Coordinate people, processes, and technique

Executive view

The case at a glance

As UX Lead I drove a Design Ops plan: coordinating people, process, and craft to scale the value of design. I started with a disordered team—no clear roles, ceremonies, or repository—and built onboarding, skills tracking, file structure, Scrum, and a community. In a year and a half, retention rose from 25% to 70%, and new designer ramp-up went from one month to 7 days.

01 — Context

Starting to listen effectively to collaborators

I always believe a team shows itself in different ways depending on situations, contexts, and moments. A team is like a child that needs constant attention: if it is hungry, sleepy, or has needs, it expresses them. If it smiles, something made it happy. I use this analogy because a team displays different attitudes and performance throughout a project. When there is no clear direction in processes, methodologies, and elements that improve performance, it is likely destined to fail—just like an ice candle melting in a harsh winter. That is the context where teams fall apart: irritability, rumors, actions that stall growth. But where there are great weaknesses, there are great opportunities. In those moments I was offered the chance to build the team I wanted and envisioned. That is when I launched my initiative. Let’s begin!

The problem

Challenges identified

I organized the pain points into seven fronts: organization, collaboration, humanization, standardization, prioritization, measurement and impact, and enablement.

Diagnosis

A demotivated team, without identity, unable to perform optimally. Action had to be immediate.

02 — Process

The journey to the solution

Once we had the pain points, we had to prioritize by criticality. One of the most important things when leading a team was having clear role scopes. After several sessions I built a complete job description: skills, competencies, and responsibilities. Company onboardings and offboardings tend to be generic. I mapped the process, wrote guides covering mission, vision, values, and also the team’s day-to-day, and designed dynamic profiles. For departures I distinguished two situations: those who left of their own accord and terminations with feedback, always with respect and careful handling of difficult conversations. For growth we built a skills matrix, reviews, and a tracking artifact for each collaborator. I closed the first version of the plan with a musical space for the team: may the music never be missing.

Tools and files

Tools, channels, and order

In the UX Lead role I needed professional tools—Figma, for example—and a single channel. With other leaders we chose Slack. I organized the files the way we do on product projects:

Data repository

When I started, there was no centralized repository. I implemented one and promoted a culture of using and updating it. The team began working faster, without losing pieces across personal drives.

03 — Product

Methodology, ceremonies, and community

A team without a clear methodology does not scale. The priority was a robust process, aligned with Functional Analysis and Tech Leads, with a Lean-style linear flow. We adopted Scrum ceremonies: Daily, Weekly, Preplanning, Planning, Refinement, and Retrospective. Each one with a purpose, so topics would not get mixed. Later we added UX Jams —a designer asks for help and the team jumps in to unblock— and UX Critique —a proposal is presented to challenge it—. And the community: a space for belonging, mission, vision, and values. After a year the team was committed; the model was replicated in other teams across the company. At first, design was seen as a cost. I built usability metrics, task time, and ROI. One example: the manuals were too lengthy; a video and a visual guide reduced onboarding times. ValidUX also became more systematic. Summary: success is not instantaneous. It takes a team that pushes itself, leaders who accept the ups and downs, support from superiors, and, above all, time.

04 — Outcomes

Outcomes

Some numbers from the initiative, as they appeared in the original backup.

Conclusion

Implementing a Design Ops plan—with trust from leadership and the responsibility of leading a design team—has been a transformative experience for the team, the organization, and for me. We structured processes, improved efficiency and consistency, and used metrics to demonstrate the value of design. Success would not have been possible without Juli, Lauti, Agos, Nuri, Vale, Amy, Flor, Noe, Cris, Ari, and my peers Jime and Cari.

Learnings

Lessons learned: