Case Study No. 5, Meaning
Case Study No. 5
Build outstanding design teams.
Tribeca Enterprises & Huntington National Bank
Goal: Develop an unparalleled creative team: skillful, inspired, supportive, culturally aware. Simple, yes?
My Role: Colleague and team leader
Tribeca’s creative department expanded all three years I worked there, my first experiences managing others and mentoring digital creatives: project managers, visual designers, developers, content creators.
Huntington User Experience was home to seven generalist practitioners on my first day. Content Design was just me, a solo operation. I grew the discipline into a collaborative, boundary-pushing organization of eight designers that, among many efforts, led enterprise-wide strategies around messaging and the use of predictive AI to promote customers’ financial well-being, not to mention handling digital communications during successful mergers with FirstMerit in 2016 and TCF in 2020.
5.1. UX Content Designer Skills Map, a professional development and goal-setting tool, 2025. Full size and detail.
Importantly, growing a more mature, expansive design practice includes transparency and my own clear-headedness as a manager. As colleagues sought more detailed guidance in their career trajectory, I built up my administrative skillset and the tools I used to help set expecations and ensure individual career ambitious were on track. Among those purpose-built tools was a UX Content Designer Skills Map, to better facilitate development conversations.
Frameworks like these ensured growth and ambition within my team. They also, often, generated a marvelous atmosphere—the confidence that meaningful work was being prioritized.
