A quick look backstage:
Collaborating on a global scale means a lot more people to learn from.
Adapting popular workshop frameworks for the enterprise works great to accumulate insights and bring stakeholders and subject matter experts on the same page faster.
Navigating global "complexity by variety" requires a flexible mindset.
Considering differences in requirements, operating models, priorities, client commitments, legal frameworks, data governance, and market regulation for over 30 markets is a serious mental effort.
Designing for "the world" offers surprising problems.
As we associate meaning with many different things, symbols deemed neutral in one place can be offensive in another part of the world. From wording to using icons to considering colours, working on global products requires a set of mindset shifts which are equally challenging and fascinating.
Cross-domain collaboration is essential when looking for hypotheses worth testing.
Workshops work wonders in resurfacing requirements and expertise locked in files and specialised work environments into a shared working context for everyone. Contextualising complexity through facilitation brings experts together and enables them to reframe the problem at its core.
Process maps offer an unrivalled, end-to-end perspective for complex, cross-domain workflows.
Mapping multi-intent or non-linear workflows is always problematic, as experts work and think differently, and know-how can be fragmented across organisational units. Investing in an end-to-end perspective across channels proved the best way to organise complexity.
Online prototypes with real workflows were invaluable for user feedback.
Test participants worldwide were tasked with solving problems, finding information, scheduling meetings, estimating tasks, and diagnosing problems using responsive prototypes with working features like search, forms, etc.
Discovering that test participants translate the prototypes was a magic moment.
The prototypes were basically websites, so translating them took just a single click. How could I have never thought of that? It opened many new opportunities and enabled stress testing of the interface with translations at a breakneck speed.
Prototypes are best for ongoing communication, not as a step in the process.
Using prototypes establishes a shared understanding and saves time on communication, as updating a prototype conveys much more meaning than updating documentation, especially for less technical stakeholders.
Working on solving big problems allows experimenting with many things.
Big projects are an excellent way to learn how to collaborate in big teams across domains and organisational structures. Trying new things helps to keep moving even when complexity feels intimidating.