Building The XD Team
Role:
Senior Design Manager and Director
In 2019, Omnicom Health Group brought me in to address gaps in UX and digital design at The Purpose Group. The agency lacked a formal XD practice, leading to execution challenges, misaligned development, and costly errors.
I built the XD team from zero, scaling it and introducing processes that improved efficiency and elevated creative standards.
Key Objectives
When I joined Omnicom Health Group, there was no formal digital design team or user experience (UX) practice. Websites were designed by art directors with limited UX experience, often resulting in misaligned designs, development issues, high costs, and usability problems.
My goal was to build a best-in-class XD (experience design) team from the ground up:
Define and formalize the UX and digital design functions
Hire, train, and mentor a multi-disciplinary team
Find gaps and create new processes to improve quality and efficiency
Advocate for design thinking and the value of UX across the agency
Business Impact
Scaled the team from zero members and adding capes; UX research, accessibility-first design, and AI-driven innovation across 30+ brands and two creative agencies.
0→15 Design Team
20%+ increase in efficiency
Introduced scalable workflows, reusable component libraries, and streamlined design-to-dev handoff processes across all brands.
Increased revenue through expanded XD capabilities
Helped drive agency growth by elevating digital offerings, strengthening client partnerships, and contributing to successful new business wins.
$15M+ in budgets and staffing
Balanced operational efficiency with creative excellence—delivering award-winning digital work while optimizing spend.
30+/- new brand launches
Led 0→1 product initiatives by establishing new design systems and ensuring cohesive, cross-channel digital experiences.
Created career pathways, mentorship programs, and leadership training that fostered a strong culture of growth and belonging.
100% team retention
Building the XD team wasn’t just about hiring designers—it was about fulfilling a long-term vision for how experience design could drive better work, stronger teams, and real business value across the agency.
The Approach
Defining Our Foundation
I began by leading the creation of our team’s mission and design principles—but we shaped them together. Through collaborative workshops and team exercises, we aligned on what experience design meant to us and how we’d contribute across the business.
This created:
A shared sense of ownership and purpose
A clear North Star for our work and decisions
A distinct identity from traditional agency disciplines
Structuring the Team for Scale
I mapped out a structure that reflected the agency’s evolving needs—then built the roles to match.
Defined leveling, roles, and responsibilities
Created transparent growth paths and reporting lines
Designed opportunities for advancing designers to lead and mentor
Hiring with Intention
To build a future-ready team, I established a hiring approach focused on depth, diversity, and potential.
Developed detailed job descriptions aligned to creative and technical needs
Hired a mix of seasoned talent and emerging designers
Prioritized candidates with cross-disciplinary strengths and strong collaboration skills
Operationalizing the Work
We made our processes as strong as our people—building infrastructure that enabled high performance.
Standardized XD workflows for research, prototyping, and design & delivery
Integrated with cross-functional teams through defined collaboration protocols
Introduced a standardized design stack for efficient execution and handoff
Committed to continuous improvement across process and quality
Investing in Support and Growth
To ensure the team could thrive, I focused on resources that enabled consistency, creativity, and scale.
Formalized best practices in accessibility, usability, and workflow
Led training sessions, and inspiration series to fuel development
Prioritized 1:1 mentorship to support each designer’s growth and confidence.
Beyond the Numbers
While metrics matter, some of the most meaningful outcomes come from the people, culture, and creative we’ve elevated along the way.
Stronger client partnerships
Consistently positive feedback on collaboration, clarity, and the elevated quality of digital deliverables.
Creative that stands out
Work recognized by industry awards and internal leadership for pushing boundaries while staying strategically sound.
A team that thrives
High morale, psychological safety, and a shared sense of purpose—leading to better ideas and stronger execution.
Design that inspires
Work that not only solves problems, but raises the bar for how the agency approaches digital experience and design craft.