Real Outcomes — the receipts behind the operating model.
Seven shipped outcomes from operating-leadership roles. The frameworks in cases 01–04 are what produced these numbers, not the other way around.
- Org
- Walmart · NWM · Teladoc
- Role
- DesignOps leadership
- Year
- 2019 — 2025
- Discipline
- Shipped impact
A portfolio of frameworks is only as good as the impact it has
The previous four cases are operating ideas — the canvas, the AI rails, the knowledge platform, the journey artifact. This one is the track record underneath them: programs built, teams stood up, attrition broken, vendor models governed, and customer-validated narratives that moved roadmaps.
Each item below is drawn directly from the Selected Impact section of my resume. The role and the org are named; the mechanism is described in one sentence; the rest is consequence.
- 01 · Zero to production GenAIWalmart Global Design0 → 1
First-of-its-kind AI Agentic Orchestrator, shipped at enterprise scale
Led UX and design language governance for Squiggly, Walmart's internal GenAI platform — taking it from zero to production and delivering an AI design system adopted across the enterprise.
- 02 · DPM practice built from scratchNorthwestern Mutual0 → 10
A Design Program Management function, in 12 months.
Built a Design Program Management practice from the ground up; hired and managed 10 DPMs supporting a 150-person design organization in under a year.
- 03 · Attrition, two orgsNorthwestern Mutual & Teladoc Health50% → <10%
Stopped the bleed twice — by fixing the system, not the symptoms.
Cut designer attrition from over 50 percent to under 10 percent across two organizations by rewriting career ladders, instituting behavioral interviewing, and diversifying recruiting panels.
- 04 · Managed-services governanceTeladoc Health48
Vendor design, inside a SAFe operating model.
Integrated 48 onshore and offshore vendor designers into a SAFe product operating model — the intake, quality, and capacity mechanisms that kept managed-services delivery aligned to product strategy.
- 05 · Design System teamNorthwestern Mutual3×
Tripled the team, then handed it off to a Director.
Secured the budget to triple the Design System function, recruited and onboarded a new Director to own it, and established tooling governance across Figma, Jira, Confluence, and the underlying infrastructure.
- 06 · Pulse Survey scoreNorthwestern Mutual2×
Doubled engagement through team research and workshops.
Doubled the design org's Pulse Survey engagement score through team research, org-wide workshops, and changes to how leadership listened and responded.
- 07 · Customer-validated narrativeRACKSPACE20 / 20
A working-backwards prototype that landed on first showing.
A working-backwards narrative prototype validated by a 20-customer Advisory Council on its first showing — triggering immediate roadmap changes and an onboarding overhaul.
Mechanisms, not heroics.
The common thread across all seven: each outcome is the product of a mechanism — an intake framework, a governance model, a career ladder, a hiring rubric, a narrative prototype — not a one-off push. Mechanisms survive reorgs and leadership change. That is the leverage operating leadership exists to create.
How this maps to leadership principles.
- Deliver Results: every item on this page is a shipped, measurable outcome — not a deck, not a pilot.
- Ownership: zero-to-one builds (GenAI design system, DPM practice, managed-services governance) made in environments without an existing playbook.
- Hire and Develop the Best: attrition cut from 50%+ to under 10% across two orgs is a recruiting, leveling, and management outcome — not a perks outcome.
- Earn Trust: a 20-customer Advisory Council validating a narrative on first showing is what trust looks like when the writing does the work.
- Insist on the Highest Standards: tripling the Design System team and handing it to a Director is what raising the bar looks like in practice.