“Design Friends”

At BRQ Marketing, I tackled a critical operational bottleneck: process inefficiency caused by incomplete briefings and stalled approvals. By combining DesignOps principles with gamification strategies, I transformed a friction-heavy workflow into an engaging, high-performance system that rewarded clarity and speed.

The design team faced significant friction due to poor quality briefings and a lack of process engagement from stakeholders. Tasks were often outdated, and approval cycles were excessively long—in extreme cases, taking up to 254 days to approve a simple template. The objective was to standardize inputs while simultaneously motivating the marketing team to adopt better practices.

We approached efficiency as a behavior design challenge. I spearheaded the creation of a standardized, automated intake system within Monday.com, integrating specific gamification rules.

Automation: We configured logic to track briefing completeness and task status updates automatically.

Gamification: We assigned point values to desired behaviors (e.g., +1 point for a complete briefing) and displayed a real-time ranking. This culminated in the "Design Awards", an end-of-year event acknowledging the most effective collaborators.

The gamified approach proved that structure and fun can coexist to drive results. By incentivizing best practices, we drastically reduced friction and achieved a significant culture shift towards a more motivated and efficient team. The project transformed the daily workflow, creating an environment where the team was better enabled to accelerate results.