Four annual Gallup cycles, followed up at every layer until the feedback was specific, then prioritized with leadership alongside the budget and growth plan.
The Gallup survey was broad. Its scores showed how people felt, without the detail a team needed to plan a change.
Feedback had to stay anonymous. The first year's top request, Figma, ran against a company policy that did not approve cloud-based software.
Over four cycles the survey produced the department's major operational initiatives, from Figma and new hardware to the process work in these case studies.
After each survey, every team lead ran a feedback session with their team while I listened and took notes. I led a matching session at the leadership level, focused only on the team leads, managers and director.
That same week, anyone in the department could book 30 minutes with me to raise feedback they did not want to share with their lead or in a group. Team leads used their 1:1s that week the same way.
Four annual cycles. Two of them added a smaller mid-year cycle.
1. Gallup survey. 2. Team sessions. 3. Leadership session. 4. Synthesis review. 5. One prioritized list. 6. Budget and growth plan. 7. Approval and buy-in. 8. Delivered and measured. Then Next year's survey checks the result.The design leadership team then reviewed everything together: the anonymous survey results, my synthesis of every session, and the leadership feedback. Each team lead was responsible for speaking for their team and filling the gaps the data could not show. The review ended with one prioritized list.
The survey ran alongside the department's annual planning for the company, so each priority entered the budget and growth plan with its case already made. I built the strategy, presented it for approval, won cross-functional buy-in, and managed each initiative to completion against a baseline set at the start.
In the first year the top request was Figma. Company policy did not approve cloud-based software, so Figma became a major initiative, and I took it through approval with the CEO. The process and operational work in the other Operations case studies started on the same list.
Approved by the CEO under a policy that did not allow cloud-based software.
iPads, laptops with high-quality monitors, and dedicated ideation and collaboration rooms.
Designers attended Figma's Config and Adobe MAX, paid for by the department.
Accessibility (WCAG), design systems, leadership and design operations.
Rebuilt intake, review and planning as one system, then followed work past launch.
A process inside the delivery rework: team leads scoped and locked work before it started.
Weekly measures that kept every layer informed, from team leads to the C-suite.
AI integration for design delivery, approved by Legal and IT security, reaching SDLC partners and marketing.
Gallup results turned into the department’s operations roadmap, alongside budget and growth planning.
A new-hire pipeline from schools, and a lane for projects no roadmap could fit.
A 30/60/90 system that assessed each hire’s skills and matched mentors by weekly capacity.
Three design systems consolidated into one, with a governed path for every change after.