How Decathlon scaled the efficiency of its digital teams to accelerate product delivery

Since its inception in 1976, Decathlon's mission has been to make the benefits of sports accessible to as many people as possible. This company is characterized by applying innovation to all phases of the business, and by growing and expanding responsibly and sustainably.

Decathlon, present in Spain since 1992, currently has 178 stores spread across its geography and has a team that is very aware of the values promoted by the French parent company. In March 2020, the pandemic gave the digital channel a greater prominence, highlighting the impact that the UX/UI design area had on the rest and the need to empower it.

Tailored Support

Our first task was to thoroughly understand the team through passive observation and personal interviews. This way, we could understand the real workflow, the different roles within the team, the tools and technology available, the skills of each team member, the needs of their projects, and their service-level agreements in the initial and final parts of the process (upstream/downstream).

With all this information, we devised a support proposal based on monthly cycles. Our greatest challenge, and at the same time success, was finding a way to integrate into the Decathlon Spain team organically to perform our role as mentors from within, adding value, helping them incorporate the necessary changes into their daily routine.

The cycles we worked with lasted 4 weeks and were based on training and actions divided into three categories:

• Efficiency. Strengthened through an improvement of the workflow, using agile practices that helped optimize value delivery. Also by increasing team cohesion, trust, and reinforcing roles through team-building activities.
• Technical Mastery. Conveyed through UX/UI training, dynamics, and workshops on design and research techniques.
• Evidence Based. Implementation of a design culture based on the analysis of objective data, going beyond the designer's experience and intuition.

Transferring Runroom Culture

Our way of working and implementing processes is unique and can only be conveyed by being very close and accessible. The great value contribution in this project was showing our work methodology, both in team management and in DesignOps, the set of actions aimed at maximizing the value and impact of design in a corporation.

In two distinct phases, with the support of different Runroom profiles, we managed to have the Decathlon Spain team learn to use a design system, automate parts of the process, elevate the quality of deliverables, and generally be much more effective and efficient.

At the team level, it was important to capture the style and approach of each member to help them understand themselves and others, making it possible to create more respectful, productive, and positive professional relationships.

Strategy and Processes for Team Upskilling and Empowerment

Strategy and Processes for Team Upskilling and Empowerment

After the kickoff, we started with an initial assessment that lasted a month. We built the team's skills matrix and also explored their entire context through a people-centered research methodology: professional observation periods (shadowing), interviews, and co-creation. We got to know the team itself and broadened the perspective to understand interactions with different stakeholders.

The approach was very respectful yet critical; it was not about imposing our vision but discovering what was driving the team to success and repositioning, and what was holding it back.

Once the ecosystem and challenges were understood, the strategy emerged very smoothly. We knew we had to work on mastery, efficiency, and evidence in five formats: individual meetings, role meetings, ad hoc training, presence in various rituals, and pairing or on-demand spaces.

It was like doubling the size of the team and projects overnight. Everything was successfully articulated by following the established methodology (the 3 strategic pillars and the 5 formats). Undoubtedly, another key was agreeing on specific days where the team knew we were 100% at their service and that the rest of the time, if needed, they could count on our support in a more flexible but always accessible way. And so, we built an agenda pattern that fit both realities.

Periodic development metrics are essential both for monitoring impact and refining actions and for keeping the team motivated. In one year, we conducted 3 measurement points: the initial one to understand the starting point, the intermediate one to understand the generated impact and where to direct efforts for the final period, and the closing one to highlight the development sentiment the team was experiencing.

Integration of Improvements, Results from Day One

Our role as mentors had different levels of presence. From the most discreet observation “from the back of the room”, to a prominent role in training and facilitation, until blending back into the shadow of a transformed team that leads initiatives and techniques among different stakeholders.

The results of the self-assessment work speak for themselves:

The most developed hard skills have been user validation, visual design, and conceptualization. The result undoubtedly responds to the strategy of elevating the team to a higher category in evidence-based product design.

It is also noteworthy that, alongside the development of technical knowledge such as information architecture and user flows, facilitation skills have been considerably strengthened; an essential aptitude for working in multidisciplinary teams and for positioning among different perimeters within the company. This is remarkable given that one of the objectives defined in this empowerment process was to consolidate and elevate the design team as a reference and responsible for customer experience care, beyond the visual aspect.

To delve deeper into the experience of process and cultural transformation of the digital experience design team, we invite you to listen to the statements of Naré Sánchez, Digital Experience Leader at Decathlon.