Pei

Background

I joined Moxa for my DesignOps experience to help the design team work independently from the front-end team. I assisted the design manager in advocating UX and proposing DesignOps strategies. Additionally, I aimed to bridge the collaboration gap with cross-functional teams.

Regrettably, my manager departed shortly after I began my role, and no replacement design managers were hired. Despite this obstacle, I remained committed to my initial plan. I created clear departmental guidelines and actively advocated UX. My dedication resulted in my colleagues transitioning from passive onlookers to engaged participants in the UX initiative, and we secured support from top-level executives. I provided concrete examples to demonstrate the impact of our efforts, and I am pleased with our progress thus far.

My Role

• Project Initiator
• Project Lead
• UX Advocate

Deliverables

• Team Development Plan
• Workflow Visualization & Standard
• Design Requirement Platform
• Defined Team Function
• Design Team Sales-kit
• UX Knowledge Base
• UX Sharing Events

Duration

2020.3 – 2022.3

Challenges

• A very low UX maturity working environment.
• Most product and engineering teams hesitate to collaborate with designers on new projects without proven results. However, designers face challenges due to the long product lifecycle, making it difficult to achieve quick results.
• A lack of cohesive collaboration processes, unclear work methods, and varying design quality have resulted in complaints from engineering teams.

• Weak partnerships have formed due to product and engineering teams’ uncertainty about designers’ values, roles, and responsibilities.
• Designers often spend significant time clarifying basic concepts to people unfamiliar with UX or without experience working with designers.
• Need to find additional resources and increase exposure to raise awareness about the importance of designers and their role in creating great user experiences.

My passion for UX and design motivated me to volunteer to advocate UX and develop the design team. Even though there was no encouragement regarding performance appraisals and salary increases, I was determined to grow the design team in a company with low design maturity.

To achieve this, I read every management book, participated in business and design communities, and communicated with other design seniors and senior executives. I sought advice and created a department development plan, which I continually checked with senior managers to monitor progress in my company.

Workflow Visualization

I created the initial workflow standards and visualized the process, resulting in over 90% satisfaction and an 80% reduction in time costs for cross-functional collaboration.

Design Requirement Platform

I created a standardized application form for team design projects and cross-team collaboration, which was then adopted as a department system with support from my team members and supervisors.

Now, all team members have access to these standardized documents. We have set up automated processes using Notion, which has resulted in a significant boost in work efficiency.

Design Team Sales Kit

I have created a user-friendly sales kit that presents the team’s results in a simplified format. The content comprises an introduction to the design team and its members, along with our services, case studies, and cooperation standard operating procedures. 

This kit enables new members who are interacting with the design team for the first time to access vital information quickly. As a result, external units’ willingness to collaborate with the design team has increased by 95%.

UX Knowledge Base

The comprehensive UX knowledge database, which included the UX handbook, training materials, and FAQs, reduced 90% of the time spent on FAQs and improved cross-departmental collaboration.

Below is the sitemap of the database and part of the training materials.

UX Sharing Events

I have spoken at least 10 UX sharing events as a panelist and hosted design thinking workshops to enhance UX maturity in cross-functional collaborations.

My keynote speaking topics:

• UX Enterprise Maturity – The UX Blueprint for MOXA’s Future
• Work with the Design Team: Design Workflow Introduction and Application Forms for Design Requirements
• UX/UI Sharing Session｜Introduction to UX Team, Service, Workflow, Case Studies*
• Design Team Introduction and Case Studies*
• Qualitative and Quantitative Research｜Methods and Case Studies*
• User Story Mapping 101：Methods and Case Studies
• Design System 101

The symbol * means dual speaker or deck contributors

UX Blueprint for MOXA’s Future

I presented on UX Enterprise Maturity – The UX Blueprint for MOXA’s Future with hundreds of employees at MOXA’s tech forum and received widespread acclaim. As the design-oriented keynote speaker, I broke the company’s longstanding tradition of exclusively having engineers present on stage for over 30 years.

My presentation was successful and inspired colleagues to register for the forum in the upcoming quarter.

“At MOXA, customer experience is our top priority. During Pei’s presentation, she shared the future development plan for UX, which was enlightening. I was impressed by this and look forward to seeing more MOXA products incorporating UX design to enhance the user experience for our customers.”

— Bee Lee, CEO of MOXA

Establishing A Strong Team Identity For UX Design In A Low UX Maturity Enterprise

I presented the strategy for building design team identity in a low UX maturity enterprise to over 130+ participants from an online community for professionals with over 5k members in Taiwan. Received 9 out of 10 audience satisfaction ratings and invitations for future keynote speaker collaborations.

What People Say

Below is audience feedback from the satisfaction questionnaire for my speech.

“Pei’s business acumen was evident in her work, and she effectively managed stakeholders to spread her influence. Her speech briefs showcased her abilities and provided valuable insights into how to promote UX through flywheel growth and business thinking within the company.”

“The speech on the UX advocate process by Pei was incredibly informative and clear. The solutions presented were practical and valuable in addressing common issues in cross-functional organizations. Each stage of the presentation was recapped, ensuring that the key points were highlighted, adding to the professional and patient nature of the speech. I found the experience to be both powerful and beneficial.”

“I appreciate the concise paragraph summaries. I can relate to Pei’s approach of streamlining workflow, organizing chaotic information, and finding effective solutions to problems. Her methods resonate with my values. Her leadership skills are impressive as she guided her team towards a positive direction. She is a great storyteller; her speeches painted vivid images in my mind.”

Reflection