During the 4 years I was on Teamfight Tactics I was given the wonderful opportunity to lead a few major mechanics/sets for the Visual Design team. In this example, I officially lead the Cyber City set! I’ve included snippets of my process below which isn’t fully exhaustive but include:

• Set the Direction — establishing the cyberpunk visual language and getting the team aligned early.

• Lead the Process — cross-functional ownership, scope management, art gates, documentation, and workflow improvements.

• Drive the Outcome — player sentiment, hours played, cross-disciplinary recognition, and the team's ability to ship with stronger alignment.

UI Design Leadership & Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Led UI design execution for Cyber City, serving as a primary point of contact specifically for Visual Design and Motion Design disciplines. Much of the work outlined below showcases how I guided the team to help establish the visual direction. Please note, all work was done by: Ilaria Cogo (Visual Design), Bailey Kalesti (UI Lead), Barry Harbour (Motion Design), and me in a limited capacity.

• Established clear creative direction while preserving team autonomy, using concise one-sheet design briefs and iterative feedback to align stakeholders without unnecessarily constraining designers and artists vision while allowing room for creative iteration and discovery.

• Leveraged and expanded upon a repeatable UI/Visual Design collaboration process, including Jira ticket organization, poker planning, estimation, feedback loops, and cross-disciplinary checkpoints. This helped reduce scope creep while maintaining creative flexibility.

• Created presentation decks and supporting documentation to provide visibility into design progress, open risks, and upcoming decisions, ensuring both leadership and Art Director stakeholders remained aligned.

• Maintained documentation and meeting notes that supported not only the core UI team but also external and cross-functional partners, improving continuity and reducing ambiguity throughout production.

• Onboarded an external partner into the team's tools, workflows, expectations, and feedback processes, helping them quickly integrate into an established production environment.

Player & Business Impact

• The visual and thematic direction established for Cyber City set had resonated beyond the team's initial expectations, demonstrating that the design language successfully connected with audiences outside the team's anticipated initial estimations based on research from previous player sentiment.

• Set 14 saw an approximately 30% increase in overall player sentiment, representing a significant positive shift in player reception.

• At the time of evaluation, Cyber City achieved the highest hours played of any set, providing a strong signal that the overall experience and thematic direction were resonating with players.

• The success of the set demonstrated the value of establishing clear thematic direction early, aligning cross-functional teams around that direction, and protecting creative execution from while limiting production churn.