Professional/Case Studies/Case Study 02
Professional · Case Study 02
Global 24-Hour Design Framework · Wells Fargo
A failing project at the edge of cancellation — a global team stuck in sequence, losing to a deadline. I turned time zones from a coordination problem into a delivery advantage, and recovered it in under 30 days into a $2M–$4M relationship.
Client
Wells Fargo
Fortune 50 Financial
Role
Senior UX Manager
Global Delivery & Ops
Scope
8 designers
EMEA · NA · APAC
Recovery
Under 30 days
+2 projects awarded
The Situation
I was brought in to save a project at risk of full cancellation. The previous lead was running an agency-style delivery model inside an enterprise environment that demanded the opposite. The team was misaligned, work was behind schedule, and client trust was severely damaged.
An eight-person global team had no operational direction and no framework to accelerate recovery.
Cancellation
Active risk to the engagement
Sequential
Work moved one piece at a time
Misaligned
Roles vs. individual strengths
Underused
Global team at single-region pace
Behind
Output trailing schedule
Broken
Client trust at breaking point
The Diagnosis
The instinct under pressure is to move faster. I did the opposite — assessing the team, the work, and the operating model within the first sprint before touching a deliverable. Roles were misaligned to strengths. There were no parallel work streams, the global team was underused, and tooling was throttling speed.
The Intervention
I split the team into two dedicated, staggered work streams so nothing waited in line. Work that had moved in sequence now moved in parallel.
Track 1 · Low-Fidelity
Wireframing and lo-fi design, always running one sprint ahead of production.
Track 2 · High-Fidelity
Hi-fi design, content, and prototyping — building on validated lo-fi output.
I assessed individual strengths and restructured accordingly — with full autonomy from leadership, used decisively.
A follow-the-sun handoff across three regions. Each regional lead ran a structured end-of-shift standup — requirements, work completed, confirmed tasks for the incoming region, open questions. Content and research were built into the handoff. Design work ran 24 hours; the clock never stopped.
EMEA → NA
Handoff at 5pm GMT / 11am EST
NA → APAC
Handoff at 4pm PST
APAC → EMEA
Handoff at 5pm CST / 9am GMT
Every handoff
Structured end-of-shift standup — requirements, completed work, next tasks, open questions.
The Result
Work output (Jira, 30 days pre/post)
baseline
+30–40%
Time to full project recovery
at risk
<30 days
Delivery cycle
8-hour
24-hour
Additional projects awarded
0
+2
Client relationship value
cancellation
$2–4M
Source: Jira ticket completion rates; sprint story points pre/post framework; engagement records
Leadership in Action
Under pressure I slowed down for one week to understand exactly what was broken, then moved with precision.
The right people in the right roles wasn't a negotiation. It was a requirement for recovery.
Most teams treat time zones as a coordination problem. A global team running 24 hours is faster than any single-region team running 8.
Speed without structure is chaos. Structure without urgency is bureaucracy. The framework delivered both.