I lead teams that build a deep connection to both users and the business, and deliver work that drives impact.
I am a hands-on leader, which allows me to provide actionable, practical coaching and ensure high quality experiences down to the details.
01 Leadership Approach
There's a process each member of my design team follows to solve a problem for the business. First developing a deep understanding of their core business metrics and what's driving them including any key user or business context, aligning on the high impact problem to solve next, developing a vision and initial solution, and following up on learnings with further iteration.
As the Head of Product Design & UX Research, I check in on each of these steps to ensure the project is on track. But I often play a larger role in the strategic alignment on what problem to solve and why, as well as later on in finalizing a solution by critiquing and refining designs.
02 Design Principles
Designers on my team are expected to be deeply connected to the core business and user needs, question if we're solving the right problem, and utilize their creativity to deliver impact beyond a Figma mock.
I also believe in a highly collaborative design practice, with all Designers embedded in their cross-functional teams, pairing with PM & DS on strategy and vision, Eng on problem solving and execution, and PMM and Marketing on brand and UX cohesion.
03 Design Review Process
I've too often seen project teams and Designers lose themselves in the complexity of a project, focused on designing for constraints and edge cases, leading to fractured and unintuitive experiences. That is why, beyond a regular and inclusive design critique, I make time to do deeper design reviews on key initiatives.
In these meetings Designers wallk me through their thinking in more detail, and I probe as someone who has the strategy context but who is not overly constrained by the details. From there, I help designers see their decision-making through a more objective lens and better take on a new user POV to radically simplify and streamline the design solution.
I'd be happy to walk through my leadership playbook in more detail once we connect, feel free to reach out on Linkedin.
© Olivia Anderson 2025