Built company-wide systems and processes for sustainable and scalable growth

Company

Rush Hour Digital

industry

Creative & Tech

Role

Design Lead

timeline

6 months

summary

RHD (Rush Hour Digital) is a Hong Kong-based digital agency, founded in 2012, specialising in UX/UI design, digital strategy, and development for startups and global enterprises. RHD has served over 150+ clients.

  • Coming from South China Morning Post, I joined RHD as their Design Lead of 4 junior to senior designers; and sat as part of the Leadership team steering the company’s direction

  • I found that the firm’s design maturity, according to NN Group’s Stages of UX Maturity, was at a 2 with no processes in place

  • While jumping into my first big overseas project as a Design Lead, I decided that I needed to work with the teams to improve workflows and get buy-ins from the Partners.

  • The initiative resulted in a cohesive team, improved processes reducing development delays, company-wide adoption of OKRs, streamlined operations via Figma, and secured design awards, boosting morale, efficiency, and external visibility for Rush Hour Digital.

Challenges

  • 01

    Inefficient inter-team communication led to siloed workflows, with team members hesitant to seek help, causing delays and misaligned efforts.

  • 02

    Development processes and project launch suffered from prolonged timelines due to fragmented workflows and inefficiencies in coordinating tasks across teams.

  • 03

    There was an absence of clear, aligned objectives at the individual, team, and company levels, which limited purpose-driven efforts and company-wide cohesion.

  • 04

    The team lacked a framework to leverage individual expertise, with previous approaches potentially favouring uniform skillsets over specialised strengths, reducing innovation and efficiency.

Diagram showing stages of development from 'Absent' to 'User-driven', with stage 2 labeled 'Limited' and a marker indicating 'You are here'. Includes sections on strategy, culture, process, and outcomes, highlighting issues like low UX awareness and budget, and low quality impact in UX design. 
my role

I spearheaded the transformation of RHD’s design team by fostering collaboration, streamlining processes, and aligning goals to drive scalable growth and impactful outcomes.

  • I emphasised leveraging individual expertise over uniform skillsets, focused on stakeholder strengths to enhance collaboration and innovation.

  • Using Service Design principles, I facilitated co-creating sessions to develop a flexible design framework, ensuring continuous feedback loops to foster team ownership and adaptability.

  • I established weekly syncs to address communication gaps, which was later adopted company-wide.

  • By auditing tools, I streamlined workflows by transitioning from fragmented tools (Sketch, InDesign, Zeplin) to Figma, optimising collaboration and reducing inefficiencies.

  • I introduced OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) to align individual, team, and company goals to create a unified purpose to ensure sustainable impact, presenting the approach to the Founder for company-wide adoption.

  • Collaborating with the Technical Director, I implemented component-based design systems to tackle development delays, applying cross-functional integration.

Outdoor patio with a wooden table and black chairs. A potted green plant and a smartphone are on the table. In the background, two people are sitting and talking, with some potted plants on the ledge.
Open notebook with handwritten notes on project planning and team roles. 
my approach

Define the problem and align with stakeholders

I began by observing team dynamics and conducting open discussions with leadership to holistically map pain points, strengths, and opportunities.

Co-create with my team to kickstart collaboration

I presented my findings to the team and collectively discussed their feedback. I gave them ownership of process documentation, such as ‘Communication Style’, ‘Weekly Stand-up’, ‘Resource Mapping’, and ‘Dev Handover’ to name a few.

Cross-function collaboration is key towards company-wide growth

I had a similar sessions with our Tech Lead and PMs to understand how our team’s process was negatively impacting theirs.

Defining the right problems to solve is the catalyst for impact

  • 45%

    Decrease in estimated project timeline due to new processes and collaboration

  • 98%

    Employee satisfaction survey for a 60-day run

  • 8

    Won Silver and Gold w3awards for 8 sites

key results

  • Weekly syncs

    I established a weekly catch-up for my team for task updates, road blocks and team sharing. Projects and challenges were now visible and fostered accountability and collaborative spirit. Seeing its success, Development and Clients team adopted the practice which created incremental growth.

    Prioritised key strengths over uniform skills

    Rather than pursuing a "full-stack" model, we capitalised on individual expertise. This approach allowed every team member to lead projects while contributing their unique strengths. Assigning projects became nearly automatic as skills were mapped out appropriately.

    Process & Documentation

    We co-created a flexible design framework that evolved through continuous feedback loops. Communication Style, Weekly Tracker, Dev Handover, UX Discovery Pack were among the processes and documentation our team came up with.

    Streamlined process by auditing and offloading paid subscriptions

    We canceled subscriptions to a number of apps and extended the use of high-usage apps. We elevated our design tool to Figma from Sketch + InDesign + Zeplin. Collaboration across not only the Design team but all teams, became much more seamless and contributed to a reduced project timeline.

  • I introduced my team members to OKRs and helped define their goals and do check-ups. I presented this to our Founder, asked me to present it to the company and implemented it across the board. All teams started moving towards a common goal. Employee satisfaction survey after 6 months came back at a 98% rating.

  • To address the issue of project timelines ballooning at development stage, I scheduled meetings with the Tech Lead to design a solution. We came up with the company’s first ever component-based project and design systems that largely contributed to a 37% decrease in project timeline - item on his wishlist that the previous Design Leads refused.

  • I signed up our best designs to w3awards and got recognition for 8 out of 9 projects. Trophies and certificates of which are proudly displayed in the office to remind everyone of their hard work.

Several framed awards on a wall with a black lamp in the foreground.

“It was an absolute pleasure working with Isabel during her time as the Design Lead at Rush Hour. We worked together on multiple projects for HKUST where she was responsible for leading the ideation and implementation of a new design system. The designs were creative, and informed by modern web standards using a consistent component-based model.

She was also an excellent communicator, effectively translating product requirements through design and collaboration, leading to strong cohesion between design and development teams.”

A young man standing by a waterfront with his bicycle, holding a red water bottle, and smiling at the camera. The background features a body of water, mountains, and a clear blue sky.