design process. In discovery, designers build a shared understanding of the problem and the design direction, establishing a foundation for all future design decisions. What does that foundation look like? In PRACTICAL DESIGN DISCOVERY, I describe three kinds of things to put into this foundation: → Principles: Enablers that help you make decisions → Concepts: Ideas that establish a big picture or north star → Models: Representations of the user experience When you draw a conclusion from user research, that’s a principle. When you say “our product is like a concierge for kids activities,” that’s a concept. And when you sketch out a flow chart or wireframe an important screen, that’s a model. Each of these contributes to the foundation that informs further design decisions. You’re not just creating these for yourself. The other people on your team – product managers and business stakeholders and developers – need to contribute to this foundation. These things – principles, concepts, and models – are the way you draw others into the discovery process. Sometimes managers tell designers to cut principles and concepts out of their process. I get it: Models are accessible because they are tangible representations of the final product. Even a flow chart is easier to react to than an unmoored design principle or a big idea. In discovery, however, you can’t model every aspect of a product. The point of discovery is to set the direction. Models provide enough of a view into the final product to get buy-in on that direction. But they’re not the whole picture. Principles provide guidelines for making decisions that the models do not cover. They establish constraints on the design process. Concepts align everyone around the product’s purpose or essence. They paint a picture of what the world looks like with the product in it. Both are helpful for decision-making. You don’t need to break the bank creating principles or concepts, or even models. Use a text file to capture statements as they jump out during the design process, like “never show a data visualization without context or explanation [a principle]” or “this is a mash-up between a to-do list and a calendar [a concept]”. Use models to illustrate principles and concepts. When folks provide feedback on the models, ask them about the concepts and the principles. “You said you were worried about the fields on this screen, but it aligns with our principle of ‘only ask for information when needed.’ Are there circumstances when the principle doesn’t apply?” Every part of the foundation – principles, concepts, and models – is a hook for a conversation with the entire team about the direction of your product. Looking for more ways to refine your discovery practice? Grab a copy of PRACTICAL DESIGN DISCOVERY! https://lnkd.in/dtar-e2

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Federated design systems are great. In theory. But reality is a little more complicated. There are challenges associated with quality, consistency and follow through. In our latest episode, Davy Fung and I discuss the highs and lows of federated design systems. What's worked, what hasn't and how to come out the other side in one piece. Listen here: https://lnkd.in/g4W3SYqR #designsystems #podcast

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This got me thinking. I hear a lot of leaders say they're looking for cultural transformation, and want to shift in a direction that values reactivity, challenge confrontation, and collaboration. What they're describing is a design-driven culture. Many of these attributes are vital when UX is at the center. If that resonates, then looking at design maturity is the better route. #DesignMaturity #DesignDriven #Culture

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Product designers are busy people. They've got endless folks asking for endless things... endlessly. And then the design systems team is all up in their joint asking them to use components... It's not a surprise that people can get a little fatigued. It seems quite reasonable if you ask me. In our latest episode, Davy Fung and I discuss fatigue, its causes and ways to either avoid or blunt it. Listen here: https://lnkd.in/g7TZWiqv #design #designsystems #fatigue

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As a design leader, you work for your team—not the other way around. Learn how to keep your #UXteam happy, creative, and always on schedule. https://lnkd.in/eksZbUXM #DesignLeadership #TeamManagement #UXDesign #Productivity

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In UX, simplicity beats complexity. Just like a simple pasta pomodoro can outshine a Beef Wellington when prepared and presented with forethought a screen with clear intention will work better than a complicated patchwork of possible actions. Don't make your users have to decide on what they need to do on any given screen - rather approach everything with the mentality of "what's the one thing I want a user to do on this screen". Then document those decisions so you can evaluate later! h/t to Erik Carlson for collaborating on the very first draft of this concept. #UXDesign #UserExperience #Simplicity #DesignThinking #CustomerJourney

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Many designers complain that they can’t get their ideas into a product backlog. Most of the time this is true depending on the maturity of your team and if your company sees value in the design field, but most of the time, backlogs are product driven. If you want to advocate how to get your ideas you need to convince how the designs are going to impact the business. Saying to PM’s: “The UI looks bad and outdated” is such a bad pitch and will fall on deaf ears. You need to speak “business” and as a designer you need to know how your ideas can make them money. Now, you’re probably thinking “well how can I do that” considering it’s hard to use ARR on designs. This is where we introduce the RICE framework. https://lnkd.in/exaD4xNY . Learning this will help you know the impact of your designs, the reach of the customer base, how confident you are on the designs and estimations and how much effort the business needs to invest in this idea. I will be writing an in depth post on this soon but thought I’d leave this tip on a Sunday night as I am having the designer insonomia.

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“Where am I?” As our design system matures, things move around. We’re trying to invest in ways that allow feature designers and engineers to locate where they are within a design system, and where to find what they need. → Multiple design libraries can be hard to track and become confusing when designers and engineers aren’t aware of what does and doesn’t exist in each library. → Every component and pattern has a varying degree of specificity from generic to a specific business context or content pattern and deciding what goes where is confusing. → Theming in Figma is great, but... the current nature of variables can make managing multiple modes across multiple brands challenging. Here’s how we’ve been trying to get our head around reducing complexity for our team and consumers 🏗 Figma file architecture - Having a clear plan for structuring your design system libraries is critical for folks to find stuff. Our early attempts at a highly modular system with numerous smaller libraries were too unwieldy. We’ve landed into a Tokens, Components, Patterns, and Features structure that streamlines the process for everyone. It was super cool to stumble on these Figma docs that deep dive into various strategies for organizing your files https://lnkd.in/dGyN-SQw 🚦 Wayfinding elements - Once designers and engineers are in the files themselves, it's still easy to get lost. We’ve implemented consistent color-coded “file covers” distinguishing design system files from feature files, “getting started” pages outlining file dependencies, and consistent page naming conventions indicating iterations from elements that are ready for development. Thanks to Vitaly Friedman for the reference to Saurav Rastogi's post on Figma file organization which is packed with insights. https://lnkd.in/giBs_Jgn 🎨 Multi-brand variables - Our team has worked hard to figure out the most intuitive way to allow for white-labeling our design system for custom theming. We currently leverage modes at multiple layers of the design system based on their specificity from global to semantic to component to pattern. Romina Kavcic has endless resources for teams who are looking to build out their token strategy. https://lnkd.in/deiMGCe9 💎 Wayfinding within design systems is hard but a couple of things that help folks understand where they are and what they can do → Partner with engineers on an architecture that maps somewhat to their mental model making things more intuitive → Setup wayfinding documentation within your Figma files that orient users to where they are within the system → Map your tokens and variables across your system so that it is clear how to layer modes to achieve custom themes #designsystems #figma #uidesign #tokens #components #patterns

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I’ve expanded on my earlier post with examples and deeper insights in a new Medium article. 🚀 In this extended version, I dive deeper into balancing autonomy with strategic alignment, guiding teams like a fleet of ships, and setting the stage for cross-functional success. If these leadership themes resonate with you, I’d love for you to explore the full article here : https://lnkd.in/g_q2Yxfk Let me know your thoughts!

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Really annoyed at Figma's price gouging here. There is no reason other than greed: https://lnkd.in/gfdrEiWH Oh, and I emailed them about it and this line from their reply was particularly poignant: "Additionally the minimum for enterprise is a $5k invoice minimum. 6 enterprise seats or made up with other products." To put that in context... our monthly Adobe bill (for 8 CC, 7 PS, 6 Acrobat licenses) is ~NZ$2k... Amazing how quickly enshittification sets in... #Figma #Design #SoftwareLicensing

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There’s an old conceit about technology: when things go wrong, the issue is invariably PEBKAC (Problem Exists Between Keyboard and Chair). The implication being that incompetent users are to blame, not technological complexity. Of course, the people throwing around the PEBKAC slur are those with the expertise to navigate the specific complication in question. To them, you’d have to be a moron not to understand this. After all, it only took them countless hours and indefinite rounds of trial and error to acquire their understanding, so why can’t everyone else?   The issue of expertise often gets overlooked when we talk about making products simple to use. Is it really possible to take idiosyncratic, multistep processes and make them easy enough for your mother to use? (This maternal strawwoman, of course yet another reductive technophobic stereotype.) Could you walk into a hospital operating room with the expectation that all of the tools used by surgeons be simple enough for any layperson to figure out at first glance? An auto repair shop? A gourmet kitchen? Doubtful, if not realistically impossible.   We often conflate the need to make things that improve efficiency and efficacy with simplicity, especially within a professional context. We pay people with specific areas of expertise to ply their trade and improve the function of whatever business they are engaged in. People are valued in this context for their skill and ability to navigate the convolutions of their job. Yes, we should reduce the need to waste time on repetitive, mindless tasks and empower workers to focus on the meat of their jobs. However, eliminating the need for users to have understanding and expertise is neither realistic nor warranted. Give people tools designed for them, not for everyone. Empower the skills and knowledge of your target audience over the lowest common denominator. Your customers will thank you for it.   #simplicity #usability #software #tools #technology

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