Turning a Team Framework Into Company-Wide Impact

The Challenge

In Q1 of 2021, activation work at Dropbox was inconsistent. My team had developed an effective strategy for helping new users get to value, but outside of our group, the approach wasn’t being used. Other teams were working on their own versions of “new user experience,” but the results weren’t impactful or aligned with the strategy we knew worked. Without adoption beyond our group, our impact was limited.

My Role

As a Design Director, my responsibility was to improve the outcomes of design work—not just in my team, but across the company. That meant scaling our activation thinking beyond our walls and creating a foundation others could adopt.

Building the Framework

The first step was to codify what worked. I drafted an activation framework that captured the principles behind our success and began socializing it with designers outside my group. To build momentum, I also started an “Onboarding Guild,” a forum where designers could seek advice on building activation solutions.

Adoption was slow. Even though the framework was clear and rooted in the CCC model, most teams continued to do their own thing. I realized we needed more than documentation—we needed proof.

Changing the Evangelization Strategy

I asked two teams to apply the framework and capture their results. These case studies became the evidence we needed. With that in hand, I shifted my strategy: instead of sending the framework to individual designers, I started sharing it directly with cross-functional leads. I showcased team wins in relevant forums and in all-function Slack channels, making the framework’s value visible to PMs, engineers, and other stakeholders.

“Scaling a strategy across an organization isn’t about telling people what to do—it’s about showing them why it works.”

The Impact

With real examples and cross-functional buy-in, adoption spread. Teams that used the framework improved their activation experiences, and over time it became a standard approach across the company. The Onboarding Guild continued under new leadership, carrying the culture forward. The framework didn’t just improve design outcomes—it shaped how Dropbox thought about activation as a whole and even justified investment into a platform for pre-in-product data collection.