Accenture × Google

Background

I was invited to lead a design team supporting Google’s Help Center and official YouTube content.

Calling it a “team” at that point was perhaps generous. There were two relatively inexperienced designers, inconsistent interpretations of Google’s brand guidelines, little formal project management, and Google stakeholders spending far too much of their own time keeping the operation moving.

Challenge

The goal was not simply to improve the design work.

I needed to build a team that could consistently produce work Google was happy with, operate with less client supervision, take on increasingly sophisticated projects and, eventually, continue without me.

What I did

I rebuilt the operation from several directions at once.

Together with Google stakeholders, I established SOPs, SLAs and working processes and introduced an ongoing PDCA approach. I translated Google’s global brand guidelines into practical local guidance that designers could apply consistently.

I worked with Accenture HR to introduce stronger design recruitment criteria, including design testing, and rebuilt the team’s capabilities through new hires.

I also created project-management and QA systems, coached individual designers, reviewed work, art-directed key assets and helped remove issues affecting quality or productivity.

My personal benchmark was fairly simple: if the team collapsed when I left, I had not finished the job.

Outcome

We recruited a highly capable motion designer and a senior visual designer whom I developed as my eventual successor.

The team’s scope grew from relatively simple static assets to sophisticated character animation, motion graphics and branding work for new internal Google services. When I eventually stepped away, the next leader was already there to take over.