Back in 2008, I was a Malaysian designer working across cultures and continents, riding the Web 2.0 wave, trying to figure out technology and nurture this seed of a studio called Stampede.

Discovering Naz, a fellow Malaysian designer navigating Silicon Valley, made me feel seen. Someone who understood that craft is its own reward. That seeking meaning in our work isn’t unusual.

Someone from here, who looked like me and was obsessed over things that seemed small to others but mattered deeply to us.

I later learned this was the power of representation. Being in similar places now, it’s a responsibility I don’t take lightly.

What started as dinner…

Like the best of things, none of this was planned. Two weeks before his visit, Naz got in touch so we could meet in KL. What started as dinner plans turned into a homecoming, a return to Malaysia and also to a community of practitioners who share his curiosity about craft and meaning.

“Back in 2000, there were maybe a handful of web designers in the world,” Naz reflected, talking about the early days when people built the internet because they were curious, not because there was money in it. “And then more recently, at Config, I saw thousands of designers at Moscone Centre and thought, wow, look how far our profession has come.”

Our Makers Circle format is borrowed from those old Parisian salons where intellectuals gathered and talked to each other late into the evening. There, there was intentionality, a choice for quiet conversation and a space created for thinking together.

UOB’s beautiful hall was perfect for this kind of discourse. It was spacious for deep conversations and elegant to honour the discourse. Our thanks to them for hosting us again.

Starting with intention

But the evening started with something you’d never see at a tech conference: silence.

Naz guided seventy practitioners through a brief meditation, asking us to let go of whatever had been eating at us all day. The whole hall was quiet, lights dimmed, eyes closed. We let go of the day’s scattered energy and entered the Circle with open hearts and minds.

I loved the renewed evening energy.

Naz’s Perspectives: philosophy, meets practice

Now whenever Naz and I talk, it somehow always comes back to craft. He’s the kind of friend you can pick up conversations with months later, exactly where you left off.

In fact, I learned the word “shokunin” from Naz. It’s this Japanese idea of master craftspeople who spend their entire lives perfecting one thing. Not just skill, but people who dedicate themselves completely to their craft, finding deep purpose in perfecting the smallest details.

Watching Naz share his Silicon Valley experience made it feel like thoughts and ideas were clicking into place. He talked about experiencing multiple booms and busts, his work at True Ventures and designing for inclusion. He shared how his team’s redesign of Adobe.com failed with Japanese audiences because it lacked that consideration for cultural diversity and understanding the culture and environment in which the design lives and breathes.

In the midst of figuring out what it actually means to make things when machines are getting better at making them too, these are the stories that stick with you. There’s tendency to gravitate towards success stories but mind the survivorship bias. Most times, it’s real failures that teach you something.

AI and the future of craft

We also touched on AI replacing designers. Naz shared a beautiful story about Bruce Swedien, the legendary sound engineer who worked with Michael Jackson.

Bruce was never afraid to share his knowledge. He taught workshops, wrote books and discussed his experiences openly. He’d share how he and MJ would tinker with mixes for hours, making over 90 different versions of “Billie Jean” alone.

When people asked if he was concerned others would copy the techniques he so generously shared, Bruce’s response was profound: nobody could replicate his creative future, just his past techniques.

Post-Circle, that was the bit that got me thinking. I was curious, so I Googled bruce up. Which led me to something he said that really resonates with designers navigating automation today.

Back in 2006, when digital sales were overtaking CDs, inexpensive hardware and software meant musicians could craft professional-level recordings from their bedrooms. Bruce saw this shift but far from being defensive, he was jubilant.

“What I find most promising now is that musicians have easy access to recording technology that is far better than at any time in the past. The music recording is going to be put back in the hands of people who truly love music for music’s sake.”

Replace “recording technology” with “AI tools” and his vision becomes rather prescient.

The shift to meaning

“There’s this rejection happening,” Naz said of senior designers globally who are walking away from big corporate jobs to do work that actually matters. “After Jason Santa Maria left Shopify and Ethan Marcotte left 18F, everyone’s doing their own thing again. We all want to do things that matter and practice our craft.”

The value hierarchy is shifting.

These are experienced practitioners who’ve seen how corporate pressures can dilute good work. They’re not rejecting profit. They’re rejecting the specific trade-offs that come with a scale-at-all-costs culture.

It reminds me of how my friend Ben Bowes at GovTech Singapore puts it perfectly: “Earlier in my career, I spent a lot of time in what I call the ‘more industry.’ Helping companies get people to buy more, watch more, consume more. After a while, it wore me down. I wanted my work to mean more than an uptick in shareholder value.”

This wasn’t some abstract philosophy. It lives in the choices we make.

The Salon Experiment: flipping the script

Naz and I then experimented with something we don’t often see at a tech event: a proper salon. Borrowing from those 18th-century Parisian gatherings where intellectuals debated ideas long into the evening, we turned the audience from passive listeners into the real stars of the show.

Naz moved around the audience, no longer the visiting expert but genuinely curious about what we’re building here. The role reversal was beautiful. He asked the questions and people responded with shared insights about Malaysian design that Silicon Valley rarely gets to hear.

“How many of you know each other here?” Quite a few hands went up—many had attended our larger Makers gatherings. But among them I spotted a good few newcomers too, joining our tight-knit community for the first time.

“What’s the actual state of things here? The real practitioner version?”

What happened next felt like watching trust build in real time. People opened up.

They shared design journeys, accomplishments, frustrations and the emergence of distinctly Malaysian design language thanks to #sapotlokal campaigns post-COVID.

We talked about layoffs and uncertainty, navigating pivots to entrepreneurship, ideas worth building and who to build them with.

So what did we figure out about being Malaysian

One trait many Malaysians share is humble underdoggedness. Humility is a virtue here, but it also creates a massive blind spot. We couldn’t see far into what makes us great and so it was doubly beautiful watching the non-Malaysians in the room remind us of our strengths.

“As an outsider working with Malaysians, I value your cultural insight,” someone said. “Malaysians are fantastic multicultural bridges. What you do so naturally—navigating between cultures with fluency and warmth—is truly a superpower.”

“Malaysians can code-switch effortlessly,” someone else said. “Put us anywhere, and we figure our way out.”

Naz, coming from his Silicon Valley perspective, backed this up: “Living between worlds develops empathy across cultures. That naturally leads to more inclusive design.”

The consensus is we’re not trying to be Western designers who happen to be Malaysian. We’re Malaysian designers whose cultural fluency creates value that others can’t replicate. We don’t have to choose between local and global. Our between-worlds position makes us perfect for this role.

Vulnerability and courage

Did our experiment work? Many times over. The salon format gave people permission to be vulnerable alongside being knowledgeable. Senior practitioners admitted knowledge gaps. Founders talked about fear. Designers share the dilemma of using AI to deepen their craft while risking being made obsolete by it.

“I think I’m missing foundational design knowledge and I want to do something about it,” one designer admitted, with the rest of the room nodding along.

I found this moment particularly moving because it takes courage to admit gaps when everyone expects you to have it all figured out. This was the great collective figuring-out. I enjoyed every bit of it.

How we think about technology and taste

One exchange that stays with me is how we talked about technology and taste. It felt refreshingly grounded instead of panicked or blindly optimistic. There’s a real desire for thoughtful integration here.

The unfortunate reality is that commercialism rewards speed above all else. Designers get praised for assembling interfaces quickly, for churning out converting designs fast. But this creates a trap. When automation arrives, the assemblers are the first to go. Along the way, taste gets lost.

If we look around us, the pattern is glaringly obvious. Websites look the same. Platforms sound the same. Design has become homogenous. Faster, yes. Better? Not always.

We’ve become dependent on pre-built components, reinforcing our role as assemblers rather than creators. We’ve optimised for efficiency at the cost of the very thing that makes our work human—distinctiveness and meaning.

Backstage, Naz talked about inspiration. Not those from Dribbble or Mobbin, where we recycle the same patterns endlessly. But from architecture, from nature, from other mediums and cultural traditions. Originality lives in the spaces between disciplines, where we still get to lean on our curiosity and algorithms haven’t yet flattened everything into sameness.

The irony is that designers who create from first principles often deliver better results faster. Not because they work slowly but because they tap into what makes people feel cared for. When something resonates deeply with users, it succeeds more quickly in the market.

This reminds me of how Sir Jony Ive put it beautifully in his Stripe talk:

“I really do believe that we have this ability to sense care. It’s easy in a service because you confront care, because you confront the person. When it’s vicarious, when it’s via an object, when it’s via a piece of software, it’s more complex. But I think you can sense carelessness. You know carelessness. And so, I think it’s reasonable to believe that you also know care, and you sense care.”

This explains why homogenous design feels hollow. It lacks human intention. When everything looks the same, it’s often because it was optimised for production speed rather than crafted with the person in mind. The result is faster assembly but lower differentiation and substance.

Speed of assembly isn’t the same as speed of success.

The family dimension

Perhaps the most moving moment came when Naz’s 75-year-old mother joined us. Like many Asian parents, she’s never quite understood what her son does with “these Internet things.” Neither does mine!

In Asian families, elders are woven into the fabric of our achievements. But in technology, our accomplishments often exist in languages our elders don’t speak. Watching Naz’s mother see her son command respectful attention from a room full of professionals transformed the evening from a professional gathering into a cultural homecoming.

Between Worlds: where we go from here

Like those early web designers Naz remembers, we’re approaching technology with curiosity rather than fear. We’re building for global markets but celebrating local culture.

Innovation’s future won’t be determined solely in Silicon Valley. It’s being shaped by practitioners who understand that meaningful progress happens between worlds—where Eastern wisdom guides Western technology, where community discourse creates competitive advantage.

This is our distinctive contribution: not choosing between tradition and innovation, but finding harmony between both.

For me, hosting is always a treat in itself. You plan the structure and then let the gathering take its own flow.

By evening’s end, something had shifted. We ran over by 30 minutes, yet nobody looked at their phone except for photos. This felt different.

As I watched Naz’s mother beam with pride, I dare say we’d created something unprecedented: a gathering that honours both individual craft excellence and collective cultural wisdom.

My team and I at Stampede feel deeply grateful we get to create this space for discourse. One Makers at a time, we’re building community that chooses craft over convenience, meaning over metrics, depth over noise.

The future belongs to those who remember that design is both craft and responsibility. We’re just getting started.

—

Next up: The conversation about craft and taste in the age of AI continues at Makers 12 on 27th September. Registration opens soon.

Special thanks to Naz Hamid, UOB Malaysia, my wonderful team at Stampede and every practitioner who made this gathering possible. – Shaza

The post Design, identity and the Malaysian way of seeing with Naz Hamid at Makers Circle appeared first on Stampede: the strategic design & technology company.

A good proposal is like a book. It tells a story. It needs a clear beginning that sets the stage with the company background and introduction, followed by the problem statement and the client’s challenges. The climax comes with the investment that’s required, leading into the resolution where we outline our methodologies and case studies. Finally, it closes with a strong conclusion.

The hardest part, however, isn’t putting words on a page, but rather it’s deciding what story we are telling together.

Hi, I’m Adlin. I’m the Business and OPS Executive here at Stampede and this is my debut article. At Stampede, “Business and Ops” is really about making things work. I connect the dots between people, processes and projects. Some days that means handling timelines and documents, other days it’s about helping shape how we tell our story to clients. I’ve spent the past three years helping our team craft proposals for design and development projects.

What’s unique about our approach is that we don’t separate business development from delivery. When we respond to an RFP, the people writing the proposal are the same ones who will eventually build it. Designers, Developers and Ops come together to figure out what makes the most sense for the client. It’s a collaborative process that feels less like pitching and more like building, just on paper first.

What I’ve noticed is this: the stage that eats up the most time is not the writing itself, but the planning. Just like authors spend more time outlining, seeking inspirations, scheduling their time to write, we spend most of our effort aligning on ideas before we begin writing the proposal. And when you have several “authors” writing with different perspectives, it takes work to pull the story together. What separates a confusing and a clear proposal is how we communicate. Strong internal conversations between ops, design, and dev become the backbone of a strong solution proposal.

Internal alignment create external clarity

The first thing we do when a new RFP comes in is scan the scope of work. What’s needed? What’s the timeline? Who are the best resources we can send? We form assumptions here, but we don’t react yet. Instead, we gather every question we have, list them down, and send them to the client. It’s important to clarify these early because the cost of fixing a mistake later is far higher than the cost of validation.

Once the client replies, the real groundwork begins. My role in Ops is a bit like being the PM of a project. I’ve experimented with many PM tools for tracking proposal tasks, but for me, Notion is home base. It’s where we collect every piece of information so everyone has access to the same page.

This first step is crucial. If the team is misaligned internally, the proposal will read as vague, inconsistent, or overly technical. We don’t want that. A clear, aligned RFP tells the client we get you, we’re organised, and we can deliver.

The RFP is a reflection of a team dynamic

An RFP is often a client’s first impression of what it feels like to work with us. I don’t come from a design or dev background, so I look at our proposals differently, in the big-picture sense. Einstein once said,

If you can’t explain it to a six year old, you don’t understand it yourself.

Well, at Stampede, I am that six year old (Theoretically, of course. Don’t report me for child labour).

Because I don’t speak the same technical language, I make a good proof reader. If the flow makes sense to me, it’ll make sense to client’s procurement team. For me, that flow comes down to three simple questions:

1. What is the goal of this project?
2. Why us?
3. How can we help?

In fact, these are the first questions we ask each other during our kickoff call. Our internal conversations help surface the right differentiators, which case studies to showcase, what methodologies that are the right fit, the investment, and the timeline. When the story flows, clients don’t just see capability, they feel our confidence. A well-structured proposal signals discipline and care, which is why strong team dynamics matter.

Communication reduces last-minute stress

At Stampede, deadlines are everything. In projects, we set our own deadlines and take full accountability. But proposals work differently. The deadlines are strict, often dictated by the client’s internal portal. Sometimes even a minute past the cutoff means rejection.

That’s why we work backwards. If the submission is due on the 27th, we mark it as D-Day and then map out what needs to be completed on the 26th, 25th, and so on. From there, we assign specific tasks and resources. Designers handle design scope and methodologies, devs lead the dev scope, and ops take care of business documents while making sure everything matches the client’s requirements.

One trick we’ve adopted is setting an internal deadline before the actual one. That buffer gives us space to proofread and polish without panic. Early communication and clear delegation go a long way in avoiding last-minute stress.

When everything finally comes together, a good proposal becomes more than just a submission. It becomes a reflection of care. For the client, it brings clarity and a sense of confidence that they are in capable hands. For the procurement team, it makes their job easier by showing that we’ve understood not only the brief but the intent behind it.

Every proposal forces us to slow down and make sure we’re solving the right problem before we ever start building. It sharpens how we collaborate, how we communicate and how we grow as a team. So if you’ve ever received a proposal from Stampede, now you know where the quality and consideration came from. They came from a lot of conversations and probably a few very strong coffees.

A good proposal is like a book

As someone who loves a good storybook, I know the mixed feelings that come at the end of one. Relief, nostalgia, sometimes sadness and (mostly) joy especially when the questions you had at the beginning have been answered. You leave the book with more clarity than when you started.

Proposals work the same way. At the end of reading one, clients should walk away with confident answers, and the feeling that someone cared about their problem, not more questions. That’s the goal. And the best way to get there is through strong team communication.

Every proposal tells a story. This was ours and I’d love to hear yours!

Let’s connect on Linkedin?

The post Proposals and the conversations in the margins appeared first on Stampede: the strategic design & technology company.

That’s where engagement analysis really matters. Not just tracking behaviour—but understanding it.

You’ve probably seen it too. The traffic looks decent. Users are clicking around. Session durations seem healthy. The data piles up… but something still doesn’t feel right.

And if you look closely, maybe conversions are stuck. Maybe people are dropping off before they complete anything meaningful. Your data’s saying something—but it’s not the full story.

At Stampede, we see teams face this all the time. Businesses reacting to numbers without stepping back to look at the bigger picture. That’s why our approach goes beyond dashboards—we turn signals into steps that help the product move forward.

This isn’t a checklist. It’s a set of ideas to help teams read their engagement data more meaningfully—and act on it.

Common engagement pitfalls

Even the best digital products hit rough patches. Maybe people drop off just before converting. Maybe onboarding doesn’t quite land. Or maybe users bounce before doing anything meaningful.

Sometimes the issue is technical: slow load times, poor mobile responsiveness, clunky forms. Other times, it’s more subtle—confusing copy, unclear next steps, or a mismatch between what users expect and what they actually get.

Without a plan to re-engage users, we find that these friction points build up and is slowly impacting product growth.

That’s where engagement analysis helps: it helps us see where things aren’t working, so you’re not just guessing—you’re acting on something real.

What engagement analysis data can—and can’t—tell you

Metrics gives us signals. But they don’t tell the whole story.

Let’s look at a few:

Drop-off Rates

People are leaving mid-flow. That’s often a sign of friction—unclear next steps, or a process that feels too complicated. It’s also maybe a sign that user actually get what they wanted, qualitative study might reveal something here.

Time on page / Session duration

Are they staying because they’re engaged—or because they’re confused? Numbers can’t always tell. Heatmaps and user recording can reveal scrolling patterns, clicking behaviours or hovers on several key elements. These further observation might be able to help triangulate the root cause.

Return visitors / Retention

If users don’t come back, there’s likely a missing hook. Something didn’t stick. Return users means the product is useful or providing a value that’s worth returning for.

Click-through rates (CTRs)

Weak CTAs, confusing layouts, or messaging that doesn’t connect can all drag these down. From my experience, A/B testing can help you make a quick tweak and see subliminal user preferences.

Conversion rates

If the value isn’t clear—or the process feels like work—people will leave before committing. Improving value proposition, flow continuity and actionable CTAs may help you improve. Learning from qualitative data will help you the most here.

Synthesising data can be tricky, we have existing biases, pre-conceived notions and assumptions. For example, sometimes long sessions are a good sign. Other times, they’re a red flag.

We’ve encountered long session durations that’s actually good for the user, for example on a long content page where users might be reading, or during highly interactive screens. Long sessions might be bad for tasks that are supposed to be simple like onboarding, sign ups or submitting an application.

That’s why context matters. Pairing data with qualitative insights—like user interviews or usability tests—helps explain why something’s happening, not just what.

And here’s the key: not everything that looks broken actually is—and not everything that’s working needs to stay exactly the same.

Making quantitative data actionable

Once the patterns has been discovered, here’s how to move from insight to real change:

• Pair data with research. Do usability sessions, product trials—get a feel for what users are actually experiencing. Read more on our approach on product testing.
• Prioritise on what matters. You don’t need to fix everything. Focus on what aligns with your goals.
• Test and iterate. Small changes can go a long way. Improve, validate, tweak—then do it again.

Small UX changes, big impact

One small but powerful fix: we once saw users drop off after using a key feature—because the next step wasn’t obvious. Adding clearer CTAs on the results page reduced drop-offs and improved retention.

A few other low-effort, high-impact ideas:

✅ Clearer calls to action

✅ Shorter, simpler forms

✅ Personalised content or suggestions

✅ Progress indicators in long flows

Sometimes it really is the small stuff that ends up making a big impact.

How engagement analysis evolves with your product

This isn’t a one-time thing. Engagement analysis evolves as the product grows.

• Early-stage – Spot friction early, refine before scaling.
• Growth phase – Optimise based on real behaviour, not gut feeling.
• Mature products – Catch churn risks early and keep up with changing user needs.

From my experience, engagement analysis was often used to continuously refine user flows based on evolving user behaviours. For many teams, this approach has directly improved onboarding and significantly reduced drop-off rates, leading to higher adoption and retention.

Done right, engagement analysis becomes part of product growth. It feeds into larger gap analyses and connects to our broader research and product strategy. Our work analysing engagement for a team as a part of a gap analysis of a government platform, alongside user research, product testing and comparative benchmarking yielded highly actionable recommendations for platform improvements. Read the case study about our gap analysis approach.

Overall, it helps with:

• Investing time and effort where it matters most.
• Aligning teams across design, product, and marketing.
• Removing friction and boosting satisfaction.
• Building longer-term user relationships.

Engagement analysis, the Stampede way

At Stampede, we don’t stop at numbers. We connect the dots.

Instead of handing over spreadsheets, we tailor insights to different teams—from product managers to marketers to leadership. Everyone gets what’s most relevant to them.

We focus on storytelling—turning data into something meaningful. Something that drives decisions.

And because our teams work closely across design and development, we look at the full picture—user patterns, tech limitations, performance quirks—all of it. That cross-disciplinary lens helps us see things others might miss.

So if your platform’s seeing drop-offs, low conversions, or inconsistent engagement, maybe it’s time to dig deeper.

We’re here to think with you, to dig deep, ask better questions, and uncover insights that actually help your product grow. And when your product grows, it builds better experiences, better worlds. If that’s what you’re aiming for, drop us a line.

The post From quantitative data to action: How engagement analysis unlocks digital growth appeared first on Stampede: the strategic design & technology company.

The handoff paradigm is failing us

At Stampede Makers X last month, we discovered something unsurprising yet just as disheartening: 51% of teams still operate in what we call the “Handoff stage”—where design creates specifications, transfers them to development and hopes (mostly prays) what emerges weeks or months later, still resembles their vision.

Stampede Makers isn’t your typical event. We created it to address the industry’s elephants in the room—persistent problems everyone experiences but few discuss openly.

For our tenth edition (the “X”), we tackled the design-development divide. Like past Makers events, we put a challenging question out into the world to see if others were just as bothered by it. They were—and they came in droves.

For the first time, we brought together equal numbers of designers and developers, all searching for better collaborative approaches. What emerged was a genuine conversation about breaking down the handoff model that has kept these disciplines working apart while supposedly working together.

The handoff model persists not because it works well, but because it’s the path of least resistance. When we observe teams operating this way, three patterns consistently emerge:

• Products require extensive rework when technical constraints surface too late
• Market opportunities slip away as competitors with more integrated teams move faster
• Users receive experiences that feel “almost right” – visually polished interfaces that don’t quite work or functional systems wrapped in confusing interactions

There is clearly inefficiency, and we’ve become good at normalising it.

But what if the handoff model is not only poorly practised? What if it’s fundamentally misaligned with how digital products should be created?

Why do we keep running this ineffective relay?

Now, if the handoff model creates so many problems, why does it persist?

The easy answer is inertia. We continue using it because we always have. Looking deeper, I realised something more interesting could be at the centre of this: the handoff model aligns with how specialists prefer to work and how organisations prefer to structure themselves.

This made sense in an earlier era. When digital experiences were simpler and user expectations lower, the gap between design intent and technical implementation didn’t matter as much.

That world no longer exists. Users now expect seamless experiences across multiple touchpoints. Technology has grown exponentially more complex. Speed to market increasingly determines winners.

We’re using a 2005 workflow model in 2025. This misalignment becomes more costly every year.

A developer’s perspective shift that changes everything

During Makers X, Stampede’s full-stack developer Syazwan Zubir described his first usability testing experience. He watched real users struggle with a government website that, from his developer’s perspective, was logically structured. Some users simply gave up in frustration.

“It was a wake-up call,” he admitted.

This observation reveals something profound. When developers directly witness users struggling with their creation, something fundamental shifts. The gap between building and using becomes visceral. The handoff model suddenly feels not just inefficient but absurd.

What’s fascinating is this shift doesn’t require developers to become designers. It simply requires them to expand their perspective to include the people using what they build.

Far from diluting technical excellence, we’re contextualising our solutions within human needs. Syazwan calls this “user-centred engineering“, a concept put forth by Addy Osmani, Google Chrome’s senior engineer.

Addy said, “A user’s experience is the ultimate measure of engineering success. Great engineers care deeply about the user and their needs – this includes sweating the details and making sure their experience is a valuable one.“

It does not mean abdicating your development responsibilities. It means maintaining your technical rigour while embracing empathy for the users.

Moving beyond the relay race

Our panel of cross-disciplinary experts revealed several patterns that transform the traditional handoff model:

Embrace your productive friction

Rather than avoiding tension between disciplines, Ikhwan reframed friction as creative energy – like hands creating warmth through friction. “Every meaningful problem needs this kind of productive tension,” he explained. “It’s where innovation happens.”

This perspective shift changes everything. What if friction between design and development isn’t something to eliminate but to harness? Alexis shared how her team’s most innovative solutions emerged precisely from challenging cross-team discussions that initially felt uncomfortable.

The practical application is surprisingly counterintuitive. Instead of smoothing over differences, successful teams create structured spaces for productive disagreement. Ikhwan’s Tower Defense Retrospectives from Tasty Cupcakes does exactly this—it gives teams a framework to visualise both their strengths and challenges without the conversation becoming personal.

Atif added that when development teams are confident enough to push back on design decisions with technical context and design teams are open enough to explain the reasoning behind their choices, the result is almost always a better solution than either discipline would have created alone.

Learning is best done through direct experience

The most powerful catalyst for change wasn’t process frameworks or tools but direct exposure to each other’s worlds. Designers who understand technical constraints create more implementable solutions. Developers who understand the “why” behind design decisions implement them more thoughtfully.

Syazwan’s journey exemplified this perfectly. His approach to building applications changed after watching real users struggle with an interface. In his own words, “I realised that logical code doesn’t matter if users can’t figure out how to use it.”

What’s striking is how this cross-disciplinary understanding develops. It doesn’t come from documentation or presentations. It emerges from shared experiences and direct observation. Alexis described how IKEA’s most effective teams regularly include developers in user research sessions and designers in technical architecture discussions – not to turn everyone into generalists but to build shared context.

Create artefacts that serve both worlds

All panellists emphasised the importance of shared artefacts that bridge disciplines. These aren’t just deliverables to be handed off but tools for ongoing collaboration.

Alexis shared how her team tackled this at an enterprise scale. When designers would look at implementation and say, “This isn’t what I designed,” the root cause wasn’t usually developer indifference. It was that collaboration had started too late. Her solution was a shared artefact—dependency maps between backend and frontend teams—that made complex systems visible to everyone, regardless of their technical background.

What makes these artefacts effective? They’re co-created rather than handed off. They make complex systems visible to everyone. And they focus on neutral territory rather than individual ownership.

Ikhwan expanded on this last point, recommending moving critique sessions away from individuals to the artefacts themselves – discussing “this user flow has friction points” instead of “your design doesn’t work.”

Several artefacts you could consider that worked particularly well as bridges:

• Component libraries with both design tokens and code implementation
• Journey maps annotated with both user needs and technical constraints
• Service blueprints that visualize both frontend and backend interactions
• Design systems built collaboratively by both disciplines

Communicate across boundaries

The classic question—”But I already told them that!”—resonated across all panelists’ experiences. Ikhwan’s practical “five channels five times” method addresses this reality. Important messages need to be communicated multiple times through different channels to penetrate domain boundaries.

Alexis noted that at IKEA’s scale, they discovered that documentation works best when it’s co-created, not handed off. “The process of creating it together is often more valuable than the document itself,” she explained. The document becomes a record of shared understanding rather than instructions from one team to another.

Atif also shared a simple but effective practice from his experience: regular “design+dev pairing” sessions where designers and developers sit together to work through implementation challenges in real time. These sessions build communication muscles and shared vocabulary that makes all other interactions more effective.

The Partnership Evolution

These insights helped us map a progression that teams typically follow:

Handoff: Sequential work with periodic transfers of ownership. This is where most teams begin and many remain.

Coordination: Working side-by-side with regular check-ins. Issues surface earlier, but disciplines maintain separate processes.

Integration: Shared ownership and combined practices. Team members develop cross-functional literacy and focus on collective impact.

Partnership: A unified culture with resilient practices that scale. Design and development flow together toward shared objectives.

What’s fascinating is how each stage delivers tangible improvements – faster delivery, better quality, less rework. But the most significant gains emerge at the partnership stage, where teams operate with an entirely different rhythm.

What if the endpoint isn’t better handoffs but their elimination?

Small changes, outsized impact

If your team operates in the handoff model, transformation won’t happen overnight. Evolution occurs in stages, each requiring different skills and mindsets.

Here are a few approaches to consider that would consistently produce results:

Put developers in front of users. Not through reports or recordings – have them directly observe usability testing. There’s no substitute for witnessing real people struggle with something you built.

Build an understanding of adjacent disciplines. Designers don’t need to become developers, and developers don’t need to become designers. But they do need enough fluency for meaningful conversations. Basic literacy in both domains transforms collaboration.

Create artefacts together. Journey maps, service blueprints, component libraries – these become powerful when both disciplines contribute to and use them regularly. They’re not just deliverables; they’re collaboration tools.

Share meaningful metrics. When design and development align around shared success metrics, they naturally coordinate their efforts. The metrics themselves become a common language.

None of this requires reorganizing your company or hiring rare multidisciplinary unicorns. It simply requires recognizing that these perspectives are complementary, not sequential.

Learning from our own experience

At Stampede, we’ve been fortunate to learn from 19 years of cross-disciplinary collaboration. Our founding team included both design and development perspectives – not from foresight about these challenges, but from necessity. This accidental advantage gave us insight into what works when these disciplines work closely together.

What’s striking is how consistently the same patterns emerge across organizations. The relay race creates identical friction points whether you’re a startup or an enterprise. And the solutions are surprisingly universal.

When we collaborate with clients, we don’t arrive with predetermined solutions. We start by understanding how their teams currently work. Sometimes we integrate design-aware developers into their team. Other times we add developers to design teams to validate ideas earlier. We’re not replacing workflows – we’re connecting disciplines within them.

Over time, clients experiencing this approach ask how to build this capability internally. This led us to develop workshops sharing practical techniques. We don’t have all the answers, but we’ve learned what tends to work, and we’re happy to share with teams ready for something different.

Evolving deliberately, not dramatically

If your team still operates in the handoff model, start with small steps:

• Invite a developer to your next user research session
• Schedule regular collaborative working sessions
• Create one shared metric that both teams contribute to

The changes don’t need to be dramatic to be effective. They need to be deliberate.

In the past, we could get away with handoffs. Today, they’re becoming a competitive disadvantage. The organisations that thrive going forward will be those that see design and development not as separate functions but as complementary perspectives on the same challenge: building things people actually want to use.

What if we stopped thinking about improving handoffs and started questioning whether we need them at all?

The community that makes it possible

What I found to be the most striking aspect of Makers X was the community itself.

UOB provided their thoughtfully designed space—creating an environment where candid conversations flourished naturally. The coffee that flowed throughout the day (courtesy of our dedicated barista) catalysed cross-disciplinary discussions that rarely happen in typical work contexts.

Behind the scenes, our organizing team—a mix of designers and developers—delivered the entire event without experiencing the handoff problems we discussed. There’s something particularly satisfying about embodying the principles you’re exploring.

A huge shoutout to our amazing volunteers—Faiq Uzair, Amir Ali, Sandra Yeoh, and Ahmad Alfhajri! Coming from diverse backgrounds as developers, designers and product managers, their dedication and collaboration were key in making this event successful. They truly embodied the spirit of cross-disciplinary teamwork!

Perhaps the most revealing observation is that over a hundred people dedicated a Saturday to examining how we might work differently. This suggests something important about our community—a shared recognition that our current approaches have limitations and a collective curiosity about alternatives.

Thoughtful questions, honest stories and willingness to reconsider established practices aren’t just personally valuable—they’re gradually shifting how our industry approaches these challenges.

See you at the next Makers 11, where we’ll continue exploring uncomfortable questions, sharing experiences, and yes, enjoying good coffee together!

Need better design-development collaboration? We help in two ways: through integrated project teams that deliver results while modeling better practices, or through practical training that builds this capability within your organisation. Both draw from real experience. Drop us a line to explore what makes sense for your team.

The post Rethinking the design and development relay race at Makers X appeared first on Stampede: the strategic design & technology company.

Now think about your favourite digital services: the ones that just feel effortless to use. Every interaction flows naturally, and it all feels part of the same trusted experience. That’s not by accident. It’s the result of a well-structured design library, working behind the scenes to create consistency, scalability and trust.

As both a designer and a user, I’ve had my fair share of frustrations with clunky interfaces and mismatched branding in UI. And because of that, whenever I kick off a new project, I’m determined to avoid those pitfalls by building a solid foundation: the design library.

So in this article, I hope to share why building a robust design library is the key to tackling these pain points and creating seamless user experiences at scale. It’s also why I’m driven to write this: I’ve seen firsthand how a well-crafted design library can transform not just a single app, but an entire organisation’s digital ecosystem, something I’ll share further as we go along.

Design library vs design system

I will focus specifically on design libraries in this article rather than the broader concept of design systems. In simplest terms, a design library is a curated set of style guides and reusable interface elements like typography, color palettes, and buttons, that help teams maintain a consistent look and feel. A design system, on the other hand, goes a step further by having code-ready components, more extensive documentation, and processes that unify the way teams update and govern the design system.

While design systems offer a more comprehensive framework involving deeper collaboration with developers and product teams, most organisations might not need to start there. Instead, a solid design library lays the groundwork, setting the stage for a more scalable design system as the product and organisation evolve. Think of it as an early-stage design system, delivering immediate benefits in consistency and efficiency without overcomplicating things.

What makes a design library great

In the years designing products across startups and enterprises, I’ve learned one crucial lesson: the bigger or more complex the organisation, the more important this foundation becomes. Let me explain why.

First, design library is your brand’s digital DNA

When most people think about design libraries, they picture a collection of UI components from popular design systems like shadcn/ui, Bootstrap, or the default iOS and Android UI kits. Just grab a UI kit, change some colours, and call it a day. While this might work for simple products, we’ve learned the hard way that it comes with significant costs, especially for complex products and enterprise projects.

When a design library doesn’t carry the brand’s DNA, it leads to a generic-looking product, making it hard for customers to distinguish your brand from competitors. Look at Netflix, Duolingo, or Instagram, you can recognize them instantly, even without seeing their logos. That’s because the most successful businesses invest in design libraries that truly reflect their identity, extending beyond colors and fonts to shape the entire user experience.

I saw this firsthand while we designed a mobile app for manufacturing plant performance monitoring. Rather than defaulting to a generic enterprise style, we worked closely with stakeholders to channel their brand DNA of efficiency and innovation into the design. We introduced a sleek dark mode interface that highlight key metrics without overwhelming the user, while giving the product a modern, cutting-edge feel. These choices not only supported advanced data visualization but also aligned seamlessly with the company’s future-focused vision.

Similarly, our work on the HMI Group hospital website was centered around building trust, an essential factor in healthcare decisions. The brand DNA was translated into the digital experience by focusing on clarity, warmth, and professionalism. We used clean, structured layout to make medical information easily accessible, a reassuring color palette that conveys safety and expertise, and real imagery of doctors and patients to create a sense of reliability and human connection. These design choices helped establish a confident user experience, ensuring patients felt informed and supported at every touchpoint.

Handles the real-world complexity when basic UI kits fall short

One real story stands out. A Global Fortune 500 energy company approached us to revive a project that had failed three times and cost millions. When we looked deeper, we realised the core underlying issue. The previous teams had built solutions without validating their assumptions with actual users. Without a structured design library to support rapid prototyping and testing, each iteration became expensive and time-consuming, making real user validation impractical.

The impact then was clear: users struggled with complex workflows and data visualizations that didn’t match their mental models or daily needs. What could have been caught early through proper user testing had instead led to costly rebuilds.

We knew we had to take a different approach. So we started by asking questions like:

• How can we use a design library to accelerate our user validation process and reduce the cost of iterations?
• What patterns do users actually need for interpreting complex operational data effectively?
• How do we ensure our design system supports continuous user feedback and evolution?

From there, we built a design library that made complex industrial data analysis and reporting more accessible and intuitive. We implemented:

• Legible typography with a clear hierarchy, ensuring key figures stood out for instant recognition.
• Strategic spacing and balanced UI density prevented data overload by grouping related metrics, making dashboards structured yet easy to scan.
• Color coding provided quick visual insights such as greens for positive trends and reds for warning, to help users identify key data points at a glance.
• Visual cues like progress status and last-update indicators enhanced clarity, ensuring users could quickly interpret real-time data without unnecessary friction.

What truly excited us over the years was seeing the design library evolve into a scalable enterprise solution that served diverse user needs, from engineers tracking real-time equipment data to executives analyzing company performance metrics. Despite their distinct needs and technical expertise levels, users experienced a consistent, efficient interface throughout.

Designed for real people and real needs, instead of generic user personas

Sometimes, the most valuable lessons come from specialised projects. Take VivaValet, a digital product we designed to make technology more accessible for elders. Generic design libraries would have failed here because they don’t account for age-related accessibility needs like declining vision, reduced dexterity, and cognitive differences. So we needed to go deeper. Through extensive UI research, we studied how elderly users learn, interact, and think about digital interfaces. This led to crucial design decisions, like:

• Increased text size from 16px to 24px for better readability and less eye strain.
• Carefully selected typography optimized for legibility.
• Enhanced touch targets to prevent accidental taps, accommodating users with reduced motor skills.
• High-contrast color schemes tested with vision disability tools, improving visibility.
• Simplified navigation patterns aligned with elderly users’ mental models.

As surprising as it may seem, culture plays a big role in design libraries. What works well in one region may not translate effectively in another. Working across Southeast Asia has taught me that digital behaviors, expectations, and even visual preferences differ dramatically. A one-size-fits-all design library risks alienating users, making cultural awareness a key factor in creating effective, scalable designs.

Through research and testing, I’ve found that cultural considerations impact several design aspects, including:

• Visual hierarchy and UI density – Apps in Asia often have denser layouts compared to Western counterparts. This reflects cultural differences in written language structure. Asian characters convey more meaning per symbol, leading to a preference for compact, information-rich interfaces. Western apps, by contrast, use more whitespace and minimalistic layouts.
• Color meanings and symbolism – Colors don’t mean the same thing everywhere. In the West, red often signals errors or warnings, but for Chinese, it represents luck and prosperity. Similarly, white conveys purity in Western cultures but is associated with mourning in some Asian traditions. Understanding these cultural associations prevents unintentional miscommunication.
• Bilingual interfaces that feel native, not translated – Direct translation isn’t enough. Sentence structures, reading flow, and emphasis vary across languages. For example, Malay and Thai sentence structures differ significantly from English, requiring thoughtful UI adjustments to ensure readability and natural phrasing.
• Local payment behaviors – Even digital payments aren’t universal; different regions have preferred methods. In Southeast Asia, QR code payments and bank transfers are common, while Western users are more accustomed to credit cards and PayPal. A well-structured design library must support these regional differences without overcomplicating the experience.

By embedding cultural awareness into design libraries, we ensure that digital products resonate with real users, fostering trust and engagement. Rather than applying generic user personas, we tailor experiences based on how people naturally interact with technology in different markets, ensuring usability, familiarity, and long-term adoption.

Not self-limiting but continuously evolve to scale

Early in my journey, I could get away with rigid design libraries for smaller products. But enterprise projects taught me a valuable lesson: if your design library can’t evolve, your digital platform can’t either.

A truly effective design library must anticipate growth, supporting new features, products, and even entire business lines as you scale. Ultimately, a robust design library is key to removing friction when your product suite expands, ensuring consistent user experiences across new markets, functionalities, and digital platforms.

How do you know if your design library is too rigid?

A rigid design library often creates more problems than it solves. Some telltale signs include:

• Hardcoded components that break or require extensive customisation when a new feature or product is introduced.
• Overly prescriptive guidelines that don’t allow flexibility for different teams, leading to workarounds and inconsistencies.
• Minimal documentation or poor onboarding, causing teams to misuse or abandon the library altogether.

What does a flexible design library look like?

Now, I build design libraries that are:

• Component-based and scalable, ensuring that UI elements can be easily repurposed for new services.
• Structured for modularity, so teams can mix and match UI patterns rather than being locked into rigid templates.
• Supported by clear documentation and onboarding, ensuring that internal teams and external vendors can adopt it seamlessly

We treat our design libraries as living documents, continuously engaging with stakeholders and testing with real users to identify pain points and opportunities for improvement. This feedback loop ensures our design libraries remain relevant and effective, allowing organisation to grow without sacrificing brand consistency or user experience.

The joy factor, making digital products people love

Even in business contexts, emotional connection matters. When we worked with TNG ewallet on their in app parking, a locally infused microcopy was essential to making this an immediately resonant touch point for Malaysians. Users loved it so much they shared screenshots of our playful writing on social media.

As a Malaysian born and bred UX design and development agency, we know Malaysians well. We believe that adding delightful, culturally relevant details is key to creating memorable experiences. By infusing the local culture into interface elements, microcopy, and overall design, we make digital products feel personal and engaging, even for something as everyday as parking or payment applications. This human touch can transform mundane interactions into moments of genuine delight.

Real business metrics improvements

Remember that Fortune 500 enterprise project we redesigned? The results speak for themselves:

• 90% Monthly Active Users (MAU)
• 30% improvement in Manufacturing Plant Cycle Efficiency
• 50% reduction in plant interruptions
• Expansion across 14 applications

While the design library wasn’t the sole driver of these metrics, it played a crucial role in enabling rapid prototyping, structured validation, and efficient design production, helping teams iterate faster and implement changes at scale.

What surprised me the most was seeing other projects within the same enterprise begin adopting the design library, amplifying its impact far beyond the original scope. With a shared system in place, teams could build upon existing components, reducing duplication and streamlining workflows. This is the testament to what I mentioned in the introduction: a well-structured design library doesn’t just improve a single app; it has the potential to scale across an entire digital ecosystem of the organisation.

Over time, we’ve consistently seen how a well-structured design library accelerates operational excellence:

• Product and development teams release features faster
• Different departments easily maintain a unified brand
• Updates and maintenance become more efficient
• New team members quickly get up to speed
• External vendors deliver high-quality work with fewer inconsistencies

Ultimately, these metrics highlight that a well-structured design library isn’t just about looks; it’s a strategic asset that boosts operational efficiency, ensures user satisfaction, and strengthens brand credibility across the entire organisation.

Hard-won lessons: what actually works

After building design libraries for everything from small startups to major enterprises, here’s what I’ve learned:

Lesson #1: Start with understanding

Instead of jumping straight to UI components, start by understanding your users, operations, and vision. The strongest design libraries are built on deep insights, ensuring they address real needs rather than just assembling UI elements.

Lesson #2: Build for your reality

Focus on creating components that solve your specific challenges. Align your library with your team’s workflow and product requirements so it grows with your needs instead of forcing unnecessary constraints.

Lesson #3: Think long-term

Approach your design library as a strategic investment rather than a quick fix. The most successful libraries support where organisations are going, not just where they are today.

Lesson #4: Test with real scenarios

The true test of a design library is how well it handles your most complex use cases. Every library improves dramatically through thorough testing with users in real scenarios.

In fact, we’ve found that with the right foundational elements in place, you can go from hypothesis to user-tested prototype in a 5-day design sprint. Because the UI components already adhere to consistent branding and standards, teams can focus on testing new ideas, rather than building everything from scratch.

Final thoughts: Building a foundation for lasting impact

A well-designed design library is more than just a collection of UI components. It’s a foundation for digital success. By investing in a robust, flexible library, you can accelerate product development, create user-friendly experiences, and ensure your brand stands out in an increasingly crowded market.

At Stampede, we’ve helped organisations build design libraries that truly transform their digital capabilities. If you’re considering this for your organisation, let’s discuss how we can create something that doesn’t just look good, but delivers real impact. Reach out to studio@stampede-design.com

The post Design Libraries: The Key to Success (or Failure) appeared first on Stampede: the strategic design & technology company.

This scenario plays out more often than you might think – products that work perfectly fine on paper, but somehow fail to truly resonate with users in practice.

Why teams skip live testing (and why that’s understandable)

Let’s be honest – when you’re managing a product team, live testing often feels like a luxury you can’t afford. You’re juggling feature requests, fixing bugs, meeting deadlines and keeping stakeholders happy. The product is live, metrics are “okay,” and testing seems like something that can wait.
We get it. We’ve worked with enough product teams to understand the reality:

• Your backlog is already overwhelming
• Resources are stretched thin
• Stakeholders want new features, not refinements
• Getting access to real users is challenging
• Testing could disrupt existing workflows

But what I’ve learned time and time again remains true: skipping proper testing now almost always costs more in the long run. When products evolve without deep user understanding, teams end up building features that don’t solve real problems, fixing symptoms instead of root causes, and missing opportunities for genuine improvement.

What live testing really reveals: three stories

Story 1: The Trust Deficit

A few years ago, while investigating an underused performance monitoring feature in an enterprise reporting application, we discovered something unexpected. Users had developed elaborate verification routines, double-checking every number in Excel. Why? A lack of trust in the data, stemming from inconsistent data input and unclear data lineage.

The solution wasn’t in the dashboard design – it was in fixing the upstream data collection process and making data sources transparent.

Impact: The improved data collection process and transparency transformed how teams used the system. Analysts stopped maintaining parallel Excel sheets and began trusting the platform for critical decisions. Team leads reported more confident decision-making in planning meetings and the platform became their single source of truth for performance discussions.

Story 2: The Presentation Paradox

We were brought in to find out why a reporting dashboard was failing to drive action in executive meetings, despite its sophisticated analytics capabilities. Live testing revealed the core issue: we were forcing a long-form analysis tool to serve as a presentation medium.

This led to a breakthrough solution – creating a separate presentation mode that prioritised narrative flow over deep analysis, allowing presenters to tell clear data stories while maintaining access to detailed insights.

Impact: The new presentation mode transformed how teams communicated data insights. What was once a source of confusion in executive meetings became a powerful storytelling tool. Leaders could now focus on strategic implications rather than questioning the numbers, leading to more decisive actions based on data insights.

Story 3: Hidden Opportunities

Late last year, I was part of the team at Stampede who were tasked to conduct a UX gap analysis for Malaysian government. We tested a startup ecosystem accelerator website with real users to identify the gap, but walked away with so much more. Not only did we identify immediate usability issues and recommended practical fixes, we also discovered unexpected ways users were finding value in the platform.

Impact: Beyond addressing the immediate usability issues, the insights led to the development of new services that better matched how startups were actually using the platform. The client was able to evolve their offering from a simple resource website to a more comprehensive support platform that better served their ecosystem’s needs.

The Stampede Approach: What’s the (whole) story?

While many testing approaches focus on isolated aspects like UI or functionality, our methodology is designed to give product teams a holistic, more complete picture. To us, real insight comes from understanding not just how users interact with your product, but how your product fits into their broader work life.

Our approach combines both quantitative and qualitative methods, because we’ve learned that neither tells the complete story alone. When we spot a pattern in the data, we investigate the “why” through careful observation. When we observe interesting behavior, we validate its significance through data. This dual-lens approach helps establish clear causation, not just correlation.

Making it work: our testing methodology

Live product testing isn’t just about watching users click through interfaces. It’s a carefully orchestrated process that begins long before we meet any users and continues well beyond the testing sessions themselves. The team has refined our methodology through years of testing products across different scales and industries, from startup platforms to enterprise systems.

Here’s what we do and why they are effective.

Setting the foundation well

We begin by understanding the product context deeply. Having focused conversations with stakeholders to understand business goals and constraints, reviewing analytics to spot patterns worth investigating and designing research that fits your specific situation are all necessary homework. We’re particularly careful about selecting participants who can provide relevant insights – people who use your product in meaningful ways as part of their daily work.

As UX designers, what we look for is striking the right balance between rigour and flexibility. While we have a structured approach, we stay adaptable to product team’s needs and constraints. This thoughtful preparation helps us maximise the value of every testing session while minimising disruption to their operations.

Testing approaches

1. Direct Live Testing

We observe users interacting with your actual live product in their natural work environment. This means watching real tasks being completed with real data and real stakes. It’s like shadowing a user through their workday, observing not just how they use your product, but how they integrate it into their broader workflow. While this approach requires careful planning to avoid disrupting production systems, it often reveals the most valuable insights about how your product is actually being used in the wild.

2. Staging Environment Testing

Think of this as a dress rehearsal with your product. We create a testing environment that mirrors your production system, complete with realistic data and workflows, but in a controlled space where we can safely observe user behaviour. This approach is particularly valuable for financial systems, healthcare platforms, or any product where testing in production isn’t feasible. The key is making the staging environment feel real enough that users interact with it naturally.

3. High-Fidelity Prototype Testing

Sometimes we need to recreate specific parts of your live product as an interactive prototype. This might be because we want to test a particular user journey in isolation or we need to simulate a specific state of your product that’s hard to replicate in the live environment. As we carefully rebuild these scenarios, we can focus user attention exactly where we need it and iterate quickly on potential solutions.

Multi-method integration

Sometimes the most powerful insights come from combining methods:

• Using analytics to identify patterns, then investigating through live testing
• Combining prototype testing with live system observation
• Validating qualitative insights with quantitative data
• Cross-referencing findings across different user groups and contexts

When to consider live testing

Every product team faces moments when they need deeper insights than analytics alone can provide. Perhaps your metrics look good but user feedback suggests otherwise. Or maybe you’re planning a major evolution of your product and need to ensure you’re moving in the right direction.

Live product testing delivers particular value when:

• User adoption isn’t meeting expectations despite good technical performance
• Users are creating workarounds to your carefully designed processes
• You’re seeing high task completion rates but low return usage
• Feature usage patterns don’t align with your product strategy
• You’re planning significant product evolution and need ground truth

Often, teams discover that live testing would have helped them avoid months of misdirected development effort. The insights gained typically go far beyond the initial scope of investigation, revealing opportunities for improvement that weren’t visible through other methods.

Ready to bridge the gap?

So what could look like a simple usability issue at first, could signals a deeper opportunity to make your product truly work for your users.

This is what fascinates me about live product testing: the way small, everyday user behaviours can point us toward significant opportunities. Time and again, I’ve seen how these insights help teams avoid months of building solutions for the wrong problems.

Your product likely has similar stories waiting to be uncovered. While you focus on keeping your product running and delivering new features, we can help you spot these patterns and understand what they’re telling you about your users’ real needs.

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If you’re wondering about the hidden potential in your digital product, we’d love to hear your story. Reach out to studio@stampede-design.com

This post is part of our ongoing series about evidence-based product evolution. Follow us for more insights about building products that stand the test of time.

The post Live Product Testing: The gap between working and working well appeared first on Stampede: the strategic design & technology company.

Port operations in Southeast Asia offer a compelling window into this dynamic. As businesses of all sizes grapple with digital transformation, the lessons we’ve learned about building systems that grow with you—rather than hold you back—become increasingly relevant.

In our recent visit to Bintulu Port as part of the UTP research and innovation delegation, we’ve learned that as Bintulu Port positions itself as a leading Southeast Asia hub port, the focus isn’t just on infrastructure and technology but also on building the human capabilities to transform its complex operations and drive its future growth.

The evolution of port operations

Tucked along Sarawak’s coastline in East Malaysia, Bintulu Port moves over 50 million tonnes of cargo annually— numbers that barely capture the constant hum of activity that defines this vital artery of Southeast Asian trade. As the region’s largest export gateway for liquefied natural gas (LNG), the port doesn’t just handle cargo— it anchors Malaysia’s position in global energy markets and underpins regional economic stability.

On any given night, a 400-metre LNG carrier manoeuvres into the berth, guided by harbour pilots who’ve mastered the port’s unique conditions through years of experience. Under deck lights, crane operators orchestrate their machines with precision, their practised hands turning 40-tonne container moves into a seamless operation.

Step into the port’s control centre, and you’ll find the real complexity. Berth controllers juggle competing priorities: an incoming vessel needs emergency repairs, changing weather patterns threaten to delay scheduled departures and maintenance crews need a two-hour window for critical equipment checks.

Each decision ripples through a network of interdependencies—shift changes, equipment availability, tide conditions, and the ever-present pressure to maintain throughput without compromising safety protocols.

What makes Bintulu fascinating is its dual nature. While its LNG operations demand absolute precision and safety protocols, its growing container and bulk cargo operations require operational flexibility. Experienced operators seamlessly switch between these modes, drawing on deep institutional knowledge that no manual could fully capture.

Complex familiarity

If you’re a fellow operational excellence enthusiast like us, consider one such situation: A delayed vessel arrival cascades into berth reallocation decisions. Does one prioritise the smaller vessel that can complete operations quickly or maintain the slot for the larger vessel carrying time-sensitive cargo? Far from being theoretical exercises, these are real-time decisions that ripple across supply chains, made by professionals who’ve learned to read the rhythm of port operations like a second language.

Such patterns of complexity are familiar territory for us at Stampede. Working with organisations like Intel, PETRONAS and Chr Hansen, we’ve observed how sustainable transformation emerges when you enhance, rather than replace, human expertise with technology. Looking ahead, Bintulu’s evolution isn’t just about adding newer cranes or deeper berths. The real challenge lies in amplifying the capabilities of these skilled professionals—helping them better predict maintenance needs, optimise resource deployment and build resilience against increasingly volatile conditions.

For those who understand complex operations, Bintulu offers a masterclass in managing controlled chaos. It demonstrates how standard operating procedures must coexist with adaptive decision-making and how success depends on augmenting individual excellence with tools that help maintain precision at scale.

A future-ready approach to operations

To us, the future of operational excellence isn’t about implementing new technology. Rather, it’s creating an environment where teams can perform at their best, supported by tools that enhance their capabilities. In our experience, the most successful transformations start by understanding the rhythm of daily work—the actual flow of decisions, the informal networks that keep things moving and the practical ways teams solve problems.

This understanding shapes how Stampede thinks about industrial UX to enhance operations. Instead of disrupting workflows with rigid systems, we look for ways to augment existing expertise:

• When operational teams can easily connect information across systems, they naturally make better decisions.
• When supervisors can spot patterns across operations, they prevent issues before they emerge.
• When executives have clear visibility of performance patterns, they make more confident strategic choices.

But beyond that, what matters most is this: when digital systems are designed well, they grow stronger through use. They learn from how teams actually work, adapt to changing conditions and evolve with the organisation’s capabilities. This organic evolution ensures that digital tools support excellence rather than becoming another layer of complexity.

Building on proven experience

As UTP alumni, our recent engagement with the university’s research and innovation leadership at Bintulu Port crystallised a key insight from our nearly two decades of working with complex operational environments: true industrial transformation extends far beyond physical infrastructure and technological investments.

At its core, Bintulu Port’s journey to becoming a leading Southeast Asian maritime hub hinges on cultivating talent-readiness to help them navigate increasingly complex global logistics landscapes.

Take the Samalaju Industrial Port, part of the Bintulu Port ecosystem. We were received by the CEO, En. Sufri Hj. Bohari, who offered illuminating perspectives on port operations that immediately resonated with our core design and development philosophy—the belief that technology should not merely automate processes but fundamentally enhance human capability. Our conversation delved into critical challenges—from sedimentation management to customer cargo tracking and safety protocols—revealing compelling opportunities where human-centred design could transform operational efficiency.

The thoughtful conversations with Bintulu Port’s leadership team, including Group CFO Mdm Daiana Luna Suip, Senior General Manager of Project Delivery Tn. Hj. Baharin Osman, General Manager of IT & Digital En. Ramzi Shafiee and Senior Manager of Capability Department Pn. Haryanni Harun all revealed shared insights about the future of port operations. We explored how digital transformation could enhance operational visibility and strengthen their journey toward becoming a leading ASEAN hub port.

Turning research into real solutions

This is where our partnership with Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP) becomes particularly compelling. Under Associate Professor Ts Dr. Mohd Fadzil Hassan, Deputy Vice Chancellor of its Research, Innovation & Commercialisation arm, UTP has built a strong reputation for excellence in engineering and technology, underpinned by cutting-edge research and industry partnerships.

Working alongside Associate Professor Ts. Dr Izzatdin Abdul Aziz, Institute Director of Emerging Digital Technologies, and Insyirah Hamid, Head of Business Analysis, we’re exploring how UTP’s research capabilities can combine with our experience in turning complex operational data into intuitive digital tools.

What makes this partnership powerful is its focus on practical applications. UTP excels at transforming academic breakthroughs into impactful commercial solutions. Their applied technology focus, combined with our experience in human-centred design and application development, creates a foundation for meaningful change in Malaysia’s maritime sector.

A different approach to complex operations

Our work with organisations like PETRONAS has helped us develop a distinctive approach to these challenges:

We start with decision-making—mapping how different teams actually make operational decisions and identifying where better information could improve outcomes. Our experience in research and implementation has taught us to build systems that enhance rather than replace human judgment.

We design for evolution from day one, prioritising not only today’s needs but ready to scale and adapt to tomorrow’s challenges. Our solutions grow stronger with actual use, capturing operational insights through built-in feedback loops that enable continuous adaptation without operational disruption.

Most importantly, we focus on capability-building. Complexity doesn’t have to hinder actions. Working in complex industries has taught us how to develop interfaces that make complex data actionable, helping teams spot patterns and opportunities quickly. We then build systems around them that evolve with growing operational sophistication.

This approach has led to concrete results. For instance, our work transforming capability development and talent-readiness at PETRONAS turned disconnected processes into an intelligent system driving strategic workforce decisions. Similar principles could help port operations create real-time visibility of performance patterns, enable predictive insights for better resource allocation and build adaptive systems that evolve with operational needs.

In another instance, our work in value chain optimisation transformed siloed departmental data into a dynamic, cross-functional intelligence system, which is now in use in PETRONAS boardrooms all the way to engineering floors. This solution not only enhanced operational transparency but also enabled predictive decision-making, allowing leadership to anticipate market shifts, optimise resource deployment and create more responsive operational and financial structures.

These experiences taught us that it’s never about the features. What we’re actually building are comprehensive competencies that enable teams to handle both today’s challenges and tomorrow’s innovations.

The power of proven solution

We’ve learned through experience that the most effective solutions often aren’t the most complicated ones. Having delivered mission-critical systems for the world’s leading organisations, we understand that effective solutions are the ones that:

• Deeply understand the day-to-day realities of operations and the people behind them
• Make innovation feel less like disruption and more like natural evolution
• Build capabilities that prepare people for tomorrow while enhancing their work today
• Create systems that grow stronger through actual use

Our human-centred design and development process, refined over hundreds of projects, ensures we deliver solutions that don’t just work technically but drive real organisational change. From executive dashboards that provide strategic oversight to operational tools that enhance daily performance, we create digital experiences that users actually want to engage with.

What comes next

As we continue our conversations with UTP and Bintulu Port, we’re excited about the possibilities ahead. The principles that guide our work with complex operations—starting with human understanding, designing for growth, and building systems that evolve—apply equally to organizations at every stage of their journey. Whether you’re a startup planning for scale or an enterprise pursuing innovation, thoughtful digital transformation creates the foundation for sustainable growth.

We’re looking forward to applying our experience in human-centred design, industrial UX and enterprise application development to create solutions that make a meaningful difference across Malaysia’s business landscape.

Because in our experience, the most rewarding transformations are those that not only solve today’s challenges but build capabilities for tomorrow’s opportunities.

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If you’re thinking about how to build future-ready capabilities in your organisation, we’d love to hear your story. Reach out to studio@stampede-design.com

Shaza Hakim is a UTP alumnus and a co-founder and design leader at Stampede. With 19 years of experience and over 370 successful projects, Stampede specialises in turning complex operational challenges into intuitive digital solutions.

The post What Bintulu Port reveals about transforming complex operations in Southeast Asia appeared first on Stampede: the strategic design & technology company.

What’s fueling Malaysia’s design revolution?

When the team curated this long-due theme for Makers 9, its simple yet powerful message stuck with me. We are designing for Malaysia.

When I started my design journey, the job was making things look good and work well. The canvas was a Photoshop 1024×768 artboard. Today, our canvas is shaping the experiences of our nation. That’s the magnitude of transformation we’re seeing. From government services to businesses and non-profits, design is weaving itself into the very fabric of our lives.

It’s no longer a dream to see government services become genuinely user-friendly. And we could say this because we’re working with the Malaysian government to identify and remedy UX gaps in their digital services. Platforms like Schola are empowering students to explore career paths beyond typical routes. Small businesses, the “makcik and pakcik” shops we all know, are becoming digitally savvy thanks to platforms like Borong.

It was only apt that our theme celebrates Malaysia’s national month and how far we’ve come while reminding us of the work ahead. In his talk Malaysia on the Rise, Khailee Ng of 500 Startups said, Malaysians are not so used to good news. That may be true, but at the same time, we’ve been seeing a quiet revolution happening. Companies are stepping up to better serve their customers, while public agencies are making digital touchpoints more usable and accessible.

This shift is reshaping our nation, and we’re so excited to shine a light on it through Makers 9.

Design: the unsung hero in Malaysia’s glow-up

This transformation isn’t confined to traditional design roles. My own journey has strayed far from the conventional path—my recent work involved crafting a career progression framework, yet it’s still all about design. I see this same spirit in those around me. Our two incredible speakers at Makers 9 don’t carry the “designer” title but embody the essence of designing for Malaysia. Let’s take a look at how they do it.

Linda Rasip: Bringing empathy (and order) to chaos

I’ve known Linda Rasip since she first sought out Stampede for a Malaysian UX agency with global reach. Today, she’s the CTO and co-founder of Borong, a B2B eCommerce platform that empowers small businesses—the very backbone of Malaysia’s economy.

At Makers 9, Linda explained how her team tackled the problem of small businesses struggling to access suppliers in real time. “When designing for Malaysians, you need to anticipate their challenges before they do,” she said.

Borong owed its success in listening, adapting, and understanding Malaysia’s unique business culture. Here’s how they do it:

Empathy first
Linda’s team invests time in understanding local business norms and informal practices. They learn how shop owners manage inventory and understand trust systems in local supply chains so they can identify nuances that matter to Malaysian small businesses.

Build on familiarity
Borong doesn’t impose new processes on its customers. Instead, it complements the way the businesses already operate. This move creates a sense of familiarity, intuitive experience, and confidence, which all lead to trust and ultimately, sticky adoption.

Leverage omnichannel strategies
For seamless digital transformation, Borong ensures businesses can manage orders, update inventories and communicate consistently across various digital and physical touchpoints. This integration means businesses can maintain a cohesive operation, whether online, on social media or in-store.

Design for practical solutions
They introduced features like flexible credit terms and simplified supplier listings. These are real pain points discovered through research, and making them practical turns Borong into a reliable and easy-to-use solution.

When designing for Malaysia, Borong focused on building trust and leaned into cultural insights discovered through user research. To them, the work goes beyond bridging gaps. To be successful in Malaysia and other similar markets, the key is in building lasting relationships.

Yi Fen: Turning career confusion into curiosity and conversations

Then there’s Kong Yi Fen, Product Manager at Schola. Her team at Creador Foundation built a career exploration app to guide Malaysian students, but what happened next was unexpected—Schola went viral, not just among students but adults across the nation.

Everyone, from professionals to industry leaders, was taking career quizzes and sharing their results. (Mine was #budakperform, in case you’re curious.)

Yi Fen’s story began with a simple yet crucial act: listening. “We realized we weren’t asking the right questions,” she shared. Schola’s early days were marked by enthusiastic efforts to address too many problems at once. Through direct conversations with students, teachers, and communities, they narrowed their focus to one key gap: early career exposure. That shift, driven by genuine engagement, led to Schola’s success.

Here’s how Schola made it work:

User research to identify gaps
Yi Fen’s team conducted extensive research to uncover what students and communities truly needed. They listened to students, teachers, and parents closely. As a result, they were able to identify early career exposure as a key area lacking guidance. This insight shaped their product development, ensuring they addressed a real, pressing need.

Focus and adapt
After identifying this gap, the team narrowed their efforts to early career exposure. This focus allowed them to build targeted features, leading to more effective engagement. As a non-profit, this focus exercise allowed them to make the most out of the limited resources they had.

Make it fun and relatable
Schola didn’t just provide career quizzes—they infused local flavor into it! They used familiar slang, playful scenarios and Malaysian cultural references abundantly and this made career exploration feel more like a conversation than an assessment. You could see how it sparked curiosity across ages.

Break it down
Knowing students often hesitated to plan their futures, the app simplified career information into bite-sized, engaging content. Exploring career options is easier and less overwhelming now, and more students are engaging.

Accessible and inclusive to all
Schola’s mission is to make career planning resources free and accessible, reaching students in both urban and rural areas. A key factor in their success is the team’s diversity. With backgrounds in education, tech, finance, and social impact, they bring varied perspectives to the table. This helped them understand different user needs, making sure that the platform remains inclusive, relatable and relevant across demographics.

Schola is an experience that felt authentically Malaysian. But it did so much more than helping students. It sparked dialogue across generations, inspiring everyone to think about career paths with a different lens.

Where do we go from here?

What stood out to me during Makers 9 wasn’t just the impressive platforms or clever solutions. It was the optimism—the shared sense of hope for what design can achieve here.

We are a nation of talents, from tech innovators to local entrepreneurs, all united by the desire to make things better, clearer and more accessible. And every step forward counts.

We’re also on the cusp of something big. Design is no longer an afterthought. It’s now becoming the backbone of how we solve problems in Malaysia. Whether it’s transforming how students plan their futures or streamlining how businesses connect, design is driving real change.

Empathy is at the heart of driving Malaysia forward. We could do it by engaging directly with users—we listen, observe and understand their needs. We could use our local insights to craft solutions that truly resonate, and we build trust by anticipating their challenges.

Malaysians are highly collaborative by nature, so this part is natural but key for us. Partnering with developers, marketers and educators brings diverse perspectives, sparking innovation. We could focus on making our digital platforms simple and accessible so that they work for everyone. Then, we must share our insights and connect within our communities to amplify this impact so that together, we create a network that orients towards positive, lasting change.

Small steps. Big difference.

How do we play a part in this transformation?

Designing for Malaysia starts with understanding its unique blend of challenges and strengths.

This is a process that goes beyond how things look. We’re reaching deeper to address our people’s needs in ways that feel authentic and meaningful.

To do that, we must start by recognising what makes us unique.

The Malaysian flavour

Take Malaysia’s diversity. We’re a blend of cultures, languages, and traditions, each adding richness to our shared experience. This mix shapes how we interact, learn, and connect. It calls for design that is flexible, inclusive, and deeply attuned to these nuances, ensuring solutions that resonate across communities.

One key to designing digital platforms for Malaysia is supporting its multilingual culture. With Malay, Chinese, Tamil, and English speakers, robust multi-language features are essential for inclusivity.

Inclusive design also means understanding local nuances—catering to varied digital literacy with simple, clear interfaces and localised payment options.

Malaysian consumers are distinct in their digital behaviour, especially on mobile. Smartphones are the go-to device for browsing, shopping, and staying connected, so platforms need to be mobile-first. Convenience is key too—fast loading, intuitive navigation, and localised payment options like FPX and GrabPay make all the difference.

Trust plays a huge role here too. Clear privacy policies, secure transactions and visible customer support build confidence. Social proof matters too; user reviews and ratings often guide decisions, as Malaysians seek reassurance before purchasing.

Throughout Makers 9, we heard stories that proved how thoughtful design can lead to real change. Each speaker showed us the impact of listening, adapting, and building with empathy.

This is Design that connects—where every detail matters, and every choice makes a difference. It’s a reminder that when design is done right, it has the power to transform communities.

Building bridges, not only platforms

Makers 9 wouldn’t have been the same without the support of UOB. From the start, William, Sean and the entire UOB team turned their venue into more than just a space—it felt like Makers’ home for the day. We truly appreciate their hospitality and the care they took to make everything seamless.

We’ve had partners and friends from Seek, Setel, Mercedes Benz and Grab Digital Bank joining us too, exchanging insights and deepening connections. Conversations went beyond the usual, diving into how we can collaborate more meaningfully, understand their challenges, and build solutions together.

And to our volunteers—Sandra, Faiq, and Fatimah Aliaa—thank you. Your energy, kindness, and behind-the-scenes support made Makers 9 an extra special one for us.

A community is not an event, but a movement

Makers 9 felt like a reunion of dreamers, doers, and everyone in between. With over 100 attendees on a wet Saturday morning, we had an overflow of ideas and collaborations that didn’t just end when the UOB’s beautiful hall lights dimmed.

I’m certain that the seeds planted here will continue to grow and lead to more impact on our own home turf.

To all who attended, contributed, and shared their stories, terima kasih!

We’re not just designing for Malaysia—we’re designing Malaysia. Here’s to even bigger and better things at Makers 10.

Join us in designing Malaysia!

If you want to be part of the team that is designing Malaysia, we’re looking for specific people who can take us further! Come join our rank.

The post Malaysia’s quiet design revolution at Makers 9 appeared first on Stampede: the strategic design & technology company.

Stampede Makers is a quarterly event that celebrates the designers and builders in all of us. Run by the team at Stampede, it gathers those who are advancing their craft in design and technology to create better, more thoughtful worlds.

Makers 8 explores growing design maturity in organisations, or what we know as the big elephant in the room that rarely gets air time in Malaysia. Many thanks to our community partner, Setel, for opening their doors to over 170 people last Saturday. Everything from learning to ideas to coffee and seats was quite literally overflowing.

From the very first session, it was clear that this was not just another conference calling itself a meetup. Stampede Makers is a movement, a call to elevate design practices, and a celebration of the old-age wisdom of “if you must go far, go together.”

Stay here and join us as we recap the highlights and insights from Makers 8.

Keynote: Design maturity — investment or cost?

Hidayu Hakim, Stampede’s UX Lead, kicked off the session with a resoundingly relevant keynote about design maturity, how it manifests in organisations and the debate about whether it is an investment or cost.

“The impact of design is not found in design.”

In her talk, Hidayu takes attention away from design for aesthetics value to driving business outcomes and enhancing user satisfaction. Integrating design into strategic decision-making enables businesses to boost engagement, increase retention, and foster customer loyalty. A customer-obsessed approach also leads to operational efficiencies and market differentiation, proving design is a smart investment.

She also highlighted that achieving design maturity is an ongoing journey requiring continuous effort and organisational support. Design must be advocated and embedded at every level, embracing cross-functional collaboration so it can be set as the base for human-centred innovation. This approach must also align with strategic goals for design to be a serious driver towards sustainable growth and long-term competitiveness.

As a researcher curious about Malaysia’s design maturity, Hidayu conducted a live poll during her talk. It revealed diverse maturity levels across organisations, contrary to her expectations of a predominantly nascent stage.

While 37% of participants were “Curious about design,” recognising its importance but still in the early stages of design integration, 28% already viewed design as a strategic element driven from the top down.

Organisations in Malaysia are increasingly recognising that design maturity is not just about design; it’s an investment in business performance and innovation. The leadership is ready to embrace design more deeply, putting the ball in the designers’ court to lead the charge.

Panel: Breaking barriers to growing design maturity

Hidayu’s talk set the stage for an in-depth panel discussion at Makers 8. The panel brought together voices from design, business, and engineering to explore the benefits, barriers, and breakthroughs in growing design maturity across organisations of all sizes. Moderating this discussion was a pleasure, given the diverse and unique perspectives each panellist brought to the table.

Joining us was Ikhwan Nazaruddin, Technical Director at Aerodyne Group, who champions the integration of design maturity within technological frameworks, highlighting its significant benefits for product development.

On the business side, Mariam Parineh, founder and strategist of VivaValet, readily incorporates user-centred design into her business strategies but discovers she needs to cascade down this understanding and inspire action to the ground level.

We also had Leonor Cogneau, a global UX strategist and design leader who has driven UX vision and strategy across diverse industries.

Completing the panel was Riccardo Lavezzari, Principal Product Designer at SEEK, who has 15 years of experience advancing design maturity in multinational organisations with a focus on outcomes and steady navigation.

Together, the panel explores the benefits, barriers and breakthroughs in growing design maturity.

“Benefits that create long-term competitive advantage.”

At Makers 8, our panel illuminated the substantial benefits of growing design maturity within organisations. Ikhwan highlighted the importance of design artefacts like visualisations and user journeys in improving product stickiness, echoing Mariam’s point that UX research and usability tests help businesses avoid early mistakes and enable strategic pivots based on evidence.

To Mariam, usability consistently trumps trends. Understanding the customer—including their psychographic, environmental, and physical challenges—yields better results than following trends. For VivaValet, bringing insights from the research and exposing their product and development team to how older users interact with technology was a game changer for both the business and the product.

Leo observed that growing design maturity boosts team morale, with teams feeling more valued, confident and innovative with every product release. This aligns with Riccardo’s insight that design maturity enhances business growth, engineering efficiency, and time-to-market. Designing with customers provides a defensible long-term competitive advantage, reinforcing the company’s innovation stack and making it difficult for others to replicate.

“It’s a persistent, continuous journey.”

Despite the clear benefits, several barriers can impede the growth of design maturity. Ikhwan pointed out that in the frenzy of achieving targets, businesses could prioritise short-term deliverables over strategic improvements, leading to quick solutions like copying competitors or making shortcuts that become UX debt that increases the cost of service this debt over time.

This issue is compounded when designers themselves shy away from business conversations, as Ikhwan observed, and thus miss the opportunity to align their work with organisational goals. On the business side, Mariam added that when the business is ready to engage and experiment, designers often play it safe and seek permission before innovating, as they are trained to establish constraints before exploring possibilities.

On the ground, achieving design maturity is a continuous journey requiring persistent effort and strategic alignment, says Riccardo. His insight highlights the need for dedication and a long-term vision, as design maturity does not happen overnight but through sustained effort and collaboration across departments.

“Be brave and be bold.”

One thing we always do at Makers is scale the strategic heights but also wrap each session with actionable tips or experiments you could immediately try on Monday. The panelists were truly generous with their tips for achieving breakthroughs in design maturity. Here’s what they said.

No design culture? Build one!


If your organisation is exhibiting signs of low design maturity, Riccardo suggests flipping the situation into a chance to create a design culture from scratch. Making the design process visible and inclusive by involving cross-functional colleagues has successfully turned these peers into staunch allies.

Speak your stakeholders’ language

Ikhwan emphasises the importance of speaking the language of stakeholders. Data is the common ground for design, product, engineering, and business, and designers could use data, especially if gathered from mixed-method research, to bring clarity and confidence to the product development process.

Initiate without permission


Mariam and Leo urge designers to take the initiative without waiting for permission. So used to designing with constraints, the freedom to explore other possibilities and really stretch design capability may be debilitating to risk-averse designers who like to play it safe. Innovation lies outside the comfort zone, so go on-site, shadow people, conduct interviews, and even start a secret design system if needed, says Leo.

Ask for opportunities


Malaysians could be shy folks. If we’re not invited, we often assume it was by design. This is certainly not the case, says Ikhwan and Mariam. Managers and business stakeholders may not know that you want to contribute, so be bold and ask for opportunities. State your intent to create value and ask for the invitation. As Mariam quipped, “No business stakeholders in their right mind will not want their people to contribute in a big way to meet organisation goals”

Create lift for others


Leo also suggests finding design allies across the organisation. We could collaborate with engineers, operations staff, or PMs eager to build meaningful products. The success achieved together can inspire others to join the effort. One way to do this is by identifying your collaborator’s KPIs and finding ways you could help them move the needed through design.

Our massive thanks to Ikhwan, Mariam, Riccardo and Leo for lending their diverse voices to Makers 8. This cross-disciplinary discourse makes for real and candid conversations that set the right foundation for how we could all join hands and work together to grow design maturity.

Amplifying voices of Makers 8

Just like the panel, Makers’ audience is diverse in background, training, and expertise. Some travel from other states, and a few are Malaysian diaspora who visit home (and stay longer) to join us.

That creates an interesting congregation that never failed to surprise with their candid and forward-thinking responses. Designers, engineers, product managers, entrepreneurs, doctors, lawyers and architects sit side by side, engaging, sharing thoughts and building connections that last beyond the event. We’re fortunate to have captured that spirit of Makers magic at Makers 8.

The start of a meaningful career

In every physical Makers, we help connect design talents with workplaces where they can thrive. Our Makers Job Board saw opportunities from Ernst & Young, SEEK, Maybank, Touch ‘n Go Digital, and many more companies.

Stampede is growing our team too so if you’re looking to join a team that designs and builds thoughtful future experiences, visit our Career page for job openings.

Love, thanks and see you at Makers 9!

Makers 8 wouldn’t have been possible without our incredible team’s hard work and dedication. From coordinating logistics to managing social media to planning the attendee experience, this has labour of love written all over it.

Thank you for being part of our community of designers and builders of the future! To creating better worlds together, and see you at Makers 9 in September!

The post Advancing design maturity in organisations at Makers 8 appeared first on Stampede: the strategic design & technology company.

For a while, I assumed it was the industry. Then Hidayu Hakim, our UX lead, asked me a question that reframed everything.

“If we propose going straight into deep research to a team that has never done so, will the findings serve them well where they are right now?”

It made me realise: our approach varies because the organisations we work with are at genuinely different stages of design maturity. Understanding that is what this piece is about.

I came across several articles and they explained what design maturity is comprehensively. Some view it as a structured model, while others see it as a progressive scale. One thing I found in common is that design maturity is the level of sophistication and effectiveness of design processes, methods, and outcomes within an organisation. Scaling it is the key to unlocking a more intuitive, engaging user experience that drives retention and growth.

The Nielsen Norman Group’s six-level model is a useful reference for understanding the range of where organisations sit. What it does not explain is what you do differently as a designer at each level, which is where the practical questions begin.

Nielsen Norman Group’s UX Maturity Model:

🤔 Absent:
Little to no UX

🚧 Limited:
UX work is rare, done haphazardly, and lacking importance.

🔥 Emergent:
The UX work is functional and promising but done inconsistently and inefficiently.

🎯 Structured:
The organisation has a semisystematic UX-related methodology that is widespread but with varying degrees of effectiveness and efficiency.

🧩 Integrated:
UX work is comprehensive, effective, and pervasive.

🚀 User-driven:
Dedication to UX at all levels leads to deep insights and exceptional user-centered– design outcomes.

Source: The 6 Levels of UX Maturity

🌝 Why am I thinking about design maturity?

During my tenure at Stampede Design, I’ve worked with multiple companies from various industries and observed significant differences in how my team approached problem-solving using design. This variability sparked a series of questions: “Why are we not always using the same approaches? Why do they differ? Is it because of the different industries?”

I turned to my UX lead, Hidayu Hakim, for insights. She responded with a thought-provoking question, “Do you think that if we go straight into deep research for a company that has never done UX and emphasizes execution, we will get the right insights about our users and the business?” This question made me reflect deeply.

After conducting my own research, I found that it really depends on the design maturity of a company. A more mature design practice shapes the way we approach problem-solving, leading to more effective and impactful solutions.

Why does our approach depend on the organisation’s maturity level?

Not every organisation has a strategic approach to design. Some need assurance because it is their first time using design-led problem-solving. Others have high awareness and do not need any introduction. Some have awareness but require reassurance due to the risks they are taking. This is where designers come in to understand their readiness and pivot our approaches accordingly.

🤔 Determine their readiness

So, how do we determine their readiness? The first thing you need to find out is the resources.

As a product designer, these are the first considerations I look into. Understanding the client’s resource constraints helps in managing risks associated with scaling design maturity. It prevents scenarios where the team commits to high-cost initiatives without having the right support, potentially leading to failures and financial strain. Accurate knowledge of the resources allows for more effective long-term planning and setting realistic goals and timelines for elevating design maturity.

You can’t improve what you don’t measure.” – Peter Drucker

Measuring the readiness and maturity of design practices helps in setting clear benchmarks and goals.

💡 Be more intentional, start small

Based on my experience, we often start by implementing small, visible improvements to demonstrate the immediate benefits of design thinking, especially for organisations new to UX design. Establish basic design guidelines and templates, such as brand guidelines for products to follow. Documentation is key. Start documenting design principles for reference during execution. This approach helps gain allies as they begin to see the value of small, incremental design processes in achieving bigger outcomes.

For example, at one of our client engagements, we began by creating a simple yet comprehensive design system. This not only streamlined the design process but also improved cross-team collaboration and consistency in the product’s user experience. Within a few months, we saw significant improvements in design efficiency and product quality.

In more established organisations, starting with usability testing to gather user feedback can drive improvements in product usability, increasing engagement and contributing to business success. This initial touchpoint with users can provide invaluable insights.

🧩 Strategically integrate design into business

In more mature organisations, leveraging sophisticated tools and experienced designers leads to innovative and effective solutions. Integrating design into strategic business decision-making allows design teams to influence product and service strategies from the outset, aligning solutions with user needs and business objectives.

When this integration becomes the norm, design processes become more comprehensive and methodological, including user research, iterative product testing, and validation stages. This maturity enhances problem-solving effectiveness.

Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.” – Steve Jobs

Strategic integration of design into business ensures that design solutions are not only aesthetically pleasing but also functional and aligned with business goals.

🤝🏼 Collaborate!

Collaboration with other disciplines enriches solutions with diverse perspectives, enhancing the quality and creativity of the output. Effective collaboration accelerates problem-solving and ensures a cohesive user experience across different platforms and touchpoints, building a strong, reliable brand.

At Stampede, we’ve seen the power of interdisciplinary collaboration firsthand. By bringing together designers, developers, and business analysts, we create solutions that are not only innovative but also practical and aligned with business objectives. For instance, in a recent project with a healthcare client, our collaborative approach helped us develop a user-friendly app that significantly improved patient engagement and satisfaction.

🔍 Detect potential risks

More mature design practices allow for earlier detection of potential risks, enabling timely pivots before costs escalate. Designers are naturally cost-efficient and should react swiftly to any potential risks to cost or effort. Maturity allows for a balance between cost-efficiency and innovation, encouraging experimentation and adaptability in design processes.

For example, during the development of a financial app, our team identified potential security risks early in the design phase. By addressing these risks proactively, we not only ensured the app’s security but also saved significant costs that would have arisen from late-stage fixes.

🚀 Innovate scalably and sustainably

Mature companies excel at developing solutions that are effective in the short term and scalable and sustainable in the long term. Their strategic approach ensures that design solutions continue to deliver value as the company and market evolve. At Stampede, our leaders, Shaza Hakim and Hidayu Hakim, exemplify strategic innovation and drive in this area.

For instance, in a recent project with a retail client, our scalable design solutions enabled the company to quickly adapt to changing market conditions, resulting in increased customer satisfaction and revenue growth. By focusing on sustainability, we also ensured that our designs could evolve with the client’s needs over time.

Innovation is the ability to see change as an opportunity, not a threat.” – Steve Jobs

Embracing scalable and sustainable design practices allows organizations to turn challenges into opportunities for growth and innovation.

🖖🏽 Moving forward

As we continue to explore and expand the boundaries of design maturity, our goal at Stampede is not just to adapt to innovations but to drive them. We are excited about the future possibilities and are committed to sharing our journey and insights with the broader community.

We welcome discussions with those interested in elevating their design practices. Reach out to me through my LinkedIn or my team at Stampede Design with your experiences or questions about advancing design maturity in your own fields!

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