I was hired to reinvent the product design for Cloud Security, a startup within CrowdStrike.
User Experience had been an afterthought up until then. My experience with Enterprise design and Cybersecurity was needed to build a new design that makes the product feel nimble and easy to use while packing a lot of capabilities.
In the first 6 months, I spent majority of effort between recruiting, training, and being involved in UX tasks for design deliverables.
Over the next year and half I focussed on the following tasks that would enable the UX team to be successful in delivering a great product design and achieve a tight collaboration with all the functions so that we win as a company. My team and I received praise and bonus from leadership for our work in transforming the product design in a short span.
Built a strong team
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Hired a team of 10, spanning designers, researcher and a UX writer
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Mix of super powers data viz , problem solving, system design, etc
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Established a model where each designer is an SME on one area of the product and support on another
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Achieved a collaboration where senior designers mentor other designers on design and execution
Led the creation of our design vision
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Participated in creation of product strategy and crafted a design vision that aligned with the strategic outcomes
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Led the design of the North Star, comprised of differentiated ideas and usability improvements. Presented the prototypes to executives and sales
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Planned with PM and Eng to implement parts of the North Star over several quarters
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Led the initial phase of the building of the new CrowdStrike-wide design system
Processes to improve design and development
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Facilitated collaboration with PMs in concept stage
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Established UX as the owner of design and a design process beginning with determining the user persona and their jobs
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Enabled bandwidth and resources for customer research
Ops to increase design velocity
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Established the management of UX tasks and estimation in Jira
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Standardized Figma file organization, cover sheet, prototype sharing, etc
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Detailed new hire onboarding and pair design
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Cross-functional planning, enabling design to be a quarter ahead
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Established collection, analysis and reporting of usage metrics
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UX writer support and tighter collaboration with technical docs
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Expand UX team's influence
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Share research insights and usage metrics with product team to show problem areas
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Successfully influence leadership to prioritize major UX improvements in the roadmap
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Influence the sales demo style to include figma prototypes to showcase future experience
Nurture a culture of growth and support
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Facilitated team fun and learning events
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Encouraged everyone on the team to be a leader and supported their initiatives
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Ensured everyone's ideas and concerns are addressed
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Coached designers and supported them so that they could be successful and grow their skills