UX/UI Case Study
Owr: helping small teams with AI-powered product ownership
As designers, particularly in the digital space, we inherently understand the value of design systems — the set of guidelines and components that help us create consistent, scalable products efficiently. Yet, despite our fervent advocacy, the merits of design systems may not be so obvious to decision-makers and leaders within corporate structures. This disconnect leaves teams struggling to garner the necessary support and resources for effective design system implementation.
In these type of corporate scenarios, designers often end up working on a design system on their own initiative. When they suddenly have some free time, which in many instances causes the design system to be left behind, buried under many day-to-day priorities (if you’ve been in this situation, clap your hands 👏)
Through design thinking, I encountered firsthand the challenges faced by teams that deal with this disconnect in perception. It became clear that bridging this gap required a fresh approach — one that uses technology to provide access to effective design system management.
🧩 Challenge
Identify and address challenges in the designer-design system dynamic.
☝️Team
A team of 1
⏳ Duration
1 month for ideation and development.
🔨 Tools
FigJam for ideation, Figma for design and presentation.
For the ease of my writting, i am going to be referring as “small team” for design teams that are not giving enough resources or human talent to develop a design system, and as “large teams” I will be referring to design teams that are given enough resources to develop their design system.
Identifying the gaps
Since the start of my research, it became apparent that while larger teams may have the resources to employ dedicated product owners, smaller teams are often faced with budget constraints. This gap in resources can significantly hinder the effective development and implementation of design systems. Through surveys, interviews, and research, I uncovered a common thread among designers: the need for guidance, direction, and organization when building and growing a design system.
“It becomes difficult when the person in charge of the design system also has to perform other functions.”
“Due to lack of resources, the design system was developed concurrently with other tasks by a multifunctional team, and as it could be reconciled with the urgency of other projects.”
These are some quotes/thoughts that were collected thought the survey.
With these first findings, I started seeing an interesting path to follow: the disparity beetween “small” and “large” teams (if you’d like to know more about the survey and its findings, I wrote a dedicated article). I then went along and interview 2 designer profiles. The first one works for a corporation that sees the importance of design systems and has a full team in charge of it. The second designer, works for a corporation that has no interest in developing a design system and, together with their small design team, has been trying to develop a design system collaboratively, on their own initiative and with little to no resources.
These profiles were selected and interviewed with one focus in mind: to find out what tools do well-resourced teams have in design system development that smaller teams lack access to? How could we provide those tools to them?
Both designer profiles use similar tools to organize their work, but there was a piece that made all the difference: design teams with the most resources have the figure of a product owner for their design system. This is the person in charge of organizing, setting objectives, evangelising, collecting metrics, and justifying the project’s investment.
Oh well, that seems to be everything that the teams with the less resources need…
An innovative solution
Armed with insights from the design community, I set out to create a solution that would democratize access to effective design system management. Enter Owr — an AI-powered desktop app designed to emulate the role of a product owner specifically tailored for design systems.
Leveraging the power of artificial intelligence, our platform automates crucial functions such as organizing tasks, setting objectives, tracking progress and collecting metrics. By doing so, it alleviates the burden placed on smaller teams while ensuring alignment with project goals and priorities.
- Set up your project by providing Owr with essential data, such as project details, team composition, and the weekly time commitment expected for the design system.
- Based on this information, Owr generates a product roadmap and task backlog, which adapt to the team’s day-to-day priorities.
- Track your team’s progress easily within the application, monitoring tasks, priorities and time invested.
- Receive regular updates on project progress and deadlines via integrations with project management tools like Jira.
- Use the Slack integration to receive reminders and notifications, ensuring that team members stay focused on investing time in the project.
“AI-powered”
Gone are the days of manual oversight and resource-intensive management. With Owr, teams can take the challenge of creating a design system without being bogged down by administrative burdens. By streamlining processes and providing useful insights, Owr allow teams to focus on what they do best — designing amazing products.
It is also important to note that Owr does not intend to replace the work of a human product owner (nor could it), but rather to be an accessible option at a smaller fee for teams that cannot have one.
Looking ahead 🔭
In the future, the goal is to continue to refine and expand the capabilities of this AI-powered software. The vision extends beyond addressing the needs of small teams, it also aims to provide access to effective design system management across industries and scales. Through ongoing research, testing, and collaboration with the design community, this product has the potential to drive positive change in design.
Conclusion
it’s evident that there is a lack of support for small teams tackling the challenge of the creation of design systems. However, the emergence of technology, particularly AI-powered solutions, presents a promising option for bridging this gap. With tools like Owr, small teams could have the support they need in building a design system, a will help the design beautiful, cohesive products in a productive and efficient way, so they can go home on time 😉.
