This is the design process I implemented and refined during my time at Latitude Financial.

1. Strategic Alignment

  • The executive team defines a new strategy, such as “increasing customer engagement to boost spending and utilisation of digital channels.”

  • Inputs are gathered from the Quarterly Customer Feedback Forum, facilitated by the design team, which includes:

    • Analysis of pain points and opportunities from call drivers, NPS, complaints, Zendesk article traffic, and app reviews.

    • Annual customer testing baseline reviews of existing applications to highlight emerging pain points.

DVF Framework

2. Ideation and Co-Design

  • Facilitate a co-design workshop with executives and key stakeholders.

    • A full-day, in-person offsite session using FigJam and Design Thinking methodologies to generate and refine ideas.

  • Translate ideas into Lean Canvases and assess them using the DVF Framework (Desirability, Viability, Feasibility).

  • Score and prioritise initiatives into a development roadmap.

3. Concept Development

  • Gather insights and competitor analysis to inform the design concept.

  • Conduct a high-level design workshop with stakeholders (Product Leads, Technical Leads, Business Analysts) to:

    • Map the customer journey using Post-it notes or FigJam.

    • Identify business processes and technical requirements.

  • Create a holistic design concept in Figma using the Design System Concept Template, considering all elements:

    • Interfaces, external journeys, call centre interactions, and customer context.

  • Develop a Figma prototype of the concept and conduct a feedback workshop with stakeholders.

In-house customer testing

4. Customer Validation and Refinement

  • Conduct an initial round of customer testing on multiple concepts to ensure alignment with customer needs.

  • Review designs with the development squad to refine details, identify improvements, and prepare for implementation.

  • Iterate and re-test with customers if needed.

5. Stakeholder Approval

  • Present the holistic concept to the SCARFOLP Forum (Security, Compliance, Assurance, Risk, Fraud, Operations, Legal, Product).

    • Address any concerns and organise deep dives as required for approval.

  • Finalise and approve copy through Legal and Compliance teams.

6. Detailed Design for Development

  • Once the UX design is approved:

    • The UI designer creates final designs, including any new Design System components, icons, or Lottie animations.

    • Perform accessibility checks, ensuring colour contrast compliance and adaptability for smaller screens and larger fonts.

  • Collaborate with the squad to break the design into logical development chunks, defining an MVP while maintaining a seamless customer experience.

  • Create and assign Jira stories, ensuring tasks are sprint-ready.

7. Development and QA

  • Designers work closely with engineers during development to address edge cases (e.g., error states) and enhance transitions.

  • Test accessibility using:

    • Built-in screen readers (iOS/Android) and the WAVE plugin for the web.

    • JAWS or third-party consultants (e.g., Vision Australia, Intopia) for larger features.

Example Dashbaord

8. Deployment and Rollout

  • Conduct a staff trial during fortnightly deployments, allowing internal stakeholders to test and validate the feature.

  • Create Zendesk how-to articles and FAQs to support the call centre.

  • Use LaunchDarkly to progressively roll out the feature to targeted customers.

  • Monitor performance using:

    • Adobe Analytics/GA4 to track user navigation and process completion.

    • Snowflake/Datadog to ensure backend API requests run without errors.

  • Monitor app reviews and NPS feedback (via Slack plugin) to gather real-time customer insights.

9. Post-Launch Review and Optimisation

  • Conduct Monthly Business Reviews (MBRs) with executives to:

    • Report on the feature’s performance and alignment with business goals.

    • Identify opportunities for further enhancements to add to the backlog.