1. In Brief
Introduction:
I worked as a lead designer at 3commas, a prominent platform offering various products and services to cryptocurrency traders. During my tenure, the primary focus was on the classic products like the grid bot, DCA bot, smart trading terminal, smart trades, and signals. Additionally, 3commas was venturing into developing the 3Commas wallet and DeCommas, which involved porting signature 3commas bots to the decentralized architecture of the Solana Network.
Background:
Upon joining 3commas, I encountered disorganized design processes and an inconsistent design system. The absence of a well-defined design process led to inefficiencies and duplicated efforts, while the inconsistent design system lacked proper documentation and guidelines. These challenges hindered effective collaboration and utilization of design components.
Goals and Expectations:
As a lead designer, my primary goals were to drive the design strategy and ensure that the user experience aligned with the overall product objectives. I was responsible for leading the design team, mentoring other designers, and collaborating with product managers, engineers, and marketers to deliver high-quality design solutions. At the same time, I was doing ordinary product tasks with my hands.
Leadership Initiatives:
To effectively lead the design team, I implemented several initiatives. Firstly, I established a clear vision and roadmap for the design team, ensuring that it aligned with the company's goals. I fostered a collaborative environment by encouraging open communication and facilitating regular design reviews. Additionally, I introduced design thinking methodologies to encourage a user-centered approach and promote innovation within the team.
Fostering a Positive Team Culture:
I organized team-building activities, knowledge-sharing sessions, and provided mentorship to enhance team culture and individual growth.
Design Projects:
I did several design projects for the 3Commas myself: This included documenting, transforming and improving the Design System to address inconsistency and messy appearance issues, optimizing the grid bot and simplifying the DCA bot to enhance user retention and conversion rates, improving the usability of trading signals to empower informed investment decisions, optimizing the trial period and paywall placement to increase revenue, and leading the Copio project, a social network for traders. I also supervised multiple projects done by other designers: DeCommas Platform - a web3 realisation of 3commas bots, 3commas Wallet - branded wallet with integrated bots functionality and the brandbook, which guaranteed a consistency of visual language and reflecting the values of the company.
Results and Impact:
Under my leadership, the design team achieved notable results. We witnessed an improvement in key performance metrics, such as increased user engagement, higher conversion rates, and improved user satisfaction scores. Moreover, our design solutions received positive feedback from users and stakeholders, affirming the effectiveness of our user-centered design approach.
Challenges and Overcoming Obstacles:
Managing the design team at 3commas presented challenges like a lack of dedicated designers, limited stakeholder availability, remote team dynamics, conflicting views, CEO approval process limitations, and unexpected leadership changes. I addressed these obstacles through matrix management, effective communication tools, virtual meetings, decision-making techniques, streamlined processes, and adaptability. These strategies ensured efficient team operation and successful project outcomes.
Lessons Learned:
Strong leadership, communication, and collaboration are crucial for successful design outcomes. Managing cross-functional teams and navigating complex challenges are valuable skills gained.
2. Evaluating and Improving Design Processes
Background:
Upon joining 3commas as a lead designer, I observed that the existing design processes and team structures were disorganized and lacked clarity. The design team consisted of designers with different areas of expertise, resulting in a fragmented approach. Additionally, the design system was inconsistent and lacked proper documentation, making it challenging for designers to collaborate effectively.
Challenges with Design Processes and System:
The main challenges included the absence of a well-defined design process, leading to inefficiencies and duplicated efforts. The design system was inconsistent, with duplicate elements and a lack of guidelines. It was primarily documented in code, making it difficult for designers to access and utilize the components effectively.
Improving Design Processes:
To address these challenges, I took proactive steps to streamline the design processes and enhance the overall efficiency of the design team. I initiated discussions with key stakeholders, including product managers and engineers, to establish a clear project allocation and prioritization framework. This helped in assigning designers to specific projects based on their expertise, reducing redundancies and ensuring better utilization of resources.
Revamping the Design System:
I collaborated with design and development teams to revamp the design system. We consolidated and refined design components, documented them properly, and aligned naming conventions and token structure. This facilitated seamless integration between design and development.
Implementing Design Guidelines:
To ensure consistency, I introduced design guidelines outlining best practices and standards. This bridged the gap between designers and developers, improving collaboration and reducing discrepancies.
Addressing Resource Constraints:
I advocated for hiring additional designers to address resource limitations. Highlighting the impact of design on user experience and business outcomes helped secure additional design resources.
Establishing a Design Process:
To create a more structured and well-defined design process, I collaborated with the design team to establish a framework that encompassed key stages, such as research, ideation, prototyping, and user testing. We implemented tools and platforms, such as Whimsical and Figma, to facilitate collaboration and iterative design processes. Regular design critiques and feedback sessions were conducted to ensure continuous improvement and alignment with user needs.
Results and Impact:
These initiatives resulted in improved efficiency, collaboration, and quality of design deliverables. The design system revamp and guidelines led to a consistent user experience. Streamlined processes reduced bottlenecks, ensuring timely delivery of design solutions. The increased availability of design resources improved project allocation and execution.
Conclusions:
This experience highlighted the importance of clear design processes, a robust design system, and advocating for adequate resources. It emphasized the need for collaboration, documentation, and aligning design with user needs.
3. Key Goals for Lead Designer
Goals and Expectations:
As a lead designer, my goals and expectations revolved around shaping the design team's work and culture. Key goals included:
- Rationality: Making data-driven and user-centered design decisions based on research and insights.
- Consistency: Establishing a cohesive design language and standards across products for a consistent user experience.
- Aesthetics: Ensuring visually appealing design solutions aligned with the brand and user expectations.
- Iterative Approach: Emphasizing incremental improvements and hypothesis testing through an iterative design process.
- Cost-Effective Hypothesis Testing: Encouraging the team to explore and test design hypotheses efficiently.
- Streamlined Workflow: Minimizing delays and inefficiencies in the design process to reduce time-to-market.
- Predictable Outcomes: Setting clear expectations and guidelines for consistent and predictable design results.
Leadership Responsibilities:
As a lead designer, I focused on creating an effective and efficient work environment. This involved defining responsibilities and task areas for each designer, promoting collaboration and knowledge-sharing, and encouraging the reuse of design assets.
Design Task Prioritization:
I prioritized design tasks based on importance and impact, collaborating with product managers and stakeholders. This ensured timely delivery and aligned designers with current priorities and project needs.
Quality Assurance and Validation:
I maintained the quality of design deliverables by overseeing mockups and validating design research methods and results for accuracy and reliability.
Interviewing and Team Balance:
To rebalance the workload and maintain coverage, I conducted interviews for design team candidates, identifying skillsets and strengths. This helped build a balanced team to address design needs effectively.
Impact and Benefits:
Implementing these goals and responsibilities yielded several benefits. User satisfaction and engagement improved through rational and user-centered design decisions. Consistency and aesthetics created a cohesive user experience. The iterative approach and efficient design process reduced time-to-market and facilitated frequent hypothesis testing. A balanced team structure ensured dedicated design support for each product, enhancing overall design quality and alignment with business priorities.
Conclusions:
My experience as a lead designer highlighted the importance of core values, workload balance, and a collaborative environment. Effective task prioritization, quality assurance, and validation were crucial for consistent and high-quality design outcomes.
4. Effective Strategies for Leading the Design Team
Matrix System and Team Roles:
There were more product teams then designers at 3commas, so only strongest team had designer in house. Others had to compete for the time of designers to get a mockup. Given the shortage of designers at 3commas, I implemented a matrix system to effectively manage tasks and ensure optimal utilization of the design team.
Balancing Workload and Matrix Management:
To balance the workload and ensure efficient task management, each designer split their time between tasks assigned by their respective product team lead and tasks assigned by me for products where specialized designers were not present. This matrix system allowed for better resource allocation and ensured that all teams could benefit from the expertise of the design team. Each designer was doing the tasks from product owner of his team and, with my management assistance, from other teams.
Developing a Design System:
Recognizing the need for a robust design system, I initiated the development of a comprehensive system that encompassed all design components used within 3commas. This system included detailed descriptions, visual representations in all states, code implementation, and proper documentation. We started by documenting all existing components within the 3commas personnel cabinet, including their various states, and assigning tokens in sync with Storybook. This helped establish consistency and efficiency in design implementation.
Aligning Design Goals and Product Objectives:
To ensure alignment between design goals and overall product objectives, I established a checklist of design key values. This checklist served as a guide for designers to ensure compliance with task requirements and objectives. Additionally, usability testing and key metric measurements were conducted to evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of design solutions.
Transitioning Research to the Design Team:
Initially, due to limited design resources, the required research tasks were performed by product managers. However, as more designers joined the team, I gradually transitioned the responsibility of design-related research to the design team. This allowed for a more focused and dedicated approach to research, ensuring that design decisions were based on solid insights and user feedback.
Results and Impact:
The implementation of the matrix system and the development of a comprehensive design system led to significant improvements in task management, resource allocation, and design consistency at 3commas. The balanced workload ensured that each product area received dedicated design support, leading to better outcomes. The checklist of design key values and the focus on aligning design goals with product objectives enhanced the overall quality and effectiveness of design solutions. The transition of research responsibilities to the design team fostered a more user-centered approach and improved the overall efficiency of the design process.
Conclusions:
My experience at 3commas highlighted the importance of effective task management, collaborative matrix systems, and the development of a robust design system. It emphasized the significance of aligning design goals with product objectives and conducting usability testing to ensure the efficiency of design solutions. Additionally, transitioning research responsibilities to the design team allowed for a more focused and user-centered approach to design.
5. Streamlining Design Processes
Streamlining Communications and Meetings:
To optimize designers' time and minimize unnecessary communication, I reevaluated our meeting structure. Daily meetings were discontinued, and instead, we held design team meetings every two to three days. These sessions were focused on sharing successes, addressing challenges, and synchronizing efforts. By reducing the frequency of meetings, we ensured that designers had more uninterrupted time for focused work and minimized time wastage.
Design Task Prioritization and Allocation:
To effectively manage the design process, I introduced a strategy to prioritize tasks based on their potential effectiveness, urgency, and laboriousness. Working closely with product managers, I gained a deeper understanding of task urgency and assigned tasks with the highest scores to available designers. This approach optimized workload distribution and ensured that important tasks were promptly addressed, enhancing overall productivity.
Research Methods and Iterative Design Process:
To improve the quality of our design solutions, I emphasized the utilization of research methods throughout the design process. Designers were encouraged to conduct user testing, heuristic evaluations, usability testing, A/B testing, and other relevant research methods. This user-centered approach allowed designers to gather insights, validate hypotheses, and refine their design solutions through iterative cycles. Regular discussions with stakeholders and colleagues ensured the alignment of design decisions with task requirements and design key values.
Design System and UI Validation:
Recognizing the importance of consistency and efficiency, I initiated the development of a comprehensive design system. This system included clear guidelines, components, and documentation, enabling designers to create mockups quickly and maintain design coherence. Leveraging the design system reduced unnecessary development iterations and validated the UI design efficiently. Custom components were introduced for more complex tasks, while lighter tasks were utilizing existing components from the design system, saving time and effort.
Benefits and Outcome:
The implementation of streamlined design processes resulted in several notable benefits. The quality of our design solutions improved as research methods informed our decisions and iterations refined our designs. By reducing unnecessary meetings and optimizing task prioritization, designers had more focused time for their work, enhancing efficiency and productivity. The use of a robust design system ensured consistency, reduced development iterations, and accelerated the UX process. Ultimately, these strategies led to higher-quality design outcomes and a more productive and effective design team.
Conclusions:
Through this product case, I learned the importance of streamlining design processes as a lead designer. Effective task prioritization, an iterative design approach supported by research methods, and the use of a robust design system were key drivers of success. By minimizing time wastage in meetings, prioritizing tasks strategically, and utilizing a comprehensive design system, we achieved improved efficiency, higher-quality design solutions, and a more productive design team. These lessons will continue to guide my approach to leading design in future projects.
6. Cultivating a Productive Team Culture
Promoting Collaboration and Creativity:
Facilitated weekly brainstorming sessions to encourage designers to explore innovative design solutions, collaborate, and share ideas. Looked for inspiration from other products and platforms.
Remote Team Dynamics:
As a remote team, we faced geographical constraints that prevented us from gathering in person. Despite this, we utilized digital communication tools effectively to maintain team cohesion. Although we couldn't have in-person activities or dinners, we found alternative ways to connect and build camaraderie virtually.
Mentoring and Skill Development:
Dedicated time to mentor junior designer, teaching efficient research methods, design system creation, adaptive designs, and automation to support her growth.
Recognition and Motivation:
Publicly acknowledged team members' accomplishments, motivating the team and demonstrating the organization's commitment to their professional growth. Sought out educational resources for continuous learning.
Impact and Benefits:
Fostering a collaborative and creative team culture resulted in increased innovation and proactive thinking. Empowered junior designers contributed effectively, and recognition and educational resources boosted motivation.
Conclusions:
Importance of team collaboration, open communication, and positive work culture. Mentorship, recognition, and alternative team bonding methods are essential. Overall, a supportive and creative team culture leads to higher engagement, innovation, and productivity.
7. Spotlight on Significant Design Projects
During my tenure as the lead designer at 3commas, I successfully spearheaded several significant design projects that had a profound impact on the user experience and overall success of the company. These projects encompassed various areas, including the transformation and improvement of the Design System, optimization of trading bots, payments logic, enhancement of trading signals usability, and leading a social network for traders.
Design system:
One of the most noteworthy undertakings was the comprehensive transformation of the Design System. The existing interface suffered from inconsistencies in similar elements, leading to a lack of uniformity and default appearance. To address these issues, I embarked on a meticulous multi-stage process. In the initial stage, I meticulously identified and documented all unique components within Figma, creating a comprehensive inventory of the existing elements. This inventory served as a solid foundation for the subsequent stages of refining the design system. Working closely with developers, I resolved naming inconsistencies, removed duplicates, enhanced adaptivity, and resolved accessibility problems. The collaboration ensured that the changes were effectively reflected in Storybook, maintaining a seamless alignment between design and implementation. In the following stage, we started a complete redesign of the design system to align it more closely with the brand identity, offering a visually appealing and cohesive experience. This involves updating the UI style to make it more universal and robust. After it is done, the new design system should be applied to all screens having the old UI style, ensuring a consistent user experience while making incremental improvements to usability and visual aesthetics.
Enhancing signature 3commas bots:
Another significant project I worked on was optimizing the grid bot and simplifying the DCA (Dollar-Cost Averaging) bot. For the grid bot, I introduced critical features such as stop losses and trailing stop losses, streamlining the user experience. Furthermore, I identified and removed unnecessary components from the screen, such as the order book and portfolio, to declutter the interface and enhance usability. Additionally, I implemented grid editing with a mouse, allowing users to make precise adjustments effortlessly. These enhancements greatly improved the user retention of the grid bot and garnered positive feedback from the user base. Similarly, for the DCA bot, I focused on enhancing usability by utilizing industry-standard language, introducing extensive pop-up tooltips for guidance, reorganizing tabs to provide a more logical flow, and implementing a wizard mode for step-by-step configuration. These modifications significantly reduced the cognitive load for beginners, improving conversion rates and user retention.
Trading signals:
In addition to optimizing the bots, I also devoted my efforts to enhancing the usability of trading signals. By providing comprehensive statistics about traders and their performance, I empowered users to make more informed investment decisions. This improvement resulted in a notable reduction in negative reviews and support requests related to trading signals.
Monetization:
Furthermore, I strategically optimized the trial period and paywall placement, allowing users to experience the premium version of 3commas for three days with limited functions after the trial period. This solution proved effective in improving conversion rates to paid plans and generating increased revenue for the company.
The Copio Project:
Lastly, I had the privilege of leading and investing my efforts into the Copio project, a social network for traders designed to facilitate the sharing of signals and copy trading strategies. This ambitious project aimed to enable users to easily subscribe to signals, copy trades with predefined stop losses and take profits, and follow other traders' successful strategies. Traders could monetize their expertise by earning from monthly subscriptions or selling their specific bot settings. Although the project reached the advanced stages of UX prototyping and underwent rigorous product/market fit testing, it was ultimately canceled by the CEO due to a shift in belief regarding trading as a social activity. Nonetheless, the Copio project showcased my ability to lead a team and guide the development of innovative features that would have added substantial value to the platform.
Conclusions:
These notable design projects are not the only projects that I’ve done, but they can demonstrate my proficiency in driving product improvements, enhancing usability, and delivering positive outcomes that significantly impact user satisfaction and contribute to the overall success of the business. Through meticulous attention to detail, collaboration with cross-functional teams, and a deep understanding of user needs, I have consistently been able to deliver exceptional design solutions that elevate the user experience and drive business growth.
8. Measuring Impact
During my tenure as the lead designer at 3commas, my initiatives and leadership had a significant impact on the design process, team efficiency, and overall business outcomes. Here are some key outcomes that highlight the results of my efforts:
Streamlined design process:
By implementing a structured task management system and improving communication channels, we optimized the design process. Unnecessary meetings were reduced, and the workflow became more efficient. As a result, the average time to complete a feature decreased from a month to 1-2 weeks, ensuring faster delivery of new functionalities.
Enhanced design team efficiency:
Through the implementation of a matrix management approach, I effectively balanced the workload among designers. Each product and task had a dedicated designer, allowing team members to focus on their areas of expertise. This improved productivity and resulted in the timely delivery of high-quality mockups.
Improved design consistency:
By establishing and refining the design system, we achieved greater consistency across all 3commas products. Components were documented, named, and synchronized between Figma and Storybook, ensuring alignment between designers and developers. This consistency not only enhanced the user experience but also strengthened the overall brand identity.
Successful feature implementations:
Several feature proposals that were initially rejected during my tenure were eventually implemented after I left the company. This highlights the value and effectiveness of the ideas and solutions I presented. For instance, the Wizard mode for the DCA Bot, which I had proposed, was later incorporated into the product, demonstrating its positive impact and alignment with user needs.
Positive impact on company metrics:
The implemented features and design improvements directly influenced company metrics. They contributed to increased revenue through paid subscriptions, higher daily active user rates, and improved user retention. The positive feedback received from users and influential experts further validated the success of these initiatives.
Conclusions:
Overall, my leadership and design initiatives at 3commas led to a streamlined design process, improved design consistency, successful feature implementations, and positive business outcomes. These accomplishments are evident in the company's growth, increased revenue, user engagement, and overall satisfaction levels.
9. Overcoming Challenges
During my time as the lead designer at 3commas, I encountered several challenges in managing the design team and navigating project obstacles. Here are the key challenges I faced and the strategies I employed to address them:
Lack of dedicated designers:
With limited resources and no separate designers for each product, I implemented a matrix management system. By carefully allocating tasks based on priority and individual expertise, I ensured that all products received dedicated design support, effectively managing the workload.
Limited availability of product managers and stakeholders for meetings:
To overcome this challenge, I stimulated rituals in communication through chat platforms, such as Slack, and make really the most of project management tools like Jira. This allowed me to maintain regular contact, request designs, provide updates, and incorporate feedback efficiently.
Remote team dynamics:
As a remote team, face-to-face interactions were not possible. However, we embraced collaborative software and communication tools to foster effective collaboration. Regular virtual team meetings were conducted to address concerns, share ideas, and promote a sense of unity within the team.
Managing conflicting stakeholder views:
When faced with opposing opinions, we implemented techniques such as voting with retaining veto right to the CEO to reach consensus. This ensured that decisions were made collaboratively, taking into account pressure from veteran team members, multiple perspectives and prioritizing the best interests of the product.
CEO approval process and limited availability:
Obtaining direct feedback and approval from the CEO proved challenging due to his limited availability. While we aimed to streamline the approval process, we also managed this challenge by effectively managing our time and prioritizing other tasks while waiting for approval, ensuring that productivity was not hindered.
Conclusions:
Despite these challenges, I implemented effective strategies such as matrix management, enhanced communication channels, and collaborative software to mitigate their impact and ensure the design team operated efficiently. By navigating these obstacles, we were able to deliver high-quality designs and successfully overcome the challenges that arose during our projects at 3commas.
10. Shaping Leadership Style and Professional Growth
My tenure as a lead designer at 3commas was a transformative period that enriched my professional growth and shaped my leadership style. Throughout this experience, I gained valuable insights and learned important lessons that will guide me in future product roles. Here are the key takeaways from my time at 3commas:
- Leadership and management skills: Being in a leadership position allowed me to expand my influence and develop strong management skills. I learned how to effectively lead a diverse team of designers, motivating them to achieve shared goals and fostering a collaborative and productive work environment.
- Teaching and mentorship: Working with aspiring designers, such as Olga, gave me the opportunity to share my knowledge and mentor them in their growth. I discovered a passion for teaching and found satisfaction in providing structured guidance and support to help others develop their skills.
- Utilizing available resources: At 3commas, I had access to essential paid design resources, including tools like Figma and user tracking software. Leveraging these resources effectively, I learned to maximize their potential and observed the significant impact they had on the design process and overall outcomes.
- Collaboration within a large product team: Being part of a product team of 130 members and working on a product with a substantial user base exposed me to the power of quantitative analysis. I gained a deep appreciation for data-driven insights and learned to utilize them to inform decision-making and enhance product experiences.
- Collaboration with product managers: Close collaboration with product managers deepened my understanding of their role and the importance of aligning design goals with overall product objectives. This experience strengthened my communication skills and ability to work cross-functionally, ensuring a cohesive and effective product development process.
- Transitioning to product management: My experiences at 3commas provided me with a comprehensive understanding of the product development lifecycle. This knowledge, combined with my passion for optimizing processes, increasing efficiency, and delivering high-quality outcomes, has laid a solid foundation for transitioning into a product management or product design role.
In conclusion, my time at 3commas was instrumental in shaping my leadership style and professional growth. The lessons learned, ranging from effective leadership and mentorship to leveraging available resources and collaborating within large product teams, have equipped me with the skills and mindset needed to excel in future product roles. I am eager to apply these valuable experiences and contribute to the success of future endeavours.