The invisible architecture of good design: behind-the-scenes practices at Setu and Fave (Pine Labs)

“You can use an eraser on the drafting table or a sledgehammer on the construction site.” - Frank Lloyd Wright

Overview

This document outlines the state of design at Setu, explains what a successful UI/UX design project looks like, and suggests a way of working.

State of Design at Setu

The growth of a designer, i.e., the maturity of design, goes through several phases. Different phases ask different things of a designer. In each phase, the work and goal of a designer change. In each phase, the maturity grows.

Setu’s design team has proven its versatility. Designers have operated as architects and connectors on key initiatives like Bridge, where they negotiated features with product teams, customer success, and engineering. The team independently managed API docs and websites, taking ownership while collaborating with stakeholders.

As we look ahead, the demands on customer experience, product consistency, and scalable design practices will naturally grow. To support this evolution, we will require the gradual induction of a more sophisticated, strategic design process, one that complements speed with thoughtful customer-centricity, strengthens early-stage collaboration, and consistently raises the quality bar across all touchpoints.

What Does a Successful UX Process Look Like?

The core responsibility of a UX designer is to be customer-obsessed. Successful project planning should account for not just deliverables but also the activities necessary for thoughtful design execution. Accurate UX estimates typically include discovery meetings, customer research, design iterations, and design reviews, not just the creation of mockups.

Effective design requires active collaboration and continuous validation. At Setu, our design input is grounded in an evolving foundation, drawing from emerging internal standards, early customer insights, and the growing collective experience of our design team. We leverage best practices from the broader design community, adapt quickly based on customer feedback, and continuously share learnings across teams to strengthen our decisions.

Feedback must also be sought from domain experts across partner teams to ensure the solution is contextually robust. Most importantly, designs must be validated directly with users and customers to truly reflect their needs.

Double Diamond Design Process

Designers should guide their team through a structured double diamond design process. This is an industry standard and a proven method with three convergent thinking points and two divergent thinking points.

There are UX design methodologies, deliverables, and strategies that help make cross-functional team members converge on focusing on the right problem, agreeing on the right solution, and delivering that solution.

How Designers Add Value at Different Stages of a Project

Example 1: How a designer works with project teams to generate more value

When estimating a project, upfront collaboration between a project team and a designer will ensure that both the solution and the problem that is being solved are focused on the customer. The design process is best utilized by first questioning if the project is addressing the right problem.

Designers have a rich toolset to dive deep into the user’s problem. Leveraging a designer through the discovery process and the product definition process will make sure the project is customer-obsessed. Early collaboration reduces project and engineering churn and ensures customer obsession.

Example 2: How a designer moves fast with a project team

Sometimes, a project is already in flight when a designer is asked to join the project team. When a designer is estimating a project that is already in-flight, they are often asked to have a bias for action. Oftentimes, this can be seen as a support role to solidify the UI workflow, layout, and look and feel. However, this is not utilizing a UX designer’s experience in making sure that the experience is customer-obsessed.

Taking this shortcut to the design process might result in similar effort estimations but lower the user experience bar. Using this method risks greater project churn around key UX milestones if the design does not meet the user experience bar our customers expect.

A designer needs to communicate the pitfalls of having too much of a bias for action while disagreeing and committing to build trust with their project team.

Our Way of Working

Design Milestones Overview

The UX-BR program is a set of milestones and reviews throughout the product design and development process. Each milestone serves as a mechanism to strengthen and unify the customer experience across Setu.

Milestone Summary:

1. Design Intake: Align on priorities, estimate work
2. Design Kickoff: Align the working team for the project, understand features, user stories, project timelines, and any existing customer data
3. Deep Dive: Review scope, use cases, user insights, and design direction
4. UX Sign-off: Final check before implementation starts
5. Fit and Finish: Review implemented project for quality and consistency

Key Questions per Milestone:

Design Intake

• What is the business problem or opportunity?
• What are the project goals and success metrics?
• What are the known constraints (tech, timeline, regulatory)?
• What is the target launch timeline?
• Are there any existing user research insights or data?
• Who are the key stakeholders?

Design Kickoff

• Who is the user?
• What is the pain point or opportunity?
• What is the user journey?
• What might the experience look like?
• What are the business priorities and success criteria?

Deep Dive

• Who are the key personas?
• What is the main user journey?
• What are the key workflows?
• What are the key use cases and user stories?
• Are there any gaps or risks identified early?

UX Sign-off

• Has the proposed design addressed key user needs?
• Are there any inconsistencies across workflows or experiences?
• Is the design implementation plan clear and achievable?
• Are all major edge cases covered?
• Are performance and accessibility considerations addressed?

Fit and Finish

• Has the proposed design been implemented as intended?
• Are there deviations from the design standards?
• Are any visual/UI bugs outstanding?
• Where are there limitations or technical compromises?
• Are there any fast-follow plans for missing scope?
• Is the experience polished enough to meet the quality bar for launch?

UX Travesties and Hot Topics

There are often business pressures and engineering challenges to release a project. The UX Bar Raiser program will not block product launches except for extreme cases. In cases where UX travesties can not be addressed, these are recorded and presented in a hot topic report as part of a UX news flash.

Examples of UX travesties include:

• Mysterious unlabeled icons
• Dark patterns (tricking users)
• Hidden important actions behind tiny menus
• Poor error handling
• Lack of accessibility considerations
• Overly aggressive pop-ups
• Inconsistent navigation patterns
• Tiny tappable areas on mobile
• Non-responsive or unfriendly layouts

FAQs

Who is the owner of the BR presentation?
The Designer, unless there is no design resource for the project. If there is no designer assigned, the project team presents Sign-off and Fit and Finish.

How long would this process take?
The design process changes based on the problem space. It’s best to work with your designer for project estimation.

Who should be involved in each step?
The cross-functional team should be involved at each step to align business, development, and design requirements.

When should we interview customers about the design?
Between Kickoff and Sign-off, depending on the type of customer engagement.

What if we need Sales and Marketing sign-off?
It is the job of the project team to understand sales and marketing requirements and present solutions during sign-off.

What if there is no PRFAQ/BRD for a project, but the idea is important?
The designer will partner with the Product team to come up with the vision and clear user stories.

What if multiple projects are competing for priority?
The designer and product owner will escalate the decision to leadership for prioritization.