Building & SCaling High-Performing Design Orgs

In my career, I’ve built thriving design teams in every environment: creating a UX org from scratch, scaling for hyper-growth, and rebooting a team for business impact.

Across each, my approach is rooted in clarity of vision, operational rigor, and a deep commitment to elevating design’s influence on business outcomes.

Building a Design Org
from Scratch

General Electric

At GE, I launched a new UX organization from the ground up, securing $2.5M in program funding by presenting a compelling design-led strategy to Digital P&L leaders. In under a year, I scaled the team to 25+ researchers, designers, and strategists, with a clearly defined mission, value proposition, and operating model.

I also founded the award-winning Innovation Accelerator Lab—a hybrid of physical space, digital platform, and cross-functional team—that became central to GE’s business strategy. Within a year, the lab launched multiple new products and I took ownership of a $50M innovation budget, tightly integrating business strategy with design thinking.

To democratize innovation, we built an immersive Design Thinking Program that trained 100+ product leaders and analysts. This program expanded organizational capacity for user-centered problem-solving, dramatically improving our success-to-failure ratio and reshaping GE’s approach to R&D.

Role

  • Business Development
  • Engagement Scoping
  • Creative Direction
  • Workshop Facilitation
  • Program Management & Execution

TOP: Selected slides used to build support for the team's existence
BOTTOM: Standardized design process; RIGHT: Team roles & responsibilities

CTO, General Electric

Richard brings a unique skill set to his role as the global leader of UX for our organization. He not only has a strong strategic vision for his group, but he also has the ability to be hands-on tactically, whether it be for customer or internal-facing work. This makes him very versatile in large or small companies. Richard built our UX function from a single person to a full cross-business group through persistence and conviction. He incubated our Innovation Lab team in both form (building out creative workspaces) and function. Building a UX group serving the more traditional and staid rail industry is an accomplishment that shows his ability to educate, creatively "work budgets", and produce tangible and "easy to see value" deliverables.

Lastly, I like how Richard is a very active and caring manager of people. This is one of the reason he is able to build cohesive teams. He cares about the careers and on-going spirit of the individuals of his team and that gets reflected back to him and his ability to move organizations forward and deliver impact.

Wesley Mukai

Preparing A Design Org
for Hyper-Scale

OpenGov

At OpenGov, my mission was to prepare the design team for aggressive growth ahead of a potential IPO—improving morale, building scalable foundations, and elevating design quality across an expanding product suite.

I addressed immediate needs by improving team morale, strengthening cross-functional relationships, and creating clear roles, responsibilities, and career ladders. I then developed a growth blueprint—mapping current skills to future needs, streamlining recruiting, and accelerating onboarding.

We established consistent design processes, launched a UX research program, and optimized internal workflows to improve efficiency and external collaboration. Within two years, the team grew to 15 designers across two new locations, strategically reducing per-headcount cost while attracting top-tier talent. This groundwork built the operational muscle for continuous discovery and data-driven design at scale.

OpenGov was acquired for $1.8 billion in 2024.

LEFT: Artifacts from initial team assessment; co-created design principles
TOP-RIGHT: Team retro workshop artifact;
BOTTOM-RIGHT: Sample career map exercise I hosted company-wide

Role

  • Business Development
  • Engagement Scoping
  • Creative Direction
  • Workshop Facilitation
  • Program Management & Execution

Chief Product Officer, OpenGov

Richard embodies what organizations desire in a versatile UX and Design professional who also builds, leads and transforms global teams into high performance professionals who are driven to deliver excellence. He has an amazing blend of artistic acumen, process design and implementation, and executive leadership skills that makes him highly valuable to the diverse and flexible demands of today's workplace.

Whether it is long term strategic plan creation or high pressure tactical deadlines, Richard has always been my go-to leader to make things happen.

He would be a most valued member of any organization and is a pleasure to have as a team member and trusted colleague.

Terrence Curley

Rebooting A Design ORG
for Impact & Scale

PandaDoc

At PandaDoc, I partnered with the CEO, CTO, and CPO to transform the company into a design-led organization. I spearheaded a comprehensive organizational overhaul to enhance quality and amplify design’s voice. Partnering with senior leadership, I secured buy-in for a transformation plan focused on talent, process, and measurable impact.

I reorganized the team from UI-focused roles to full-stack UX designers, aligned with product squads in a 1:1:1 ratio with PMs and engineers, each owning clear product metrics. I evolved UX Research to deliver strategic, big-picture insights that influenced company-wide decisions.

To scale excellence, I introduced a repeatable design process with early critiques, adopted planning ratios with EPD leaders, and embedded UX Research as a core driver of product improvements. I also invested in talent growth—rebalancing team seniority, implementing OKRs, and providing mentorship and training to build a resilient, high-performing organization.

LEFT/MIDDLE: Artifacts from initial team assessment presented to exec team

TOP-LEFT: Monthly report to highlight team achievements to the execs and the company at large

Co-Founder & CEO, PandaDoc

“PandaDoc had a good design team at the time Richard joined our organization. However, we were far from having a true design department/function. Richard had grown, coached, and up-leveled our design team finally transitioning it into a department/function. He set up structure, processes, and rituals that resulted in a much better product UX. He cares about people and culture and fostered productive collaboration within design and broader product orgs.”

Role

  • Creative Direction
  • Workshop Facilitation
  • Quality Control
  • UX Research
  • Synthesis
  • Ideation
  • Interaction Design

MIDDLE: Process docs to introduce better critiques to the team

BOTTOM: Company presentation setting the direction and expectations for UX org

Mikita Mikado

Sergey Barysiuk

Co-Founder & CTO, PandaDoc

“Richard joined PandaDoc at a critical time when our design team was facing growing pains and lacked structure. He brought a calm, methodical approach to problem-solving, helping us rebuild the team from the ground up. Richard introduced strong frameworks, revamped UX research, improved design systems, and established better processes and team dynamics. He was a valuable partner to both product and his reports, and his impact on the design org was both deep and lasting. We wouldn't have made the same progress without him.”