The Opportunity I Was Finally Ready For

Executive Summary

Building A Design Practice

Early in my career, I was the sole designer at a FinTech startup. While I learned an incredible amount, I quickly realized I lacked the experience needed to build a design organization. I could design products, but I didn’t yet know how to create the systems, processes, and influence required to scale design across a company.

Over the next several years, I intentionally sought experiences that would fill those gaps. At Walmart, Sam’s Club, and Toyota, I learned how mature organizations approached research, design systems, content strategy, product development, stakeholder management, and large-scale delivery.

Then I joined Enumerate.

During the interview process, I was told I would be the company’s first designer. Many people would have seen risk. I saw an opportunity.

For the first time in my career, I felt ready to build the design practice I wished I could have at my first startup. This case study is the story of how I transformed design from a non-existent function into a strategic business capability that influences product direction, executive decision-making, customer understanding, and company strategy.

The Challenge

Where Was Design?

When I joined, design wasn’t a function. It was an activity.

There was:
‍

• No design system
• No research practice
• No product analytics
• No personas
• No design governance
• No customer feedback process
• No standardized handoff process

In most cases, requirements moved directly from Product Managers to Engineering using screenshots with annotations. Honestly, the challenge wasn’t creating designs. It was creating a design practice from scratch.

The Beginning

Building The Foundation

Once trust began to form, I focused on creating the systems needed to scale.

The Shift

Shifting Design From Delivery to Direction

This is where the transformation became most visible. The questions changed. At the beginning of my time at Enumerate, conversations typically started with: Can you design this?

Over time, they evolved into: What should we build?

Design was no longer waiting for requirements. Design was helping define them. As trust grew, design became increasingly involved in strategic planning, executive discussions, and future-state product visioning. This led to opportunities to drive initiatives such as:

Numa AI

‍Creating Enumerate’s AI vision, product strategy, monetization model, and experience architecture.

Customer Advisory Board Strategy

Defining how customer feedback would influence product planning and prioritization.

Product Transformation Initiatives

Leading strategic work across Payments, Platform Consolidation, AI Strategies, Core Product Redesigns, and other major company initiatives.

Executive Partnership

Starting weekly strategic reviews with Product and Technology leadership and regularly presenting recommendations, future-state concepts, and organizational opportunities to the full Executive Leadership Team.

This evolution was not driven by title.

It was driven by trust.