Design operations

As VP of Experience at Code for America, I established an integrated 50+ person Experience group consisting of Design, Insights, and Client success

  • I created a practice health framework for Experience, Engineering, Product, and Program at Code for America, and led a working group to guide heads of practice toward an aligned understanding of what success looks like when it comes to quality, a sustainable practice culture, and operations.
  • I collaborated with other Experience leaders on a framework that outlined the Experience metrics we care about at CfA – Access, Ease, and Dignity – and articulated our strategy for measuring these categories across projects.

As Managing Principal Designer at Ad Hoc, I worked with 5 other folks managing design operations for our 50+ UX team

  • We grew our design practice from 10 people to over 50 people (the company grew from ~50 to 500 people!) in 4 years.
  • We developed processes and frameworks to keep pace with what a mature design practice needs, including performance and quality frameworks.

Some of the initiatives I’ve worked on:

CODE FOR AMERICA

A practice health framework


I created a practice health framework for all our delivery disciplines articulating what we need to see in each practice, and how each practice would measure success. I had each practice fill out a baseline scorecard, shown here.

CODE FOR AMERICA

What design quality means


After the practice health framework project, we ID’ed that our practices needed to define our quality expectations at the organization. I let a group of Design managers in articulating and defining this.

AD HOC, LLC

A performance framework


I worked with the other Design leaders to create a framework of topics and values for goal setting and performance evaluation to make sure we all were aligned on Ad Hoc Design’s values and goals.

AD HOC, LLC

An individual contributor vs management track


Ad Hoc design leaders wanted to make sure our practitioners had multiple ways to grow in their careers, and could focus on their strengths. Accordingly, we build out individual contributor and manager tracks where folks could hone their preferred skills.

AD HOC, LLC

Design day of replenishment


With the pandemic taking a toll on designers, I wanted to make sure they felt supported and had a chance to relieve pressure and focus on creativity. I planned and implemented a yearly initiative where the design team took a day to focus on team bonding and creativity.