The double diamond isn’t new; it originated within the design world to represent the exploration of a problem to be solved through divergent and convergent thinking. Working in product triads with full representation of technology, design, and business (product) allows teams to make informed decisions faster through proper collaboration.

The reality of working in a triad feels like you have all the right people in the room; each of our disciplines has a seat at the table including the invaluable support functions like customer support, data, UX research, content strategy and more.

What lacked is a common, consistent language to represent our individual and collective purviews.

Our product team realized that each function held different definitions of terms used within each discipline. For example, “discovery” might mean a tech plan to an engineer, but to a designer or researcher, discovery lives much earlier in the project lifecycle, typically grounded in user research to validate hunches or to uncover additional patterns.

As we workshopped, the double diamond felt best to us as a group, unifying each function and our respective definitions.

Disambiguating semantics within the lifecycle allowed our triad and respective team to know when rituals will occur and what stage we’re in—and allowed us move faster through common language.

Process is a product unto itself; discussing and improving it helps the team feel safe, productive and happy.