Keep delivery moving
Design check could not become a blocker for QA, release, or the next development task.
inDrive · Design managementDesign quality
Design quality
without slowing
delivery
How we improved design quality in production without increasing time to market.
Explore the case ↓
Context
Figma and production told two different stories
When I joined inDrive, I interviewed designers about how work moved through their product teams. Most teams had no regular design check — the moment when a designer compares the developed result with the approved layouts.
Small implementation differences accumulated in production. The fastest way to raise design quality was clear, but adding a familiar market practice was not: developers expected it to lengthen lead time.
The goalClose the quality gap.
Close the quality gap.
Keep the release pace.
The process had to make every shipped interface match its Figma source, while fitting into existing team delivery rather than becoming a gate at the end.
Constraints
The process had to fit
the way teams already worked
A useful process had to work for fully remote teams and respect the way engineering tasks were already decomposed.
Change the habit
Developers were concerned that another review stage would lengthen every feature’s lead time.
Make testing possible
A ride-hailing app is difficult to reproduce remotely: designers needed devices, test builds, VPN access, and permissions on both platforms.
Step 1 · MVP
Making checks routine
I bought an extra smartphone for every app designer and wrote detailed setup instructions for test builds, VPN, and permissions. We launched a soft process so each team could decide how to incorporate it.
Making remote checks possible
Every designer got a real test device
Each app designer received an extra smartphone plus clear setup instructions for test builds, VPN access, and permissions. This removed the first practical barrier to checking production interfaces.
What broke
Optional work kept slipping into the next sprint
Teams could decide how to incorporate the new process, so design corrections were often postponed. Fixes accumulated in the backlog and were rarely picked up.
Recreating a whole ride-hailing journey still took too long. The equipment made checks possible, but the workflow did not make them routine.
Intermediate resultThe process needed a clear place inside delivery.
Step 2 · Base process
Design check became part of delivery
Together with the scrum masters, I redesigned the process around the team’s real workflow — visible, lightweight, and actionable in the same sprint.
A visible stage
Design check became part of the Jira workflow. Teams could place it after QA or run it in parallel, depending on how they worked.
Small, immediate checks
Instead of reviewing an entire flow at once, designers checked each decomposed development task as soon as it was ready.
A separate fix task
Every correction was recorded in a dedicated Jira task and completed inside the current sprint.
Evidence prepared by QA
QA attached screenshots and videos so designers could review the result without repeatedly rebuilding the whole journey.
Removing review overhead
Clear ownership made reviews faster
QA prepared the evidence. Designers documented corrections so developers could act without another clarification round.
QA responsibility
Attach the evidence
Screenshots and videos were added before review, so designers did not need to recreate the entire ride-hailing journey.
Designer responsibility
Make every correction actionable
Each issue included the expected value, the current value, a marked-up screen, and a link to the approved Figma design.
Design check · correction note
- Cell heightExpected 56 px · current height is smaller
- Group marginsExpected 16 px above and below
Open approved design in Figma ↗Result
3×
faster design check
from 3 hours to 1 hour
Better quality,
same sprint
Every team adopted a defined process. Corrections were completed in the current sprint instead of becoming UX debt, and production interfaces matched the approved layouts.
No backlog of unfinished fixes
Design check stopped refilling the UX debt backlog.
More attentive collaboration
Developers surfaced constraints earlier and came to grooming sessions more focused on design details.
Flexible implementation
One team ran design check alongside QA with a four-hour SLA; the outcome remained consistent.
Leadership takeaway
Launching a process is only the first iteration
Owning a cross-functional process means staying close to how people actually use it. The first version exposed the friction; the second removed it. Proactivity created momentum, but problem-solving made the change mature enough to last.