Utilize the Amex profile landing page to explore Design Studio Methodologies.

Collaborate with User Experience, Visual Design, Product Owners, and Front-End Engineering talent to explore opportunities and discover a new ideas for an American Express Profile landing page.

Key Findings

• Card sorting proved a unifying participatory methodology that educated teams on the capabilities available within the logged Profile section of American Express.
• Focus on creating multidisciplinary teams to extract knowledge from different areas of expertise within DCE (Experience Design, Visual Design, Product Owner, Front-End Developer).
• Allocated time for individual prototyping to enhance contribution and minimize friction from potentially overly dominant attendees or overly quiet attendees. No one could interrupt or block thoughts during the 20 minute individual prototyping segment.
• Allocated time for individuals to pitch their prototypes which resulted in every idea, good or bad, being heard.
• Group prototyping enhanced the level of communication between DCE members who rarely speak to one another or have never met.
• Teams were excited to work in collaborative setting.
• The design studio session proved to be a worthwhile tool that any stakeholder in any vertical can use to kick-off a new product, product uplift, or new feature on an existing product.

Ok Google, 5 minute timer

We allowed up to a week of time to find a convenient time slot for all attendees. Rooms were also scheduled a week in advance. Rooms were prepped in advance with whiteboards. A wall was lined with butcher paper for sketching which was taken down and archived at the end of each session. Room were supplied with markers, erasers, scissors, art boards, and anything else that could make a mark.

Framework

Level the playing field with sketching

We worked with 3 groups - 2 @1 hour, 1 @1.5. Hours. Time was tracked using google voice to commence the countdown:

• Intro (5 mins)
• Group card sorting (10 mins)
• Individual Prototyping (sketches) (20 mins)
• Individual Presentation (3 mins each)
• Group Prototyping (30 mins)
• Group Prototype presentation to the other team (20mins)

Design Studio Teams and Session Dates

Form multidisciplinary team of experts

Team 1

Tats

Jennifer Cheng (PO), Juvoni Buckford (FE), Thomas Aliti (UX), & Sam Haghoo (PO)

Team 2

Boardwalk

Mikael Merrit (UX), Haley Spitz (PO), Minh Dan Pham (UX), & David Harth (UI)

Team 3

Magic

Christopher Goodhue (UI), Meg Roebling (UX), Hallie Weiss (P0), & Hunter Bacot (FE)

Introduction (3 mins):

We are looking to collaborate with UX, Visual Design, PO, and Engineering experts within DCE to create a new Amex.com Profile landing page. The designs were meant to be created with little to no constraints. We quickly detailed how the hour will unfold.

Capabilities Card Sorting (10 mins):

I can use my Card at an ATM?

We began with a 10 minute card sorting exercise (time was kept via google countdown). Teammates grouped profile capabilities into silos of 1st, 2nd, or 3rd order of priority. Each teammate took one turn. Team members were allowed to change another persons card placement in exchange for a turn.

Individual Brainstorming & Sketching (20 mins):

Allow time for individuals to think through their own ideas

Teammates were be asked to draw, cut, sticker, 1-3 different Amex Profile landing pages. Teams were not required, but could use existing Profile capabilities from the card sorting exercise as reference for their design.

Individual Presentation (3 mins each team member):

Allow time for each team member to be heard

Individuals pitched their page(s) to each other for 3 minutes each person.

Group Prototyping (30 mins):

Teammates were asked to draw, cut, sticker, 1-3 different Amex Profile landing pages together. Teams were not required, but could use features from the individual prototyping session or existing capabilities from the card sorting exercise as reference.

Future Considerations

ABC, Always Be Capturing

• Learned to Always Be Capturing (ABC). As a moderator it was super important to record value out of the group conversation. We did a lot of capturing of ideas as a group via photos, sketches, indexing, white boarding, but I reminded myself as moderator to take a step back and record ideas that may affect how the overarching design session could be run.
• These sessions generated tons of artifacts to line a war room during any part of a products life cycle. We saved everything.
• Needed at least 2+ hours to complete our intended outcome.
• Consider a type of voting methodology for decision-making during design studios similar to Google's marble method or stickers
• Drive participation and activity by having separate teams pitch their final prototypes to one another.