Context and Challenges

I unified Intuit’s dispersed India content design team, leading them to create consistent, high-quality content across global products. The team, consisting of eight designers (half of whom were contingent workers), faced significant challenges. These included:

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• A lack of integration into global product development processes, resulting in inconsistent content quality and collaboration issues.

• Cultural barriers and undervaluation of the team’s contributions, particularly for contingent workers, who often felt disconnected and faced collaboration barriers.

• Insufficient alignment with global content standards, hampering the team’s ability to scale efficiently and contribute meaningfully to global projects.

Steps Taken to Address Challenges

• Conducted a comprehensive review of the team’s capabilities, strengths, and opportunities. Developed a proposal to align the team’s work with global content standards, focusing on delivering measurable improvements in quality.

• Established a structured training program, incorporating workshops and hands-on sessions, to upskill the team and embed consistent processes and quality benchmarks.

• Introduced operational frameworks and content quality metrics, creating a foundation for scalable content practices and improved efficiency across the team.

• Collaborated closely with product and design leads in both India and the US, ensuring content designers were integrated early in the development process. This alignment resulted in improved collaboration, enhanced content quality, and a better overall user experience.

• Advocated for and secured promotions for several team members, converting contingent workers to full-time employees through negotiation with leadership.

• Visited India to build relationships and educate local teams on the role of content design in product development, reinforcing the importance of content’s early involvement in project stages.

• Developed templates, guidelines, and step-by-step instructions to ensure uniformity in deliverables and content quality across global products.

• Created a set of design principles tailored to the team’s unique circumstances, fostering consistent quality and best practices.

Outcomes

• Achieved measurable improvements in content quality and consistency, with the team consistently meeting or exceeding global standards. This contributed to increased product efficiency and a more intuitive user experience.

• Transformed an overlooked group into one of Intuit’s largest and most competent content teams, recognised for their contributions across global products.

• Successfully promoted several team members, including elevating one to a principal content designer role and another to content design team lead for the payroll capability.

• Enhanced team morale and status within the organisation, with contingent workers feeling more valued, integrated, and aligned with full-time team members.

• Streamlined operational processes, introducing scalable content frameworks that enabled the team to meet increasing demands without compromising quality.

• Fostered a culture of continuous improvement and professional growth, establishing the India content design team as a key contributor to Intuit’s product success on a global scale.