I’m Eliana Campos, a Peruvian graphic designer by title, but UX designer by heart, currently learning and growing as the Lead Designer at Banco Guayaquil in Guayaquil, Ecuador. I oversee a fast-growing group of designers in charge of the digital transformation of the bank, pushing innovation through design thinking, being as human-centered as possible, and defining what it means to be a researcher, UX writer, and UI/UX designer according to the bank and Ecuatorial user needs. As the lead designer, I’m in charge of the strategy, design process, growth, and above all, the quality of everything we design and everyone on the team.

How would you describe your company in a few sentences?

Banco Guayaquil is one of many financial systems currently leading the best-bank charts in Ecuador, trying hard to fill the gap between unattended users or wrongly-attended needs and financial innovation through trust and transparency. Having recently rebranded with the color magenta as the principal identifier, it’s very clear they are not afraid of crossing “banking” boundaries and thinking outside the box, which is very appealing to us, the designers.

What does the design team look like?

I got here 5 months ago when they were a team of 10 designers — a little lost but doing their best across all digital transformation needs. Now, we’ve doubled the number and continue to grow, setting new roles and boundaries, expanding the design team’s reach beyond the digital environment, and redesigning our whole design process.

Why do you think a company should invest in design team training?

For any team in the technology and innovation field, continuous training is essential. If you intend for your team to build better and more innovative solutions, you should provide them with inspiration. If this comes from training resources, it helps upskill their technical and theoretical knowledge too.

How did you approach team training?

For now, our team training is non-structured. Every team member has the freedom to explore and define their path using Uxcel’s guides and suggestions, only prioritizing the design area they are assigned to (for example, research, content, UX, UI). I’m updating those rules. After some successful individual training, we are now setting up specific courses and specific schedules for our team members according to new feedback sessions and career plans, following Uxcel’s recommendations.

What were the main challenges in upskilling your design team?

The main challenge is that every designer, and nearly every human being, needs different things to be motivated and keep growing. In a design team with a constantly evolving structure, it is hard to set up career paths and define the best individual way to grow. I’m creating more leadership roles in charge of such paths, but leadership is one of the hardest skills to train for.

How did you first find Uxcel?

A friend mentioned it a long time ago, and I fell in love with it.

Why did you decide to train your design team with Uxcel Teams?

I liked two things in particular. First, the micro-learning way. As busy designers, we don’t always have the time to invest in education, but by using Uxcel Teams, one can easily create a habit of it. Second, the recommendations from the skill graphs. Everyone on my team has started to complete their skill graph, and even if they don’t have a clue about what to do next, I can trust that Uxcel will always keep them on track.

How hard it was to get everyone on board?

It was really easy. Of course, there are always some who are not as involved, but most people on the team enjoy it enough to set challenges among themselves, trying to beat each other's scores regularly.

What is your team members’ feedback about learning design with Uxcel?

Celebrations

  • Skill graphs — best update ever!
  • Bookmarks — our team loves them
  • Career paths
  • Course suggestions
  • Challenges
  • Setting aside a specific window of time during “Design Fridays” to congratulate and celebrate our top 3 performers of the week, using a screenshot like this taken minutes before our meeting.

Opportunities

  • Having limited time for the test is a pain because most of the time, they do them during working hours when surrounded by distractions that require attention.
  • Not being able to see your progress in the skill graphs unless you retake the exam is kind of frustrating because there’s a wait involved, even when some team members have already finished all the courses. Maybe some kind of indicator of progress can update the skill graph according to the courses taken.
  • Most team members got confused about which test to take and ended up taking the Verified Designer test instead of the skill tests thinking that it may help with the skill graph — this information could be cleared up.
  • When taking a test, we suggest having an “I don’t know” button. When guesswork is involved, the end result may be misleading.
  • As a leader, I’d love to assign courses to my team members and get notified when they’re completed.
  • I’d also love to be able to see each team member’s activity. I don’t really know if they are doing anything until they complete a course or take a test.
  • It’d be really useful to have the history of the skill test scores so I get to know how each team member has progressed.
  • English is hard for some of them.

What results do you see so far or expect to see for your design team?

So far, I see:

  • People bringing their learning into conversations. For example, “I saw/learned/ got an example /understood, etc. from Uxcel”
  • People create mini challenges between themselves
  • Mini team leads creating tasks in their planning for Uxcel
  • Designers assigning specific courses to their peers
  • Daily schedules starting after some designated Uxcel time
  • People sharing and being excited about completing a course or retaking a skill graph and getting better

I expect to see:

  • Solid career paths being completed
  • People suggest their own way of learning
  • Successfully completing most courses and improving our team’s skill graph

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