Case Study: Design Onboarding
As a manager of designer you have to wear many hats: coach, expert, leader, supervisor, and sometimes a touch of human resources.
First impressions are critical in any new relationship and this is equally true in the workplace. During my time at Chegg and again at Art of Problem Solving I made this experience a priority. Working with the lead designers, I directed a complete re-thinking of how we onboard new designers.
Show them that you care
Starting a new job is stressful. We all have choices in where we decide to work and spend our time. How do you craft an experience that shows the new folks that you are truly excited to have them join the team, give them information, and put a smile on their face?
“Starting at Chegg was very overwhelming at first. The onboarding packet made everything so much easier. I was able to jump into my job right away and reference anything that I didn’t know in the packet. It made a process that should have taken over a month take about a week and a half.”
Christina Grillo, Product Designer @ Chegg
Don’t replicate information, reinforce
Human resources, IT, facilities, and others in the office will have information to relay to the new employee. Design onboarding isn’t intended to replace these crucial sources of information.
What design onboarding adds is context. For example, you will probably get an org chart from HR. Design onboarding tells you who does what, where you sit in the organization, and who you need to connect with first.
It’s about joy
Starting a new job should be exciting, engaging, and fun. One simple element of both onboarding kits is a page where the team signs with a personalized welcome message. Additionally, we developed a simple process for remote staff to sign so that no one was left out.
Setting a new bar
After we kicked off our new design onboarding at Art of Problem Solving, HR asked us to help them up-level onboarding across the company. Adding value is what design is about.
