Leading a high impact design team to $10M ARR
Role: Director of Product Design ​
Team Size: Grew from 2 to 5 Designers
Timeline: The early team development happened during my first year with on-going improvements to team processes, design system establishment, and other initiatives expanding into my time as Director. (2022 - 2025)
Problem Context
User Interviews was scaling quickly as a SaaS platform—expanding from mid-market businesses into enterprise research teams, broadening its product footprint, and accelerating feature development through AI. With this growth came new pressures: escalating customer demands, increasingly complex initiatives slowed by legacy tradeoffs and inefficient processes, with a design team stretched thin and lacking direction.
On the organizational side, design was underdeveloped; no design system, no clear career ladders, and few processes to support collaboration or growth. To succeed, the team needed not just to deliver on ambitious product goals, but to build the foundations of a high-functioning design org.
As the Sr. Manager of Design and Director of Product Design, I led a team of 5 designers, partnering closely with product, engineering, and revenue leadership. My mandate was to elevate design’s role from execution to strategy—building a high-performing, collaborative team that could influence roadmap decisions, strengthen customer relationships, and deliver experiences that fueled rapid growth.
Approach
Scaling the Team
Built a stronger design practice by recruiting and onboarding new talent through a brand new hiring process. Meanwhile, I coached existing team members into more strategic roles. I introduced a career ladder with competency mapping specific to the skills necessary at UI and instituted clear performance scorecards. Weekly 1:1s and quarterly check-ins reinforced feedback loops, encouraged risk-taking, and prepared designers to manage up and advocate for themselves to ensure I could adequately support their growth.
Creating Systems
I launched the "Synthesis" Design System, replacing a fragmented legacy system with scalable, designer-owned foundations. Established proactive QA practices, including designer-led regression testing and spec standards, and created visibility through a “Whoopsies” board for reporting production inconsistencies. My team partnered with engineering to streamline design debt work using regular “gardening” meetings to maintain system health, and piloted AI tools (Cursor, Figma Code Connect) to accelerate design system workflows.
Embedding Research
Research became a central driver of strategy. I consolidated insights across customer operations, sales feedback, G2 reviews, intercept surveys, live feedback, design evaluations, and analytics into a repo that was categorized by user journey phases and opportunity areas. I ensured these inputs informed prioritization, roadmap discussions, and solution design—moving the team from reactive execution to proactive decision-making. Designers became data driven, and their ability to understand more complex problems beneath the surface of the product made our solutions core experience drivers rather than temporary Band-Aid fixes.
Partnering Across Functions
I established PARADE (Product, Research, Design, Engineering) leadership touchpoints to align stakeholders on progress, surface customer escalations, refresh strategy, and keep momentum strong across teams. Gone were the days of telephone and delayed questions on solution designs - leaders need to be proactively involved and looking ahead.
Coaching for Impact
Empowered designers to present directly to leadership, own stakeholder relationships, and pursue projects aligned with their strengths and growth opportunities. Reinforced quality through weekly critiques, async peer reviews, and an open design project system in Linear.io to improve visibility and unblock delivery. Integrated AI tooling to reduce repetitive tasks and sharpen focus on high-impact work.
Team Execution
Under my leadership, the design team shipped a series of high-impact features that advanced our product strategy, strengthened enterprise adoption, and unlocked new growth opportunities.
Introducing Modularity
Standardized participant data and cut study setup time with reusable templates. This feature, built on the new Teams 2.0 architecture I led, secured a major contract renewal.
AI-Enhanced Workflows
Centralized recordings, transcripts, and analysis in one platform, laying the foundation for our AI Insights vision and achieving 60% adoption at launch.
Enterprise Governance
Overhauled platform governance by moving from team-based to org-wide permissions, balancing autonomy with control. Scaled seamlessly for enterprise while staying flexible for smaller customers.
Powerful Feedback Loops
Delivered real-time targeting insights to researchers to uplevel study feasibility, with 70% adoption in the first two weeks. Iterated to launch AI-prompted recruitment, streamlining setup.
Impact
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Organization and Team: Scaled the design org from 2 to 5 to support cross-functional squads. Introduced career ladders and competency maps, resulting in higher-than-average retention, four promotions, and stronger designer engagement.
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Product: Delivered consistent, higher-quality experiences through the Synthesis design system and research-driven prioritization. This improved adoption, boosted customer satisfaction, and fueled contract expansions—helping us hit and exceed the $10M ARR milestone.
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Culture: Elevated design as a strategic partner—designers became trusted voices in roadmap planning, stakeholder discussions, and executive reviews.
By investing in systems, clear growth paths, and cross-functional trust, I was able to scale a small group of designers into a strategic force that shaped not just product outcomes, but the trajectory of the business.