June 2023 - October 2023
Redesigning Hand-Off Documentation
Led an team of four designs through an initiative to simplify and automate our design requirements documentation to enhance speed-to-market and reduce feedback loops.
My role was to mobilize, solve, and execute
Promoted to build and lead a design operations team, I joined the project a year in to develop and execute a plan on a tight timeline. Leading four designers and collaborating with engineering, QA, and product, I organized milestones, defined the MVP, and drove strategic decisions to meet key design operations goals.
Simplify. Automate. Communicate.
Our goal was to improve design documentation for handoffs, addressing inconsistencies and manual inefficiencies that slowed delivery and impacted quality.
This project was part of a broader initiative to standardize agile delivery operations across all pods, enhancing collaboration, efficiency, product quality, and scalability.
Understanding Needs to Shape Solutions
We conducted interviews, observational research, and contextual inquiries with our primary users—the development and QA teams—as well as our secondary users in design and content.
Our solution needed to serve a dual purpose: enabling designers to create documentation efficiently while allowing development to understand it quickly.
The Blueprint for Cross-Functional Collaboration
Our solution focused on effective change management by automating version control, establishing a 1:1 mapping of backend and frontend requirements through a single source of truth, using anchor links to enhance traceability, and developing a creator kit with governance guidelines to ensure consistency across all projects.
Key Metrics
Beyond the positive division-wide feedback after launch, this standardization initiative drove substantial improvements in delivery process execution and design excellence.
15%
Increase in speed to market
25%
Decrease in creation time
20%
Reduction in feedback loops
Personal
Reflection
This project marked a significant shift in my career from digital product design to a focus on design operations. While my background was primarily in designing user experiences, this experience taught me that design principles can also shape teams and processes. A well-crafted process empowers team members, reduces friction, and, most importantly, fosters creativity.