Created a shared operating model for eight engineering squads
Problem
Design worked as a shared service while eight engineering squads operated independently with competing priorities.
Approach
Designed an intake and prioritization framework plus a weekly leadership alignment meeting across Engineering, Design, Product, Support, Sales and executive leadership.
Impact
Eliminated ad hoc prioritization
Aligned roadmap planning across all engineering squads and senior leadership
Created one shared decision process
Adopted across the organization
Created a shared operating model for eight engineering squads
Problem
Design worked as a shared service while eight engineering squads operated independently with competing priorities.
Approach
Designed an intake and prioritization framework plus a weekly leadership alignment meeting across Engineering, Design, Product, Support, Sales and executive leadership.
Impact
Eliminated ad hoc prioritization
Aligned roadmap planning across all engineering squads and senior leadership
Created one shared decision process
Adopted across the organization
Organizational
Impact
Throughout my career I've aligned design<>engineering <> product, created company-wide research practices, established operating models adopted across functions, and partnered with executive leadership to shape product strategy and organizational direction.
Impact at a glance
$10M in ARR contributed through five AI-powered Jetpack products.
27M+ users reached across WordPress and Jetpack.
8 engineering squads aligned around a shared operating model.
1,800 employees supported by a scaled research system.
Executive influence across product, organizational, and operating priorities.
Design-to-engineering handoff replaced with AI co-authorship.
Rebuilt research capability across WordPress
Problem
Before my tenure as Senior Director of Product Design, WordPress eliminated centralized UX Research.
Approach
Built a lightweight research operating model.
Created Lean Research Day.
Created searchable Grain repository.
Enabled anyone to access customer evidence.
Impact
Adopted beyond Jetpack
Shared customer intelligence
Hundreds of research activities
Influenced product decisions across multiple teams
Rebuilt research capability across WordPress
Problem
Before my tenure as Senior Director of Product Design, WordPress eliminated centralized UX Research.
Approach
Built a lightweight research operating model.
Created Lean Research Day.
Created searchable Grain repository.
Enabled anyone to access customer evidence.
Impact
Adopted beyond Jetpack
Shared customer intelligence
Hundreds of research activities
Influenced product decisions across multiple teams
Created a shared operating model for eight engineering and four Design Squads
Problem
Design worked as a shared service while eight engineering squads operated independently with competing priorities.
Approach
Designed an intake and prioritization framework plus a weekly leadership alignment meeting across Engineering, Design, Product, Support, Sales and executive leadership.
Impact
Eliminated ad hoc prioritization
Aligned roadmap planning across all engineering squads and senior leadership
Created one shared decision process
Adopted across the organization
Rebuilt research capability across WordPress
Problem
Before my tenure as Senior Director of Product Design, WordPress eliminated centralized UX Research.
Approach
Built a lightweight research operating model.
Created Lean Research Day.
Created searchable Grain repository.
Enabled anyone to access customer evidence.
Impact
Adopted beyond Jetpack
Shared customer intelligence
Hundreds of research activities
Influenced product decisions across multiple teams
Established an AI-native design operating model
Problem
The design organization was still working through traditional document handoffs and fragmented, one-off AI experimentation. Design and Engineering lacked shared workflows, evaluation standards, guardrails, and reusable practices for moving from product intent to working prototypes quickly and consistently.
Approach
Moved the team from static design handoffs to shared, code-based workflows with Engineering.
Had designers create reusable
.mdand.mdcfiles to capture product context, UX principles, interaction patterns, prompts, and implementation guidance.Asked each designer to explore AI tools and workflows independently, then report back on what worked, what failed, and where the team should standardize.
Turned the strongest experiments into shared prompts, reusable skills, templates, and guardrails that others could apply.
Introduced lightweight evaluation frameworks for reviewing AI-generated concepts, flows, copy, and coded prototypes.
Used rapid, working prototypes to make decisions earlier and reduce reliance on long specification documents.
Partnered with Engineering to move design standards closer to implementation.
Established a repeatable operating model for scaling AI adoption across Design and Engineering.
Reduced time from concept to working prototype: 3d → 3 hrs
↓80% reduction in time to testable prototype
75% decrease in UX specs and documentation needed
Built organizations that scale
After seeing the impact of my consulting work firsthand, the CEO recruited me full-time to help prepare the company for a major acquisition and lead through the transition. I stabilized design operations, improved team efficiency, and built a conversion optimization program that positioned the organization for successful integration.
Influenced executive strategy
Jetpack’s CEO regularly asked me to advise on major roadmap decisions. For one of the company’s largest initiatives, I challenged a costly “big swing” before we had validated the audience or opportunity. My recommendation shifted the roadmap toward research first, avoiding premature investment and grounding the product strategy in customer evidence.
People Development
I create teams where leadership is distributed rather than concentrated at the top. At WordPress, I coached senior designers into broader organizational influence, including one who advanced into Principal-level product work and another who stepped into team leadership during my sabbatical and continues to lead today. At Kustomer, I made peer teaching part of the team’s operating model, giving designers ownership of areas such as AI workflows and scaling their expertise across the organization.
Process innovations
My focus on streamlining workflows and removing bottlenecks resulted in a 58% year-over-year increase in team productivity. Leadership asked me to share these practices and mature our design processes leading to their adoption across the organization. These methods became foundational for cross-functional collaboration, improving efficiency and delivery across teams.
Endorsed by leaders
I have had the pleasure of reporting to and collaborating with exceptional leaders over the years. I am honored to have their endorsements.
Yvonne is a triple threat leader in that she understands design architecture, visual design and product design. It was a pleasure working with and learning from her during our time together in Jetpack. Yvonne not only led our design team, but was also an integral member of our executive leadership group at Jetpack. Her experience and insights into understanding customers helped us to revolutionize the Jetpack experience. She was also a driving force in aligning our design, development and customer service teams and building a collaborative environment that fostered better customer focused experiences.
Caiti Vincel Senior Director Product Manager | Sprout Social
Yvonne is an exceptional design leader who combines deep customer obsession with a strong ability to build meaningful relationships across teams. She excels at conducting research, engaging directly with customers and clients, and getting to the heart of the problems that matter most. Her experience spans both B2B and B2C products, giving her a valuable perspective on designing solutions that meet customer needs while driving business value. She is also a phenomenal partner to Product and Engineering. Yvonne brings a strong, credible design point of view to the table and is always willing to advocate for the customer and for great design. Her collaborative approach, interpersonal skills, and presence make her a highly respected and effective leader.
Heidi Beacham Senior Director Product | CoPilotIQ
Yvonne encompasses the most attractive qualities you'd want in a leader. She hires quality people and trusts them to do good work. Her style of management fosters engaged developers and designers that feel free to be creative while offering valuable input. She is a fantastic listener and outwardly demonstrates respect for all points of view and is always looking out for the best interest of the user. Yvonne brings energy to any team and has demonstrated that her work has the power to re-inspire a company during a pivot. She is an invaluable asset.
Caiti Vincel Senior Director Product Manager | Sprout Social
Yvonne Doll is a one-in-a-million, multi-talented designer, artist, musician, and, above all, design leader. It was my pleasure and privilege to watch Yvonne mentor, encourage, inspire, and support the Jetpack design team. Beyond being a model colleague, she’s also tremendous fun, supremely cool, and somehow, despite being fun and cool, a grownup and mensch. I would hire her myself if I were in a position to do so, and consider myself fortunate indeed if she accepted the offer. Meet her. Hang out with her. Interview her. You’ll be glad you did.
Jeffrey Zeldman Executive Creative Director | Automattic
Highly recommend Yvonne. She leads by example, rolling up her sleeves on the highest-leverage work alongside her team, which earns trust and raises everyone's bar. She operates AI-native as a core part of how she thinks, works, ships and leads, and her and her team's output shows it. What sets her apart, though, is how genuinely she invests in the people around her. She knows how to push her team in the right way - challenging them to do their best work while fostering accountability and proactivity. An organization that needs a design leader who can operate at the pace of AI-era product development while building a strong,
Rachel Hughes VP Product | Kustomer
I had the pleasure of working with Yvonne during our time at Automattic, where I led the software engineering team for Jetpack AI, and she was the design director of Jetpack, leading the team collaborating with us. Yvonne’s team consistently delivered high-quality design work on time, and their responsiveness and openness to feedback made our collaboration seamless. Yvonne fosters a culture of creativity within her team, and works great in cross-team collaboration.
Senior Software Engineer | Front
I was very lucky to be able to work for Yvonne. She's a fantastic UX design leader and product thinker. She has a data-driven approach to UX that fuels excellent product design. 10/10 would work with her again.
Nick Kovacevich Head of UX Design & Research | AWS Marketplace
Yvonne is a rock star, both literally and figuratively. Having had the chance to work closely with her, I can state with emphasis that she is the very best of leaders, designers, and humans, that you will find. I consider it a privilege to have learned from her, and to be able to call her a friend.
Creative Team Lead | WordPress
Executive leadership highlights
HIGH IMPACT LEADERSHIP
I had a longstanding freelance relationship with a growing SaaS company. The CEO recognized my expertise and brought me on board ahead of a key acquisition to stabilize operations, enhance efficiency, and lead a CVR optimization program. My efforts were critical in positioning the company for a successful transition during this pivotal moment.
Strategic influence
At Jetpack, my console sought my input on key project roadmaps, valuing my ability to align design strategy with business goals. On one of the company’s most significant initiatives, I advised against a costly "big swing" before we correctly understood the audience. This strategic decision saved significant resources and ensured the project was built on a solid foundation of user insights.
Scaling lean research
I developed a lean user research program that reduced turnaround times and delivered actionable insights. This program is recognized as the company's most effective. Its success led to its adoption across departments, driving better product decisions at scale.
People leadership
At a time when morale was low across the design organization, my team stood out as a beacon of engagement and productivity. Leadership recognized this and asked me to help spread our culture and practices across other teams. By focusing on trust, autonomy, and empowerment, I contributed to a noticeable uplift in morale and collaboration throughout the organization.
Process innovation
My focus on streamlining workflows and removing bottlenecks resulted in a 58% year-over-year increase in team productivity. Leadership asked me to share these practices and mature our design processes leading to their adoption across the organization. These methods became foundational for cross-functional collaboration, improving efficiency and delivery across teams.
Endorsed by Leaders
I have had the pleasure of reporting to and collaborating with exceptional leaders over the years. I am honored to have their endorsements.