Yaya Huang
Leadership

SYSTEMS FOR PEOPLE

Build the team. Build its ability to grow.

I built a design department from zero and led a ten-person team. I turn recurring challenges in intake, delivery, and individual growth into rules and methods the team can use together.

See how I lead a team

TEAM OPERATING SYSTEM

Make answers findable and work transferable.

The challenge

Requests, files, and working methods lived in individual experience. As the team grew, members depended on managers and senior colleagues for answers.

My contribution

I built Design Workspace to connect work intake, SOPs, onboarding, resources, and learning, with clear rules for request alignment, revisions, and handoff.

What changed

Members gained one place to find answers and shared methods to receive requests, deliver work, and contribute what they learn.

DESIGN WORKSPACE

One shared place.
Five everyday needs.

  • Work intake
  • Process & SOPs
  • Onboarding
  • Resources
  • Learning

Bring each new learning back into the system.

Explore the Design Workspace structure
Design Workspace structure connecting work intake, SOPs, onboarding, resources, and learning
Design Workspace structure connecting work intake, SOPs, onboarding, resources, and learning

GROWTH CONVERSATION

Turn “I’m stuck” into something someone can practice.

The challenge

Finishing tasks does not automatically build judgment. Feedback based on a manager’s impressions rarely gives someone a clear next step.

My contribution

I embedded five capability dimensions into regular 1:1s. We reviewed real tasks, identified skill, process, communication, or workload blockers, and defined practice suited to each person’s stage.

What changed

1:1s gained a shared language for growth. Members could discuss how they work and connect their next development step to a specific task.

FROM REFLECTION TO PRACTICE

  1. 01 · Reflect on a task

    Which task felt most fulfilling?

  2. 02 · Find the blocker

    Skill, process, or workload?

  3. 03 · Define a practice

    What could you try next time?

Task goalsCollaborationCraft & qualityAutonomyLearning

MENTORING IN PRACTICE · ANONYMOUS EXAMPLE

Turn “learn the product” into a 30‑minute starting point.

For a designer new to healthcare, “explore the back office” leaves too much undefined. I anchor learning in real scenarios, then review the thinking behind each exercise.

  1. Start with the context

    Break clinic front-desk work into user stories for insurance-covered bookings, self-pay bookings, and mobile use.

  2. Make practice manageable

    Split each scenario into tasks that take about 30 minutes, giving product familiarization a concrete starting point.

  3. Reflect in 1:1s

    Use the five capability dimensions to discuss blockers, methods, and the next practice, adapting support to their understanding.

What I look for as they growCan they explain the user context, identify a blocker, and propose a next step beyond reporting completed tasks?

Explore the growth conversation framework
Five capability dimensions connecting task reflection, blockers, and next-step practice
Five capability dimensions connecting task reflection, blockers, and next-step practice

PRODUCT COLLABORATION

Help PM, design, and engineering decide from the same context.

The challenge

Verbal agreement still left different interpretations of the user context, priorities, and what “done” meant.

My contribution

I built Product Workspace around User Stories, PRDs, and acceptance criteria, connecting requirements to release with Product Spec and Design Spec checkpoints.

What changed

Requirements, scope, and acceptance gained a shared reference. Cross-functional discussions could return to clear decision points and deliverables.

  1. 01

    Frame the problem

    User Story

  2. 02

    Align the scope

    PRD · Acceptance criteria

  3. 03

    Confirm the specs

    Product / Design Spec

  4. 04

    Move to delivery

    Release · Rollout

Collaboration also means hearing the blockers faced by the people doing the work, then deciding what deserves further investment. A quarterly-goal discussion moved my focus from introducing a tool to reallocating effort.

PRIORITIZATION IN PRACTICE · JAN 2026

From planning an AI initiative to deciding to pause it.

In a quarterly-goal 1:1, I reviewed AI-assisted task creation for the DBC project with the team. Feedback from the person doing the work changed how we prioritized the investment.

  1. THE INITIAL DIRECTION

    Introduce AI into task creation

    The team initially considered using AI to create task tickets, reducing manual work so tasks could move into execution sooner.

  2. THE SIGNAL

    The work was waiting on people

    The person doing the work identified delays in collecting client monthly reports and getting doctors to review images. Faster ticket creation would not remove those waits.

  3. MY DECISION

    Stop actively investing in the initiative

    I evaluated total time savings against the main bottleneck and paused AI-assisted ticket creation, leaving room to reassess if a new business need called for it.

  4. WHERE EFFORT WENT

    Assign prompt-template development

    A team member would develop a Notion template for selecting camera angles and lighting to generate prompts, helping designers describe images without specialist terminology.

The revised scope

The template addresses prompting and terminology; delays in client input and image review still need separate work.

Finally, bring the goal back to what we can deliver.

In the same discussion, I accounted for external project delays by changing the quarterly metric from completed projects to completed pages. Both the investment and its progress measure returned to a clear deliverable.

Explore the product collaboration flow
Product Workspace connecting discovery, alignment, specification, and validation
Product Workspace connecting discovery, alignment, specification, and validation

BEYOND THE THREE SYSTEMS

The same approach, in more collaborative settings.

USER UNDERSTANDING

Experience the clinic together

A virtual-clinic competition let design, engineering, and sales act as clinic staff and patients, then discuss the problems they experienced.

AI ENABLEMENT

Practice AI through real work

I used real examples of MVP scoping and flow validation to help the team bring new tools into everyday practice.

KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER

Make methods work across backgrounds

Internal sharing, external teaching, and community sessions helped me translate experience into methods others could understand and use.

MY LEADERSHIP APPROACH

The capability I want to leave is one the team can keep using.

From individual experience to shared methods. From completing today’s tasks to building the judgment for tomorrow’s decisions.

Get in touch
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