Workbook

Make the Mission Yours

Role: HCD Designer

Use these activities to apply each principle to your current product, service, or project. These activities are a sample to get you started, not an exhaustive list. Adapt and expand them based on your team's context and needs. Capture your answers, share them with your team, and revisit them as you learn.

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Important: When Using AI Tools

When using AI-assisted activities, always double-check for accuracy and meaning each and every time. AI tools can help accelerate your work, but human judgment, validation, and critical thinking remain essential.

Review AI-generated content with your team, validate it against real user feedback and domain knowledge, and ensure it truly serves your mission and user outcomes before proceeding.

1) Shared Mission and Vision

Design with the mission visible in every flow.

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Learn More

For more information and deeper understanding of this principle, refer to the 1) Shared Mission and Vision section in the framework.

Workbook Activities (do now)

☐Annotate each flow with the mission outcome it supports and the user behavior it should change.
☐Create a mini “intent” note for the next design: user, problem, outcome, signal.
☐Review designs with the team and confirm the mission tie before handoff.
☐Highlight in the spec which design decision most directly advances the mission outcome.
☐In design crit, ask for one challenge on whether the flow truly supports the stated outcome.

AI Assisted Activities

☐Use AI to help draft design flows that map to mission outcomes, but have your team review and refine them to ensure they reflect real user needs and business goals.
☐Ask AI to generate potential design approaches based on mission outcomes, then validate each approach against direct user feedback and usability testing before finalizing.
☐Use AI to help structure your design intent notes tied to mission outcomes, but ensure human team members validate that each design truly serves the mission before handoff.
☐Have AI analyze past designs to identify mission alignment patterns, then use those insights in team discussions to improve how design connects to user outcomes.

Evidence of Progress

☐Designs show explicit mission/outcome annotations.
☐Team can point to which outcome a flow supports.

2) Break Down Silos

Co-design with engineering and QA to de-risk.

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Learn More

For more information and deeper understanding of this principle, refer to the 2) Break Down Silos section in the framework.

Workbook Activities (do now)

☐Run a joint design/eng/QA review to identify feasibility and test hooks before finalizing.
☐Pair with QA to define UX acceptance criteria and test data for this flow.
☐Share a quick design intent Loom and tag dev/QA with open questions.
☐Sit with a developer for 15 minutes to walk through edge states and reduce ambiguity.
☐Agree with eng on a “good/better/best” version to handle constraints without blocking delivery.

AI Assisted Activities

☐When AI generates design mockups or interface designs, have cross-functional team members (engineering, QA, PM) review them together to ensure they serve users and integrate well.
☐Use AI to help draft design specs or UX acceptance criteria, but ensure all roles contribute their perspectives during the actual design review sessions.
☐Have AI analyze design handoff patterns and integration friction, then use those insights in cross-functional discussions to improve collaboration.
☐Use AI to help structure design collaboration sessions, but ensure human team members make decisions together about what to design and how it serves users.

Evidence of Progress

☐Fewer design/eng mismatches during build.
☐UX acceptance criteria appear in stories/tests.

3) User Engagement

Validate continuously with users.

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Learn More

For more information and deeper understanding of this principle, refer to the 3) User Engagement section in the framework.

Workbook Activities (do now)

☐Test one flow with users weekly; log observations and share with dev/QA.
☐Turn one top user pain into a design experiment and run a quick test.
☐Invite an engineer to observe a test and discuss feasibility adjustments live.
☐Capture one verbatim user quote about the flow and include it in the design spec.
☐Pair with PM/support to validate a user assumption before finalizing the flow.

AI Assisted Activities

☐Use AI to analyze user feedback, support tickets, or usability data to identify patterns for design, but always validate AI insights through direct user observation or usability testing.
☐Have AI generate questions for user interviews based on your design assumptions, then use those questions in real conversations with users to build genuine empathy.
☐Use AI to help summarize user research findings for design, but ensure you review the summaries and add your own observations from direct user interactions.
☐Have AI analyze user behavior patterns from usability testing, then discuss those patterns with actual users to understand the "why" behind the behavior before finalizing designs.

Evidence of Progress

☐Design tweaks trace to specific user observations.
☐Engineers reference usability learnings while building.

4) Outcomes Over Outputs

Define UX success signals and measure them.

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Learn More

For more information and deeper understanding of this principle, refer to the 4) Outcomes Over Outputs section in the framework.

Workbook Activities (do now)

☐For the next flow, define success signals (task success, time, satisfaction) and how to capture them.
☐After release, review those signals and suggest the next design iteration.
☐Add a “desired behavior change” line to the design spec.
☐Align with analytics/QA on the exact events or heuristics that represent UX success.
☐If a signal misses, propose a specific design tweak and test it quickly.

AI Assisted Activities

☐When AI generates design flows or interface designs, define UX outcome metrics upfront and measure whether AI-generated designs achieve intended user outcomes, not just visual completion.
☐Use AI to help analyze UX outcome data and identify patterns, but have human team members interpret what those patterns mean for users and the mission.
☐Have AI help draft UX outcome definitions and success criteria for your designs, but ensure the team validates them against real user needs and business goals before proceeding.
☐Use AI to track and report on UX outcome metrics, but schedule human team reviews to discuss what the metrics mean and how to adjust designs based on observed impact.

Evidence of Progress

☐Released flows have measured UX signals.
☐Design iterations reference measured behaviors.

5) Domain Knowledge

Design with awareness of backstage systems and constraints.

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Learn More

For more information and deeper understanding of this principle, refer to the 5) Domain Knowledge section in the framework.

Workbook Activities (do now)

☐Create a service blueprint showing UI touchpoints and backstage systems for your flow.
☐Note domain constraints (policy/data) in the design spec and review with eng.
☐Highlight where backstage limitations might surface in the UI and propose mitigations.
☐Call out data/latency/error expectations in the spec so UI can handle them gracefully.
☐Review one past incident tied to UX/backstage and add a guardrail to this flow.

AI Assisted Activities

☐Use AI to help summarize domain documentation, service blueprints, or constraint requirements for design, but validate AI-generated domain knowledge through direct engagement with domain experts.
☐Have AI generate questions about domain constraints or ecosystem relationships for your designs, then use those questions in conversations with domain experts to build deep understanding.
☐Use AI to help draft service blueprints or journey maps, but ensure team members review them with domain experts to verify accuracy and completeness.
☐Have AI analyze past designs or domain-related issues, then discuss those insights with the team and domain experts to identify patterns and prevent similar problems.

Evidence of Progress

☐Design specs call out constraints and backstage dependencies.
☐Backstage constraints are addressed in design solutions or mitigations.

6) The Art of Storytelling

Use visuals and narratives to align the team.

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Learn More

For more information and deeper understanding of this principle, refer to the 6) The Art of Storytelling section in the framework.

Workbook Activities (do now)

☐Create a before/after storyboard for a key journey and present it at review.
☐Prepare two versions of a design walkthrough: one for stakeholders (impact/outcomes) and one for engineers (flows/states).
☐Add a user quote to each major screen explaining the pain it solves.
☐Record a 60-second voiceover of the flow tying screens to user impact.
☐Show one metric or observable signal in the walkthrough to link design to outcomes.

AI Assisted Activities

☐Use AI to help structure or draft design stories and storyboards, but refine them with real user anecdotes, emotions, and personal observations from direct user interactions.
☐Have AI generate different versions of design walkthroughs for different audiences (stakeholders vs engineers), but ensure each version includes authentic human stories about real user impact.
☐Use AI to help summarize design work in reviews, but lead presentations with human stories about real users, using AI-generated summaries as supporting material.
☐Have AI help draft design documentation or storyboards, but always include real user quotes, clips, or anecdotes that connect your design work to human impact.

Evidence of Progress

☐Stakeholders and engineers can retell the story of the flow.
☐Storyboards are referenced during build and QA.