As the design function evolved from external support to an internal team, and following company acquisition and team expansion, role clarity and alignment became critical.
Different working models coexisted, ownership boundaries were blurred, and the growing design team required structure to scale effectively.

My contribution as Lead UX & Product Designer

At ZF, I acted as a bridge between startup agility and enterprise-level requirements, supporting the evolution of the design function during a period of organizational growth, team expansion, and product transformation.

In close partnership with the Head of Design and cross-functional stakeholders across Product, Engineering, and Business, I translated strategic objectives into scalable user experiences while progressively structuring the design organization itself.

Structuring Roles & Governance

As the design team transitioned from external support to a more internalized and expanding structure, including new hires and post-acquisition alignment, role clarity became critical.

Together with the Head of Design, we:

• Clarified responsibilities across designers

• Defined collaboration models between Product, Design, and Engineering

• Reduced role ambiguity across teams

This created stronger alignment and reduced delivery friction.

Building a Scalable Product Design Process

To support the technical migration and increasing product complexity within the People Mobility business line, I structured a clearer end-to-end workflow:

• Formalized discovery practices through structured templates, you can find in Figma Community my Job to be done mapping Figjam, and UX Decision matrix

• Introduced persona and archetype frameworks

• Facilitated dedicated migration workshops

• Standardized cross-functional rituals

• Improved handover clarity and decision transparency

This increased delivery predictability and strengthened cross-team collaboration.

I share more about this approach in my article:
How to streamline the design process 📖