Exploring the challenges and opportunities in implementing our organization’s first, cross-disciplinary, design strategy-led initiative.

For the past eight years, our developer data platform, Atlas, has developed into an extremely feature-rich platform.We were tasked with running our organization’s first design- and design strategy-led initiative. Our presentation exploresthe challenges and opportunities that
emerged from working in a new collaborative style and partnership between our organization’s core design disciplines (Design Strategy, Product Design, and Design Systems) for the first time to deliver strategic and tactical design deliverables. Our goal was to create a composable,
sustainable information architectureand navigation design.
We will dive into our process and takeaways, particularly how these learnings can be applied to future design- and design strategy-driven projects. We will uncover the complications our team faced and share strategies for overcoming obstacles to ensure continuous, forward movement while balancing the needs of the initiative, organization, and contributors supporting the work.
By highlighting the emergent, organizational struggles that illuminate design’s unique opportunity for driving impact, we will demonstrate how to not only take a seat at the table, but how to earn the seat at the head when design is uniquely positioned to drive product strategy
and delivery.

About Rebecca, Lauren, and Sandy

Rebecca Radparvar is a Design Strategist with over 10 years of experience leading design-driven initiatives in complex industries. Currently, she serves as MongoDB’s first Design Strategist & Head of Design Strategy. Previously, she has had the pleasure of leading initiatives at JP Morgan Chase & Co, Autodesk, and IBM, among other organizations. She particularly loves untangling messy problems and collaborating across a diverse set of disciplines to deliver impactful product and design solutions. Outside of work, Rebecca enjoys hiking in the Hudson Valley, listening to live music, and has started learning to tuft rugs.

Lauren Fox is a Senior Product Designer at MongoDB. She focuses on delivering core platform functionality and features for the developer data platform, Atlas. Before MongoDB, Lauren led the 0-1 design efforts for two of Google Cloud’s enablement tools and led the design team for a low-code application software on web and native iOS and Android. Lauren resides in Hawaii where she enjoys exploring the outdoors, trying new hobbies, and eating at local restaurants and food trucks.

Sandy is an Interaction Designer at MongoDB. She is passionate about
accessibility, design systems, and building products from the ground up. Previously, Sandy has designed at McAfee, Goinvo, and Aeromates (associated with YC & Google Cloud for Startups). When she is not designing for cool companies, you can catch her traveling, hosting painting sessions with friends, and competitively playing League of Legends.