Our new team review process and principles at Booking.com

A case study on how to bring a UX community together to critique, ideate, learn and have fun

Last year, together with my colleagues Leo and Robson, we started working on a new redesign project. Unlike a typical redesign, in this instance, we got to relaunch the review (or as some call critique or feedback) ritual for our FinTech UX team at Booking.com.

After gathering the input from our UX community and some reflection, we (re)introduced it with a clear purpose, improved structure and a more engaging schedule.

All of it based on underlying principles of how we can collaborate with each other that apply beyond the review ritual.

We put all of that in one deck that set the table for our future sessions. This is a sneak peak into that deck and the ritual itself.

But first…

The context

Our team consists of around 15 individuals from 3 different crafts: UX design, UX writing and UX research. We all work closely together in the FinTech department of Booking.com, specifically in a area called Traveler Payments.

The main focus of our team is the checkout process: how travellers pay for their bookings (including payment method, payment timing, use of rewards and choice of currency). Besides this, we work on the post booking flows related to finances such as management of their transactions and refunds. All of that in a seamless way that works across the globe.

If you’ve booked something on Booking.com, you’ve surely interacted with something designed by our team. We hope it was a good experience (and if not — we are working hard on fixing it!)

Back to the story of the review ritual…

The pain points

Our good ol’ review meeting (called PayJam since we are in the FinTech / Payments world) was one of the weekly highlights in our agendas. Even though it was far from being broken, there was certainly room for improvement:

1. We did not book slots for all of our work and at all stages of our work. With that, we underutilised the ritual. This is one of the reasons why we had some weeks pass by without a review. People were either too busy to ask for feedback or didn’t think their work was ready yet. We needed to develop the muscle to review more of our work.
2. We were not sure who it is for and what it can be used for. It was mostly UX design led, with UX writers and UX researchers supporting and occasionally joining. We needed to be all on board and equal partners in order to maximise the value of the session.
3. People didn’t book well in advance, causing people to commit to other meetings. As a result attendance was low and it was occasionally canceled. We needed a more reliable agenda, visible few weeks in advance.
4. Some of our presentations were missing context, especially when the hour was shared between few people. We needed to set the context properly and manage the time better.
5. Feedback wasn’t always used or it was not transparent about what happened with it. We needed to be able to better track the feedback and update each other with progress and possible improvements resulting from our feedback.

These pain points sound familiar?

The foundations

Besides identifying the pain points, we identified the highlights. There were plenty of them! We wanted to keep what was working and use that as foundations to build on top of. We were not tearing down the entire house, we were just doing some plastering and updating the interior design.

PayJam was and remains:

1. Flexible
   We’ll provide a loose structure, but how you do it is up to you. You need a review — sure. Co-working session, coming right up.
2. Low pressure, high reward
   We‘ll keep the format fairly open so you’re free to get the input you need, with little barriers in the way. No big preparation needed, just the context and whatever is your challenge. The community gives you a ton of feedback in return.
3. Informal
   It’s by us, for us. It’s a friendly space with good vibes where we are open to give and take feedback. We are constructive when giving the feedback, being mindful to create a safe space for psychological safety.

On to building…

The vibe

With knowing what’s working and what’s not, we can now be intentional and clearly and simply outline what this ritual is, and with that also — what it is not.

We wanted to have a ritual that’s engaging, useful and raise the quality of our work, the quality of our feedback, and our knowledge. At the same time we wanted to create a good vibe. As the name PayJam implies, it’s a ritual where we jam together.

We wanted to have that feeling of a band playing together, not a feeling of a talent show where a few strict judges raise X‘s that determine whether you passed or not.

Don’t underestimate the importance of this part, the designing of the feeling, or the air the room. This set the tone for the rest of our review ritual design.

Vibes are nothing without…

The purpose

Summarised in one sentence, the brand new, simplified purpose for our review ritual is:

To bring our UX community together in a shared space where we can review our ideas, ideate, learn and have fun.

Expanding on that with more detail, it’s a weekly ritual where design + writing + research come together to:

1. Review
   We critique / give feedback from our various individual and craft perspectives. All for the purpose of raising our quality and craft. We do this in a constructive way, informally, with consideration of the context and the phase of the project.
2. Co-create
   We put our collective brain power to create something from nothing, together. As one example, this might be a brainstorm in the early phases of a project where we diverge together. After that, the organiser collects the ideas, refines them and brings them back for a follow up review.
3. Learn
   We can dedicate sessions to go deep into a topic or a skill. The best way to learn is from experience so we can share our processes and insights. Those learnings might come from experiments or from previous projects that we reviewed and co-created together. This way we close the loop and learn together.
4. Have fun
   We can share things from our personal lives and interests. We can do dry runs for upcoming presentations. We can experiment with new techniques for ideation and with review formats. We can be creative and think outside of the box of our current projects, as example: we can redesign our workflows and even our department.

With all of the above, we are aiming for the following outcome(s):

1. Outcomes for the presenter
   – Get broader perspectives (no blind spots)
   – Raise the level of your work
2. Outcomes for the participant
   – Have a better overview of what’s happening outside of your team
   – Make an impact outside of your scope

All the while, our reviews provide ample learning opportunities for everyone.

Our review ritual was shaping up. But we needed 6 more things, namely…

The 6 collaboration principles

Some things required logistical changes, others required a shift in mindset. We wanted to make these explicit in the form of 6 review and collaboration principles. With these, we intended to make the foundations even better and stronger.

You might recognise them since they are quire universal and necessary for all UX practitioners.

They are…

1. We are open for feedback

We actively listen and we are open for a discussion. We understand that feedback is never personal.

We share early and we share often. We are always hungry for feedback. We actively seek it.

To enable this, we want to keep the tone of our meetings light and informal. We want to create a safe space where there is no judgment. We are mindful of the context and phase of the project when giving our feedback.

2. We review and present our work in few circles

We review initially in a small circle: 1–1, with your closest collaborator: UX writer <> UX designer and / or UX designer <> UX lead.

After that we go to a bigger circle: a craft specific ritual followed by the cross-craft PayJam.

While going from the smaller to bigger circles, your work can only get better and better.

If you want to take it further you can continue with a bigger circle: entire department or craft (Booking UX All Hands, FinTech All Hands, etc). Next stretch step can be to even go even broader (Medium article, design conference). These steps are entirely optional but encouraged 😉

3. We review from start to finish

We can all benefit from multiple perspectives at any stage of the design process: when there is nothing created yet, all the way to when the product is live and we need to evaluate and improve.

Phases to consider for review:

1. What’s the problem / the why. This can be a PRD review, without going into design yet.
2. Early concepts and ideas review. Low fidelity, sketches or even when there is nothing there yet. In this case, we can start from 0 together in a co-working session.
3. Final phases where the design is almost ready for handover.
4. Review of results and discussing next iterations.

4. We unblock each other

We don’t block anybody in their design journey. Our mission is the exact opposite: to unblock and help them get better and to a better outcome.

We aim to be solution centric rather than problem centric, meaning we always provide options on how others can move forward, faster and better.

We support our feedback with constructive pointers instead of vague subjective thoughts. Whenever we have a feeling of something not working, we try to articulate why.

We challenge the proposition or the solution at the appropriate time. We understand that everybody is dealing with a bigger context of team, department and company and we focus on what we can control in the short term all while trying to influence the bigger picture in the long term.

5. We follow up and follow through

We capture and we consider everything, we implement what is possible.

We aim to approach every piece of feedback as a to-do item. Whether we do it or not it’s another question, the least we can do is note it and actively decide whether it’s possible to take it into the design or just take it into account.

In order to be most efficient, we capture the feedback directly into Figma, making sure it can be tracked. We give status updates in our channels or on follow up sessions in the PayJam.

6. We prepare well and set expectations

As presenters, we give context appropriate to the stage of the design process where we are at the moment. If needed, we also remind everyone of the bigger picture and earlier phases if a topic is coming back for a follow up review. Depending on a topic, this can take anywhere from 5–30 minutes so we need to manage the time accordingly.

Secondly, we give a clear ask to the participants and we highlight the kind of feedback we are looking for based on what we need at the moment. With this, the table is set for our review.

As reviewers, we give feedback sensitive to the context. We don’t critique the visual design or copy in early conceptual phases, and we don’t block or challenge the problem statement while we are in handover or experimentation stages. All in its due time.

Just a few more details and we are all set…

The practicalities

This last part might sound trivial but things like this keep the ritual together as much as the principles highlighted above. It was essential for us to have:

Regular and updated agenda
To drive further engagement, we’ll have clear topic and agenda items so everyone knows when and why we’re meeting. We’ll also drive a better process for booking the PayJam sessions, based on our roadmap.

By having our roadmap as guidance, we make sure there are topics and that we review them at the appropriate time. We are encouraging presenters to review based on the milestones of a project.

We make sure there is attendance
We promote on Slack and in meetings well in advance. This promotion makes sure there is high attendance. We are still keeping attendance and presentation optional since we want to make reviewing part of our habits organically. That’s why this promotion is essential.

Technicalities

• Have a small thing to share? Go ahead and book the hour anyways. We can give the rest of the time back to everyone. We don’t suggest splitting the hour unless the updates are really small or can be time boxed.
• Give space for a discussion (aim for 30 mins for a presentation / review, 45 mins for a co-working session).
• We can shuffle the calendar based on priority so if you have a urgent need, let us know and we can see if possible. Example: we can move a learning session to later to accommodate a project in need of final feedback before handover.
• Ad hoc session can always be added in addition to the PayJam if needed. Keep that in mind as well.
• Having a master of ceremony is essential (for now, we are lucky and we have 2 MC’s), to handle the scheduling, promoting and facilitation. We are open to pass the torch to everyone that likes to experience running the ritual and eventually take it over!

The most important thing…

The credits

Our review ritual was shaped as a team effort. Everything that you read about wouldn’t have been possible without Leonardo Raymundo and Robson Neves.

Also, every session exists and is successful because of each of our team members that either present their work or participate and contribute feedback.

Thanks to all of you at FinTech Traveller Payment UX! Much appreciated!

See you on the next review…

Our new team review process and principles at Booking.com was originally published in UX Collective on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

This post first appeared on Read More