InVision

USAA, a fully integrated financial services organization, was facing the challenge of scaling its design process to meet the needs of its growing digital customer base. The company, which has been committed to digital growth since the launch of its first website in the 1990s, was looking for ways to bring exceptional service to all digital channels without compromising efficiency or empathy in the design process. The challenge was to maintain technical design consistency across all product teams and to develop a design-specific scorecard that could monitor engagement with compliance and legal, as well as the accessibility of the design program. Another challenge was to develop individual designers' skills and deploy them within the lines of business to work on specific projects.

Northwestern Mutual, a life insurance company founded in 1859, has always prioritized integrity and accountability. However, the changing needs of its clients and evolving expectations in the financial services industry necessitated a reevaluation of its business practices. The company recognized the need to be forward-thinking, experimental, and innovative to meet and anticipate the future needs of their clients, employees, and financial advisors. The challenge was to drive a digital transformation that would enable clients to see their whole financial picture in a way that is relevant, empowering, and tailored to their current lifestyle and work habits. The design team at Northwestern Mutual, which grew from 7 to 70 in two years, was tasked with this challenge.

Nationwide, a large insurance and financial services company based in Columbus, Ohio, was grappling with the challenges of digital transformation. Founded in the 1920s, the company had a long history and a well-established brand, but was struggling to meet the evolving expectations of customers who were increasingly seeking digital access to products and services. The company's leadership recognized the need to rethink their approach to product design in order to better understand and meet the needs of their customers. The challenge was to make the design process more transparent and inclusive, bringing in engineers and business partners early in the process and communicating the value of design through design thinking workshops.

Crate and Barrel, a renowned retail company, was faced with the challenge of maintaining its unique aesthetic and customer-centric approach while transitioning into the digital era. The company had a rich heritage built on a shared passion for customer experience, with customer engagement and feedback shaping the selection of curated products from artisans around the world. However, translating this customer-centric approach to their digital offerings was a significant challenge. The company needed to ensure that the quality craftsmanship, which was at the heart of their offerings, was not lost in the digital translation. The challenge was particularly evident in the case of selling custom furniture online, a multi-year project that had to meet existing standards while introducing a functionality that did not exist when the company's founders established the brand's shopping philosophy.

Gap Inc., a renowned retail company with brands like Gap, Banana Republic, Athleta, Old Navy, and Intermix, has been facing stiff competition from a multitude of online retailers. This has necessitated the company to invest more in enhancing the experience of customers who browse and shop online. The challenge was not just limited to the online platform; the in-store experiences also needed a revamp. The company's design teams were tasked with the responsibility of creating superior online experiences and reinventing the point-of-sale system and other in-store experiences. The teams were expected to build prototypes, gather quick feedback from customers, and continuously improve their products.

Herman Miller, a globally recognized furniture design company, was facing a unique challenge. Despite having a strong design heritage and a brand that is synonymous with iconic furniture designs, the company was struggling to translate this design prowess into the digital realm. The company's brand and product teams were tightly integrated, producing significant works with small teams. However, the company had more designers than developers building digital products, a rarity in enterprise businesses today and a reversal of the usual designer-to-engineer ratio. This imbalance was creating a bottleneck in the development of digital products. The company was also working towards adding more in-house software engineering expertise with the goal of fully integrated product and platform teams. The challenge was to maintain the company's strong design heritage while transitioning into the digital space.

AdvisorEngine, a pioneer in digital wealth management technology, faced the challenge of transforming their legacy CRM product into a new, innovative, user-centric CRM solution. The mission was to gather and implement client feedback in a productive, accessible, and meaningful way while collaborating cross-functionally in real-time. However, the shift to a remote working environment due to the pandemic posed a significant challenge. The team needed to replicate the feeling of in-person brainstorming, iterating on the fly, and collecting real-time feedback in their new remote reality. The challenge was to break down cross-functional barriers and create a culture of inclusive collaboration.

IBM, a century-old company with a strong engineering tradition, found itself needing to adapt to the modern market and user needs. Despite its rich history of design, the company faced the challenge of intentionally designing a design thinking-driven corporate model. The company needed to shift towards a more user-centered culture, which required a significant investment in design and designers. This transformation was not just about hiring more designers, but also about embedding design thinking into the company's culture and processes.

Atlassian, a leading software company known for its team collaboration tools like Jira and Confluence, faced the challenge of maintaining a coherent customer experience across its various products. The customer journey, from purchasing to using a product, involved multiple internal teams. The challenge was to ensure that the design was centralized across the organization and not split into product units. This was crucial to maintain a consistent user experience across all their products. Additionally, the company wanted to foster a culture of innovation and collaboration, where ideas could be freely discussed and critiqued, and where the focus was on continuous improvement and customer-centricity.

Netflix, a streaming service and content production company, has a unique culture and perspective on design where freedom reigns. However, this approach presents a challenge as it deviates from the standardized design systems, tool stacks, and processes that many large companies employ. Netflix values flexibility over standardization, which can lead to inconsistencies and a lack of cohesion in their design process. Furthermore, the company's innovative process called 'mountain' or 'multivariate' testing, which involves making radical changes to the interface, interaction design, navigation patterns, gesture support, and content, requires a high level of coordination and precision.

Credit Suisse, a leading financial services company, faced a significant challenge in fostering creativity and productivity among its globally distributed design team. The company's design leaders believed in the power of autonomy and sought to remove barriers to creative collaboration. However, the geographical distance between team members posed a significant challenge to working autonomously and asynchronously. The company needed a solution that would not only connect disparate design teams and functions but also cultivate a safe space for creativity. The goal was to empower productivity through autonomy and leverage collaborative tools to build better outcomes.

Google, a technology giant with over a million employees, is constantly in search of new ideas, better processes, and ways to optimize. The challenge lies in operationalizing these ideas at scale, ensuring a unified customer experience across various products and platforms, and reducing design and technical debt. The company also aims to understand its customers and new markets better, particularly in emerging areas of the world. This requires executives to immerse themselves in different cultures, which is a more challenging approach than simply sending a research team. Furthermore, Google's design system, Material, is one of the most comprehensive and widely used in the world, but it needs to be effectively utilized to ensure cohesive customer experiences.

Intuit, a financial services and software company, faced the challenge of designing products that not only meet the needs of their customers but also provide a delightful user experience. The company wanted to ensure that their users have the same level of confidence in their products as they would in a professional accountant. This was particularly important for their TurboTax product, which is used by individuals to file their taxes. The challenge was to create a design system that could be used across all their products, while also being flexible enough to cater to the unique needs of each brand under the Intuit umbrella. Additionally, the company wanted to ensure that their design process was informed by customer insights and research, and that these insights were shared across the organization.

Pinterest, a social networking software company based in San Francisco, has a strong design culture that emphasizes humility and a focus on the user and the product. The company believes in working cross-functionally when creating new features or products and showing work before it’s done. However, maintaining this design-driven culture while growing rapidly and retaining employees posed a challenge. The company also faced the challenge of operationalizing processes within hybrid organizational structures, which can get complex. Furthermore, Pinterest needed to ensure that there was a connection to the needs of the customer in every project.

Shopify, a leading e-commerce software company, faced a significant challenge in maintaining a unified user experience across its broad portfolio of products and services. With over 3,000 employees spread across five locations, the task of ensuring a consistent design philosophy and voice was daunting. The company needed a solution that would allow them to maintain their design DNA while also providing room for exploration and expansion. Additionally, the company's decentralized organizational structure, while promoting autonomy and leadership, posed potential risks such as isolation of designers and a weakened design culture.

Slack, a software company based in San Francisco, faced the challenge of maintaining a transparent and collaborative design process as it grew from a startup to a company valued at over 5 billion dollars. The company's product, a communication platform, necessitated an open and inclusive design process. The challenge was to ensure that all stakeholders, including the executive team, product managers, engineers, and designers, were involved in the design process from the early stages. This was crucial to ensure that the product remained user-friendly and continued to delight customers, a key factor in Slack's rapid growth.