I am a Lead Process Designer and Operations Specialist at Kin + Carta. I use my background as a Product Designer to research, test and launch global business and operational processes that create efficiencies for the business and improve how our teams work.
My current focus is on improving our internal tooling offering by launching a new collaborative platform (Coda) and improving how existing ones (Miro) are set up and run.
Side Projects
A curated collection of podcasts dedicated to all things DesignOps
Speaking
Ask any DesignOps practitioner to name their “go-to” tool and you’re likely to hear them wax poetically of their love for spreadsheets. We get it – the spreadsheet is a reliable workhorse with a number of tricks up its sleeve. But, it’s not the only game in town. In fact, if you haven’t ventured outside of Excel lately, you may be surprised to learn that there are a number of nifty new tools in town, and we’ve got the perfect opportunity for you to get a taste of what they can do.
In this month’s DesignOps Community Call, we’ll hear from DesignOps Community Curator Farid Sabitov and Design Operations Lead for Kin + Carta Europe, Scott Stephens as they dive into two tools that have been gaining popularity among DesignOps pros, Coda and Notion.
Features
I recently spoke to Andrea Lim (Content Marketing at Notion) to explain how we leverage Notion to run our Design Practice at Kin + Carta.
Work Experience
As part of the Global Operations team I use my background as a Product Designer to uncover user pain-points research enabling me to design and Test scalable processes. These processes help our internal teams across Finance, Supplier Management and IT to work more efficiently and effectively.
Highlights from this role
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Leading the launch of Coda to the entire business (a new global collaboration platform that enables our workforce to work more efficiently and effectively).
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Building low-code tools in Coda for our Finance teams to improve process efficiency.
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Using the Design process to create simplified and automatic processes for the business across IT, Legal, Supplier Management and Operations.
Having led Design Operations for the Design Practice at Kin + Carta Europe, I oversaw a team of 80+ designers with diverse specialisations including Product Design, Experience Design, and Research. My focus was on maximizing our team's impact with both our clients and the end users of the products we designed. This involved implementing scalable processes, optimizing tooling, and establishing efficient project setups, all aimed at enabling our designers to deliver their best work.
Furthermore, I served as a primary advocate for design throughout the organisation, collaborating closely with stakeholders across Sales, Operations, Delivery, and Technology to emphasise the value of design as one of our core offerings to our clients.
Additionally, I spearheaded the development of our DesignOps service offering, empowering our clients' design teams to enhance their impact within their organizations and industries.
As part of the Design Systems team at Tesco I partner with the Design Lead to support and enable a team of Product Designers to deliver and maintain the Tesco Design System in Figma that empowers 70+ designers across the organisation to deliver scalable design solutions for multiple Tesco digital products.
This role is via an engagement between Kin + Carta & Tesco.
As the Design Operations Manager of our team of 17 Product and Experience designers, I oversaw the day-to-day operations, ensuring each designer had the necessary tools to fully concentrate on their creative work. I actively promoted best practices in tooling, project setup, recruitment, onboarding, and internal processes throughout the organization, leveraging platforms like Notion and Miro.
In addition to managing the Operations for the team, I directly line managed four Product Designers helping them manage their workloads, spot opportunities for further growth and writing 3 successful promotion cases.
In my role as a Product Design Manager at Kingfisher, facilitated through The App Business, I took charge of a team consisting of eight Product and Experience Designers. Our main objective was to conceptualize, design, and deliver Kingfisher's groundbreaking new multi-brand 'NextGen' e-commerce platform, spanning both native and web interfaces.
In my role as a Senior Product Designer at The App Business, I spearheaded the design direction for a multitude of projects spanning both native and web platforms. Notable brands I collaborated with include B&Q, Kingfisher (as mentioned earlier), Visa, Racing Post, and First Bus.
Being part of the design leadership team, I played a pivotal role in refining internal processes, enriching our pitch strategies, and actively engaging in the recruitment of new designers. Additionally, I closely collaborated with Sales and Delivery stakeholders to ensure the seamless allocation of designers for upcoming projects, thus fostering successful project outcomes.
My primary focus revolved around materializing and delivering impeccably polished designs tailored for mobile applications across both iOS and Android platforms. This involved working on some of our clients' flagship products, such as Ford's Go Drive app, Tesco's Groceries app, and First Group's travel planner app.
Additionally, I played a pivotal role in guiding and mentoring junior team members to enhance their design methodologies. Specifically, I emphasized refining their visual design skills in Sketch and honing their prototyping abilities using Marvel.
As an Associate Product Designer at The App Business, I collaborated closely with designers and developers within cross-functional product teams. Together, we crafted tailored design solutions for esteemed clients like The Times, Go-Ahead (refer to the first image), and News UK (specifically, the Sun Goals app, as depicted in the second image).
I began my journey at The App Business as their inaugural design intern, becoming the fifth member of the design team. Throughout a six-month period, I immersed myself in the team's activities, providing support and shadowing as we engaged in diverse projects. This included contributing to discovery efforts for Headspace and participating in production work for Talk Talk.