Trying to improve your UX teamwork? Dump the org chart and create a workflow map. This deck will show you how.

1. Workflow Map
Abandoning the Org Chart to better visualize process.
TomElliottdesign

2. The Limits of Org Charts
When communicating process to teams, UX Leadership often employ org charts showing rank and role,
but offering little understanding of process and by extension culture.
1. Org charts don’t show workflow
2. Org charts don’t show communication
3. Org charts don’t show deliverables
4. Org charts assume oversight
UX Leadership
FED Manager UX Manager UX Manager
FED’s UXA’s UXD’s
Is there a better way to visualize a team?

3. Components of Process
Good process makes productive teamwork possible. Whatever the team, process consists of...
1. Roles - Who does what
2. Workflow - How people spend their day
3. Communication - How people talk to each other
4. Oversight - How others are supervised
5. Deliverables - When are things do and to whom

4. 1. Roles
There are many roles, some defined by rank, others by discipline, but all well defined roles consists of:
Role = responsibility + authority + expertise
example: plumber
Let’s define the role of a plumber.
responsibility - What the plumber is supposed to do. Fix the sink.
authority - The right of the plumber to fix the sink as he wishes.
expertise - Is the plumber qualified to fix the sink?

5. 1. Roles - Common Problems
Many process problems result from unclear roles, typically slowing decisions. Common examples include:
Role = responsibility + authority + expertise
micromanager - A supervisor role who delegates responsibility, but not authority.
stakeholder - A role with authority, that lacks responsibility for the outcome.
rookie - A role with responsibility, who lacks experience with the subject.
principal - A role with experience , but lacking authority and/or responsibility.
lackey - A role with responsibility, but no authority.

6. 2. Workflow
Every role has a workflow that executes its responsibility over time. If what happens every day defines an
organization’s culture, then workflow largely determines culture.
UX Leadership Run dept. & UX vision
UXM’s
Oversight UX
UXA’s Design UX
DEV Build UX
time

7. 2. Workflow - Common Problems
Related workflows should be logically adjacent with clear distinctions of responsibility. When they are not,
two things can result.
Innovation Strategy
UX Management Art Direction
Implementation
Tactics
irrelevancy - The loss of a responsibility.
Here the strategy team (denied knowledge and
access to tactical reality) produces unusable
theory. Tactics take over.

8. 3. Communication
Communication simply means different rolls talking to each other and how often. Communication
exchanges information and grants broader insight about a department to individuals.
UX Leadership Run dept. & UX vision
UXM’s
Oversight UX
UXA’s Design UX
DEV Build UX

9. 3. Communication - Common problems
Communication problems result from either too much or too little communication between workflows.
UXM’s Oversight UX
UXA’s Design UX
DEV Build UX
Waste
All meetings, nothing gets done.
Responsibilities threatened.
Siloing
Neither role knows
what the other is doing.
Authority unclear.

10. 4. Oversight
Oversight grants control of one role over another, verifying their efforts. Unlike communication which is
bidirectional and informal, oversight flows in one direction and is more structured.
UX Leadership Run dept. & UX vision
UXM’s
Oversight UX
UXA’s Design UX
DEV Build UX

11. 4. Oversight - Common Problems
Overly controlled processes become bureaucratic. Under-control leads to chaos. Both are a battle for
a role’s authority.
UXM’s Oversight UX
UXA’s Design UX
DEV Build UX
Bureaucracy
Design role frustrated and slowed
by constant supervision.
Chaos
Design & Oversight
roles cannot predict
what DEV will do.

12. 5. Deliverables
Deliverables make different roles beholden to another. Thus, they also serve as touchpoints between roles
typically presented up or down. Ironically, an overly tactical culture can result from either too few or too
many deliverables.
UX Leadership Run dept. & UX vision
UXM’s
Oversight UX
UXA’s Design UX
DEV Build UX

13. 5. Deliverables - Common Problems
Siloing can occur when different roles’ deliverables don’t align or some roles don’t deliver to each other.
Below we see a dept. leadership role with authority but without responsibilities.
Dept. Leadership Operations
DEV Leadership DEV Oversight
DEV Build UX
Managing Up
It is common for management not
to provide deliverables to junior
team members. This silos leader-ship
from its own team.

14. 5. Deliverables - Common Problems
What really is a team?
UXM’s UX Oversight
UXA’s UX Design
DEV Build UX
Misalignment
Notice how the roles’ deliverables occur at differ-ent
times and rates - seemingly unrelated. Is this
a team with 3 roles or 3 teams?

15. Putting the Components Together
Below we see the connective tissue of a team’s process. Roles who’s workflows are only lightly
connected to others are silos. Over-connection produces micromanaging. Which roles below look
siloed or micromanaged?
UX Leadership Run dept. & UX vision
UXM’s
Oversight UX
UXA’s Design UX
DEV Build UX

16. Examples
Mapping roles, workflows, communication, oversight, & deliverables
to real life UX teams

17. Example 1: The Sears UX Waterfall (circa 2010)
DEV build
Project M completion
Product M
UXA & UXD’s
UXM’s
Leadership
DIG Team
success
UX
UX Oversight
Interface with senior management
UX innovation & strategy

18. Observation 1 - Schism
Rather than show a UX department working with other departments, the diagram below reveals two
unrelated UX teams. One tactical, reporting to Product Management, the other strategic and irrelevant.
DEV build
Project M completion
Product M
UXA & UXD’s
UXM’s
Leadership
DIG Team
success
UX
UX Oversight
Real UX team - Reporting to Product
Interface with senior management
UX innovation & strategy
UX Leadership - Reporting to Senior Management
Notice how all UX deliverables flow
to the Product role and how heavily
Product oversights UX.
By comparison UX Leadership
barely communicates or oversights
UX managers.
Product also oversights the DEV
team, thus through them UX has
access to DEV.
To compensate, UX Leadership at-tempts
to oversight UXA’s and
UXD’s directly, but doesn’t show up
nearly enough.
Leadership is focused on managing
up to Senior Management not
down to its own team.

19. Observation 2 - No Strategy
Despite a large, dedicated innovation and strategy team, the UX department’s output is entirely tactical.
UXA & UXD’s
UXM’s
Leadership
DIG Team
UX
UX Oversight
Interface with senior management
UX innovation & strategy
Firewall
The lack of communication, over-sight,
and deliverables between
Leadership and UXM’s isolated the
DIG team from other UXA’s.
Some UX team members have never
heard of the DIG team. None of the
Product Managers have.
UXA’s didn’t know the strategy and
the DIG team’s strategy did not
reflect Sears daily UX reality.
The DIG team’s audience
wasn’t the user, it was Sears
senior management.

20. Observation 3 - Servant of 2 Masters
Due to the fracturing of UX, UXA’s had a lot of responsibility and were under pressure to obey the authority
of both Product Managers and UX Leadership, two roles battling for control over UX.
Product M
UXA & UXD’s
UXM’s
success
UX
UX Oversight
Leadership Interface with senior management
Conflict
The UXA’s and UXD’s roles were ground zero
for the power struggle between Product
Management and UX Leadership. The result,
high UXA turnover.

21. Example 2: The Grainger Sprint (circa 2014)
Sprint Team
DEV
PM’s
UXA’s
UXM’s
Leadership
UXM’s
UXD’s
build
success & completion
UX
UX Oversight
run department & vision
DEV control of UX
UX

22. Observation 1 - UX not on Agile
The sprint teams didn’t really exist. While some teams were exceptions (mobile, business management),
DEV was largely a black box working in its own way with deliverables unrelated to Product and UX.
Sprint Team
DEV
PM’s
UXA’s
build
success & completion
UX
Oversight
PM’s only oversight
UXA’s and talked to
DEV sporadically.
Agile
Only DEV produced
biweekly deliverables.
Insight
Most UXA’s ignorant
of DEV matters.

23. Observation 2 - Ineffective UX Oversight
While UXM’s communicated often with their teams, they oversighted little, typically in response to
Leadership oversight.
UXA’s
UXM’s
UX
UX
Leadership run department & vision
Leadership Oversight
Occasionally leadership attempted
to steer UXA’s directly forcing UXM’s
to step in and fight for control.
UXM Oversight
For long periods, UXM’s provided
no oversight, which was
problematic for junior UXA’s.

24. Observation 3 - Nobody Beholden to UXA’s
UXM’s have few deliverables and none to their teams.
UXA’s
UXM’s
UX
UX
Leadership run department & vision
Guidance
Junior UXA’s needed more
formal guidance (articulated as
deliverables) and less talk.
Particularly in response to leader-ship
co-oversight. Co-oversight
often confused inexperienced
team members.

25. Observation 4 - Unpredictable Leadership
Leadership was a silo from its own department - the lack of communication outward meant the team
didn’t know the expectations or what was coming. Similarly, leadership didn’t feel informed about projects.
UXA’s
UXM’s
UX
UX
Leadership run department & vision
Vision
Leadership has no
deliverables to share
it’s vision.
Involvement
Leadership’s involve-ment
in sprint teams is
unpredictable.
Communication
Leadership provides
little insight or direction
to UXM’s.
Control
At times, leadership
second-guesses its
own managers.

26. Observation 5 - Visual Design, the other UX Team
Visual design reported to Front End Development which was part of UX Leadership. As such, visual design
was not on the sprint teams and had no connection to Product Management or UX Architecture.
UXA’s
UXM’s
Leadership
UXM’s
UXD’s
UX
UX
run department & vision
DEV control of UX
UX
UX Team 1
Architects working with
Product Managers.
UX Team 1
Designers reporting to
Front end Development.

27. Proposal
How do you prevent bureaucracy, impose control, and improve teamwork?

28. Proposed Team Structure
Sprint team
DEV
TPM
UXA & VD
UXM
UX Planning
Leadership
UX Oversight
UX strategy & planning
success
build
UX
Operations & Vision

29. Advantage 1 - Embrace the Sprint
For the sprint team to be real, all roles should work in 2 week increments with Product providing oversight
of DEV and UX and all roles providing deliverables to each other.
Sprint team
DEV
TPM
UX
success 3
build 1
2
UX
Hand-off
Notice how the roles work ahead of
each other, passing deliverables while
working in parallel - a mini-waterfall.

30. Advantage 2 - UX Management that Acts
More than just talking to UXA’s and UXD’s, UX Managers should provide regular (monthly) oversight and
deliverables to their teams to guide without disruption or ambiguity.
Sprint team
DEV
TPM
UX
UXM
success
build
UX
UX oversight
Manage Down
Notice the regular pattern of deliverables
that make UX Management beholden to
their own teams.

31. Advantage 3 - Connection of Vision to Tactics
Most orgs are purely tactical because those tasked with vision or strategy do not deliver actionable steps
at regular intervals to tactical roles. A planning team is needed between leadership and management.
UXM
UX Planning
Leadership
UX Oversight
UX strategy & planning
Operations & Vision
Communicate Vision
UX Leadership delivers quarterly
vision goals to the UX Planning
team (not to be confused with
company status meetings).
Shape Strategy
UX Planning shapes Leadership’s
vision, marries it to learnings
from UX Managers, then plans an
actionable strategy.
Communicate Strategy
UX Management takes strategic
deliverables and translates them
into tactical initiatives for their
sprint teams.