Scaling Design Delivery

How I turned an overloaded EMEA design team into a coordinated function that shipped 10+ launches in up to 20 languages, without hiring its way out.

Rich Media Overlay: an ad format I designed and A/B-tested against the incumbent.

A team that couldn’t scale by working harder

Campaigns, CRM, and web platforms across multiple game franchises, localized in 7 to 20 languages per launch. Demand grew with the business; the operating model hadn’t evolved to match.

The constraints were structural: fragmented workflows, routine production leaning on scarce development resources, and every campaign rebuilt by hand.

The team needed a different structure, and the headcount stayed where it was.

What this team shipped

I designed or led player-facing products, designs for live events, community platforms, and the internal tooling that made the volume possible.

The character picker: class, level, and item level pulled from the player’s own roster, with the Horde and Alliance split running through the art direction.

A call to arms from your own avatar

I designed a win-back product for World of Warcraft: every lapsed player got a call to arms fronted by their own in-game character, then a page to build and share their own. A 200k budget, run against subscription and expansion revenue.

Three Play Store screenshots of the Gamescom 2018 visitor app: AR booth tour, stage calendar, and store catalog — The visitor app on the Play Store: AR booth tour, stage schedule, and store catalog. Localized in English and German.

An app for the world’s biggest gaming show

For Gamescom 2018 I designed the visitor app for iOS and Android, including an augmented-reality booth tour: a fixed show deadline, tested on the ground during the event.

The Blizzard Gamescom 2018 event site: hero with the show branding, and a livestream player with the stage schedule alongside it — The Gamescom 2018 hub, built to be read during the show rather than after it.

The show, for everyone not in Cologne

I designed the event site that ran alongside it: the livestream with a switchable camera, the stage schedule, the calendar, and the updates feed, in one place.

The Hearthstone Innkeeper Resources page: host navigation, a product update, and cards for the Fireside Companion guide, downloadable tavern signs, and event poster templates — Innkeeper Resources: built for the hosts running the events, inside the game’s own visual language.

Onboarding for the people running the events

I designed an onboarding product for Hearthstone Fireside Gathering hosts, shipped in 7 languages: the guide to running an event, personalised tavern signs, and the poster and artwork a host could download. Shaped by focus groups I prepared and led in the US and in Europe.

Localized marketing emails produced with the Email Builder — Email Builder output: localized eCRM emails, integrated into Salesforce.

An 8-hour job, turned into a system

Localizing one email took over eight hours, and only two designers could do it. I designed an internal tool that let any designer produce localized emails without touching code: 15+ emails in under two weeks, against more than a month before.

Restructure around outcomes

Structure and streams

I reorganized a multidisciplinary team of 9 around business outcomes into four delivery streams with defined ownership: Editorial & Localization, Creative Assets, Digital Labs, and Creative Marketing. Designers knew what they owned; stakeholders knew who to go to.

CRM and email campaign design — CRM and email campaign production: localized across multiple languages per launch.

Coordination and tooling

I introduced lightweight rituals that improved visibility without piling on process, and embedded an agency pool that absorbed demand peaks under shared standards, so peaks stopped costing headcount. The internal tools I specified moved designer effort from repetitive production to decision-making.

A page builder showing a Warcraft III landing page and a documented design language — A shared page builder for localized, on-brand launch pages.

Internal design tooling and production systems — Internal tooling that moved designer effort from repetitive production to decision-making.

More volume, same core team

I doubled eCRM production speed with the email builder, and took localization off the critical path.
I supported 10+ major product and expansion launches internally, in up to 20 languages, without growing the team.
I gave every stream clear ownership, which cut escalations and rebuilt stakeholder trust.

Overwatch launch pages alone drove over a million signups: the delivery system working as designed, launch after launch.