The situation
The UX practice lost its director for five months, and its executive had never worked with a UX team.
Aflac is an insurance company, and its UX practice is a 14-person group of designers and researchers. The practice had recently moved under the CTO, who had not worked with a UX team before. In March 2025 the director left, and the role stayed open until July.
The design manager, the research manager and I all reported to the CTO, and I had no formal authority over either manager. I had joined in January, so I was about two months in and new to the company while leading. The CTO asked me to help run the practice during the search, and for anything UX-related he came to me first. I led the way I have led before, through influence rather than title. My first management role came about the same way, when a director noticed I was already leading people who reported to someone else.
The practice needed steady direction, someone to make budget, vendor and prioritization decisions and a way to make sure the CTO understood what the team did. We did not meet with him often, so time with him was limited.
Aligning my peers
I started a weekly meeting with my two peers that the incoming director kept.
Three of us were leading one practice with no single owner. I started a weekly meeting with the design manager and the research manager so we had a shared picture of what each of us was seeing and a way to support each other. A regular cadence did the work that authority would otherwise have done. The director who joined kept the meeting going.
Helping the CTO understand UX
I helped a CTO who had never worked with a UX team understand what UX is and the value it brings.
With the two managers, I set out to help the CTO understand what UX is, what the team does and how it brings value to software. I organized the effort, asked for time with him, led the sessions and made sure each manager had room to share their own view rather than filtering everything through me. The sessions were infrequent.
By the time the new director joined, the CTO had a working understanding of what UX is, what the team does and the value it brings to software. The director thanked the three of us for that groundwork. I cannot say the sessions protected the team from anything. My reasoning is that an executive who understands what a team does is better placed to judge its value.
Keeping the practice resourced
I found and returned $162k of unused spend after checking that no one needed it.
Running the practice meant running its budget, which was the clearest part of the director function I picked up. Reviewing the budget with finance, I found $162k in misallocated and unused spend: budget allocated to unused items, software we did not need and a vendor contract we did not need. I returned it to the broader pool. Some of the savings supported the team's tools and training.
For the contract, I did due diligence before deciding. I looked for everyone who might use the tool and checked whether it held data worth keeping. Only two people knew about it, and both said it was not in use. I then decided to cancel it and worked with procurement.
I also worked with the two peer managers to rebalance staff between two workstreams of one project. One workstream was overloaded with people and the other was short-handed. We agreed the rebalance together, and the team that gained staff could do research and some prototyping to understand a problem. That result was not large.
Hard calls
I advised a peer without taking their decision and made the case for a senior hire that was approved but not filled.
A peer's people decision. A peer manager asked for a second opinion on a difficult people decision. I had no authority over them, so I offered a view and left the decision with them. I argued that the response should match the outcome they actually wanted, since escalating early can close off options a direct conversation keeps open.
A senior hire. I made the case to the CTO for an added senior researcher role, and he approved it. The search was run well, but the role closed before it was filled. On a search like that I would push harder for speed, though I cannot say it would have changed the outcome.
Outcome
$162k of unused spend returned, a weekly meeting the new director kept and a CTO who understood what UX contributed.
The results are modest, and the $162k is the only hard number. The CTO's working understanding of UX is my read, supported by the director's thanks. The limit is the senior researcher role, which was approved and then closed before it was filled.
What I learned
Leading without the title runs on trust and on showing up the same way every day.
- A cadence does the work of authority. A regular weekly conversation kept three people leading one practice aligned.
- Help executives see the value of the team. It is part of leading a team, especially when its leader is missing.
- Check before you cut. Unused spend is easy to miss, and the due diligence is what makes the decision safe.
- Offer a view and leave the decision with its owner. Without authority, that is the useful move.