Hope Turner

First person to hold this role. Built design operations infrastructure from the ground up for a 109-designer organization spanning 24 teams, with direct CTO/executive engagement and vendor/budget authority — translating agency strategy into the programs, standards, and rituals that keep design aligned and moving.

• Program Ownership & StrategyOwn and drive the enterprise Design System Program end to end, establishing roadmaps, prioritization, and resourcing for a monthly release cycle (components, variables, color systems, templates) serving 24 UX teams without dedicated program staff beyond this role.
• Engagement Models & CollaborationDesigned and lead a cross-team design critique program that created a psychologically safe space for candid design feedback, establishing recurring engagement models between design, engineering, and product leads across the agency's highest-visibility public-facing and case-management systems.
• Design Quality & StandardsAuthored the USCIS Design Quality Playbook and Design Critique Handbook — the first resources of their kind within DHS — establishing the documented standard for design evaluation agency-wide. Built accessibility directly into that governance model rather than treating it as a downstream audit, leading U.S. Web Design System (USWDS) and DHS branding compliance audits with direct designer coaching on remediation.
• Strategic Artifacts & Service DesignLeading the agency's CIO/CTO-commissioned service blueprint initiative, translating applicant and staff journeys (including I-130 and N-400 flows) into strategic artifacts that drive clarity on business outcomes and inform executive decision-making.
• Team Health & AdvocacyIdentified and escalated a critical accessibility gap — no mobile testing coverage — with supporting data and a concrete mitigation path, closing a compliance and legal-risk gap for the agency. Advise procurement and leadership on the design talent, skills, and headcount needed to keep teams appropriately staffed.

Select projects: Enterprise Design System Program, USCIS Design Quality Playbook, Design Critique Handbook, I-130 and N-400 Journey Maps and Service Blueprints, USWDS Compliance Audit

• Designed user journeys and service design deliverables for the Apple Wallet Access product. Audited the Cosmos platform and delivered UX recommendations that streamlined task completion flows and reduced user reliance on Apple support.

Select projects: Apple Wallet Access User Journey, Cosmos Platform UX Audit

• Design GovernanceDrove platform-wide consistency across IBM CloudPak for Automation, establishing documentation standards, leading use-case reviews, and mentoring designers across distributed teams.
• Core-to-ProductionLed transformation of legacy on-premise applications into SaaS experiences, managing the handoff between conceptual design and production delivery teams while maintaining brand integrity.
• AccessibilityServed as Accessibility Focal for IBM CloudPak, running WCAG audits, coaching designers, and embedding accessibility standards into the design process in ways that reduced developer rework and strengthened compliance outcomes.
• Research ProgramBuilt a new research program from scratch, engaging 25+ external client participants within the first year and creating a centralized repository that reduced redundancy across teams.
• Business ImpactSole designer of an interactive Watson AI demo that secured a $16M IBM contract, demonstrating the direct revenue impact of user-centered design at the executive level.
• AI ProductsDesigned AI-powered application prototypes, chatbot interfaces, and custom UX solutions for enterprise clients in the US, Canada, and the UK as part of IBM's Watson Implementations Team.
• Design ThinkingAchieved all badge levels of IBM Enterprise Design Thinking through Coach level — IBM's highest practitioner certification. As part of this work, coached and mentored new IBM Design hires through the Patterns Program, embedding human-centered design methodology across the organization.

Select projects: Watson AI Demo ($16M contract), IBM CloudPak for Automation UX, Watson Implementations (US, Canada, UK), CloudPak Accessibility Program