The design process can always be improved

Here are some common issues in the design process from my career:

Stakeholders not included a designer (me) in product-related discussions. "In a product startup, every conversation is a product-related discussion," some may argue. This means that every conversation is important, which is not true. I am talking about something different; the substantial product decisions should be debated with the whole product team. However, many business stakeholders cannot easily distinguish what is important from what is not. The aftermath is that designers are frequently excluded from the conversation around crucial product decisions.

I miscalculated time needed needed for a design project. This happened A LOT of times. Either I did not spent enough time on a discovery session, or I underestimated the scope of the project, or some other project instantly appeared on my schedule... It was all mine fault, without discussion. There is a common saying among project managers that final project estimation should be always doubled; I may adopt it, who knows?

Design process

Changing the scope in the middle of the project. "Can you put the garage where we planned bathroom to be?" is a commonly quoted joke among architects. It could be easily applied in digital product design. Some "quick adjusts" that client devised during morning coffee could easily extend the project timeline for months, if not indefinitely.

I worked alone instead of working with the whole product team. Frequently I drained my energy, losing momentum and only working from meeting to meeting, without continuous pace. Instead, the model that I accepted is working through half-day or whole-day workshops, building understanding the problem statement together with the team, making stuff together. Daily team working sessions would help, at least for a couple of hours.

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