Companies with dedicated quality efforts
Many companies say they care about quality, but don’t have specific efforts dedicated to it. Here are some that do.
GitLab
GitLab has a “UX Paper Cuts” team, which they describe this way:
The UX Paper Cuts team has a unique scope; we are responsible for identifying and fixing small yet impactful usability issues across the GitLab product… By default, the UX Paper Cuts team does not take on new feature work, nor is the team used as a resource for another Group. Instead, the team focuses on usability and accessibility issues, design inconsistencies, and out-of-date UI across the entire product.
HubSpot
HubSpot created a “Cohesion Studio”, which they describe this way:
Cohesion Studio is focused on improving user experience across HubSpot, making our products faster and easier to use. This team operates as a horizontal layer between the design system team and our product teams. The job of this team is to assess, track, and unify HubSpot’s end-to-end journeys.
Linear
In 2022, Linear had a month dedicated to interface design polish: “For the rest of the year, polishing will be our sole focus. No new feature work, just quality of life improvements.”
They also have a permanent policy related to bug fixes:
A few months ago, we changed the way we address bugs at Linear. We prioritized bugs over everything else. If you have bugs assigned when you wake up in the morning, you don't do anything else before they are addressed.
Finally, for changes that aren’t bugs, they have “Quality Wednesdays”:
We have a separate ongoing process for things that could work slightly better. We have quality Wednesdays where each team member shows off at least one thing that they’ve slightly improved in the product in the previous week.
Shopify
Shopify started a team to focus on quality:
… sometimes you need space for specific focus on quality. That’s precisely what a new team at Shopify is doing. Our team is focused on looking horizontally across Shopify admin… We’re addressing quality issues from adjusting visual design details to fundamentally restructuring pages or components.
Stripe
Stripe hired Malthe Sigurdsson as “Head of Craft”:
I’m coming back to Stripe as “Head of Craft” on Katie Dill’s team to help drive our continued focus on craft, beauty, and quality.