Designing for Business Impact: A Transformation Journey at Uber

A design team is hidden in a corner of the company. Cross-functional partners are unsure who to talk to. Confidence is low, and influence is slipping. When Joann Wu stepped into Uber as Vice President and Global Head of Design, she found immense talent without a seat at the table. Three years later, that same team is defining strategy, driving business metrics, and reshaping product experiences for millions. This is the story of how Joann led one of the most significant design transformations inside a modern technology giant.

A Catalyst for Change

Joann opened her talk with a warm introduction, but the story she told was anything but simple. When she joined Uber in January 2022, she inherited a deeply fragmented design organisation. Despite operating at an extraordinary scale, the team itself was operating like an internal agency. Designers were grouped into studios, isolated from product teams and each other. Craft was strong, but influence was small.

With 11 billion trips completed in 2024, 7.8 million active earners, one million merchants, and 175 million monthly active consumers, the scale of Uber’s business demands clarity, alignment and accountability. Yet what Joann found was a design organisation without ownership or a direct line into decision-making.

She began her transformation by listening. Dozens of conversations with designers, researchers, content strategists, and operations partners helped her see past the pixels. The challenge was not talent. It was the system around the talent. Designers felt disconnected from critical conversations, and cross-functional teams struggled to know where to turn. Without shared ownership, collaboration had eroded, and the team’s confidence had withered.

For Joann, the catalyst moment was obvious. Transforming the design organisation was not just necessary. It was urgent.

From Studio Model to Strategic Partnership

In 2022, Joann made the first of several bold moves. She dismantled the studio model and replaced it with an integrated partnership structure, positioning designers directly alongside product, engineering and data teams. What had once been a transactional service provider became a strategic collaborator.

This shift rebuilt trust. Designers were no longer waiting to be invited. They were embedded, accountable and expected to influence. Ownership returned. Relationships strengthened. A shared language began to form.

With this foundation in place, Joann pushed for a unified design culture that aligned with Uber’s company values. Belonging, inclusion, safety and impact were reinforced at every level. She advocated for the rapid adoption of the design system, giving teams consistent, accessible building blocks across every part of the platform. Standardisation liberated designers to focus on solving bigger problems.

By the end of the year, small wins had accumulated into meaningful momentum. The transformation was underway.

The Year of Transformation

In 2023, Joann set an ambitious goal. The design organisation would not only transform itself. It would transform Uber’s product experience and influence the broader company. The team embraced design-led innovation and sharpened its point of view.

One of the most important steps was defining what high-quality product design meant at Uber. Joann established a simple but powerful model based on three intersecting pillars: user value, business impact and craftsmanship. A product could not be considered high quality if it solved only one dimension. This created clarity across the company, replacing subjective arguments with shared expectations.

Designers began leaning in with more confidence. Joann encouraged bravery. Being brave meant making tough UX decisions so users did not have to. It meant saying no with thoughtfulness. It meant stepping into conversations without waiting for permission. And it meant acknowledging what you don’t know, embracing vulnerability and staying committed to growth.

As confidence grew, so did influence. Design became a partner in defining the company vision, work and long-term planning. The team shifted Uber’s internal dialogue from purely metric-driven decision-making to a more balanced, user-centred approach. User wins became synonymous with business wins.

Building a Culture of Insight, Empathy and Craft

Joann’s belief was that culture is not a set of values on a wall. It is a set of behaviours repeated every day. To embed those behaviours, she brought the entire organisation closer to the field.

Each quarter, design, product and engineering teams rode with drivers, shopped with couriers, waited with riders and visited merchants. They learned the pressure of multiple batches, the rhythm of urban delivery, the tension of last-mile logistics and the emotional reality of moving through physical space. These experiences reshaped how the team approached insights, usability and storytelling.

Internally, she expanded peer learning through programmes like Design You, where team members taught skills to each other. The team defined and socialised Uber’s product principles. The principles reinforced thoughtful velocity, long-term thinking, platform consistency and user centricity. The goal was to create a system where designers could operate autonomously without losing alignment.

Vision work also became a core part of how design influenced strategy. Before planning cycles, researchers proactively presented insights to guide roadmaps. Designers created future state prototypes that shaped conversations at the highest levels. By showing what the future could look like, they helped change the direction of the company rather than just respond to it.

Delivering Results at Global Scale

Culture and investment matter, but Joann knew results were what ultimately built credibility. And the results came quickly.

The redesign of the Uber Ride app in 2022 focused on anticipating user needs while staying simple. Whether it was assisting riders who needed wheelchair support, enabling service animals, or creating lifetime use cases for patients and caregivers, the new experience combined accessibility, empathy and innovation in a way that felt unmistakably human.

The team then redesigned Uber Eats in 2023. The work included system simplification, new iconography, improved discoverability and expanded pathways into grocery and retail. It was not a facelift. It was a strategic shift that drove growth, improved booking behaviour and increased retention of high-value users.

Joann highlighted how design shapes the intersection of digital and physical worlds. Features such as forgetful item reminders, safety nudges, EV charging prompts and accessible 3D maps reflect the team’s increasing ability to embed humanity into every interaction.

The team also explored new surfaces, such as in-car tablets that could become companions rather than distractions. Even advertising was reframed as something that could be relevant, useful and delightful.

The most powerful moment she shared was a single notification. A rider stuck in traffic for twenty minutes received an automatic check-in from the system asking if she was okay. She replied with gratitude. It was technology infused with care, and it captured everything Joann believes about design and impact.

A Team Transformed

Joann closed her talk with a simple reminder. Transformation is not a project. It is a journey. In three years, her team moved from a siloed design function to a trusted strategic partner. From low confidence to clear influence. From focusing on craft alone to delivering undeniable business impact.

The transformation shows what becomes possible when a design organisation adopts a brave culture, a shared definition of quality and a relentless commitment to the user.

It also shows what becomes possible when a leader sees the talent in front of her and gives it the structure, voice and opportunity it deserves.

Want to watch the full talk?

You can find it here on UXDX: https://uxdx.com/session/designing-for-business-impact-a-transformation-journey-at-uber1/?utm_source=Website&utm_medium=Blog&utm_campaign=full+talk

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