Crossing the Chasm

In this talk, I challenge the traditional assumption that quality is a UX-driven measure while performance is solely an Engineering objective. Drawing from my experiences at Shopify and Dropbox, I share how these two crucial elements are deeply interconnected and essential for crafting seamless, high-impact products.

At Shopify, I led the redesign of our Point of Sale app, creating a new design system that prioritized the needs of brick-and-mortar merchants. Our success hinged not only on the system’s visual appeal but on delivering a fast, reliable experience. By rallying cross-functional teams around performance metrics and fostering a shared language, we bridged the gap between design quality and technical execution, ensuring a holistic approach to user experience.

Similarly, at Dropbox, I drove an initiative to infuse quality at every stage of product development through our Product Principles, aligning teams around a shared vision of excellence. We implemented frameworks and scorecards, like Figma artifacts and performance dashboards, to operationalize these principles, enabling teams to assess and elevate quality iteratively.

This talk explores the methods I’ve developed for creating alignment between disciplines, operationalizing quality metrics, and fostering a culture where quality and performance are inseparable. It’s a call to design leaders to redefine quality in the context of their unique products and to create systems that empower teams to craft truly impactful experiences.