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Design Management and Operations
Design Management and Operations
Building, managing, and leading a passionate and tight-knit team of designers.
Summary
Role
Lead Product Designer, Director of Product Design (Manager + IC)
Team
7 Product Designers
Achievements
  • Developed junior designer career through to mid then senior level over 2 years
  • Hired 4 designers (1 junior, 1 senior, 2 staff level)
  • Improved EPD partnerships through coaching designers, product managers, and engineers on optimal collaboration
Education
  • Standford Graduate School of Business - Leadership Certificate
  • ReThink design leadership program - management & design operations
  • Books, blogs, and thought leaders i.e Peter Merholz, Julie Zhou, Kim Scott, Courtney Kaplan, and more...
Responsibilities
  • Managing, coaching, and guiding career developement for junior, mid, senior, staff, and lead level designers
  • Design operations and frameworks for optimal process and productivity of teams
  • Design advocacy across the organization
  • Hiring and recruiting
  • Overseeing designers working across 7 product pods
  • Supporting designer and projects through IC work
  • Establishing benchmarks for high quality design process, deliverables, and cross-functional partnerships
  • Building team culture through activities both design-centric and/or just for fun!
Leadership Philosophy
As a leader and manager, these philosophies are integral to my practice:
Radically candid communication to foster trust & growth
Championing creativity, innovation, & user-centricity
Unique and tailored career development & coaching
Constructive participation and feedback
Attracting great talent through thoughtful hiring practices
Providing frameworks that establish work quality benchmarks
Team Testimonials
Team Values and Cadences
A snippet from our 'Design Team Wiki' used for hiring purposes.
EPD Partnerships
Sample slides from my ‘Design at Startups’ presentation and workshop.
Design System Advocacy
Sample slides from my ‘Design System Advocacy’ presentation.
Recruiting, Hiring, and Onboarding
Recruiting
  • Working with internal recruiters and external recruiting agencies to widen reach
  • Training internal recruiters on how to screen designers
  • Used LinkedIn Recruiter for direct reach outs
  • Defining perfect fit through analyzing existing team strengths and needs
Interviews
  • Defined interview processes unique to each role
  • Involved a diverse group of colleagues across Design, Product, and Engineering
  • Trained colleagues on what to look, questions to ask, and how to speak about Figure and the Design Team for a consistent candidate experience
  • Designed and conducted Design Challenges
Attracting Talent
  • Created external facing Design Team Wiki consisting of Design Team culture, practices, cadences, and quotes from the team
Onboarding
  • Assigned onboarding buddies to new talent
  • Facilitated introductions to new team and documents
  • Shared 30/60/90 goals with new hires
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