Consuelo Ruybal

CONSUELO RUYBAL
PRODUCT DESIGN TRAILBLAZER & VISIONARY LEADER

With over two decades of expertise in creative problem-solving, I am dedicated to driving impactful results. As an accomplished leader, I have successfully guided high-performing design teams and redefined how organizations and their clients approach complex design challenges. Leveraging a data-driven approach, I specialize in identifying the most critical problems to address and establishing clear metrics to evaluate success. As an operational designer, I streamline team workflows and empower individuals to enhance their processes with AI tools, fostering innovation and efficiency.

 Case Study: Building Product Design Practices and Operations at JOOR

I have built Product Design practices from the ground up three times throughout my career: at DIGITAS (1999-2010), Kaplan Thaler Group (2010-2013), and JOOR, Inc. (2019-2024). While each organization had unique challenges and levels of resistance to change, they shared a common set of systemic problems:

Problem Set

  • Lack of a formal, documented design process.

  • Inefficient workflows with unnecessary iterations.

  • No standardized design documentation or templates.

  • Absence of a shared design system.

  • Overemphasis on high-fidelity deliverables too early in the design cycle.

  • Inconsistent or absent user research for discovery, validation, or usability testing.

  • Poor cross-team collaboration.

  • Undefined project scopes and problem statements.

  • Insufficient focus on solving the right problems.

At DIGITAS and JOOR, these gaps often led to low morale among the design team and frustration among stakeholders. Design teams, lacking proper tools or guidance, bore the responsibility for delivering on poorly defined requests—often reduced to “making it look pretty.”

Establishing a Design Practice at JOOR

Building a healthy design practice requires two critical elements:

  1. An organization’s willingness to adapt and change.

  2. A leader’s ability to build credibility with senior stakeholders.

At JOOR, resistance to change required a strategic, incremental approach. I began with small, tactical experiments—gathering customer feedback through “guerilla” methods and collaborating with key product managers to pilot process improvements. Over time, I established a robust DesignOps capability that became the backbone of the team’s success.

Building JOOR’s DesignOps Capability

1. Design Thinking Integration

I introduced and implemented a design thinking framework—research, design, and user testing—where none previously existed.

2. DesignOps Infrastructure

  • Documented Workflows: Developed structured processes for discovery, strategy, and design, ensuring teams approached projects with alignment and intent.

  • Design Systems:

    • Version 1: Created a foundational design system that introduced consistency across the platform.

    • Version 2: Led a full platform redesign, rapidly implemented thanks to V1 groundwork.

  • Standardized Tooling: Migrated the team from Adobe XD to Sketch to Figma, enabling collaborative workflows with custom templates.

  • User Research: Established multiple methods for user testing and research, along with a centralized research repository to organize findings and artifacts.

  • Defined Roles and Career Paths: Clarified responsibilities, skill levels, and promotion criteria to provide direction for professional growth.

Outcomes

While metrics were not yet in place to quantify improvements, these changes resulted in tangible benefits:

  • Improved Collaboration: Design workflows became transparent to stakeholders, reducing miscommunication and improving alignment with Product and Engineering.

  • Increased Velocity: With streamlined tooling and processes, design-to-development handoffs became faster and more reliable.

  • Higher Quality Designs: Teams delivered better, data-informed designs, integrating user and business feedback earlier in the lifecycle.

  • Greater Team Morale: Designers felt supported, both professionally and personally, leading to increased retention and better creative outcomes.

The Softer Side of Design Operations: Supporting Team Well-Being

Design work demands a delicate balance of creative energy and emotional resilience. Designers must generate ideas, solve problems, and invent solutions out of ambiguity while remaining detached enough to receive critique. Over time, this emotional burden can take a toll.

I prioritized my team’s well-being alongside their professional goals by implementing empathetic, structured support systems:

  • Regular Connection: Inspired by Brené Brown’s Dare to Lead podcast, we began team meetings with simple, optional “two-word check-ins” to gauge how people felt. These low-pressure moments allowed me to identify and address signs of fatigue or frustration early.

  • Structured Team Rhythms: We began each week by setting expectations and ended with reflections on accomplishments, creating stability and accountability in a remote, uncertain environment.

  • Play as a Tool for Productivity: To foster connection and alleviate stress, we incorporated online team games—opportunities to bond, recharge, and strengthen collaboration.

Balancing clear workflows with empathy, connection, and play enabled my team to navigate high-pressure challenges while showing up consistently, both creatively and emotionally.

Turning the Corner: Organization-Wide Change

By 2023, JOOR had the opportunity to hire a product management leader with the authority to drive meaningful change. I focused on supporting and influencing this hire, ensuring alignment between Design, Product, and Engineering. With the right leadership in place, the organization experienced a turning point:

  • Streamlined tools reduced inefficiencies.

  • Product discovery shifted to focus on solving the right problems.

  • Projects were managed by product trios—representatives from Product, Design, and Engineering.

  • Weekly client interviews provided continuous discovery data, informing decisions pre- and post-launch.

  • Designs were validated with users throughout the product lifecycle.

  • Projects were evaluated with cost analyses, prioritizing those with measurable business impact.

  • A complete revamp of the release process

Outcomes and Impact

By the time I left JOOR, the design practice and operations had undergone a fundamental transformation:

  • Projects started with clear alignment, goals, and defined problems.

  • The design team transitioned from reactive work to a repeatable, reliable process that supported strategic outcomes.

  • While formal metrics were not yet implemented, the foundation was set for sustainable, measurable success through validated workflows, collaboration, and user insights.

Conclusion

Building a successful design practice requires more than processes and tools. It demands resilience, strategic advocacy, and an unwavering focus on solving the right problems. At JOOR, I built scalable operations, improved collaboration, and prioritized the mental well-being of my team—all while navigating resistance, ambiguity, and organizational change.

My work at JOOR, as well as DIGITAS and KTG, demonstrates my ability to transform teams, champion design thinking, and implement systems that enable creative excellence and operational efficiency.

CONSUELO (@) CONSUELO (DOT) COM