Vendor Management
Built productive working relationships with software vendors, coordinated support and service needs, evaluated capabilities, and represented the needs of internal users.
Case Study
Business Analysis and Design Operations
Building the Systems Behind a High-Performing UX Organization
Creating the operational foundation that helped a UX organization work effectively—from vendor and software management to onboarding, enablement, process improvement, and cross-functional relationships.
Overview
Great design teams need more than talented designers.
As our UX organization grew, so did the operational complexity behind it. Teams needed the right software, clear processes, effective onboarding, strong vendor relationships, useful training, and dependable support.
My work increasingly focused on the systems behind the work: understanding business needs, identifying gaps, coordinating stakeholders, improving processes, adopting emerging AI capabilities, and creating an environment where designers and researchers could be productive.
That required a combination of business analysis, operations, relationship management, and enablement.
The Challenge
A growing organization creates operational friction.
Tools multiplied
Designers and researchers depended on a growing ecosystem of specialized software, each with its own licensing, administration, vendor relationship, and support requirements.
Needs varied
Different roles and teams required different levels of access, capabilities, training, and support.
Processes needed structure
Onboarding, access requests, tool governance, vendor coordination, and other recurring activities needed repeatable, understandable processes.
Change required adoption
Introducing a new tool or process was not enough. People needed to understand why it mattered, how to use it, and where to get help.
My Approach
Start with the business need, not the tool.
I approached operational problems much the same way I approached product problems: understand the people involved, clarify the need, identify constraints, map the current process, and design a better way of working.
That meant working with designers, researchers, managers, procurement, IT, security, vendors, and other business partners to understand both the immediate request and the larger operational context.
In practice, I often acted as the connective tissue between the people doing the work and the systems, vendors, policies, and processes that supported them.
The goal was not simply to administer tools. It was to remove friction and help people do their best work.
What I Owned
Operations across the employee and technology lifecycle.
Software & Licensing
Managed software-tool access and licensing needs, helped align available capabilities with team requirements, and supported responsible use of the organization’s technology investment.
Onboarding
Helped new employees get productive faster by creating a more consistent path to the tools, information, relationships, and working practices they needed.
Training & Upskilling
Developed and coordinated learning opportunities that helped employees become more capable and confident with tools, practices, and evolving ways of working.
Relationship Building
Established trusted relationships across functions so that operational problems could be solved collaboratively rather than passed from team to team.
Business Analysis
Translated needs into requirements, examined workflows, identified gaps and dependencies, and helped turn loosely defined operational problems into practical solutions.
AI-Enabled Workflows
Built and used AI agents and AI-assisted workflows to accelerate analysis, synthesis, documentation, and repeatable operational tasks while keeping human judgment at the center.
A Repeatable Operating Model
From request to sustainable solution.
01
Understand
Clarify the need, users, constraints, and business context.
02
Analyze
Map the current process, dependencies, gaps, and stakeholders.
03
Coordinate
Bring together internal partners and vendors to shape a workable solution.
04
Enable
Provide access, documentation, onboarding, training, and support.
05
Improve
Learn from usage and feedback, then refine the process over time.
Why It Mattered
Operations became an enabler rather than an obstacle.
This work helped create a more consistent and dependable experience for the people inside the UX organization.
Employees could get access to the tools and information they needed, new team members had a clearer path into the organization, and teams had someone who could navigate vendor, process, technology, and stakeholder complexity on their behalf.
Just as importantly, the work created stronger connections between UX and the broader organization. Operational decisions became grounded in user needs while still accounting for business constraints, governance, cost, and scalability.
What This Demonstrates
Business analysis is ultimately about making organizations work better.
The common thread across this work was the ability to move between people, process, technology, and business needs.
I could listen to an employee struggling with a workflow, translate that issue into a business or technical requirement, work with the appropriate stakeholders or vendor, and then turn the solution into a repeatable process that other people could use.
That combination of analysis, relationship building, operations, and enablement is a strength I bring to roles well beyond traditional UX.