Workflow Methodology

With every new project or ticket, whether small or large, I strive to work in a structured and organized way. The first and most important step is understanding. At PlainID, our product is highly complex and technical, so it's crucial to deeply understand the problem and the user’s needs before moving forward.

My first stage is understanding. I strive to identify the source of the problem and who raised it, a user or an internal stakeholder.
This is the part where I aim to excel the most: asking as many questions as necessary, delving deep to fully comprehend the problem, and always remembering one crucial principle—I am not the user.

The second stage is defining. In this stage, I aim to gather a lot of opinions. I consult and brainstorm with many stakeholders and different departments to gain as broad a perspective as possible.

Prototyping & Design
After understanding the problem, the user flow, and the technical limitations, I focus on rethinking the solution. Sometimes, we have a habit of simply 'fixing' the problem instead of questioning why it exists in the first place. This mindset helps me step out of the usual quick-fix mode and come up with a better solution.

Testing

This part was only recently implemented in our company. What you can’t measure, you can’t improve. So, as a side project, I took the initiative to implement the Heap analytics tool in our system. This was a complex task that required a deep understanding of our platform to build accurate user journeys. Later, I discovered it also involved redefining accessibility attributes within our system, as Heap identified elements that were not properly labeled.

In conclusion, there is no 'perfect' structure to work with. Demands change sometimes during a project, design needs evolve, and problems occur, obviously. But as I’ve noticed, if I aim to keep this way of working in mind, it usually helps me understand and create better solutions to complex problems.