Meche — Maternity Leave
Meche is on Maternity Leave
From May 25 · Back Oct 2nd
I'm spending this time with my family and fully disconnected. I'll be back soon and can't wait to reconnect with everyone!
While I'm away — what's changing
A few structural changes will be in place during my leave:
🎉 Bethany has been promoted to Associate Creative Director — this is a permanent change.
👥 Olaia, Cameron, Ty, and Fla will report to Bethany while I'm out (15Five, Harvest & overall support)
📅 Bethany will hold weekly syncs with Olaia & Cameron — progress, blockers, and projects.
📊 Bethany will hold weekly syncs with Remy to report on resourcing and overall team status.
Direction & priorities
What I want the team to keep pushing while I'm away:
🎯 Track progress against the Design Team Goals — make sure we're on target across all areas. View Goals →
🤖 AI goals per practice area: each team lead is responsible for defining and following through — Olaia for UX/UI, Bethany for Graphic Design, Cameron for Motion Design.
📚 Professional development should be part of everyone's workload. Goal: at least 4 per year per person.
Clients & coverage
Who's handling what while I'm out — click a client to expand.
Netwrix
No need for a 1:1 replacement on this account — the team is already really involved across the different scopes.
Paid Media Campaigns
Cam and Mikala owning this.
UX/UI Updates to support Paid Campaigns
Olaia working on making Landing Pages look better within Sanity.
General Website Requests (maintenance scope)
Not getting many of these. If needed, Olaia and Mara to work with Moni to understand scope and implications.
Teams support for troubleshooting Sanity issues
Moni to work directly with the client over Teams.
Potential upsell for CRO
If this happens, Moni, Olaia, Nat, and Remy to think about how to tackle. Olaia can execute on UX/UI but will need support from the digital team — likely Luis + a strategist.
Descript
No need for a 1:1 replacement on this account since Ty is already on all the UX/UI tasks.
Client comms
I will hold another 1:1 with Rocky before I leave but Christine should keep in touch with him to ensure we're on track for renewal.
REN / RCF
No need for a 1:1 replacement on this account since Juan and Eli are already handling all the UX/UI tasks.
Kathy Halbower
No need for a 1:1 replacement on this account since Esti is already handling the UX/UI tasks.
Website Project
- Esti to work with dev to wrap it up on time. QA should be minimal — ideally dev can handle this on their own and Esti just takes a final pass for any minor details.
- María to help troubleshoot content upload issues and getting clarification from Kathy on what she needs.
SEI
My role in this account is mostly creative direction, design strategy, and UX/UI tasks. The UX/UI portion will be led by Olaia, while the design strategy and direction will be led by Cam (joining the account!).
UX/UI Tasks
- Fresh Service Requests: coming from any consultant asking for support for a webinar, event, etc. We always try to create new pages in a way that makes sense within the website architecture and reusing existing modules to avoid dev work, although sometimes a modification is needed and that's fine. Depending on the task, Val and Olaia will need to work together to figure out how to approach copy and design of the page.
- New Ideas: things like the Jargon Decoder, the digital QBR, or discover.sei.com. Coming from strategy calls with Patrick where ideas of things we could do on the website are presented for multiple business development purposes. These can be more time consuming — add dev resources as needed. Ideation will probably come from Rebecca and/or Cam, bringing in Olaia as needed if it entails web work so she can be aware and involve dev as needed.
- We already have some ideas from the RFP that we could implement next — view presentation →
Design Strategy
- We are shifting the way we approach this account to have a more strategic focus on what makes sense for them as a business and how we can support the different Locations and their needs. We have received feedback that some LOCs are not really relying on Terra for their marketing efforts and we want to turn that around.
- The strategy around how to approach this account is something that Remy and Nat will be leading. The expectation is that Cam and Rebecca stay close and actively participating in ideation.
Graphic Design
- Ad hoc requests are already working properly with Cami and Maddie tackling as they come. We should be extra careful and add a layer of QA to everything we deliver — Cam can help with this.
- The shift we need to make is to treat every deliverable as an opportunity to engage with new consultants/locations and prove our worth. Not only executing on exactly what they are requesting but also asking the right questions: Is this the right format? What are you trying to accomplish with this task?
- Something we should think about is refreshing the templates for collateral since we've been using the same ones since the rebrand in 2024. For some special requests (specially Patrick's), we've been playing around with improved decks, PDFs, and overall aesthetics. I think it's a good idea to lean into that more and figure out a way to revamp our most-used templates.
Full onboarding doc coming soon.
Talkdesk
Currently handling the CRO scope with Luis and UX/UI design improvements. Olaia has been onboarded to the account and is already performing tasks, so she should be fine to handle while I'm out.
CRO Scope
- There is a backlog of potential tests and design improvements. However, we tend to prioritize other tasks Duarte sends over (e.g. Use Cases page, Blog Single) — this should continue. We should be covered with the backlog + their requests for my leave, so I don't anticipate them asking for net new test ideas.
- Internal process for a new test:
- Olaia to think of initial ideas/tests and touch base with Luis for his thoughts and inputs. If copy is needed, work with Mikala.
- Olaia to share ideas with the client in a meeting or async — check with Isa on what makes more sense per case.
- Once client approves, Olaia to update the Backlog with Luis' help for metrics and work with Dalila to implement on the CMS as needed.
- Once the client approves the CMS version, push live and work with Luis to set up the test properly and start tracking it.
- Check in with the client on test status on the weekly call + upcoming tests and ideas.
- Full offboarding doc →
Clara
My current role is overall Creative Direction. No need for a 1:1 replacement as it's more a matter of Juan and Cam working together and making sure the design side of the project flows smoothly.
Website Project
- Juan to keep working closely with Cate, Christina, and Nat to ensure the releases are happening on time and Josh's feedback is addressed as much as possible.
- Juan and Mara to keep in close touch to make sure the website evolves accordingly and consistently as we add more pages and complexity to it.
Locus Robotics
My current role is overall Creative Direction. No need for a 1:1 replacement as it's more a matter of the entire design team working together and making sure the design side of the project flows smoothly.
Graphic Design Requests
- Cami and Maddie owning this currently — I'm just checking some deliverables every now and then but I think they will be fine without me.
- If there's a sensitive deliverable that needs extra eyes, please ask Bethany to take a look.
Motion Design Requests
- Ilus owning this mostly, with Seb's guidance (especially when it relates to 3D). They have worked directly with the client so they should be fine.
- Important to check in with Isa when it comes to timelines to make sure projects are viable.
Website Updates
- Still no news from Ashley on which web updates they'd like to make — there is a possibility we won't be making any before I leave.
- They have an Elementor website and could ask for asset updates or section redesigns (with their current dev contractor). If this happens and it's not just an asset swap handleable by Graphic Design, pull in Olaia for support.
Upsell Opportunity
Remy is talking to Kait about opportunities for upsell — the most interesting being re-doing their website. If this happens, Olaia will need to be pulled in. She can decide who works with her, but she should be the client-facing person.
Stifel IB
My current role is overall design strategy, which is something that Olaia and Aaron will be able to take on themselves — no need for a 1:1 replacement on this account.
Website Project
- Olaia is already owning the UX/UI and client presentations and this is already going smoothly.
- When the time comes for copy and asset edits, we will need to rely on Christina and Cam respectively to handle this with the client and within the CMS once stage links are ready. Olaia can guide on how to do them.
- Cam to reach out to Fla for support as needed to make sure we hit our deadlines.
DAT
On this account I'm in charge of handling UX/UI design on different tasks that show up infrequently.
Landing Pages Design
Sometimes we get asked to create net new LPs or iterate on existing ones. Asks come from Aaron and/or Ben, who then show the work to the client — design is not client-facing here. Development can happen internally (working with Diego on Landingi) or externally (client's dev team). Check with Aaron/Ben before starting to clarify, and if we need to develop, check with Diego on components and feasibility before sharing anything.
Useful Links
- Active Figma file — please create a new page per task.
- Archive Figma file — old stuff in here that could be helpful.
Abbott
No action needed while I'm out since I'm not actively working on this account.
ProsperOps
I'm currently working with Juan on the rebuild of their website. No need for a replacement — Juan will be handling UX/UI with the support of María and Eli.
Website Project
- In theory we should receive all the design files throughout May for dev to work during June, targeting a June 29th launch date.
- It will be crucial for Juan to keep an eye on how the design files are handed and collaborate with ProsperOps and FocusLab as needed to get things to the finish line for implementation.
- Important to lean on María to flag inconveniences as early as possible so we have fewer blockers in development.
- Once the web is launched, we should take a pass at adding more animations and interactions — we're keeping things simple now to hit the deadline.
- After launch, Juan to tackle any web updates needed in our retainer contract (new components or modules — similar approach to how we work with Ren).
Terra
I'm handling UX/UI tasks for the Terra website currently, and all the ones in flight should be done before my leave. Ideally, the only website updates that should happen while I'm out is the creation of new work pages.
Work Pages
- Moni to follow the usual process. Once copy is done, she should assign the task to Bethany to figure out which designer has bandwidth to tackle.
- Once assets and copy are done, Moni should assemble the page and share with Remy for approval.
- Sizzle Reels: once the motion team delivers a new one, Moni to replace the hero asset on the corresponding work page.
Other Updates
- Bio pages: dev work will be done but Mikala will need to work on creating the copy and uploading for a set of team members.
- Work Index: Cam and Seb to curate the work index page and figure out which cards could feature a video instead of a static image — either create the asset or re-use an existing one. Then upload to the site or ask Moni for help.
- Services pages: all should be set before I leave. If any copy changes are required, Mikala can handle on the backend directly.
Support Jimmy Lai
This is not a super active account on the UX/UI front but sometimes I'm asked to do web updates.
Website Updates
Esti to work with María and Amanda to handle any updates the client requests. They are pretty infrequent and quite straightforward.
Manager Tasks
As part of her new role as Associate Creative Director and to cover for my leave, Bethany will be performing the following tasks:
15five check-ins for her team + Ty, Cam, and Olaia
Bi-weekly 1:1s with her team + Ty, Cam, and Olaia
Monthly roster updates, with inputs from Cam and Olaia as design managers
Hosting weekly Design syncs on Mondays
Hosting monthly Create & Connect meetings
Hosting Design Leads Sync with Cam and Olaia, checking in on team goals, resourcing, project priority, etc.
Troubleshooting and staffing RFPs/pitch deck support
Attending Client Health monthly meetings with PMs + Remy, María, and Nat
Attending weekly Design Leadership meetings w/Remy, flagging concerns about the team, bandwidth, upcoming projects, and overall team status.
Resourcing
The resourcing plan stays as defined in the spreadsheet. No new hires expected while I'm out except for three already in motion:
Senior Graphic Designer — US, reporting to Bethany
Motion Designer — EU, reporting to Cameron
UX/UI Designer — Spain, reporting to Olaia
Fla is actively covering some clients. If more hours are needed, Bethany reaches out to check bandwidth and coordinates directly with her.
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