In order to maintain a decent level of collaboration within a design team, while maintaining a productive pace, and keeping transparent about upcoming roadblocks and needs for solutions, and finding opportunities to support each others in our design practice…. I ended up with a cadence of quick and straightforward cadence of check-ins and working sessions.
This assumes that the members of the design team are not embedded solely with individual development teams, but are shared as a committed resource. Individual designers will be dedicated to team-specific meetings like stand-ups, groomings, etc, as necessary, depending on your organizational structure.
- Weekly, 30 min: Team meeting
- The design team as a whole meets to check in on any news or updates that stem from higher organizational issues and raise any concerns for their own work.
- Bi-Weekly, 30 min: 1:1s for personal development
- Could be weekly if needed, of course
- Opportunity for mentorship and management, pursuing opportunities for growth. As a manager, I’m asking these questions:
- What is going well?
- What could be going better?
- What do you want me to do more?
- What do you want me to do less?
- Bi-weekly: Team critique sesh
- Designers take the initiative to set the stage for collaboration on their work through critique or other exercises
- Monthly: 1/2 day: Team boost sharing skills or presentations
- Opportunity for designers to share more deeply and broadly with the team, showcasing skills, providing training to others, presentations etc.