the challenge
resetting the brand to support growth
noissue is a custom packaging platform for businesses of all sizes. The company was growing quickly and the brand and internal processes struggled to keep pace. Visual inconsistencies, siloed teams and a lack of shared systems made it difficult to scale design while maintaining quality and consistency.
Several key challenges started to emerge:
Design lacked cohesion across product, marketing and all customer touchpoints
The brand started to skew toward smaller businesses, limiting growth into larger markets
Design teams operated in isolation with little shared direction or feedback loops
Processes, workflows and systems hadn’t scaled beyond early-stage startup operations
Internal teams lacked clear design guidelines, leading to duplication, inefficiencies and misalignment
my role
Hired as noissue’s first Design Manager during a high-growth phase
Led brand realignment, design system architecture and design operations across multiple teams
Partnered with product, marketing and leadership to unify design across customer and internal experiences
Managed and mentored a globally distributed team of offshore designers
Implemented new processes, systems and cross-team rituals to scale delivery and collaboration
phase one
repositioning the brand for scale
phase two
turning vision into scalable systems
The shared source of truth for core brand assets — logos, typography, colour, grids, spacing, and iconography — feeding both product and marketing to ensure consistency.
Platform
Built for product and web teams, with interface components, layout patterns and developer tokens to accelerate page builds while staying brand-aligned.
Marketing
Built for brand and content teams, with email modules, ad templates and campaign layouts to streamline production and empower non-designers.
phase three
embedding design across teams
Identified bottlenecks across task management, handoff and feedback loops
Migrated the team from Photoshop to Figma for better asset management, version control and collaboration
Introduced new systems to streamline delivery, reduce miscommunication and improve asset consistency
Team structure & rituals
Introduced daily standups, weekly design critiques and structured feedback loops across time zones
Created predictable delivery rhythms and clearer communication cycles
Mentorship & team growth
Managed and mentored a globally distributed offshore team
Supported career development through 1:1s, career check-ins and shared design goals
Cross-functional collaboration & culture
Fostered a transparent, inclusive culture to support open feedback and growth
Built strong cross-functional relationships with product, engineering and marketing across the UK, US, NZ, Canada and the Philippines
the impact
aligning brand, systems and teams
With clear systems in place, the design team could scale without reinventing the wheel. New designers onboarded faster, teams across departments could confidently build on shared patterns, and design debt was significantly reduced as the business continued to grow.
Brand consistency
Every customer touchpoint — from website to product to emails and ads — spoke the same visual language. This cohesion elevated brand perception and positioned noissue more confidently as it moved upmarket into larger enterprise conversations.
Faster execution
With reusable components and streamlined templates, teams shipped faster, with fewer revisions and less back-and-forth. Marketing could execute campaigns in less time, while product teams iterated with more confidence.
Cross-team alignment
The shared system unified previously siloed teams. Designers, marketers, and developers worked from the same foundation, reducing friction, increasing clarity, and strengthening collaboration across product, engineering, and marketing.
Organisational confidence
Beyond delivery, the work brought stability and clarity to design operations during a high-growth phase. Teams were aligned around clear guidelines, processes, and shared goals — allowing noissue to scale quickly while protecting design quality as the company expanded globally.
