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Alexa Comms Design Management

In 2022, I took over management of the Alexa Communications design team during a major organizational transition. When our manager left, I chose to stay with Communications and move into a new org, taking on management at the VP’s request. I led a team of four UX designers (1 Sr., 3 Jr.), which merged with Social, Kitchen, and Home Productivity under a Sr. Manager. My focus was guiding design strategy, mentoring, and stabilizing the team through change.

My Role

  • Design Management

Team

  • 1 Sr UX Designer

  • 3 Jr UX Designers

Stakeholders

  • Director of Alexa Communications

  • Sr Design Manager, Alexa Connections & Essentials

  • Alexa Communications Product Managers

  • Alexa Communications Engineering Managers

  • VP of Alexa Connections and Essentials

Goals

Influence product direction

Retain and grow design talent

Close resourcing and documentation gaps

Challenges

  • Loss of visual design, research, and program management support

  • Broad scope (Calling, Drop In, Messaging, Announcements, Connections, Comms as Enabler, Auto)

  • Imbalanced team composition (3 Jr. designers, 1 Sr.)

  • Tool migration (Sketch → Figma) 

  • Out of date and incomplete documentation

  • Leadership attrition, layoffs, and shifting roadmaps

Mechanisms

  • Facilitated weekly design crits and established Project tracker with 'attention' flag for priorities

  • Attended Comms Leadership planning sessions and completed quarterly resource planning for design

  • Set up dedicated “Documentation Days” and blocked the team's calendars to focus on updating our wiki, experience overview decks and specs 

  • Secured research office hours to help with usability studies in lieu of full research support

  • Appointed a VXD bar raiser to elevate visual craft across the team​

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Quarterly
Planning Doc

Project tracker. Each week I'd assign labels and projects with 'Attention' or 'Monitor' got more attention from me that week.

New Comms Wiki. Included Experience overview decks and specs

Key Projects

Announcements Mobile Compose

I initiated a design-led effort to scale the Announcements mobile compose for the three-year roadmap without adding friction. After several rounds of iteration, cross-functional critiques with Product, and usability testing, the designer converged on a blended model: top-level menus expose all new feature types for clear discoverability, while contextual suggested add-ons allow fast access.

My Impact:

  • Authored design brief and set high-level requirements

  • Pushed designer toward more divergent iterations

  • Built strong partnership with the Announcements PM to secure roadmap review time

  • Ensured design-led work was included in leadership reviews leading to the project being approved and shipped​

Drop In Settings Improvements

A viral customer complaint highlighted confusion around scattered Drop In permissions, creating privacy and trust concerns. The designer explored multiple ways to organize the aggregated settings and landed on a hybrid approach after completing usability testing. This approach leveraged clear, easy to understand language; separating household from contact Drop in permissions but keeping devices as a separate section.  

​

My Impact:

  • Joined Sev-2 retro with product, legal, and customer service to understand root issues

  • Reprioritized work and assigned designer immediately to support the initiative 

  • Secured access to research office hours to validate usability testing plan and results

Comms on Echo Spot

The updated form factor for the new Echo Spot required the design team to identify which Alexa Communications experiences required screens on Echo Spot and design appropriate interactions. The designer delivered screens that snapped to platform patterns and supported all critical states, with custom iconography to add delight.

 

My Impact:

  • Matched this project with a designer who needed experience influencing across teams

  • Encouraged designer to go beyond functional screens and explore moments of delight

  • Audited all Alexa Comms states and screens to identify which ones would be represented on Echo Spot

  • Stepped in to resource and prioritize final spec delivery after working model change under tight code-freeze deadlines

Designs

Alexa Calling on Echo Show 15/21

A designer on my team redesigned calling templates for larger screens.

Results

  • Promoted all 3 Jr. designers to mid-level within a year

  • Retained talent during layoffs and organizational churn

  • Team contributed to over 20 launches

  • Influenced roadmap through design-led project (Announcements Mobile Compose)

  • Positive customer reviews of Echo Spot (4.6/5 stars)

  • Comms was the fastest growing Alexa domain for DAA (Daily Active Accounts) in 2023

Influence

Shipped design-led initiatives

Grow talent

Promoted 3 team members

Close gaps

Documentation updated

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