Curious how we work?

Here are the most common questions we get—about our process, deliverables, collaboration, and more.

A little about us:

DesignMap is a boutique product strategy and experience design consultancy founded in San Francisco in 2006. We don’t do ads, brand identity design, industrial design, or code. We do digital products—and we’re damn good at it.

In nearly two decades, we’ve helped ExactTarget position for acquisition (by a little company called Salesforce), supported eBay as they built a post-PayPal payments system, and guided countless teams through complex, high-stakes product decisions.

Whether you’re a category leader or a scaling startup, we love to dig in, to understand complicated things and illuminate them—especially through models, maps, and prototypes. Our flexible engagements align your team around progress, product, and people.

FAQ

Clarity in Complexity

1. What kinds of problems does DesignMap help solve?

We help companies navigate complex product challenges, especially when the stakes are high, timelines are tight, or internal alignment is fraying. Whether you're facing rapid change, market pressure, or internal silos, we bring structure, clarity, and creative rigor to help you move forward with confidence.

2. What makes DesignMap different from other design consultancies?

We’re not here to only “make it pretty.” We’re a strategic partner that uses design as a tool for clarity, alignment, and business impact. Our work is rooted in systems thinking, shaped by collaboration, and focused on delivering results—not just screens.

3. What industries does DesignMap specialize in?

We thrive in complex, regulated, or fast-moving environments—like financial services, healthcare, and enterprise technology. We understand the constraints, the systems, and the stakes. And we know how to turn complexity into opportunity.

4. What does “next-gen strategy” actually mean?

Next-gen strategy means stepping back to see the full picture—your market, your users, your roadmap—and making smart decisions for what’s coming, not just what’s now. We help you orient around progress, not noise.

5. Can you help us future-proof our digital experience?

Absolutely. We help you design for what’s next—so your product doesn’t just keep up, it sets the pace. That means intuitive UX, thoughtful AI integrations, and platform decisions that scale.

Real Collaboration, Real Progress

6. How do you work with internal teams?

We’re not an agency that lobs over a design and disappears. We work shoulder to shoulder with your team to build clarity, momentum, and capability. We embed, collaborate, and make sure you leave stronger than when we started. Our clients often tell us we help their best people do their best work.

7. How do you approach stakeholder alignment?

DesignMap’s superpower is helping smart, opinionated teams align on what matters. We help you move from disagreement or drift to shared direction—fast. Down with politics, up with progress!

8. What kinds of workshops or skills development do you offer?

We run custom workshops to align teams, build shared understanding, and upskill in areas like user experience design (UXD), design thinking, product visioning, and cross-functional collaboration. We also offer embedded coaching and training to help teams grow from the inside out.

9. What’s your design process like?

Our process is collaborative and clear—rooted in research, shaped by strategy, and expressed through design. We bring a mix of structured facilitation, deep research, and creative exploration—always with an eye toward action. No black box. No big reveal. Just shared progress, week by week.

10. What kinds of deliverables or activities can we expect from working with DesignMap?

We tailor our approach to your needs—but our toolkit is deep. From strategy and research to UX and UI design, here’s a sample of what we often bring to the table:

Design Strategy: goal-setting, prioritization workshops, activation planning

Research & Insights: stakeholder and user interviews, competitive analysis, personas, scenarios, usability testing

UX Design: journey maps, information architecture, wireframes, workflows, and more

UI Design: high-fidelity mockups, component libraries, visual explorations, and development support

Whether you need big-picture alignment or a full library of design artifacts, we’ll help you choose the right tools for the challenge.

Designing with AI

11. How do you approach AI in product design?

Thoughtfully. We focus on meaningful AI integrations—ones that actually improve workflows, user experience (UX), surface insights, and support users. We don’t just chase trends. We help you build trust, usefulness, and long-term value.

12. Can you help us evaluate AI opportunities?

Yes. We work with business, product and design leaders to identify where AI makes sense—and where it doesn’t. We help you explore the possibilities responsibly, creatively, and with a focus on long-term impact.

Driving Toward What’s Next

13. When is the right time to bring in DesignMap?

Bring us in when the stakes are high and the path isn’t obvious. That might mean you’re launching something big, replatforming a legacy system, exploring AI, or just stuck. We bring momentum when it matters most.

14. What outcomes can we expect?

Our clients see measurable momentum:

– A clear, next-gen product strategy
– Renewed team alignment
– Smarter, faster decision-making
– Elevated user experiences
– Confidence in what comes next

15. Do you work with startups or only large enterprises?

We work with both. Our sweet spot is helping scaling startups and established enterprises make the leap to what’s next—whether that’s a category-defining product or a more unified platform experience.

16. How do we get started with DesignMap?

Start with a conversation. We’ll listen, ask good questions, and help you clarify what’s needed. Then we’ll propose a right-sized way to move forward—whether it’s a short strategy sprint or a longer-term engagement.

DesignMap provided ideas that helped me orient to what kind of hire I wanted and what aspirations I had for what they might accomplish. They helped find and vet candidates and provided a sounding-board. They had a material impact on the quality of hire we made.

—Dennis Kirlin, SVP & Chief Applications Officer

From day one, user experience was core to our strategy. DesignMap made us 10x more successful than even our most optimistic projections.

—Kumar Ramachandran, CEO of Cloudgenix, acquired by Palo Alto Networks

This was impressively organized. Content, people, organization, food, schedule, all of it felt well-considered and well-oiled. Nothing but back slaps and appreciation from me.

—Workshop Participant, Team Lead

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