Leading Design for Developer Experience
Scaled the UX team and led product design strategy for Automation Anywhere's developer platform and other offerings.
Project Overview
Primary Role
Director of UX
Time Frame
Ongoing (4+ Years)
Company Size
2200+ employees
Team Size
7 Designers, Cross-functional with PM, Eng, Docs
Executive Summary
Joining Automation Anywhere as a new design leader, I was tasked with building a UX team in India from the ground up, defining the product vision for developer experience, and elevating the role of design across the platform organization and cross-functional teams.
The core challenge was to deliver a cohesive, intuitive experience for automation developers while simultaneously establishing UX as a strategic function — one that drives product thinking, team alignment, and long-term innovation.
The work led by the India UX team impacted over 25,000 developers daily and shaped the foundation for numerous cross-platform experiences. Balancing immediate delivery with long-term vision, the goal was to shift the perception of UX from executional support to a key strategic partner.
Key Initiatives & Improvements
Process & Task Editor
All improvements under this initiative enhanced the core workflow experience for automation builders:
- Composer Templates: Accelerated setup for 25K+ developers daily across 5K accounts
- Suggest Next Action: AI-driven recommendations for optimal automation steps
- Prompt to Automate: GenAI prompts that scaffold flows instantly, reducing build time by 40%
- AI Skills Integration: Enabled runtime embedding of AI Skills for advanced automation scenarios
Integrated Help Center | Contextual Support
Embedded contextual help to reduce friction and empower self-service:
- In-app help links, tooltips, and quick-access guides
- Unified content through collaboration with module owners, docs, and engineering
- 200% increase in documentation portal traffic and 3,000+ help clicks per month
- 50% boost in package adoption
Pathfinder Community & University
Launched May 2023 to guide customers from RPA to hyper-automation:
- 500K+ course completions on Automation Anywhere University
- 250+ automation readiness assessments
- 7,500+ new community members and 500 posts per month
- Personalized missions for customer success and scale
Document Automation
Streamlined document-centric workflows at scale:
- Processed nearly 1M pages per month with upward adoption trend
- 60% reduction in manual processing time
- Seamless integration of document automation into user workflows
My Approach
Building My Design Team
How I motivated my team and attracted top talent
Scaling Design Impact
How I removed blockers and grew our strategic influence
Crafting a Product Vision
How I created alignment and strategy through vision-led design
Building My Design Team
Faced early challenges with hiring while being new to the domain and organization. I built strong collaboration with teams we supported through deep product walkthroughs and stakeholder discussions.
Fostered a safe, inclusive environment where curiosity and risk-taking were encouraged, creating a foundation for innovation and growth.
Key Team Rituals
Weekly Design Reviews
For collaboration and feedback across projects
Fun Fridays
To build relationships and team morale
Weekly 1:1s
To prioritize individual growth over short-term delivery
Team Meetings
To strengthen shared understanding and open communication
Scaling Design Impact & Winning Trust
User-Centered Research
Encouraged every designer to run their own user studies to build empathy and shape mental models
Ownership & Autonomy
Empowered team members with clear ownership and autonomy over their product areas
Growth Through Mentorship
Focused on growth through mentorship, feedback, and aligned expectations
Cross-Functional Integration
Integrated designers deeply with product and engineering triads for tighter collaboration and shared goals
Design Impact Growth
Execution
Design as support
Collaboration
Design as partner
Influence
Design as advisor
Leadership
Design as driver
Crafting a Product Vision
Used data (via tools like Pendo) and research to inform strategic direction, ensuring our vision was grounded in real user needs and business objectives.
Employed storytelling to articulate user pain points, impact, and the role of design in driving change, making complex problems accessible and actionable for all stakeholders.
Strategic Co-Creation
Worked with PMs to co-create long-term product strategies and incremental release plans, ensuring design was integrated from the earliest stages of product development.
From MVP to MLP
Shifted team mindset from MVP (Minimum Viable Product) to MLP (Minimum Lovable Product), focusing on user delight alongside core functionality.
Leadership Alignment
Maintained continuous leadership engagement to align on vision and ensure visibility, creating champions for design at the executive level.
Vision Artifacts
Created compelling vision artifacts that communicated the future state clearly and inspired teams to work toward a shared goal.
Cross-Functional Influence
Partnership Model
Partnered with PM, engineering, and doc teams across all platform touchpoints, creating a collaborative environment where design was seen as an essential partner.
Brought design thinking into feature planning, prioritization, and roadmap discussions, elevating the conversation beyond just functionality to include user experience.
Design Evangelism
Acted as a design evangelist across the organization, gaining trust from executive stakeholders and demonstrating the value of design in achieving business outcomes.
Facilitated cross-team collaboration on critical projects like APA Builder and Insights Dashboard, bringing together diverse perspectives to create cohesive experiences.
Impact
Strategic Evolution
UX evolved into a strategic pillar supporting multiple product areas, not just developer tools
Expanded Influence
Team influence expanded to include Document Automation, Community Portal, Cloud Security, and more
Early Integration
Design was integrated at roadmap stages, enabling greater alignment and proactive contribution
Quality & Satisfaction
The practice helped raise product quality, team morale, and customer satisfaction
Reflection on My Journey
It's been a humbling and rewarding experience building this team and culture from the ground up. The journey had its challenges, but the commitment to growth, empathy, and shared ownership made it meaningful.
Building a high-performing, empowered team is a continuous effort that requires patience, trust, and strong values. The results have been transformative not just for our products, but for how design is perceived and valued within the organization.
Key Learnings
Vision Needs Structure
Team growth must be intentional, with clear roles, rituals, and support systems. Vision without structure remains just an idea.
Design is a Mindset
Great UX is rooted in context, empathy, and strategic thinking. It's not just about pixels, but about understanding the deeper needs and motivations of users.
Early Influence Wins Trust
Getting design into early conversations drives alignment and better outcomes. When design is involved from the beginning, it becomes a strategic partner rather than an afterthought.