Teaching Quality

We designed the series using a “Goldilocks” approach, making complex native topics feel approachable, useful, and just-right for a diverse audience of 700+ designers.

As Capital One grew its design org, many designers were assigned to native app work without deep platform

knowledge. Android and iPad experiences were suffering and customer-facing quality declined. I proposed and created WNKF, a weekly 30-minute training series to close knowledge gaps, build confidence, and standardize native design quality across iOS and Android.

Problem

• Capital One’s consumer servicing apps had lost ground in quality, particularly across Android and tablet experiences:
• Many designers lacked native app experience — especially Android.
• Features were breaking in production (e.g., landscape issues, missed accessibility targets).
• Teams were designing mobile apps like mobile web.
• Designers felt uneasy asking questions in reviews or critiques.
• Design reviews consistently flagged the same UX/UI errors across LOBs.

Solution

• I worked with VP-level leadership to carve out a new quality-focused role. From there:
• I created WNKF, a recurring training series focused on platform fundamentals and mobile design best practices.
• Collaborated with a content strategist and junior designer to co-author the curriculum.
• Built a design checklist aligned with Apple HIG and Material Design guidelines.
• Focused early sessions on accessibility, motion, grid structure, and platform behavior differences.
• Tracked attendance, feedback, and cross-referenced with design QA results to target training gaps.
• Designed every class to be inclusive and “just right” in complexity using the Goldilocks Test (our narrative model for accessible teaching).

So, how do you measure the success or failure of something like this? Well, it wasn’t easy and I had to look at several metrics.

Our attendees

1. I took detailed attendance. Using the tools in Zoom, I could track everyone that joined, how long they stayed and when they dropped.
2. In a spreadsheet, I tracked:
   • each person that attended a session,
   • where they aligned (Design/Product/Engineering and line of business)
   • how long they stayed on the call
   • who accessed the recording of the session that was posted immediately after the call.

Design was required to bring any new flows through a review process. There was a well documented checklist that product and design could use as a guide to ensure the work aligned with the design system and its respective platform.

From weekly design reviews

1. I meticulously tracked design review results and feedback – documenting specific line items that didn’t pass review.
2. I tracked the project, line of business and designer.
3. During training sessions I would sometimes pivot and address problem areas that arose in reviews.
4. Over time, I began to cross reference and compare the collected data.

WNKF began as a response to a design quality gap and became an embedded part of how Capital One upskills its product teams. It fostered a culture of curiosity, inclusion,

and shared accountability. By prioritizing accessibility in both design and education, we raised the bar for experience quality across the organization.