Building teams and systems that deliver measurable impact.
Product design leader building design practices that drive business outcomes. Growing teams that embrace AI, research, and strategic thinking.
Selected Work
Four case studies showing strategic leadership, systems thinking, cross-functional collaboration, and organizational design.
Dashboard Transformation
Turning #1 Sales Objection Into a Competitive Advantage
Our dashboard was costing us deals. We led with research instead of a visual refresh, restructured around how people actually work, and flipped UI/UX from our biggest sales objection into a reason prospects chose us. Win rate climbed from 26% to 64%.
From Silos to Partnership
Creating the PM + PD Discovery Framework
Designers and product managers didn't know how to partner on discovery. We co-created swimlanes that made ownership clear at every phase. And discovery output rose 124% as research became a shared practice instead of an afterthought.
Creating Shared Language
The Good-Better-Best Framework
Design work was treated as all-or-nothing, so teams cut scope reactively and never came back to improve it. Good, Better, Best gave everyone shared language for scoping solutions.
Design Thinking at Scale
From Bottleneck to Self-Sufficient Teams
Demand for workshops outpaced our capacity to run them. Instead of hiring more designers, we taught the others in the product org to facilitate. We scaled from 3 facilitators to 18+ and making every portfolio self-sufficient.
Additional Work
Beyond featured case studies, here are highlights from other initiatives demonstrating operational excellence and capability building.
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Led a structured pilot evaluating Microsoft Co-Pilot, pairing a time allocation study with a business case. Moved from hypothesis to deployment decision in two quarters. Investment approved, full team adoption, and repetitive research work down about a third.
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Migrated the entire product design org from Sketch to Figma with zero disruption to delivery. Rolled out Miro to 2,800+ users, where 82% reported better productivity. Secured ZeroHeight to document the design system, cutting significant time from the team's week.
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Created the product experience vision and UX/UI principles, along with a cross-functional Experience Governance team spanning Design, Product, Orchestration, and Engineering. Presented org-wide and folded into fiscal year planning.
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Promoted team members into Manager, Senior Manager, and Principal roles in a single fiscal year while hiring new designers and growing the team. Built time allocation frameworks for individual contributors and managers so people could protect their focus.
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Led the relaunch of the companion app for Oral-B's full line of Bluetooth-connected toothbrushes, working across U.S. and Germany teams. Established design operations for Oral-B Digital, brought in Figma, and introduced dual-track design so we could ship predictably against hardware dates that don't move. Shipped on time, and the App Store rating climbed from 4.2 to 4.7.
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Designed an AI-powered skin analysis tool that gave Olay first-party customer data for the first time. Delivered better UX and an elevated brand experience six months ahead of agency expectations, then scaled it across international markets with global brand teams.
How I Lead
The principles that shape how I build teams, make decisions, and drive impact.
Systems Thinking
The best work I've done isn't designing interfaces — it's designing organizational systems. Frameworks that scale. Processes that enable. Structures that let great work happen without me in every decision.
Cross-Functional Partnership
Design's impact multiplies through collaboration. I've built structured partnerships with Product Management, created shared frameworks with Agile leaders, and elevated design's voice in strategic conversations.
Giving Away Your Legos
I teach others to own the work while I focus on what's next. My greatest satisfaction comes from watching leaders I've coached succeed long after I've moved to new challenges.
The best design leaders become unnecessary to the day-to-day because they've built systems that work without them.
People Over Process
Led teams through acquisition with zero attrition. Promoted multiple people while building culture where "beautiful failures" are learning opportunities.
When people feel supported, great work happens. Our team earned four 2024 HR Tech Awards for "highest adoption rates ever seen" and "clean, intuitive" experiences.
About Ryan
I build teams where designers feel safe to fail, establish processes that deliver under pressure, and create connections that survive organizational change. Twenty years of doing this work across B2B software, consumer products, and connected devices. Beyond the case studies, I write about what I've learned along the way.