Project Overview.

At Ipiranga / Abastece-aí, the UX Chapter faced severe operational friction: design demands were assigned in isolation without project context, alignment rituals were non-existent, and handoffs caused recurring conflicts with engineering. Working alongside UX Leadership and Research, I co-led the end-to-end implementation of DesignOps and ResearchOps frameworks. By auditing workflows, establishing a Single Source of Truth (SSOT), and embedding technical enablement, we transformed a fragmented team into a mature, highly efficient design operation.

Challenge

Between 2022 and 2023, rapid growth at Ipiranga / Abastece-aí outpaced the UX chapter's operational maturity. Design requests were routed to individual designers without strategic context or backlog prioritization. The absence of alignment rituals created silos, leading to inconsistent UI patterns, constant friction during developer handoffs, and project delivery delays that impacted business goals. UX leadership required a complete operational overhaul (DesignOps and ResearchOps) to elevate design quality, predictability, and business alignment.

Action

I co-led the operational transformation across three strategic pillars:

1. Diagnosis & Discovery

   • Partnered with a UX Researcher and UX Managers to audit existing operations. Conducted 1:1 interviews, prototype audits, metric analysis, and team shadowing to answer four core questions: How do we work together? How do we finalize work? How do we collaborate with other areas? How do we generate business impact?

2. Governance & Single Source of Truth (SSOT)

   • Tooling Standard: Standardized the chapter's stack into a unified SSOT (Figma for prototyping, FigJam for whiteboarding, Jira for demand management, MS Teams for communication).

   • Documentation & Handoff: Mandated high-fidelity wireflow documentation standards and established formal, structured Handoff Rituals with Engineering to bridge the gap between design and front-end development.

3. Enablement & Cultural Shift

   • Operational Pillars: Created an Operational Pillars Tree and published interactive playbooks to guide daily design workflows.

   • Tech Immersions: Conducted technical deep-dives into product architecture for designers and researchers, boosting the team's technical maturity and ensuring feasible, production-ready solutions.

   • Continuous Learning Tracks: Designed structured learning paths and mentorship programs centered around the enterprise Design System.

Result (Resultado)

Lessons Learned.

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