Understand users and their needs at the start of a project. This is where the strategy is defined collectively with all stakeholders. If a business needs to drive the project, this part of the project is where alignment comes into play, ensuring decisions reduce the negative impacts later in the project.

Agreements made with stakeholders to form a project meet all needs from the business to the user. This stage involves embracing what was learned from the user in the first phase and creating business goals to shape the success criteria. Without proper collaboration, bumps in the road can result in poor execution, engineering limitations, or missing on business impacts in a negative way.

Early research in the project is like checking a map while on a road trip. This step avoids wrong turns and allows for pivoting if necessary. More importantly, validation gives all stakeholders confidence that the outcome will be successful.

This is where the details of the project really start to come together. We move out of wireframes and low—and mid-fidelity designs and into the refinement of visual design, interaction design, unique user flows, and adapting designs for all platforms.

This stage isn’t limited to just one part of the process; it's important late in the game to fully test with users and gain final approval from all stakeholders. Prototypes can be done by design or in collaboration with engineering, as an early build used for testing.

Back to testing—it’s like the old phrase, measure twice and cut once. This part of the process provides reassurance that all the work has been done correctly and that the final adjustments can be made before things get built. Returning to the process and always checking in with the user enforces that no project is ever complete. User needs aren't linear, and neither should our design process.