Bringing designers into discovery and roadmap planning earlier to build domain expertise, improve decisions, and reduce rework.
lower rework rate
increase in adoption
of designers domain-aligned by the end of 2025
In late 2024, designers described a recurring frustration: work reached them after product managers and engineers had shaped the roadmap and framed the solution.
Discovery during a sprint left little room to investigate or pivot. Teams faced rework, delayed goals, and engineering effort spent on approaches that needed revisiting. As Product Design Manager, I wanted designers involved before those commitments were made.
Product Design Manager
Establish the pilot and secure support
2 domain-aligned designers
Zephr and Experience Builder
Q1 through H1 2025
Evaluate delivery and post-release experience
Product managers reasonably questioned whether every project needed a permanently assigned designer. I proposed a two-designer pilot, while retaining lightweight support for small, well-understood changes and validated problems.
One designer aligned to Zephr and another to Experience Builder, joining roadmap planning in Q1 2025. Continuity helped them build domain understanding and contribute more informed product decisions.
Clarify user needs with product and engineering.
Investigate uncertainty before committing to solutions.
Compare approaches while change is still practical.
Identify delivery risks earlier in the process.
I established the pilot, secured support for earlier involvement, and evaluated how it changed the teams’ work. Designers gained continuity and greater ownership within their domains.
Review rework, defects, and cycle time to understand what happened as the team shipped.
Review adoption, task success, speed, support tickets, and team feedback after release.
Reported rework rate.
Per release.
Design or scope changes after development began.
Reported adoption-rate increase.
Reported after release.
UI using existing design system components.
The collaboration pulse reached 4.0+, with no discipline below 3.5. The source does not specify the scale, sample, baselines, or method used to attribute these changes.
The pilot ran through H1 2025. Its reported results supported wider domain alignment, and by the end of 2025 the P&T organisation had placed 70% of designers in domains matched to their capabilities.
Lightweight support remained available. Work with clear requirements could move efficiently; work with greater uncertainty benefited from sustained collaboration.
Designers wanted to contribute earlier, but their involvement began after important decisions were made. Coaching alone could not solve that timing problem.
Address concerns and gather evidence before expanding a new way of working.
Give designers room to deepen their understanding and take greater ownership of product decisions.
Keep lightweight support for clear requests and sustained collaboration for work that needs discovery.
I’m always open to interesting conversations—about design or what comes next.