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TLDR: As the first Design Operations Lead at Taco Bell, I’ve focused on building the foundational systems, rituals, and tooling that empower a 12-person UX team to work at scale. From launching the company’s first design system to creating intake workflows and bringing UX research in-house, I’ve focused on building clarity, reducing friction, and making design a true partner to product and engineering.

This case study is presented as a series of snippets rather than a single narrative. Since the work is still in progress, this format reflects the evolving nature of the role and highlights impact as it happens, capturing momentum without waiting for a polished “final story.”

👷🏻‍♂️ Built the Foundation of DesignOps

When I joined, the UX team had no intake process, no central tooling model, and no shared rituals. I stood up the team’s first design operations practice, introducing clarity, structure, and sustainable collaboration across the org.

👨🏼‍💻 Created Our First-Ever Design System

Partnered with product, engineering, and visual design to direct the creation of Taco Bell’s first internal design system, enabling consistent, scalable design across app and web platforms. The system supports both native and responsive experiences and continues to grow.

🔄 Created Intake & Planning Infrastructure

Developed a centralized intake system using Jira and Confluence to manage cross-functional requests, align priorities, and forecast team capacity. This significantly reduced chaos and improved the team’s ability to focus and deliver.

💰 Managed $4.5M CapEx Budget & Resources

Oversaw tooling, licensing, vendors, and contractor resourcing for the full UX org. Balanced operational efficiency with strategic investments, including onboarding Figma Enterprise and Dovetail to modernize tooling and collaboration.

🧐 Brought UX Research In-House

Sourced and onboarded Taco Bell’s first dedicated UX research team, introducing team rituals, research ops practices, and tooling support that now enable faster, more reliable user insights across the org.

🌎 Supported Remote Culture & Growth

Introduced monthly retrospectives, reduced unnecessary meetings, and launched a remote-first culture committee to keep the team connected, supported, and high-functioning as the team scaled.

📈 In Progress

  • Expanding design system governance and adoption
  • Creating OKR alignment for UX in collaboration with product leadership
  • Standing up support models for cross-brand collaboration (Yum! Brands ecosystem)
  • Broadening the team's core skillset yet again, this time by hiring dedicated resources for UX Writing and Content Strategy