Case Study 02 · Turnaround Leadership
In ProgressTwo years of work. Zero forward momentum. Executive leadership ready to pull the plug. I had four and a half months to change all of that.
The NextGen Portal is Asurion's internal platform for repair technicians across 700+ uBreakiFix locations nationwide — the tool that powers every repair check-in, device diagnostic, and customer handoff at the store level. After two years of development, it still hadn't shipped. The original platform was buckling under the weight of a growing business, the new one wasn't ready, and executive leadership was openly weighing whether to sunset the initiative entirely.
I was brought in to reset the trajectory. That meant inheriting an unfamiliar codebase, an inherited team with eroded confidence, and a fixed go-live deadline with $380M+ in potential revenue attached to it. With 4.5 months on the clock and 700+ store locations waiting, there was no runway for a slow start.
This wasn't a single problem to solve — it was five, all interlocked. Addressing any one of them in isolation would have failed. The work required holding the full picture while moving fast enough to matter.
Two years of development had produced a real foundation — but it wasn't launch-ready. Finishing, refining, and shipping quickly required a clear-eyed audit of what was done, what was close, and what needed to be cut.
The old technician platform was buckling as the business scaled. It couldn't absorb the volume it was being asked to handle, which made the urgency of the new platform's launch feel existential — not just strategic.
What had been "new" two years ago no longer was. Design system components needed to be updated, simplified, and in some cases removed — without reopening decisions that would derail the timeline.
I stepped into a product space I hadn't worked in before — in-store repair workflows, technician tooling, real-time device diagnostics. Getting credible fast enough to lead, not just manage, was its own deliverable.
Executive leadership was prepared to sunset the project if it missed the April window. There was no fallback position. The go-live date wasn't a goal — it was a condition of survival.
My first move was to listen and audit — not direct. I needed to understand the real state of the work before proposing a path forward. What I found was a team that knew what needed to happen but had lost the structure to make it happen. What followed was a four-part reset.
Audited the full design backlog end-to-end, then realigned each designer to workstreams that matched their strengths. Introduced structured design sprints with explicit deliverables and public accountability — shifting the team from output-focused to outcome-focused.
Drove alignment across design, product, engineering, and store operations. Re-established ownership and decision rights across 47 cross-functional partners — reducing ambiguity that had been silently stalling progress for months.
Transitioned from static design deliverables to build-ready assets. Operationalized Vercel and Cursor to align design intent directly with production code — fewer downstream corrections, shorter iteration cycles, and tighter design–engineering collaboration from day one.
Leveraged the existing design foundation rather than starting over — updated and streamlined UI patterns specifically for technician workflows, and used rapid feedback loops with store teams to validate before expanding. Enabled initial expansion to 200+ locations in phase one.
"When you're brought in to rescue something, trust is the first thing you have to earn — and the fastest way to earn it is to be right about what matters."
Fresh leadership can quickly unlock stalled programs. The work wasn't the problem. The system around the work was. Stepping in with a new structure and clear expectations moved things faster than any individual design contribution.
Assigning work to individual strengths accelerates delivery. Realigning the team to their zones of excellence — rather than inherited assignments — was one of the highest-leverage moves I made in week one.
Shipping in phases builds momentum and trust. Getting something live — even at 200 stores, not 700 — changed the psychology of the team and the confidence of stakeholders. Partial success creates the conditions for full success.
Design–engineering collaboration is the real velocity multiplier. Operationalizing Vercel and Cursor cut handoff friction dramatically. The closer design intent is to production code, the faster and better everything downstream gets.
The Impact
The NextGen Portal launched in 200+ uBreakiFix locations in the first phase — the first meaningful milestone the project had hit after two years of stalled delivery.
Nationwide rollout across all uBreakiFix locations is the April target — transforming the tool that powers every technician interaction at the store level.
The platform underpins the store experience that drives Asurion's repair revenue at scale. Getting it right — and getting it live — was never just a design problem.
After two years without a launch milestone, structured sprints, strengthened handoffs, and strengths-based team alignment restored consistent delivery velocity within weeks.