Design Operations at Crunchyroll
Design Operations at Crunchyroll
Please read Part One before proceeding for better context. Once you’re familiar
with the background proceed with the implementation part.
Designing and implementing an agile culture
In August of 2018, AT&T acquired Crunchyroll. I am relocating to the San Francisco Bay area to start a new job as a Design Program Manager. After hiring a new Product Design Director, I suggested adopting a different agile framework. Following my usual process of starting small, iterating, learning, adapting, and scaling, Scrum was chosen as the framework of choice.
We began integrating Scrum into the Mobile Design team first, and I trained the members on Scrum’s values and ceremonies. Building on our experience with the Kanban method, I developed a new Jira workflow for the Scrum board. I used Jira Automation to simplify and automate parts of the design process.
Estimations
The Mobile Design team’s two-week sprint model included:
- Daily
- Preview
- Backlog Refinement
- Retrospective and Sprint Planning
Using estimations divides the PMO community. I will not take up a debate; I will remind you that the idea is worth experimenting with. Have your own opinion, and don’t worry about what others think. People who argue for and against estimation leave much specific information out when debating.
I was asked to onboard the LRX team. It was done considering the lessons I’ve learned during the implementation of Scrum for the Mobile Design team. Once LRX was fully operational, I onboarded the Web Design and UDS [Design Systems] teams.
As of May 2022, we did #79 sprints on Mobile Design, #71 on LRX, and #70 with the Web design team.
Program Management Office
Initially, Program Managers were part of departments, but later, the organization hired a Vice President of the PMO, and we all joined the group. The organization asked the group to improve the Roadmap and Planning process.
Roadmap
The whole organization meets quarterly to set priorities and get information on KPIs from the C level. In advance, I coordinated with Design and Product to determine which Concepts on the Roadmap would require design support, elaborate on the knowns and unknowns, and SWAG the level of effort.
Planning
With Jira Plan, I created a schedule for each design team to show our priorities, design in progress, phases, and delivery dates. I also display how many Concepts we can run in parallel and how we intend to handle the waiting list.
When crafting designs, we may be dependent on copywriting, graphic assets, and user research. I will incorporate these into the schedules so everyone knows who is responsible and when the artifacts will be delivered.
I am also working with the development Program Managers to coordinate our schedules. If discrepancies are found between plans or development can handle more, I calibrate or correct the design phases.
Design Framework v2
A working group was formed within the Design Department to define improvement opportunities.
The Director, two Design Managers, and I identified challenges:
- The product is not giving enough emphasis on design during the discovery phase.
- Product Managers tend to write requirements in the silo.
- Design workflow has to evolve, we need even more attention to quality.
- Understand how to support designers’ growth and retention.
In the following paragraphs, you will find solutions for the enumerated challenges.
Product Discovery
Currently, we are running several experiments, and Product Discovery is one of them. In collaboration with Product, we have taught one another how to define the hypothesis and solutions early on. When the hypothesis is defined, we ask the Product to hold on to writing design requirements. One of our Design Managers implemented a Design Breakdown. In a nutshell, it’s about designers breaking down the Concept into design activities like competitive analysis, audit, research, user flow, wireframe, user testing, copy, HiFi mockups, and prototypes. Case by case, a list of design activities and high-level estimations are created, most of the time it’s a Confluence page.
Design Job-Breakdown
From here, the Product takes the lead in populating the backlog with design requirements. With job breakdowns, I don’t have to wait for requirements to be fully flashed. This is enough to build the schedule for future work. I will divide requirements writing between PM and Designers (for technical design work like design components or user flow, we expect Designers to write requirements) and inform which tickets by what Backlog Refinement session should be ready. Rather than requesting all requirements simultaneously, we lean the collaboration by asking for requirements as we approach the newsprint. When we design, we learn and adapt, and requirements should be no different.
Design Approval
One more experiment was a success and became part of the design process. We felt we needed to approve designs internally after the design critique phase. I pitched the idea of a design approval ladder. We had at least two versions and currently using:
- The “Self” designer determines if the solution is ready for design QA and production.
- The “Lead” Designer and team will evaluate the design.
- The “Lead and Principals” are responsible for evaluating the designs when we work on cross-functional initiatives and must ensure design solutions will work for other platforms.
Definition of Design Done v1.5
Initially designed for VRV.co, we used it as a primer to develop technical documentation for the Crunchyroll brand. By 2022, our team of designers will be almost entirely different from the one I joined in 2017. The documentation had to reflect that because it’s a team with more seasoned experience.
Jira Design Ticket Templates
Regarding writing requirements, I’ve learned that Product Managers have different styles and expectations, and I encourage them to do so. There were many instances, however, where the outcome was of such a nature that a lot of time was spent back and forth between the Product and Design teams. Hours of meetings, long slack threads that sapped our energy and lowered our morale.
Obviously, I’m on something that could be done better. Together with the Design Leadership we audit the Product requirements process, documented the pain points, and created Jira templates for almost any kind of design work. Rather than restricting or limiting the PM, the templates guide them by outlining the expectations. To ensure a better adoption, we wrote documentation on how to use Jira Design ticket templates.
Outcome
The Design Framework v2 provides higher levels of transparency within the organization about when and how design is completed, how much work can be crafted, how multiple initiatives can be coordinated, and how we respect designers’ work-life balance.
Highlights
Experimenting with the agile process to advance the design maturity
Sony’s Funimation acquired Crunchyroll in 2021, and the two businesses are merging. Funimation is integrating into Crunchyroll, and my priorities have shifted.
Roadmap
PMO group is currently working on the next version of the Roadmap process. We need to become more efficient at planning new work alongside getting work in progress by the finish line. Help the org collaborate better on cross-functional initiatives.
Challenges
Although our process is robust, there is always room for improvement. We should increase flexibility, expand our design problem-solving skillset, and experiment further with design processes.
I am glad you made it this far. If you have any questions or comments, please email me at designopsconsultancy@gmail.com.
Autonomy
Since we have been working on the Scrum model for a few years is time to introduce more autonomy at the team level.
- Preview—I no longer lead the meetings. It’s the designer’s responsibility to set a schedule and drive the discussions.
- Daily—Some of the design teams outgrew the classic Daily model and turned it into a live design working session. I gave those teams ownership, and I joined as a spectator.
- Sprint Planning – I hold the design program management, Roadmap Planning, and strategy but train teams on how to do sprint planning by themselves.