Improving Communication and Collaboration in a

Cross Functional Environment

Ashley Jordan | Product Design Intern

 User Research
01
Product Designer
Disovering Pain Points Engineering, Product &
In order to understand if there is an issue with collaboration Design are all reaching
and communication, I must understand the pain points from toward the same goals, but we
LogMeIn employees across different teams and departments. sometimes forget to communi-
cate frequently and clearly with
Questions each other in the midst of this.
02
Software Engineer
Different teams usually place
there information in different
places. UX might keep their
designs in zeplin, while
engineering wants that same
info in specific JIRA tickets.
03
Product Design Manager
Many applications to design
products and track projects.
Developers and product manag-
ers trying to check the status of
a project or find designs to build
arent able to find anything.

1. How would you describe your experience with working in a

cross functional environment, when it comes to

04 05
communicating and collaborating with others

2. What sort of suggestions do you have that can improve the

challenges of communication and collaboration in
UX Researcher
your department.
There is a lack of engagement
during meetings occasionally
when Im sharing data to the
project team. This might be
because they arent involved in
the entire research process
from the beginning
Marketing Intern
Getting used to all the different
channels of communications.
I missed a meeting because I
didnt remember to look at my
calendar, just because there are
so many applications to keep
track of.
 Summary of Feedback & Discovering the Problem

The Feedback
After consolidating all of the responses from each of the respondents
there were a few common themes.
There are so many different applications that people are using. This makes
it difficult to work as seamless with others as it can be.
It is difficult to keep track and find projects. Communicate frequently
and clearly with each other.
There is a lack of engagement during meetings because not everyone
is on the same page because not everyone is getting the same docs.
Increased unwareness of what people from other teams/departments
are working on rises.
All of this confusion causes a growing fear of being disruptive with The Problem
questions/request of where to find information
Currently, productivity among cross functional departments suffers when
members are not working as a cohesive whole. There are multiple
applications used in order create, collaborate and communicate with team
members and people from other departments.
This increases difficulty to keep track, manage and communicate with
each other on projects, which results in an increased difficulty to
collaborate effectively and efficiently, on a consistent basis.
 The Desired End Goal

Creating a Product
To create a downloadable desktop application, that allows you to
integrate work applications, into one organized workspace.
The application would act as a notification center, where for all of your
integrated communication, file and project management applications to
automate your workflow and improve productivity.
 Workshopping the Product Idea

Beginning the workshop

I planned and facilitated a workshop with the Product Design team for
LastPass. This was done in order to generate new ideas of the best ways
to execute the product goal. The workshop involved a few set of activities:
1. Q-storming
2. Use Cases & User story sketching
3. Dot Voting
 Beginning the Q-Storm
What is Q-Storming?
The purpose of Q-Storming is to discover all of the questions people
have, which can be used to be worked towards the final end goal.
Example Questions
Do I just get notifications or can I search for items?
Can I communicate with others through this?
Is there a way to see the alerts?
Can I search through notifications/projects
How does this fit into my project workflow?
Can I search through notifications/projects
Is there something I can do after I receive the notification?
 What is a Use Case?
Use cases demonstrate how a user will perform tasks on the product. The use
case is a sequence of simple steps from the beginning users goal, until the end
of that goal.

Creating the Use Cases to sketch.

1. How do you add and set up a new account to get notifications from a specific app
2. How do I view the notifications

Use Cases & User

Story Sketches
 Dot Voting and Discussion
What is Dot Voting
After sketching out flows for the use cases, we then voted on the best
ideas with dot stickers. Each participant receives 3 dot stickers, and
selects the user flows they think is the best. After, we discuss all of the
sketches with the top votes.
Discussion
After voting, we began analyzing the top user story sketches based off
the use cases. After the discussion, I decided to focus on a few of the
common themes to explore when developing the UI/features for the
product. Some of the ideas brought up were similar to the questions
asked in the beginning of the Workshop during the Q-Storm
Use Case 1:How do you add and set up a new account to get
notifications from a specific app
- During onboarding , you select all the apps you want at once and set the
preferences.
Use Case 2 :How do I view the notifications
- Adding apps from a sidebar navigation, where the notifications live and
there is a way to add more apps
- Avoid being bombarded with to many notifications by setting
preferences on the notifications you wish to receive
- Have a home screen that displays all of the apps/notifications
Consolidating the info & Sketching the UI
Any Questions?