Building the Operating System for Design & Research
Creating the operating system that allowed Design and Research to contribute strategically and consistently.
Seesaw
Director of User Experience Research & Design
2023 – 2026
Reduced research time by 50% · Earlier UX involvement · Stronger cross-product consistency
The Opportunity
Design and Research had expanded rapidly but lacked consistent operating systems. Designers worked within isolated product areas. Research was slow and manual. Cross-functional expectations varied, and Product frequently defined projects before UX could contribute to problem framing.
The team supported a broad ecosystem across mobile, tablet, and desktop for students, teachers, families, and administrators. The operating model directly affected the coherence, speed, and quality of the product
My Leadership Priorities
Assess and grow the team’s skills and structure.
Align research and design around a shared framework and roadmap.
Create clear visibility, collaboration, and quality expectations.
Strengthen research operations, tooling, and efficiency.
Build a flexible operating model responsive to business priorities and individual growth.
Skills Assessments & Growth Paths
I evaluated skills and growth opportunities across craft, strategy, collaboration, and leadership. I paired structured self-assessment with my own evaluation, cross-functional feedback, and ongoing coaching.
Working with HR, I created a career framework spanning six individual-contributor roles and three management levels. It clarified role expectations as well as growth opportunities, and later became a template used by other departments.
Moving UX Upstream
Product managers often defined projects before designers became involved, and collaboration was inconsistent across teams. I established a more proactive planning rhythm, so Design and Research could see priorities earlier and contribute while the opportunity was still being defined, helping to shape direction.
This improved problem framing, surfaced cross-product implications, and allowed staffing to flex based on opportunity, required skills, and development needs.
I also ensured visibility of the UX roadmap with active and upcoming work, enabling cross-team awareness of project investments, surfacing conflicts earlier in the process, and creating a smoother collaboration funnel.
Shared Ownership & Quality
To improve team alignment, reduce redundancy, and improve product consistency and outcomes, I established the following cadences and routines.
Weekly critiques created a consistent space for feedback, visibility, and stronger decisions.
Team syncs surfaced active work, blockers, overlaps, and learning moments.
A shared design process clarified expectations from discovery through go-to-market.
A Design System Lead created clearer ownership of consistency, patterns, and accessibility
Research Speed & Outcomes
I secured approval and funding for more scalable recruiting, incentives, transcription, tagging, repositories, and unmoderated testing. I oversaw implementation and onboarding of these new systems with the research team.
These changes cut research time in half and made lightweight validation more accessible. They provided company-wide access to user insights and built momentum for a culture of continuous learning and faster feedback.
I created templates and frameworks for our research process to streamline reporting and insights sharing for better align with stakeholder and business goals while reducing cycle time and expanding our methods bench.
Leadership isn’t about being the person who has every answer. It is about creating a space that supports ownership, clarity, trust, capability, and quality expectations. I enable my team to grow their impact while making stronger decisions.
My UX background lets me recognize gaps, ask sharper questions, review work with depth, and coach teams toward stronger outcomes. My responsibility is to elevate the team’s work, provide a safe space for growth, and through that, improve business outcomes.
Leadership Approach
“She creates an environment where all team members feel supported and can grow their skills. […] Lauren is a rare combination of empathy, craft, analytics, and strategy. Any team would be incredibly lucky to work with her, and I would jump at the chance to do so again.
Bronwen Marshall-Bass
Lead Product Designer
Recommendations from Team Members
“[…] I saw her transform the UX team from a team with too many design tools, a few processes, and little collaboration, to a fully integrated team that works together with a standardized set of tools. Her work transformed our team and product in a positive way based on the user needs! She is still my mentor and I look up to her in regards to her talent as a leader and designer.
Christian Rossi
Staff Product Designer at Seesaw Learning