Given the scope and impact of this initiative, I knew from the beginning I needed to clearly articulate how I was approaching these designs and how that trickled into each design detail.
In practice, that meant being clear at the start of (almost) every interaction with stakeholders and the product/eng. teams what the goals were, what the current state looked like, the constraints we had, and what feedback I needed. It took several meetings to get alignment on several design choices like choice of layout, interaction states, etc., but I made sure to listen, and follow up with meeting summaries/next steps in order to hit the release date.
Even though this sounds like a standard way of working, I've encountered many times where other designers, or other team members did not prep, or follow up enough to ensure a quality outcome to maintain momentum. To me, being a designer in a senior/leadership position entails everything that comes up being a great designer, but also, being a great professional too.
Strategic communication and thorough preparation enabled me to navigate feedback and scope changes while maintaining quality and hitting deadlines. For instance, when the project unexpectedly expanded from new users to all users, my detailed design rationale and clear stakeholder alignment process allowed for quick adaptation that did not derail the timeline and still provided meaningful impact to the business.