Case study

Scaling an operations function: Building the foundations for growth

At Zendesk, operational support for UX research was initially reactive, informal, and scattered across teams. To enable research at scale, the foundations of a formal operations function were established — including playbooks, SOPs, hiring processes, competency frameworks, and cross-functional training. These systems didn’t just support immediate team needs — they created a long-term structure that could flex and grow with the organization.
Outcome
Enabled faster team onboarding and reduced startup time for new roles
Standardized expectations around role scope, output, and collaboration
Created scalable infrastructure to support long-term research growth
Reduced ambiguity and improved accountability across research and partner teams
Supported equitable hiring, evaluation, and development practices
Challenge
As research demand increased, so did the complexity of enabling it. Without dedicated operational infrastructure, collaboration was inconsistent, onboarding was unstructured, and expectations around roles and deliverables varied widely. The team needed shared foundations to scale — without losing sight of quality, clarity, or impact.
The opportunity
The focus was on building a robust operational framework to support team alignment, capacity planning, cross-functional coordination, and growth. This meant codifying the work already happening informally and designing systems to make that work more repeatable, transparent, and sustainable.
Solution overview
01
Team playbooks & SOPs

Developed self-serve resources and templates for core operational tasks — from tooling setup to research intake to recruiting workflows. These documents became part of a living ops manual that reduced dependency on institutional knowledge and enabled consistent execution.

02
Competency frameworks & performance standards

Collaborated with research and people teams to define clear competencies and performance expectations for researchers and ops roles. These frameworks supported hiring, professional development, and equitable evaluations.

03
Hiring & Onboarding Systems

Created end-to-end workflows for hiring and onboarding, including interview plans, candidate scorecards, onboarding checklists, and early-days training. This enabled smoother transitions for new hires and faster ramp-up for embedded team members.

04
Cross-functional enablement

Led ops training sessions and built shared process documentation for partner teams in product, legal, design, and compliance — clarifying how and when to engage with research, and reducing repeated back-and-forth.