Organizational transition at Mr Green

Transforming a centralized UX team into an embedded design function – and introducing Mob Design to foster collaboration, trust, and output.

Background

When I joined Mr Green, UX operated as a centralized service – four designers and one researcher spread thin across multiple product verticals and native apps. The result was familiar: high demand, low focus, and constant context switching. Despite being well-intentioned, the setup led to reactive work and diminishing impact. We weren't doing user validation, we weren't influencing roadmaps, and the researcher – though talented – had no real mandate.

My initial brief as UX Manager was simple: improve the output. But it was clear from the start that the challenge was deeper – a structural issue that required rethinking how we worked, not just how we executed.

Listening before changing

I spent my first months observing. I joined leadership meetings, spoke with engineering managers, product owners, developers, and the UX team. I wanted to understand the friction – and build trust. What surfaced repeatedly was a disconnect between design and delivery. Designers were seen as ticket-finishers, not partners. Developers waited on handoffs. PO's didn't have a consistent design collaborator. Everyone wanted better collaboration – but didn't know how to get there.

Having started my career as a developer, I'd lived through this divide. It was clear we needed to move away from the waterfall-by-stealth process we had – where design did "its thing" and then passed it along. Instead, I wanted to bring people together – physically and psychologically – around the work. That's when I wrote the internal doc "Sit together".

Designers as embedded collaborators

The timing was right. With the upcoming 2019 regulatory changes in the gambling industry – one of the largest initiatives the company had ever faced – we needed clarity, ownership, and speed. I proposed shifting to a matrix setup: embedding designers directly in product teams while keeping us connected via a shared UX chapter. We'd go from being a service desk to full-stack team members, co-owning outcomes alongside developers and PMs.

We started small. I embedded myself and one other designer, tracking the impact and sharing progress with leadership. The changes were visible – smoother collaboration, clearer decisions, and a team that could deliver together. As hiring allowed, we extended the model across all teams. Designers were instructed to lead by example – teaching, evangelizing good UX practices, and raising the baseline of understanding around them.

Mob Design: the moment it clicked

As the embedded model took hold, something else emerged – we missed each other. The chapter was strong, and we had great energy when we worked together. Around this time, Woody Zuill gave a talk internally about Mob Programming. The idea sparked something: what if we mobbed on design?

We set up a dedicated space with a large screen. Fridays became Mob Design days. One designer drove the computer, the rest contributed with live feedback, edge cases, and fresh eyes. We rotated every 15 minutes. And crucially – it wasn't just designers. Developers, PMs, even legal joined when needed. We'd run ad hoc sessions during the week if anyone got stuck or wanted input. It became our tool for breaking through blockers, sharing mental models, and remembering that design is supposed to be fun.

I'll never forget the first session where legal joined in and started making real-time comments on a regulatory flow. That moment – watching the team iterate live, with law and product and tech in the same room – was when I knew we had something special.

Reviving research

Our researcher had been in the company for years, but sidelined. I formally promoted her to UX Research Lead and gave her a mandate: "Build research. By the end of the year, I want us to have met our first user." I informed other stakeholders of her new focus and cleared her plate of unrelated tasks to give her space to succeed.

We set up bi-weekly check-ins, and she ran with it. Not one user, but five. She built structure, reached out across the company, and established research as a function. Eventually, research highlights were featured in company-wide meetings – a public recognition of the value she brought. More than that, it changed the language we used. We stopped generalizing and started talking about real people and specific needs.