I usually start by getting everyone aligned on what we’re solving and why before we jump to solutions.
Create shared understanding before teams push toward solutions.
Turn ambiguity into a direction teams can execute.
Translate intent into buildable work with engineering and partners.
Use outcomes to strengthen the system over time.
Some of the most useful leadership work in my career happened through influence rather than org-chart authority. I made the evidence and tradeoffs clear enough that Product, Engineering, vendors, and leaders could move together.
That usually means:
The goal is not agreement for its own sake. It is alignment that survives implementation.
Example: A 100+ product audit at Hy-Vee showed variation cases the existing ProdX model did not yet support. I used those edge cases to align internal teams with the vendor, and ProdX added two API attributes the new variation model required.
At ACT, the leadership opportunity was bigger than adding headcount. UX needed enough capability, structure, and autonomy to support a broad enterprise portfolio while sharing critical knowledge across the team.
I stayed hands-on while doing this, leading cross-product strategy across 37+ systems and 5+ product lines. The goal was to make the function more capable while keeping the quality bar high.
At Grey Dog, the constraint was different: a small agency had to deliver consistent UX across multiple clients without scaling headcount every time complexity increased.
