How We Moved 2,000 Files to a New Tool

Last autumn, our product agency in Manchester faced a massive challenge during our quarterly review. We realized our old design stack was holding back our workflow, and we needed a complete migration to a modern platform. Natalie, our lead product designer, was terrified of losing formatting across our massive library of client projects.

Peter, our design ops specialist, set up a strict trial period to test the waters. We knew there would be a learning curve, but we didn't expect the sheer amount of resistance to change from the senior staff. People had spent years building deep muscle memory in our legacy software, and breaking those old habits took an incredible amount of patience.

Sean, our agency director, reminded everyone that every single accomplishment we had achieved was built on adapting to new challenges. We appointed Natalie as our main tool champion, and she organized weekly design critique sessions where we could share workarounds and celebrate small team rituals together.

During the first weeks, file conversion was our biggest enemy. We spent hours trying to import files without breaking components, and auto layout felt completely alien to designers who were used to absolute positioning. Some team members were ready to quit and go back to the old ways immediately.

However, things started turning around when we embraced the migration process as a team sport. We focused on achieving feature parity with our old workflow, and soon even the loudest critics began to give the new environment a fair chance.

By month three, the transition was practically complete across all departments. The license cost was fully justified by the massive boost in our team's daily velocity and real-time collaboration metrics.

Yet, the funniest part of the entire journey wasn't about complex components or heavy file structures at all. When we asked the team what still felt awkward after three months, nobody complained about the interface or the cloud storage.

The hardest thing to get used to was not the tool itself, but the completely new keyboard shortcuts that kept making our fingers trip over the keys every single afternoon.

Read again and choose the right answer

Where is the agency located?

• London
• Manchester
• Seattle

Who was appointed as the main tool champion?

• Natalie
• Peter
• Sean

What was the biggest enemy during the first weeks?

• File conversion
• High license cost
• Slow internet

What was ultimately the hardest thing for the team to get used to?

• The new cloud storage
• The new keyboard shortcuts
• The pricing model

Sources: photo by Ivan S on Pexels