Project Team Managment
Document and Communication Management
Document sharing services are a critical part of collaboration on product designs. They allow you to share files with team members, track changes, and provide feedback all in one place. This can save you a lot of time and hassle, and it can help to ensure that everyone is on the same page.
Some of the benefits of using a document sharing service include:
- Collaboration: Document sharing services make it easy to collaborate on product designs with team members who are located in different places. You can share files, track changes, and provide feedback all in one place.
- Version control: Document sharing services typically provide version control, which means that you can track changes to files over time. This can be helpful if you need to revert to a previous version of a file or if you need to see how a file has evolved over time.
- Security: Document sharing services typically offer security features, such as password protection and file encryption. This can help to protect your files from unauthorized access.
- Ease of use: Document sharing services are typically easy to use. You can typically upload files to a service, share them with others, and track changes with just a few clicks.
If you are working on a product design project, I recommend using a document sharing service. It can save you a lot of time and hassle, and it can help to ensure that everyone is on the same page.
Here are some specific examples of document sharing services that can be used for product design:
- Dropbox: Dropbox is a popular document sharing service that offers a variety of features, including version control, security, and ease of use.
- Google Drive: Google Drive is another popular document sharing service that offers similar features to Dropbox.
- Microsoft OneDrive: Microsoft OneDrive is a document sharing service that is offered by Microsoft. It offers a variety of features, including version control, security, and integration with other Microsoft products.
In the industrial design context, secure file sharing is critical to protecting intellectual property as well. There are thousands of successful phishing attacks on industrial and manufactures every year. One important part of continuous education for designers is understanding the latest potential avenues for threats to intellectual property and other critical information.
Having a secure communication plan is also a key element for successful design teams and protection of intellectual property. The easiest way to breakdown team cohesion and effectiveness is miscommunication about communication expectations. Make expectations clear early on how your team communicates (emails, weekly meetings etc.) and individual’s responsibilities to be involved in those communications and meetings.
The Character of Effective Teams
Personnel management on product design teams is a crucial aspect of delivering successful products that meet user needs and business objectives. However, product design teams often face common challenges such as:
- Aligning the team’s vision and goals with the product strategy and roadmap
- Communicating and collaborating effectively across different functions and disciplines
- Balancing user feedback, stakeholder expectations, and technical constraints
- Managing team workload, resources, and deadlines
- Fostering a culture of innovation, learning, and growth
To overcome these challenges, product design teams can use various tools and best practices, such as:
- Creating cross-functional squads or pods that work on a specific part of the product or user problem
- Establishing clear roles and responsibilities for each team member and ensuring accountability
- Using agile methodologies and frameworks to plan, execute, and iterate on product development
- Adopting user-centric design processes and methods to understand, validate, and test product ideas
- Leveraging collaboration tools and platforms to share information, feedback, and ideas
- Conducting regular team meetings, reviews, and retrospectives to align, communicate, and improve
- Providing team members with opportunities for learning, development, and recognition
Perception of Equitable Work Distribution
One of the key factors for a successful design project is to ensure that everyone on the design team feels like their contributions are equitable and appreciated. This means that each team member has a clear role and responsibility, that their input is valued and respected, and that they receive constructive feedback and recognition for their work. Equitable and appreciated contributions can foster a sense of belonging, trust, and collaboration among the team members, as well as increase their motivation, creativity, and satisfaction. A design team that feels equitable and appreciated can also produce better outcomes for the project, as they can leverage their diverse perspectives, skills, and experiences to create innovative solutions that meet the needs and expectations of the stakeholders.
Best Practice to Support Creativity, Ingenuity, Innovation
Creativity, ingenuity, and innovation are essential qualities for a design team to produce solutions that meet the needs and expectations of their clients and users. However, no tool or method will overcome an ineffective team culture.
Some Strategies for Better Team Dynamics
Read the following Harvard Business Review article: Making Dumb Groups Smarter by Cass R. Sunstein and Reid Hasti
Summary:
Silence the Leader
To avoid self-censorship in groups, leaders should welcome diverse opinions and avoid stating their own views too soon. Leaders can also help low-status members, such as minorities or women, to have more influence by showing an open mind and asking for honest feedback. This way, groups can benefit from more information and better decisions.
Prime Critical Thinking
Group members may self-silence when they fear punishment for dissenting opinions. However, social norms can be influenced by priming, which activates certain thoughts or associations. Experiments show that priming people with either “getting along” or “critical thinking” affects their willingness to share information. Therefore, group leaders should promote information disclosure from the start, even if it challenges the group consensus.
Reward Group Success
When group success is rewarded, individuals have an incentive to cooperate, share information, and seek consensus. This can lead to more accurate and rational judgments, as well as higher levels of creativity and innovation.
Assign Roles
Individual bias decreases when team members are assigned specific roles. These can be a member’s actual expertise (ideal) or member can play an expertise role. Someone considers manufacturing, another regulation and safety, etc.
Appoint a Devil’s Advocate
Asking someone to intentionally take the role of contrarian can result in useful negative criticism and more open idea sharing. However, unasked for this can be potentially negative for the team’s decision-making. Another approach is to appoint a contrarian team to provide critical feedback.
