Leadership

Formalizing Cross-Org Collaboration

This is the story of how I led an initiative to create cross-organizational, cross-functional teams, improving the alignment, speed, and impact of user experience improvements, reducing time-to-market and driving business value.

Key Takeaways

  • Introduced the UX-business-technology working model that improved collaboration and reduced time-to-market for user experience enhancements.

  • Established six cross-functional, self-directed teams that took ownership of UX improvements from ideation through delivery.

  • Shifted UX success metrics to focus on delivering validated capabilities to users, increasing both user and business impact.

Background

Tackling Slow UX Impact and Fragmented Collaboration

The user experience research team consistently delivered impactful insights that shaped long-term product requirements. However, due to a 3-5 year hardware architecture cycle, the user experience improvements we recommended would take years to materialize, leaving a gap between research findings and their impact on users.

Additionally, business stakeholders were not formally integrated into the process, and UX and platform teams often worked in isolation. This lack of cohesion meant that priorities were unclear, and downstream teams were not always aligned. Despite the best efforts of my team, user experience enhancements often became an afterthought, leading to misaligned goals and a heavy last minute lift for implementation.

It became clear to me and other leaders that without a structural and behavioral shift, the organization would continue to fall short of its potential to deliver superior user experiences.

Actions Taken

Building a Collaborative and Agile UX Framework

I saw an opportunity to transform how we approached UX delivery by driving stronger cross-functional collaboration and a unified decision-making framework.

Securing Leadership Buy-In

I rallied senior leaders from across the organization, creating alignment around a shared goal—improving UX delivery. Recognizing the need for action, I convinced them to participate in a critical face-to-face onsite workshop to break through these challenges.

Proposing a New Operating Model

I developed a proposal advocating for a business-technology-UX integration model, ensuring business stakeholders were embedded early in the decision-making process. This included clearly defined roles and responsibilities for business partners to prioritize UX improvements based on user insights, technical feasibility and business objectives.

I recommended the creation of six cross-functional, self-directed teams tasked with managing UX improvements end-to-end. Each team was responsible for identifying, prioritizing, developing, and testing user experience enhancements. This fostered continuous collaboration between upstream research and downstream implementation teams, reducing silos and accelerating development.

Facilitating Alignment with the 5Cs Approach

During the onsite, I facilitated discussions using the 5Cs of alignment framework (Clarify, Compliments, Concerns, Changes, Commitment) to ensure all voices were heard and alignment was achieved. This structured approach helped us move from problem identification to action-oriented solutions.

Results

Driving Tangible UX and Business Outcomes

The establishment of six cross-functional UX core teams resulted in several significant outcomes:

Accelerated Time-to-Market

By integrating business partners and breaking down silos between upstream and downstream teams, we reduced the time-to-market for key user experience improvements. Instead of relying solely on the hardware cycle, we identified and delivered critical enhancements through software updates, bringing improvements to users' hands faster than ever before.

Strategic Decision-Making

With a formalized UX management review process in place, we aligned UX enhancements with both business goals and technical feasibility. This ensured that all improvements were prioritized and validated based on their impact on users and business needs.

Permanent Change to Success Metrics

We shifted the organization's success metrics for UX from long-term platform requirements to validated capabilities delivered to users, making user impact the key measure of success.

Sustained Collaboration

The cross-functional teams established permanent ongoing collaboration across the organization, enabling quicker responses to evolving user needs.

This initiative not only addressed immediate pain points but also built a sustainable framework for future UX success. It demonstrated my ability to lead cross-functional teams, align stakeholders, and drive strategic change—all while delivering tangible improvements to user experience and business outcomes.