Building a design org while shipping a developer platform

The starting point

I joined Automation Anywhere, a company of more than 2,200 people, to build a UX team in India from the ground up, define the product vision for the developer platform, and raise the profile of design across the platform organization. The challenge was to deliver a cohesive, intuitive experience for automation developers while establishing UX as a function that shapes product thinking rather than one that only executes it.

What I owned

I was responsible for design across the developer platform. Three areas carried most of the weight, and one shift ran through all of them.

1. 01

   Task and bot editor

   The editor developers build task bots in. Templates, AI-assisted next steps, and Prompt to Automate all landed here.

2. 02

   Document automation platform

   Extraction and document-centric workflows, designed to sit inside how people already worked.

3. 03

   Process Composer to Mozart Orchestrator

   A rebuild of the process layer into a new product, which meant reimagining the design experience rather than restyling it.

4. 04

   Task-first to process-first

   Under my leadership we moved users from a task and bot first approach to one where the process is the first-class citizen. I ran the user studies behind the change, oversaw the designs, and owned the story we took to customers.

Key initiatives

Four initiatives carried most of the work: the process and task editor developers build automations in, an integrated help center, a community and university for customers moving from RPA to hyperautomation, and document automation.

Process and task editor

Every improvement here targeted the core workflow experience for automation builders: Composer templates that shortened setup time, Suggest Next Action, an AI feature that recommends the next automation step, Prompt to Automate, which turns a GenAI prompt into a scaffolded flow, and runtime embedding of AI Skills for more advanced scenarios.

Integrated help center

I embedded contextual help, in-app links, tooltips, and quick-access guides, directly into the product to reduce friction and encourage self-service. Getting the content unified took ongoing collaboration with module owners, the docs team, and engineering.

Pathfinder community and university

Launched in May 2023 to guide customers from RPA to hyperautomation, with personalized missions built around each customer's stage of adoption.

Document automation

Streamlined document-centric workflows at scale, with the automation integrated directly into how people already worked rather than bolted on as a separate tool.

Building the team

Hiring was the early challenge, made harder by being new to both the domain and the organization. I built trust with the teams we supported through deep product walkthroughs and stakeholder discussions, and worked to foster a safe, curious environment where people felt comfortable taking risks.

Weekly design reviews, weekly one-on-ones, team meetings, and a standing Fun Friday gave the team its rhythm; the rituals themselves, and the ladder the team climbed on, are written up on the leadership page.

Scaling design impact

1. 01

   Growth through mentorship

   Focused on growth through mentorship, feedback, and aligned expectations rather than only reviewing output.

2. 02

   Cross-functional integration

   Placed designers directly inside product and engineering triads for tighter collaboration and shared goals.

The team climbed the same ladder every team I lead climbs, from support to driver; the rungs are on the leadership page.

Crafting a product vision

I used data, largely from Pendo, and research to ground the vision in real user needs and business objectives, then relied on storytelling to make pain points and impact legible to stakeholders who were not close to the product day to day.

1. 01

   Strategic co-creation

   Worked with PMs to co-create long-term product strategies and incremental release plans, with design involved from the earliest stages.

2. 02

   From MVP to MLP

   Shifted the team's mindset from minimum viable product to minimum lovable product, so delight sat alongside core functionality.

3. 03

   Leadership alignment

   Kept leadership engaged continuously on the vision, turning executives into champions for design rather than occasional reviewers.

4. 04

   Vision artifacts

   Built vision artifacts that made the future state concrete and gave teams something shared to work toward.

Cross-functional influence

Partnership model

I partnered with PM, engineering, and docs across every platform touchpoint, and pushed design thinking into feature planning, prioritization, and roadmap discussions, so the conversation covered experience and not only functionality.

Design evangelism

I acted as an evangelist for design across the organization, earning trust from executive stakeholders by showing the connection between design decisions and business outcomes, and facilitated cross-team collaboration on projects like the APA Builder and the Insights Dashboard.

What changed

• UX grew into a strategic pillar supporting several product areas, not only developer tools.
• Team influence expanded to include document automation, the community portal, cloud security, and more.
• Design got integrated at the roadmap stage, which meant proactive contribution instead of reactive fixes.
• AI-first UX patterns cut task completion time on key automation workflows by about 30%.
• Partnership with product, engineering, docs, and customer success made roadmap delivery 20% faster.
• Product quality, team morale, and customer satisfaction all improved alongside it.

Building this team and this culture from the ground up was humbling. The commitment to growth, empathy, and shared ownership is what made the harder stretches worth it.

Building a high-performing, empowered team is a continuous effort that takes patience, trust, and consistent values. The results showed up not just in the products, but in how design is perceived and valued across the organization.

Key learnings

1. 01

   Vision needs structure

   Team growth has to be intentional, with clear roles, rituals, and support systems. A vision without structure stays an idea.

2. 02

   Design is a mindset

   Good UX is rooted in context, empathy, and strategic thinking, not just pixels. It comes from understanding what users actually need.

3. 03

   Early influence wins trust

   Getting design into early conversations drives alignment and better outcomes. Involved from the start, design becomes a strategic partner instead of an afterthought.