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Scaling a Global Design Function

This case study outlines how I scaled the team, matured UX practices, and built a culture of clarity, quality and collaboration. I introduced design ops foundations, governance structures, mentoring frameworks, and a WCAG-AA design system that reduced delivery time by 67% and unlocked enterprise sales.

Design Operations

UX Leadership

Scalable Design Practises

Cross-Collaboration

Team Leadership

Governance

Design Agile

Team Management

Design System + Accessiblity

International Teams

Design operating on a Federated Model

Development Time

67

%

Reduction

Design System

95

%

Adoption

Global Leadership

2

Locations

Context & Challenge

The Problem

  • Design delivery depended on individual experience rather than shared systems or standards.
  • Lack of a formal design system and governance led to duplication and inconsistency across products.
  • Accessibility was not embedded by default, creating risk in a regulated enterprise environment.
  • Inconsistent processes and documentation reduced scalability, slowed onboarding, and limited knowledge retention.
  • Designers repeatedly solved the same problems, reducing focus on higher-value work.
  • UX impact lacked visibility at a strategic level, limiting influence on roadmap and delivery decision.s

Why it mattered

  • Delivery was slow and unpredictable.
  • Scaling platform work across 6+ product lines was impossible without foundational ops.
  • Design maturity was low — focus on execution rather than strategy.
  • UX impact was invisible to leadership.

Role & Scope

UX Design Manager (Design Ops & Team Lead)

  • Build and mature the design practice across international locations.
  • Establish design governance, scalable capability and accessibility.
  • Create a structure for consistent delivery across product lines.
  • Mentor and grow designers into senior roles.

UCD Process Implementation

Stakeholder influence

Design Critiques

Roadmap Proritisation

Agile

Design Documentation

Design Team
Started on my own and scaled

8

Designers

Development squads – Dedicated
Plus ad-hoc on a federated model

6

+

Squads

Cross-collaboration
Product, Development, Architecture, Legal,
CSOC, Support

6

Functions

Approach

1

Build Foundations: Established the operational backbone required for consistent, scalable design delivery across teams and products.

2

Embed Governance: Created decision-making structures that aligned design quality, accessibility, and business priorities.

3

Scale the Team: Grew and enabled a distributed design team through structure, clarity, and coaching.

4

Enable Delivery: Created an environment where designers could focus on impact rather than process overhead.

Process

Build Foundations

  • Introduced core design ops rituals: critiques, design reviews, and weekly design syncs
  • Implemented shared tooling and workflows (Figma libraries, Zeroheight documentation, Mobin)
  • Defined clear ownership and contribution models for cross-team collaboration
  • Standardised patterns and interaction models that reduced duplicated effort.

Outcomes

Reduced duplicated design effort through shared patterns and documentation

Improved consistency and quality across products and teams

Faster onboarding and knowledge transfer for new designers

Cross-Capability retrospective

Embed Governance

  • Established governance for the design system and UX standards

  • Embedded WCAG AA accessibility requirements into components and patterns through the design system

  • Defined review and escalation paths for complex or cross-product decisions

  • Partnered with Product and Engineering leadership to align governance with delivery cadence

Outcomes

WCAG AA accessibility embedded as a default standard across products

Clear decision-making structures reduced ambiguity and rework

Stronger alignment between Design, Product, and Engineering leadership

Diagram Showing the UCD process, with the milestones, checking, and artefacts that the design team will created in each phase.
UCD Process embedded in Development Framework
Diagram showing Design project management and planning, based on a quarterly planning, and using Agile and Jira frameworks to align with Development teams.
Design Planning and Management within an Agile Framework

Scale and Mentor the Team

  • Scaled the team from scratch: Inherited 4 and hired 4 designers across London and Vancouver

  • Led end-to-end hiring processes, including role definition, interview design, candidate assessment, and cross-region hiring decisions
  • Introduced skills assessment and role clarity frameworks

  • Set regular 1:1s and feedback loops to establish growth paths and expectations.

  • Mentored designers into senior roles and ownership positions

Outcomes

4 Designers promoted to senior roles

Designers’ leadership elevated 3 global initiatives across product lines – Design System Creation, Accessibility Implementation & Training, Portal Experience Redesign.

Creation, coordination and Delivery of Design Training for Engineering Graduate Program

Enable Delivery

  • Embedded designers into product squads using an agile design ops model

  • Introduced shared templates, blueprints, and documentation to accelerate delivery

  • Improved cross-timezone collaboration through clear rituals and asynchronous feedback

  • Enabled teams with design documentation and libraries to deliver consistently without reliance on constant oversight

Outcomes

More predictable and efficient design delivery across squads

Designers focused on higher-value problem solving rather than reinventing solutions

Improved collaboration across time zones through shared rituals and async feedback

Shared Design Documentation Examples

Blueprint - Inventory Page
Blueprints
UX Guidelines
Figma Templates

Results

Outcomes

  • Enabled faster delivery and reduced engineering dependency
  • WCAG-AA compliance unlocked enterprise client wins
  • Improved strategic decision-making across the organisation by embedding user research in the roadmap as part of the design process.
  • Shifted company’s perception of UX as a strategic partner

Impact

Delivery Effort
Development and Design Teams

67

%

Reduction

Team Growth
Over a year, starting from scratch

8

Designers

UCD Adoption across functions
Embedded User Research in Roadmap

12

Studies

Reflections

My key learning have been that leading with empathy enables performance, metrics make design’s value visible, clarity unlocks scale, and early feedback builds trust.

  • Empathic leadership is foundational to strong design teams.
Representing users effectively starts with understanding and supporting the designers doing the work, creating an environment of trust and empowerment where people can do their best work.
  • Metrics are a critical part of design leadership.
 Design quality alone is not enough without visibility of impact; measuring the right outcomes and connecting design work to business goals makes the value of design clear and builds cross-functional trust.
  • Clarity enables high performance.
 Breaking down complexity, making decisions explicit, and increasing transparency allowed the team to move faster, collaborate more effectively, and operate with greater confidence.

If I were to do it again….

I would lean into feedback earlier and more consistently.
Feedback is often avoided, but I’ve learned that it is an act of care. Addressing misalignment as soon as it becomes visible saves time and effort, reduces friction, and strengthens trust. Kind, timely feedback creates healthier teams and stronger long-term collaboration.