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As Head of Product Design at Watermark, I led the transformation of a fragmented, execution-focused design function into a strategically aligned and high-impact organization. Over five years, I drove experience alignment and design maturity across the Watermark suite—six distinct products—shaping them into a more unified and holistic offering. Along the way, I evolved our cross-functional practices and built the team structure, rituals, and talent development pathways necessary to support sustained growth and agility.
Watermark had recently undergone a series of acquisitions and was shifting its growth strategy toward cross-selling solutions across its expanding product portfolio. This required presenting a more cohesive, seamless experience to customers—many of whom were now engaging with multiple products for the first time.
However, the suite consisted of six distinct tools—some built in-house, others acquired—each with its own user flows, design systems, and delivery practices. There was no shared design strategy, and the user experience varied significantly across the suite, making cross-product adoption harder than it needed to be.
Internally, product designers operated as individual contributors embedded within separate delivery teams. This model lacked cohesion, reduced opportunities for peer collaboration, and led to duplicated efforts and inconsistent quality across products.
Concurrently, the organization was adopting SAFe, introducing new expectations around planning cadence, team synchronization, and delivery efficiency. Design was underrepresented in early discovery, limiting its impact on product strategy and reducing its ability to shape meaningful, user-centered outcomes.
The design team also lacked foundational infrastructure: there were no clear growth paths, leveling criteria, or pipelines for junior talent—making it difficult to scale sustainably or foster a diverse and resilient team.
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The first thing I initiated, was transitioned the design organization from a solo-embedded designer model to a scalable embedded team structure organized around product domains. This new model fostered better peer collaboration, clearer product alignment, and greater flexibility to pivot resources in response to shifting priorities. As a result, the team saw improved efficiency, faster time-to-delivery, stronger retention, and you better believe it--better design consistency across products.
Leading the strategic integration of six products into a cohesive, multi-product suite was not done alone, the design system was a key part of that journey. In addtion, designers helped byaligning user journeys, feeding needs and support into the design system patterns, were key outcomes. Teams created north-star experience visions that prioritized a moreconsistent design language across all products, regardless of whether they were acquired or developed in-house. To ensure unified delivery, shared design principles and cross-team sharing rituals were established bi-weekly to support fast development and pivots.
To complement the organization’s SAFe rollout, I spearheaded the introduction of structured discovery processes. I brought in framing methods and collaborative workshops—such as opportunity solution trees and problem framing—to increase intake quality and clarity. By embedding designers earlier in the process, I improved collaboration within the product trio and elevated design’s strategic influence on product direction.o complement the organization’s SAFe rollout, I spearheaded the introduction of structured discovery processes. I brought in framing methods and collaborative workshops—such as opportunity solution trees and problem framing—to increase intake quality and clarity. By embedding designers earlier in the process, I improved collaboration within the product trio and elevated design’s strategic influence on product direction.
instituted quarterly cross-functional design reviews that showcased key design initiatives to executives, product managers, and engineering leaders. These reviews increased transparency, built trust, and created alignment across multiple product teams. This ritual also accelerated buy-in on experiments and supported longer-term investments in user experience improvements.
To support sustainable growth, I developed skills rubrics that clarified leveling, career growth, and performance expectations. I also launched a junior designer program that provided structured onboarding, mentorship, and rotation opportunities. This framework enabled the team to scale effectively while increasing diversity in background and experience among new hires.
How I created a hands-on research hub, connecting designers with real users to inform product direction.
In 2017, I began teaching budding user experience designers as a full-time instructor for General Assembly's immersive courses in Austin, Texas.
