Bringing customer understanding into decisions earlier

Problem

UX was treated as a service rather than a partner in defining the problem. Teams often brought UX into projects after key decisions had been made, with short turnaround times that forced tradeoffs between quality and speed. There was little opportunity to explore customer needs together or question whether the proposed solution addressed the right problem.

Work then moved between disciplines through sequential handoffs, creating distance between the original customer need, the design, and what was ultimately built. Investment in features customers did not use made the business consequences visible. I brought this issue to our SVP, quantifying the development cost of building unused features without sufficient customer understanding.

Process

Invited to join a small cross-functional committee of Product, Engineering, and senior leadership, I represented UX in defining a working model for closer, faster collaboration across a 1,400-person organization. The challenge was to establish UX’s involvement where it could meaningfully improve decisions while helping teams deliver efficiently.

I advocated for UX to participate at the beginning, when teams were exploring and defining the problem. Equally important was keeping Product and UX closely connected to development so customer needs and design intent continued to guide implementation. The design-led approach I introduced centered on two principles: closer collaboration and a customer-first focus.

We piloted the model with the Data Center Product and Engineering teams. UX joined Product in problem-solving workshops, on-site interviews at data centers, and early exploration with PMs. Collaboration continued into development, where we reviewed emerging solutions together and iterated as needed. This gave us a practical way to connect the why behind the work to how it was being built.

To support adoption, I met with Product Management leadership to explain the approach and was subsequently asked to introduce it to their teams. Engagement with all 100 product managers helped translate the model into everyday practice, while meetings with Engineering leadership opened a dialogue about earlier involvement and a more continuous partnership.

My team and I created training videos introducing who we were, how to work with us, and what design-led collaboration meant for our partners. I also created a website with practical guidance, useful resources, and articles that teams could return to as they adopted the new approach. Together, these resources made UX’s role clearer and gave partners concrete ways to engage us throughout the work.

Solution

The working model established UX as a partner from intake and prioritization through delivery. It clarified responsibilities, brought disciplines together around customer understanding, and kept Product and UX involved as solutions took shape in development.

Making that partnership sustainable also required clearer expectations. I created a work intake process that explained when to engage UX, the level of support available, and the timing needed for that involvement. These boundaries helped partners plan for design instead of relying on urgent requests late in a project.

I introduced transparent reporting on cycle time, team capacity, active projects, and upcoming project work. Giving Product and Engineering visibility into both our commitments and availability created a shared basis for conversations about priorities, timing, and support.

Outcome

In the Data Center pilot, shared workshops, on-site customer research, and early collaboration with Product gave UX a role in shaping the problem before a solution was fixed. Closer engagement with Engineering allowed the team to review and refine what was being built, helping customer understanding and design intent carry through delivery.

The intake process set clearer expectations for UX involvement, while transparent reporting was well received by Product and Engineering. Partners could see what the team was working on, what was waiting, and how capacity affected timing—making collaboration easier to plan.

This work helped shift UX from an afterthought toward an ongoing partnership in product development. It also established principles that carried into our later AI transformation: understand the customer, bring disciplines together early, and maintain collaboration throughout delivery.