Designers were siloed, with little ownership or accountability
Stakeholders felt excluded and frustrated with the design process
Executive design reviews were stressful and unproductive
Team morale was low, with negative performance reviews from previous managers
Junior designers lacked growth opportunities and meaningful leadership experiences
I introduced clear and intentional ceremonies to improve collaboration and focus. Daily standups became a space for project coordination. Weekly team meetings allowed us to share business context and build culture. Smaller critique groups enabled deeper design feedback, and regular stakeholder show & tells helped build alignment and transparency. 1:1’s focused goal tracking, providing and receiving feedback, and doing a pulse check on how they were feeling.
I championed a triad model across projects, pairing each designer with a dedicated product manager and developer. This encouraged shared ownership, real-time decision-making, and eliminated the outdated “big design reveal” approach.
This was new for Questrade, and has been adopted due to the success of this team.
Each designer created a quarterly project plan that outlined what they would deliver and how they would show progress on a bi-weekly cadence. This gave structure to the work, improved accountability, and helped stakeholders stay aligned.
Junior designers were given end-to-end ownership of projects and the relationships that supported them. Instead of shadowing senior designers, they were empowered to lead within a focused domain area. This built their confidence, helped them deepen expertise, and created a pathway to take on progressively more complex projects.
To reduce stress and last-minute feedback, I implemented a weekly design review cadence with senior leadership. Designers presented work in progress in a structured setting with clear goals and context. This made feedback more thoughtful, timely, and constructive.
Each designer had individual goals tied to product impact, team contributions, and personal growth. These expectations gave everyone a clearer sense of their role, how they were progressing, and what success looked like.
We delivered more projects on time and with higher quality, across both web and mobile platforms. Design work was consistently backed by user research and aligned with business needs.
