Design teams often talk about being “user-centered,” but what does that actually mean in day-to-day work? This case study walks through how we turned vague intentions into a clear UX vision and actionable design principles.
The initiative to define a UX vision and design principles didn’t stem from a single event but it came from recurring reflections and conversations within the design team. Designers were frequently asking:
These questions revealed the need for a clearer shared direction. While the company’s vision and mission mentioned “user-centered design,” it lacked clarity and practicality in our day-to-day design practice, especially in an agency context where we support a range of clients and products.
We needed a UX vision that would guide us as a practice, not a business. One that could unite diverse work, websites, mobile apps, digital products under a shared sense of purpose, direction, and quality.
The conversation started with the idea of a UX playbook, a broader effort to document our team’s rituals, roles, and ways of working. As I worked on outlining this playbook with my manager, I brought up the need for a dedicated UX vision. Quickly, it became clear how strongly the two were connected: the vision could act as a foundation for everything else we wanted to define and align in the playbook.
This effort also needed to align with how we track progress. At the time, we had OKRs for projects and company goals, but none tied to our craft. We lacked metrics for quality, design system adoption, research maturity, or output consistency.
Meanwhile, I had been collecting team feedback for over six months through informal chats, meetings, and challenged them with my own thoughts and frustrations. Common themes emerged:
These weren’t just surface complaints, they signaled the absence of a shared framework for direction and growth. This feedback became the foundation for shaping the workshop.
The 3-hour workshop brought together the Head of Design, all three team leads, the Research Lead, and the Data Analyst. This mix ensured strategic, craft, and user perspectives were represented.
Before the session, I asked each lead to gather answers from their teams on the following:
By the end, we had a first draft of the UX vision that would need be refined as well as five principles.
The different drafts of the UX vision all pointed in a similar direction, making it easy to consolidate them into a clear, shared statement. While the principles required more refinement, they naturally aligned with the vision’s intent. I revisited the workshop notes, sticky boards, and team feedback to shape each principle with concrete examples and behaviors ensuring they were actionable, relatable, and anchored in our day-to-day work.
This is just the beginning of a larger, long-term shift. Our UX vision will be guiding our OKRs and rituals, and it will play a foundational role in:
The early response has been encouraging, I believe the team is expecting a lot from the OKRs. Setting the first stone towards them with the UX vision is done, I prepared the ground for the dedicated workshop on objective and we will have a pre-session to refresh everyone’s knowledge on OKRs and what to expect from them.
This initiative helped me grow my understanding of systems thinking and team dynamics. It deepened my empathy, not just for users, but for our team members and the frictions they face. With this foundation in place, we’ve taken a major step in turning abstract values into shared, concrete practices. Our UX vision will help us align objectives and shape how we evaluate our craft. I’m proud of the progress we’ve made and excited for what’s next.