Full Case Study: Scaling Quality Without Stifling Creativity

Creating Consistency on a Complex, Multi-Designer Project

Year2024IndustryFinancialAudienceProject TeamComponentsblueprints, design tenets, feedback trackersThemesonboarding revamp, project management, cross-functional team, communication

Can you relate?

You are co-developing a large set of assets with a bunch of other designers, all of whom had different levels of background knowledge and different writing styles. How do you ensure consistency and quality without turning everyone into robots?

The Real-Life Situation

I was one of two lead LXDs on a team building a multi-layered onboarding program with over a dozen topics and more than 200 individual assets. We had multiple different people writing, designing, and developing materials which all needed to end up with a cohesive look and voice. All of the assets were in different stages of production at any given time, including several rounds of feedback implementation.

The Role(s) I Played

I was the point person for most of our discovery calls with SMEs and I was the person who reviewed all of the source materials our clients provided. One of my key accomplishments was designing the organizing framework around which all of the assets would be built. That meant there was a lot of knowledge living in my brain that I needed to somehow transfer to the other LXDs to ensure alignment on learning goals, voice, and tone across all deliverables.

Approaching the Challenge

Shared Vision

As a team, we set ourselves up for success by having pre-production cross-functional team meetings during which we defined our shared design tenets and the voice/tone we wanted to use in all aspects of the program.

Documentation

I then built detailed topic blueprints that included:

  1. Know–Feel–Do learning objectives 
  2. An outline of content coverage with links to vetted source materials 
  3. Notes on tone, risk areas, topic connections and audience needs 

Partial Pivot

Projects rarely go completely as planned. Shortly after I design the blueprints, the topic structure was shifted which impacted the outlines I’d drafted. There wasn’t enough lead time to revise them so instead, the LXDs met at the start of each topic sprint to review the blueprints together and  discuss what adjustments needed to be made. This along with heavy use of Slack as a daily backchannel for real-time support and alignment allowed us to navigate the pivot relatively smoothly.

Single Line of Sight

We assigned a single LXD to own feedback implementation. They also attended our blueprint review meetings, enabling them to make connections between intention and how the content was received. Having line of sight on all feedback gave them better visibility into how changes in one asset might impact others.

Respecting How People Learn

This study is less about how people learn and more about how people co-design. In this situation, I knew that sharing the “why” behind specific content and design choices was critical. For example, its one thing to be told to write directly, without any fluff. Its another thing to know that the reason behind that is because the audience is highly focused and unwilling to spend time on anything that doesn’t directly improve their performance.

Facilitating Application

In addition to the blueprints I prepared, we documented design decisions, used templates, and tracked feedback in spreadsheets. This made it easier for everyone to stay on the same page.

Outcomes That Matter

In this case study, the outcome that mattered was consistency and quality, but it meant different things to different people. The client was counting on a polished product that was not only effective, but served as a recruiting incentive. Learners needed materials that were accurate and that didn’t include any surface differences or design irregularities that would distract from their learning experience. And my colleagues and I needed to be able to produce assets efficiently and cooperatively without confusion or tension.

So What Happened?

We were able to effectively divide and conquer the development of a huge number of assets, all of which had a consistent voice and achieved the targeted learning objectives.

So far, the new program has been received very positively. Specific data is still coming in.

Actionable Insights

  • Even though it takes time up front, it is critical that you and your team arrive at a shared understanding of your design tenets and voice. This is foundational to your ability to deliver a consistent, quality product.
  • Avoid miscommunication by including the "why" behind your standards and documenting everything.