A pipeline for new designers, recruited nationally and tested on product ideas that never reached a roadmap.
The department was growing and had no pipeline for entry-level designers. Few local applicants met the bar for an entry-level UX and UI role.
Recruiting was limited to a local zone. Hiring beyond it, with relocation, needed special approval.
8 of 11 interns were hired full-time, all rated high performers, and product received roadmaps for ideas it had not been able to prioritize.
Executive leadership encouraged the department to use internships to build a pipeline for new talent, and the program was approved as part of the department's growth plan before its shape was set. I built it with the company's internship recruiting team. Two recruiters went to college recruiting events, reached out to candidates on LinkedIn, and reviewed applicants who found the posting on job boards.
Local programs focused on graphic design, or on computer science with more development than UX and UI design. Applicants from both were considered, and few met the needs of an entry-level role. I took the case to leadership with examples: local applicants who would not meet the bar, and portfolios the recruiters found at schools outside the zone that matched those of some full-time candidates.
The department hired only a few positions, so relocating an intern after a full summer of working together was a justifiable cost next to a full-time hire. The approval came through, and interns came from across the country.
Regions shown, not individual schools or states.
Two months before each cycle, I opened a submission period for projects. The requirements were specific: a backlog item that was not being prioritized, needed a lot of concept work, and met a known need whose return was still unclear. These were the ideas product management wanted to explore but could not justify as features yet.
Projects were chosen to give product a delivery roadmap, and to be broad enough to evaluate each intern across the skills a designer on the team needed. By then the interns were already selected, so each project could be matched to what they had shown in interviews.
Product teams submit backlog ideas they cannot prioritize.
Each idea is scoped with its deliverables, then ranked with leadership.
Projects are aligned to the skills each intern showed in interviews.
Interns deliver a roadmap for product and are evaluated across the full skill set.
I set the calendar and pacing for every intern team, and served as their team lead and mentor, at times leading two teams of four at once. I reviewed all of their work and made or guided the UX and UI decisions. The evaluation used the same skills matrix and checkpoints as the department's onboarding, so each full-time offer came with a clear picture of the intern's skills and the team they fit best.
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.