Situation
At Grow Therapy, I led the core Product Design team—eight designers focused on helping clients find and book therapy. Most of our work centered on retention within the first two sessions, but I often collaborated with the Growth team, which managed acquisition and top-of-funnel experience.
“The best way to prove the value of design isn’t through a pitch deck—it’s through partnership. Show impact, then scale it.”
During a landing page redesign, I noticed a gap. The Growth team had multiple Growth Managers and a strong marketing strategy, but lacked product design expertise—especially around user journey thinking, experimentation design, and customer insight gathering. They were relying on freelance visual design but missing deeper product and UX capabilities.
Task
I needed to determine whether embedding product design within Growth could drive measurable impact—and, if so, build a case for leadership to expand the team with a dedicated Growth designer.
Actions
I started with a small pilot.
I reallocated one of my designers to work directly with the Growth Managers on the landing page redesign.
- Secured leadership buy-in to temporarily shift that designer’s workload.
- Introduced user research and hypothesis-driven experimentation.
- Helped the team design and test new conversion flows grounded in user insights.
The collaboration completely changed how Growth approached design. They began conducting user interviews, framing hypotheses, and treating design as a strategic function rather than executional support.
Once we saw results, I went deeper.
- Met with the Head of Growth to understand their roadmap and future needs.
- Facilitated a workshop with all three Growth Managers to identify where design could add value—CRO testing, onboarding flows, landing experiences, and more.
- Consolidated the findings into a business case using a hire now, later, or never framework outlining the impact, tradeoffs, and opportunity cost.
That clarity—and the pilot’s measurable success—made the case undeniable.
Leadership approved the role.
With the CEO’s and Head of Growth’s support, I partnered with recruiting to hire a dedicated Product Designer for Growth.
Result
The embedded Product Designer transformed how Growth operated.
- Design became part of strategy, not an afterthought.
- Experiments became more user-centered, increasing conversion and onboarding performance.
- The Growth org became more design-literate—adopting user research, journey mapping, and A/B testing best practices.
The success validated the embedded design model, which later expanded to other high-impact areas across the business.