How I lead
I don’t manage designers. I build design organizations that drive business outcomes.
Over the past decade, I’ve led product design across media platforms, fintech marketplaces, and global content ecosystems - from a 90-million-user social entertainment platform shipping in 25 languages to a dual-sided mortgage marketplace that facilitated $1.5 billion in funding. In every role, the mandate has been the same: build the team, set the strategy, and make design the reason the business hits its numbers.
What follows isn’t a philosophy. It’s how I actually operate - with proof.
I Build Organizations That Match the Business Phase
Org charts are strategy documents. The way your design team is structured tells you what the company actually values. When the business shifts, the org has to shift with it — or it becomes a bottleneck.
At Wattpad, the business shifted three times in three years. Each phase demanded a fundamentally different design organization:
2023 - IPO Readiness: The company needed brand consistency and operational control. I consolidated the team into a centralized service model, standardizing output across all product surfaces for investor scrutiny.
2024–2025 - Funnel Overhaul: The priority shifted to growth. I restructured into product-aligned pods, giving each pod deep ownership of their funnel stage (Home, Browse, Story Details). This is the structure that delivered the 30% engagement lift.
2026 - Shipping Velocity: Engineering integration became the priority. I designed the move to engineering-integrated squads, embedding designers as core partners in the development cycle to maximize speed and cross-functional confidence.
I didn’t reorganize because “I like org design”. I reorganized because the business required it, and the team needed to be structured for what was coming next - not what had already shipped.
The proof: 71% team retention through three restructures. 24% increase in design velocity. And a global collaboration model (Toronto ↔ Seoul) that became the blueprint for the company’s international product development.
I Make Design the Growth Lever, Not the Support Function
In most organizations, design is consulted after the strategy is set. I operate differently. I identify the business problem first, then build the design strategy that solves it.
Wattpad’s trust deficit: Analytics showed a critically low homepage conversion rate. The standard response would have been a UI refresh. Instead, I commissioned a diary study that revealed users perceived homepage content as sponsored advertising. The real problem wasn’t the layout — it was trust. I pivoted the strategy from manual curation to algorithm-first personalization, which required bringing Data Science into the design pod from day one. The result: 30% engagement lift on web, 40%+ on native apps, and a direct increase in Total Reading Time — Wattpad’s primary revenue metric.
The Globe and Mail’s growth plateau: Digital subscriptions had stalled. I identified that personal finance content was driving significant organic traffic, with no dedicated product experience or conversion path. I built the design vision and business case for a net-new vertical, presented it to the Board of Directors, and took it from concept to launch. It became a top-five driver of subscription.
Ratehub’s conversion bottleneck: The mortgage marketplace was generating volume but leaving money on the table. The consumer experience was adequate; the agent experience was an afterthought. I redesigned both sides of the marketplace end-to-end, treating it as one ecosystem. The result: 50% YoY increase in rate inquiries, contributing to $1.5B in mortgage funding.
I Lead Across Functions, Not Just Within Design
Design leaders who only talk about design are telling me they operate in a silo. The job at the Director+ level is to shape product strategy alongside your peers in Product, Engineering, and Data - and to influence executives who don’t speak design.
Here’s what that looks like in practice:
Board-level influence: At The Globe and Mail, I developed the strategy and design vision for a new product vertical and presented it to the Board of Directors for approval. This wasn’t a design review - it was a business investment decision, and I was the one making the case.
Engineering partnership: At Wattpad, I brought Engineering and Data Science into the core design pod from day one of the homepage redesign. We didn’t just design the layout - we co-designed the algorithm logic behind story ranking. The 30% engagement lift was a joint outcome, not a design deliverable handed over a fence.
Global creative leadership: I managed the relationship between two design studios (Toronto and Seoul) with a 13–14-hour timezone gap and language barriers. I re-engineered the collaboration model to leverage each team’s strengths: Seoul owned UI innovation and visual freshness; Toronto owned UX strategy, user research, and design system integrity. The result was a “follow-the-sun” design cycle that reduced design-to-dev friction by 25%.
I Build Careers, Not Just Teams
Transformation only works if the team is healthy. I invest in my people — not as a management philosophy, but because teams that trust their leadership better, stay longer, and solve harder problems.
Rather than tell you how I lead people, I’ll let them tell you:
“Ning builds design organizations that scale — through strong standards, thoughtful leadership, and a culture of collaboration. Any organization would benefit from her ability to shape both product direction and design maturity.” — Arighna M., Engineering Manager
“She was the type of boss to allow for questions, but never gave you the answer. She would help you where needed and encouraged you to go out and try things on your own.” — Chrissy, Senior Product Designer
“Ning is very aware of exactly who needs an arm around the shoulder and who needs to be given a push. Her team all loved working under her for this reason, and it showed in the quality of work.” — Jamie, Product Manager
The numbers: 71% team retention over three years of org restructuring. 3,000+ minutes of external mentorship across 10 countries on ADPList. Designers I’ve coached have gone on to lead teams of their own.
I Scale Quality Through Systems, Not Reviews
At a certain team size, you can’t maintain quality through design reviews. You need systems that make the right decision the easy decision.
At Wattpad, I implemented a shared component library and standardized design system that increased design velocity by 24%. I integrated accessibility audits into core design sprints, eliminating a backlog that had accumulated over three years. At The Globe and Mail, I built the “Caracal” design system from scratch, unifying UX across all content and subscription platforms.
My approach: establish clear design principles and governance frameworks that give teams high autonomy without sacrificing consistency. Move the team’s focus from pixel-polishing to strategic thinking.
What I’m Looking For Next
I’m looking for a Director or Senior Director role at a company where design is a strategic function — not a service desk. Ideally, a mid-to-large organization with a product-led culture, cross-functional partnership between Design, Product, and Engineering, and an AI-forward direction.
I thrive in complexity: global platforms, multi-stakeholder ecosystems, dual-sided marketplaces. I’m at my best when the business is scaling, and the design org needs to scale with it.
If that sounds like your team, let’s talk.