🌀 Solo then share

Let's say, I'm the only designer on the team (Which is the case), i just got a new design challenge to work on, I will probably go with one of these two options :

Option 1 - Discuss it with your team right away

We can call it some fancy name like "Brainstorming workshop..." what I end up with is :

◆ A lot of suggestions, not all design-focused. Some might say, "Just add a button," "Make it red," or "Do it like we did last time."

This often leads me off track, making it hard to come up with new solutions that fit the problem or get biased by someone's ideas maybe they are just too good at selling them or the organization has a hierarchy thing so you end up doing that or getting very influenced by it (not saying that this is always bad) but the fact that it becomes a habit to "solve problems" is the problem.

Or go with another option, here is how I did it :

Option 2 - Solo then share

Work on it by myself first. Dive deep into the problem, understand it, ask questions, do research or check research insights, and synthesize my thoughts, draft my first UI.

After having a solid concept, my next step is to bring it to the team for feedback. and iterate from there in collaboration with Product and Engineers.

After we get a sense of alignment we go test the prototypes with users and update again from there, also try to map the results and solutions you came up with, with the initial pain points you had in your research.