Tribal Credit / Design leadership & operations

Design Team Jams: aligning how the team works

A proposed product-development flow connecting strategy, discovery, and delivery, with the roles involved at each stage.Open full-size image

At Tribal, separate tools and working practices made collaboration harder. I led an initiative to review how design and product worked together, simplify the toolset, and establish a shared direction through workshops and team conversations.

Result

Helped align the teams around a common product direction and a more coordinated approach to tools, processes, and collaboration.

Year: 2020–23
My scope: I led a review of design and product processes, tools, and costs, and facilitated workshops to align the teams around shared product goals.

Reviewing the way work moved between teams

Teams were using different tools, processes, and strategies. I reviewed that setup against the product goals, looking at where it created friction, duplicated costs, or disconnected decisions.

The work included reassessing the toolset and cost management alongside the way people collaborated. A more integrated setup needed to support the team's shared priorities.

Making alignment a shared activity

I facilitated workshops and meetings to bring design and product into the same conversation. These sessions helped the teams work toward a common vision and connect their everyday processes to it.

The artifacts document that planning and discussion, connecting the team's shared direction with practical decisions about its workflow.

◇Artifacts

Persona boards capture business owners' and finance teams' goals, pain points, and preferences to support product discussions.Open full-size image
An overview of the collaborative workshop canvas, combining team-process notes, product journeys, and proposed workflows.Open full-size image
A wider planning canvas brings process diagrams, research references, and workshop exercises into a shared workspace.Open full-size image
Branching and version-history explorations compare ways to organize work in progress, releases, and design changes.Open full-size image
Design-process exploration places reference frameworks beside review criteria, process proposals, and workshop notes.Open full-size image
A career-framework exploration maps scope of influence to individual-contributor and management paths.Open full-size image
A project-planning view tracks initiatives, milestones, participating teams, owners, and status across the design organization.Open full-size image