Our global Amazon Payment Products design teams across North America and Europe were operating independently, creating misaligned goals, duplicated efforts, and limited cross-product innovation. We had never convened as a unified global design organization, creating an urgent need to establish alignment and shared direction.

I was responsible for leading the planning and execution of our first Global Payments Design Summit, bringing together 28 designers across regions to drive alignment, establish shared goals, and create a foundation for ongoing global collaboration.

I built a cross-functional planning committee, designed a four-day summit agenda balancing workshops, training, and collaboration, and implemented structured formats to ensure productive outcomes. I introduced pre-summit surveys to surface priority topics, facilitated organization-wide goal-setting and product working sessions, brought in external speakers for specialized learning, and created unified branding and documentation systems to reinforce cohesion and capture outputs.

The summit achieved full participation and produced clear 2024 organizational goals, product roadmaps, and ownership plans. We established quarterly global check-ins, shared communication channels, and repeatable summit templates to sustain collaboration. Post-event surveys saw 90% response rates, with teams reporting stronger alignment, reduced duplication, and a clear path forward for cross-product innovation:

• 95% of participants said the summit increased their job satisfaction.

• 90% said they planned to collaborate with someone new across APP design.

• 100% reported they felt inspired by the summit’s design leadership.

• Breakout sessions generated tangible product outputs, from top-of-page design explorations to 88 new header ideas across credit card applications.

• Due to the success, Design Leadership committed to making the Global Design Summit an annual event with an expanded planning committee moving forward.