Creating a UX department from scratch

The main challenge was to start offering UX services and assembling a team to meet new client demands.

When I joined the agency, they only had basic user experience capabilities. I joined as a mid-level UX designer for a specific project.

The agency was only offering UI design services without any formal discovery process. Recognizing the growth potential, I proposed implementing a UX process. Together with the lead sales manager, we developed the main UX products.

I also participated in the presale process and successfully addressed all related questions to stakeholders to win the project.

Our approach yielded positive results, and we secured new projects for UX development, which necessitated expanding our team.

I initiated a specific hiring process to build a dream team, fostering a culture of growth and collaboration.

A skill matrix was built, and an annual evaluation of the employee was conducted.

It was setted up a budget for education and a personal development plan according to personal results and performance.

The company followed a Scrum methodology, so we built our process according to best practices: Implemented task tracker and established full visibility of the team capacity.

As a team, we went through all stages of Tuckman's Model (Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, and Adjourning).

We suggested services like design sprint, design thinking approach, user testing, user interview, prototyping, MVP, workshops...

I left the company when we had a team of six UX specialists with a full workload of user experience projects and established processes.