Unblocking one year of work

Scrapping 1 year of work in order to take
TheFork Manager V3 across the finish line

Context

When I arrived to The Fork, the teams had been working on the V3 of TheFork Manager (TFM3) for a year but the CPO and CTO decided to scrap all that work and start fresh. I arrived a couple of weeks before the scrapping.

TFM2 was a tool built with no designers, just a handful of technical PMs and a few squads of Engineers who were mostly back-end Eng. This created a codebase that was hard to improve because many design decisions were embedded into the code (inline hardcoded). There was also no Design System whatsoever. No UI Kit, No design principles.

TFM3 was supposed to fix all of this with a modern, modular codebase but since it was mostly the same team working on TFM3 that had built TFM2, results where not very different.

My Role

As the manager of the Security team, I was responsible for:

Defining the roadmap

I worked on defining, socializing and getting buy-in of the 5 design values that guided the entire revamp of TFM3 and secured quality. For this I paired with Brand and Marketing so that our three products (TFM3, TheFork web, TheFork mobile) shared the same voice and values.

Pair with partners to secure quality and delivery

I worked with the CPO and CTO to build a partnership and common language so we could drive the project as one. We established a 3-in-the-box weekly meeting with common documentation so any of us could always have the full context to engage with the teams.

Introducing a proper Design Practice

The designers we initially had were self-made or too junior, with little experience in producing more complex solutions. I started by hiring seniors from larger organizations who could bring methodology and process without making it feel stilted or forced.

Reassure the team who worked on it

The team was not at fault for the need to scrap work. This was a matter of guidelines not being set clear in a way that the different teams can plan and deliver the right work.

Setting up a design system

When I arrived at TheFork there was no design system. Some design decisions were hardcoded into the code itself (inline coding) and others were not documented. This situation stemmed from having only one junior designer assigned to the job and a team of engineers who were mostly back-end with limited front-end experience.

I focused on creating a front-end guild with the more front-end–oriented engineers to develop reusable components they could share with others. This effort aimed to standardize implementation, improve consistency, and make future design and development work more efficient.

Approach

The Five Design Values

The Brand team worked with an agency to build five brand values: Foodie - We recommend good restaurants, The good friend - We recommend what you will love, Local - We know you and the local scene, Transparent - We don’t hide anything from you, Striving for the best - We like to do things the right way

I worked in transforming those into TFM3 values:

Foodie Expert
We advise you on how to run your restaurant
The good friend Transparent
We will always advise on what is good for your business
Local Adaptable
We know you and the local scene and will help you fit in
Transparent and Proactive
We don’t hide anything from you and guide you through it
Striving for the best Best in class
We will provide you with the best platform to manage your restaurant.