Workflow & systems advisory for design teams · St John Street, Clerkenwell, London & Manchester
020 7946 0831 Diagnostic inquiry & sprint intake ↓

Northstar Operations Studio

Eliminate operational friction so design teams can focus on craft.

Sarah Chen and Tom Vance diagnose broken studio handoffs, fragmented tools, and messy documentation. We run time-boxed two-week sprints that leave your team with clean, documented operational habits.

Diagnostic sprints & advisory

Fixed-scope operational engagements designed to solve specific bottlenecks without open-ended billing.

  • Two-week diagnostic sprint £4,200

    2 weeks · Deep-dive audit into design-to-engineering handoffs, tool sprawl, and designer onboarding friction with working runbooks

  • Six-week system overhaul £9,800

    6 weeks · Complete restructuring of issue tracking, component governance, delivery runbooks, and cross-functional team habits

  • Tooling consolidation sprint £3,600

    10 days · Audit and consolidation of fragmented software stacks across Notion, Linear, Figma, and Slack into unified conventions

  • Design onboarding architecture £2,400

    1 week · Structured 30-day onboarding pathways, role-based checklists, and video walkthrough libraries reducing ramp time

  • Quarterly advisory review £1,200 / mo

    3 months · Monthly 90-minute operational retrospectives and async architecture review for studio design leaders

All sprints have agreed start and end dates with tangible deliverables. No slide decks that sit unread.

From the owners

Ten years structuring delivery pipelines and tooling handoffs for digital product teams.

Sarah Chen Partner · workflow architecture

Specialises in reducing tool sprawl, building runbooks, and internal team enablement.

Tom Vance Partner · documentation & tooling

Whiteboard with neatly taped index cards, wireframe sketches, and column outlines under warm studio lights

Two colleagues reviewing a laptop screen at a standing timber bench with pens and swatches

House standards

The deliverable is working software, not slides

We do not leave you with a 90-page report. We build working Linear templates, Notion team runbooks, and three-minute video guides tested with your actual practitioners.

Prerequisites before kickoff

We require read access to your workspace tools and four 30-minute interviews with practicing designers and engineers. If access cannot be granted, we postpone the sprint.

No perpetual retainers

Our goal is to make ourselves unnecessary within six weeks. We train an internal workflow champion who maintains the conventions long after our engagement concludes.

Async-first communication

We work alongside your team in your existing tools with structured weekly demo video updates, avoiding disruptive all-hands meetings.

How a two-week sprint runs

  1. 1

    Diagnostic intake

    You share your current tool stack, team scale, and primary handoff bottlenecks via our intake form.

  2. 2

    Workspace access & interviews

    We conduct four 30-minute discovery interviews across design, product, and engineering.

  3. 3

    Live architecture sprint

    We map information flows, eliminate duplicate tooling, and draft concrete runbooks in your production workspaces.

  4. 4

    Team walkthrough & champion handover

    We lead a practical 60-minute handover session, publish async walkthroughs, and equip your internal lead.

Common enquiries

How much of our team's time will the sprint take?

Around four hours total per participant across the fortnight: one 30-minute discovery interview, one 45-minute draft review, and the final 60-minute handover walkthrough.

Which tool ecosystems do you work across?

Primarily Figma, Linear, Notion, GitHub, Slack, and Jira. We focus on clear conventions and connection points between tools rather than forcing tool migrations.

What happens if our team needs adjustments after the sprint?

Every sprint includes two weeks of asynchronous support via Slack or email to tweak templates and answer edge cases during live adoption.

What size team is this best suited for?

Studios and in-house product design teams between 5 and 40 practitioners experiencing friction between fast shipping and clear documentation.

Diagnostic inquiry & sprint intake

Share your primary operational bottleneck to see if a diagnostic sprint matches your team's current stage.

e.g. tried migrating between tools or drafting internal guidelines that were not followed

Optional, if you prefer an introductory phone conversation.