Maintaining quality while moving fast

If this topic has ever come up for you when discussing how you ship products, read on...

Hello! Here’s your weekly deep dive into a topic that will help you lead better. Hope you enjoy the read and feel free to forward this along to a friend!

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I’ll be honest with you, a problem that I’ve often faced in my career is trying to balance speed of execution with quality of craft. As designers and design leaders, one of our primary goals is to ensure that we’re shipping products that meet a certain standard for quality that we’ve set as a team. This discussion often comes with a bunch of asterisks and caveats. In an ideal world, we’d have all the time we need, a fully staffed team, and financial resources at our disposal to get to that quality bar that we’re trying to stretch to. But, alas, reality knocks at the door and it’s impossible to not give in to circumstances that might compromise the ideal vision.

Before we get into how to navigate some of these discussions and be the gatekeepers of quality, you might be asking “what does a high bar for quality look like?” Let’s dig into that for a bit.

In my first post, What it means to be a design leader, I wrote about one of the biggest responsibilities of a design leader — quality of output. ‘Quality’ can be interpreted in a few different ways:

1. UI/visual quality of the product: I put this at the top of the list because, for better or for worse, visuals are front and center and hence, wide open to scrutiny. Visuals are definitely not the end all be all of measuring the quality of a product but they do play an important role. Making sure there’s a high level of attention to detail in every component, every part of the flow will help position the product as “cared for” and well put together. Sounds straightforward but it’s not so straightforward once you start peeking under the hood.

2. Well-thought-out user journeys: the quality of a digital product can suffer greatly if user journeys are not thought through. If users come across dead ends and dark patterns, this will significantly impact how they perceive the product and will instantly lose any trust that’s been built.

3. Does the product work when the user needs it to: this one is a no-brainer. When I try to use the product, does it crash, so I come across a bunch of bugs, am I met with a loading state every 5 seconds? If the answer to any of these (or all of these) questions is yes, you’ll need to get to the root of what’s causing these issues and address them with your Eng and Product partners.

The above might make sense if theory — yes, we want a product that’s highly polished in its presentation, is designed with users’ needs in mind, and simply works when the user needs it to — but on a practical level, how do we go about making sure that the team is onboard, especially when the focus is on moving fast. How can designers possibly spend all that time crafting the perfect experience when the conversation often skews toward speed of execution? Let’s dig into it.

Have a conversation about trade-offs

When discussing how time, scope, and cost will impact quality, it’s best to have an open conversation about this with cross-functional partners. Tradeoffs need to be part of the conversation so the team knows what to expect. For example, if the scope increases mid-way through the project, milestone dates will likely need a refresh if the team wants to preserve quality. If that’s not an option, the team should be ready to incur design debt.

Read more about ‘The iron triangle’ here

Align on expectations for quality

Setting the right expectations with your team about quality upfront can go a long way. Before you can get into conversations about how to enforce a high quality bar, it’s important to know what quality means and looks like for the product you’re designing for. This can be done by establishing guiding principles that the team can frequently use to base their discussions and decisions on. You can also make it a habit to regularly share examples of tools and experiences that hold a high quality bar. Additionally, make sure your team feels empowered to hold a high standards for everything they see around them. Create an environment in which team members are invested in the success of the overall product instead of just being guardians of their own area.

Use existing rituals to reinforce principles

The obvious ritual that comes to mind is regularly help crit sessions. If your team gets together at a regular cadence to present work and provide feedback, these sessions are a great opportunity to reinforce your messaging about quality. This is the place to dig into discussions that will hopefully help your team see examples of how they can improve and get closer to the promised land.

Invest in an accessibility-focused design system

Last but not least, the best way to move fast and not compromise on the visual and functional quality of your product is to invest in an accessible design system. Once you have an established design system that designers and engineers can work off of, quality can easily be baked into it and hence, a lot easier to enforce without too much extra effort.

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Navigating the delicate balance between speed and quality in product development is a challenge that demands discussions with your cross-functional peers and a shared commitment to excellence. Understanding what quality means for your product, taking a closer look at trade-offs, aligning on expectations, leveraging existing rituals, and investing in an accessible design system are important steps towards achieving that balance. Let's continue to push the boundaries of what's possible by making quality an integral part of our design process, even as we strive to ship quickly in fast-paced environments.

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Three things that caught my eye this week:

▶️ John Maeda’s annual design in tech report: "Design Against AI”

👀 Building a foundation of excellence: Intercom’s 9 fundamentals of great interaction design

😍 Bento - your personal page to show everything you are and create

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Until next time! 👋