co:lab – Building a team from the scratch

UOL, the largest Brazilian company in the digital content, technology, and services industry, serves over 2.5 million subscribers and is the global leader in Portuguese-language content, with more than 7.4 billion monthly page views and 114 million unique visitors each month.

In 2015/2016, UOL’s design team, which supported its services division, underwent a major restructuring inspired by the Spotify model. During this time, I took on a new challenge: building a team from scratch with a completely new role.

The process was demanding, requiring significant time and effort, and the early days were far from easy. But looking back, I’m incredibly proud of my personal journey and what we accomplished as a team. Within just a few years, we became a company benchmark—not just for the quality of our work but also for our innovative approach, daily routines, team culture, and collaborative environment.

IMPACT
  • Trained and influenced over 200 collaborators through workshops and meetings that shared design knowledge and experiences.
  • Delivered and contributed to more than 20 projects across 10+ areas, including marketing, HR, content, finance, technology, and product.
  • Achieved one of the lowest turnover rates in the company, with an average team tenure 2+ years.
Role and contribution

I led and managed this multidisciplinary team through its entire evolution until my departure from the company. In collaboration with the team lead, I co-developed a feedback model that was eventually adopted by other teams across the organization.

SKILS: strategic thinking . organization . facilitation . creativity . leadership. management . empathy . active listening

challenge

Initially, the challenge was not just to create a team but also to foster a sense of community among designers and others passionate about design within the company. Along the way, we uncovered the core question at the heart of this challenge:

  • How can we help team members feel fulfilled at co:lab, while recognizing their identity and importance in the UOL ecosystem?
  • How can we help team members feel fulfilled at co:lab, while recognizing their identity and importance in the UOL ecosystem?

Another major challenge was managing complex projects that impacted multiple products simultaneously.

As the team grew, we faced an additional challenge: scaling while preserving the culture we had built and ensuring our work continued to have a direct and meaningful impact on the company’s products.

Aproach and process

There’s no one-size-fits-all process for building a team. Success depends on the people, the context, and the team’s history. The key is understanding the situation and adapting to what’s needed at the time.

Here are the steps and processes I followed, often co-created with the team lead:

overline

Experimentation

Tried different approaches and learned from each iteration. It was a challenging period, and we struggled at first, but those early difficulties were essential for our later success.

overline

Pause, Reflect, Reorganize

Led a week-long process using the design sprint framework combined with design thinking principles to pause, reflect, understand, and realign our direction.

overline

Foundation

Built a strong foundation by establishing a shared purpose, defining team culture, and identifying strengths, leveraging tools from Hyper Island’s course “Leading Teams”.

Our foundation

With a clear purpose, defined culture, and strong understanding of our role, personalities, and skills, we evolved our team, creating a new space and fostering renewed confidence and a positive environment.

Our purpose
Our Brand Identity
Our Voice and Tone
overline

Routine

Implemented agile workflows for projects and team discussions while hosting regular internal workshops to promote collaboration.

Our evolution

To foster continuous development, we established routines and dedicated discussions for reflection, shaping our communication style and establishing a unified voice for collaborating with partners and clients.

overline

Feedback

Co-developed a feedback process that became a regular practice inside the team and was eventually adopted by other teams.

Individual development

Recognizing the strength and diversity of our individuals, we mapped skills and interests to leverage strengths and foster organic growth. Working in pairs or trios, we nurtured new skills and passions through a culture of feedback, guidance, and shared responsibility for individual development.

Skills Mapping Workshop
Feedback and Growth Framework
overline

Roadmap

Co-created a roadmap prioritizing team and individual growth, treating it with the same importance as other project deliverables.

REsult

Together with the lead and the team, we built a multidisciplinary group that became widely recognized throughout the company. Our work influenced numerous areas and projects, while team members grew significantly in their roles and skills.


Even after moving on to different companies, the team’s strong bond endured. Their feedback about that time remains consistently positive, underscoring the lasting impact of our work.

Learning and reflections

This journey was truly transformative for me. I had to reinvent myself and grow in completely new ways. While it’s hard to capture everything I learned, here are some key takeaways:

  • Be more open and resilient.
  • Foster a safe, empathetic space for collaboration.
  • Create a plan that supports both team and individual growth.
  • Know when to make decisions independently and when to empower the team to decide together.
  • Embrace mistakes as an essential part of learning.
  • Accept that there will be moments of loneliness.
  • Understand that your team might not always feel like your tribe, and it’s important to connect with other leaders to find your support network.
  • Balance daily responsibilities with long-term strategic thinking.
  • Build strong relationships with different areas and leaders to encourage collaboration and growth.
  • You won’t always have all the answers, and you’ll need to learn to navigate uncertainty by trusting the tools and processes to help you find them.

Leading a team is demanding, but it’s incredibly rewarding. For me, a team is one of the most important projects you can take on. It requires focus, prioritization, space, routines, resilience and hard work. Along the way, you’ll experience a wide range of emotions—joy, sadness, frustration, and fulfillment—all of which contribute to a constant and meaningful learning process.