I started my job as a UI Designer in a small software agency in Yogyakarta Indonesia, and I was the only one design staff there. Just like mostly a UI Designer, I was only focused on the “skin” of the website/mobile app. I didn’t really understand what is design flow, user journey, or even wireframe. In short, I only saw the design from a small part: User Interface, without understanding that UX Design is something holistic.

Several years later, after moved from one company to another with the same role: UI Designer, I got accepted to work as UX Designer in one of the biggest marketplace and unicorn in Indonesia: Bukalapak. I don’t know it was a lucky chance or what, but I believe that this role is one of the most desired by a lot of designers in Indonesia.

At first, It just likes a normal environment that I ever had. But as a UX Designer, my tasks and responsibilities were different from my previous role. My design manager said that I couldn’t only focus on the visual stuff of the product, I must understand the Design Thinking process and see the product holistically. It was a hard time, especially for learning something new.

My problem was not only about the skillset.

• From my previous work, I rarely asked the detail information about the projects to my product manager, stakeholder, or even researcher. I only depend on the document and the meeting notes.

• Always say “YES” when the product manager asked me to design something.

• I rarely updated the design progress to the team, and just showed the final design.

When I used this same pattern in Bukalapak, it was failed. My appraisal review was bad, the bad result is not only for the technical skill of UX Designer (Design Thinking) but also the most basic skill of human, communication & collaboration.

Design Thinking process

At first, I think that two skills of design thinking and communication are not related at all. But I was totally wrong. When we tried to remember the process of Design Thinking, we’ll find that there is a communication phase, yes it is Empathize phase.

I believe that any kind of work needs one basic skill: Communication. The point of communication is how we can get information from another person. When we talk about Design Thinking it is just the same. This Empathize process is focused on how we can get the information (needs, problems, behavior) from someone (Stakeholder, or User). So, actually my problem is only one, it is to improve my communication skills.

Why this empathize phase is so important? Let’s check the whole process of Design Thinking.

• Empathize is focus on how to get the information/insight from the stakeholder and users about the product that we want to develop.

• Define the problems and insight from the empathize phase. Make sure that we define the right problems.

• Ideate the solution from the problems that we had been defined.

• Prototype the design solution into an interface that can be used by the user

• Test the design result to the user, will it solve their problem or not?

From these five steps, we understand that every step is related to each other. When you miss the information in the first step, you can ruin all your designs. This shows us that communication and empathizing is a crucial skill in UX Design process.

Improve Communication and Collaboration

After knowing my problems, I tried to discover the solutions and make the action.

1. I regularly update the design progress
   At the end of the day, I would share my today works, updated my design decisions, and asked my peers if they have any concerns. As a Designer sometimes I feel unconfident enough to show my work to the team because it is unfinished. But, when I tried to empathize with the team, with the product, I realize that I’m just a small part of the team. So, by letting them know my design progress, they can check the design together. Because we’re a team, every decision must be known by all the team members.
   
   

2. Stop saying “Yes” too early
   Sometimes, the stakeholder often jumps to a solution without telling us about the main reason why we have to design something. As a designer, we can’t say “Yes” too early. Instead of that, we can try to dive deep into the reason why do they want to make their jumpy solution.
   Do you ever heard about ”5 why rules”? When you want to know a person’s true reason for something, ask them 5 times why and you’ll get it. This method was made by Sakichi Toyoda, the founder of Toyota. We can use this method to get stakeholder’s true goals.
   
   

3. Sketch more!
   When we talk about the requirement with the stakeholder, it is hard to sync our minds with them. Because we’re not on the same page. By talking only explanation, it will make it hard to figure out the details. The simplest way, I often ask my stakeholders to sketch their explanation, and it’s work! I could understand their explanation better.
   
   

4. Be more initiative!
   From my previous office, I believe that I must wait for the instruction from the Product manager. It makes us rarely held a meeting because I must wait for the Product manager to invite me. I can’t update my progress if there is no meeting. Instead of waiting, I tried to invite the team member to make a decision about the design together. In Bukalapak we used Google calendar and it helps us so much.
   By initiating to held the meeting by myself it makes me work quicker than before. In the end, I believe that the designer is equal to the product manager. What makes us different is our role. Why does the Product manager look like a leader of the team? Because they are the one that knows the timeline, the stakeholder’s request, and the general scope of the project.
   
   

5. Make an effective meeting
   What makes a meeting is ineffective? There is no background why we do the meeting, there is no timeline & timekeeper, and the goal is not clear. So, I tried to make an invitation as clear as possible. I put the reason why we held the meeting, I explain what is the goal and the output that we hoped, and tell the team what will we do in the meeting. So everyone will be one the same page when entering the meeting room. Our next task is being a timekeeper, so the discussion won’t go wild.

After I improve my communication skills and doing these actions, in the next appraisal luckily I got good reviews from my peers and manager.

Conclusion

In the end, I believe that crafting or UI Design skill is very important. But, if we didn’t empathize more at the beginning of the process, our beautiful design can be useless, because it doesn’t answer what the stakeholder’s request or the users’ needs. Once again, remember that communication is the basic skill that must be owned by a UX designer.

Thank you.