Sense and Response

Welcome back to our Design at Scale — Academy series, focusing on the design practice in a team of ten. Today, we delve into another key element of a designer’s maturity: their impact on product design delivery within such teams — Sense and Response.

In today’s rapidly evolving landscape, software updates, new plugins, and automated solutions emerge faster than we can design our own propositions. This reality makes adaptability critical for the success of any product or service team. A designer who can reflect, analyze, and swiftly adjust to the ever-changing business environment becomes the glue that holds the digital experience together. In his book, “Sense and Respond,” Jeff Gothelf and Josh Seiden discuss the continuous balancing act between product requirements, design advancements, and readily available components for delivery.

As speed becomes paramount, understanding the impact of all changes on design becomes essential. However, designers often agonise over perfection. Spending precious time outside of work hours organising and refining their files, believing these meticulous efforts translate to increased speed the next day. As we explored in the previous article “Eye on the Release”, we have to adopt a team…