WURD CREW: a farewell
Web UX Research & Design
Conception et Recherche en Expérience utilisateur Web
Three and a half years.
April 2023 to September 2026. What we made, what we learned, and where it goes next.
Why we existed
Improve IRCC’s web presence through research and design, with a continuous improvement lens.
It fits on one sticky. Living up to it took three and a half years, twelve people and a lot of whiteboards.
Counting the stickies
Everything below comes straight off the Figjam retro board we made together. Blue for hellos, pink for goodbyes, green for the things we shipped.
Three and a half years, one sticky at a time
- hello
- goodbye
- shipped
- hover or tap a pink one if you want to cry again
everyone back on the board, one last time
Every pilot ends. The good ones leave something behind.
The logo was the method all along
It was never one thing. Read it three ways and it describes how we worked.
A double diamond
Go wide on the problem, narrow it down, go wide on solutions, narrow again. Discover, define, develop, deliver.
The first diamond is the problem. The second is the solution.
An infinity loop
Delivery was never the finish line. It was the start of the next round.
Understand the problem, try something, test it, learn from real users and data, and make the next version better.
— how we described our own way of working, in the retro
- understand
- try
- test
- learn
- improve
- …again
A W, kind of
Trace the bottom edge. Squint a little. There it is.
W for Web, of course.
It was never only the methodology
Our greatest strength wasn’t a method or a deliverable. It was the people, the culture, and the freedom to experiment, and the way those three fed each other.
People shared what they knew, challenged ideas without making it personal, learned from each other, and got from an idea to a prototype to evidence fast. And we were a working example: proof that a small, trusted team can change how a department builds for the web.
The final mile
We were often better at getting to the answer than at getting the answer through the final mile and into people’s hands.
What got in the way:
- ambiguous ownership
- loose timelines
- approval processes
- limited authority
The legacy isn’t only the products
Everyone leaves with new skills, more confidence, and relationships that will outlast any org chart. And a way of working:
Listen deeply, use evidence, speak honestly, stay humble, and work together.
— the team, in its own words
Two letters stay
Research and Design were in the name from the start. They’re also the two diamonds in the mark — the problem, and the solution.
And in French we were CREW — which was always the more accurate name.
We drew RAD before it had a name
Somewhere along the way we simplified the double diamond into three poles, and pictured them like a fidget spinner. No start, no finish line: you shift the focus from one pole to another, in either direction, for as long as the work needs it.
No wrong direction
Pick a pole, or give the spinner a flick. The work moves to wherever there’s something to learn.
Research & explore
Understand people, their tasks and the problem before anything gets built. Go wide, and don’t fall in love with the first answer.
Design & test
Prototype, put it in front of real people, fix what they trip on, and test again.
Measure & monitor
Once it’s live, watch what actually happens — and let the data tell you where to look next.
- RResearchresearch & explore
- AAnalyticsmeasure & monitor
- DDesigndesign & test
Spin it the other way and it spells RAD. The method didn’t change. It just got a name.
Same loop, bigger circle
WURD was a pilot. RAD is a function: research, analytics and design as a standing part of Web Operations, alongside Publishing and Enterprise.
What RAD wants to be
What RAD doesn't want to become
The reason people tell us “Wow, the site is looking good these days, eh?”
— one of RAD’s stated ambitions, and our favourite
What lives on
imagine what the future looks like
RAD doesn’t have a logo yet. Though the two diamonds were always R and D… just saying.
WURD ends here. The way of working doesn’t: it lives on in the people who carry it, in the teams we worked alongside, and now in RAD.
Thank you for three and a half remarkable years.See you on the next board. — David