Founding an Award-Winning Design Studio

I founded the Key Design Studio with one designer and a belief in the power of design to drive transformation and growth for the 3 million clients and 18,000 employees of KeyBank.

We started by rolling out an enterprise design-thinking framework and a common design language and approach for KeyBank. We outlined a 5-step enterprise design maturity model to guide our progress and built out a comprehensive Design Ops Playbook to help us scale and operate a best-in-class, in-house, design thinking agency. We also developed a design-thinking toolkit with 50+ design tools and templates to support enterprise design fluency and training.

We attracted progressive, diverse talent that brought new skills and mindsets to the Bank; growing the Studio from one designer to over 50. introduced user-centered design methods and models to thousands of teammates creating a more user-centered culture across the broader organization.

We successfully led hundreds of engagements using design to solve business problems and drive transformation and growth for every department and every line-of-business at KeyBank. Our work touched all customer and employee segments and all channels, digital and physical. We drove dozens of new products, services, and experiences, generated millions in incremental revenue, identified opportunities for millions in cost savings, and received multiple global innovation and design awards.