Red Hat

Product Management, Operations Analysis, UX.

Project Overview

• Role & Duration: Product Management and Digital Accessibility Intern, 3 months.
• Team: Digital Product Management.
• Goal: Develop Red Hat's accessibility program.
• Tools: Google Workspace (Gemini, NotebookLM, etc.), Figma, WAVE.

Summary

Red Hat was developing an accessibility program that needed to be standardized accross a large company of 20,000+ employees. I was tasked with identifying operational gaps with accessibility in employee workflows across the product development lifecycle. This included user interviews, data analysis, competitive analyses and quantitative methods. Additionally, I supported other accessibility initiatives including designing for AI-powered alt-text generators.

Goal

Project Overview

I led a cross-functional research initiative (35+ interviews) and delivered a comprehensive executive report outlining:

• Key workflow breakdowns
• Root cause analyses (handoffs, unclear expectations, tooling gaps)
• Practical, team-level solutions
• Process recommendations for managers and product leads

Presented findings to 80+ stakeholders, including Product leadership and VPs.

Context

Accessibility was recognized as important across teams, but execution varied:

• Identified Red Hat's current accessibility maturity level (by the W3C).
• Unclear ownership between Design, Engineering, QA, etc.
• Accessibility introduced later in product cycles
• Inconsistent documentation and expectations
• Limited visibility into cross-team workflow friction
• Leadership needed a clearer understanding of systemic issues and actionable next steps.

My Role

As a Product Management and Digital Accessibility Intern, I independently owned:

• Research planning and interview design
• Cross-functional stakeholder interviews
• Accessibility reviews across three major products in partnership with lead PMs
• Synthesis of findings
• Development and delivery of executive presentation
• Design of AI-powered accessibility features.

Following my report, my work was used to inform future process improvements.

What I did

My work spanned beyond Product Management.

1. Cross-Functional Research (35+ Interviews) with: product management, engineering, UX, design, content, SEO, accessibility, and more across multiple teams.
2. I identified core issues:
• Unclear Responsibilities: Teams were unsure who was accountable for accessibility decisions at different lifecycle stages.
• Late Integration: Accessibility often addressed during QA rather than during design or planning.
• Manager Expectation Gaps: Accessibility expectations were not consistently reinforced across teams.
• Single Source of Truth: Guidelines existed but were not embedded into sprint or developer workflows.
3. Accessibility Reviews: I conducted accessibility reviews across three major product domains to: Identify compliance risks, surface usability gaps, and highlight patterns across teams. I then presented findings directly to product managers and their teams including engineer and designers, grounding strategic recommendations in concrete examples.
4. I presented my findings in an executive report covering: Key workflow breakdowns, root causes, role-specific solutions, manager-level process recommendations and suggested tooling. I shared my work with 80+ stakeholders including product leadership and VP-level executives.
5. UX Contributions: I completed small design/UX projects to improve accessibility in specific workflows, including attending design reviews with UX teams to gether feedback.

Impact

Although I concluded my internship before long-term metrics were available, the project resulted in:

• Enterprise-wide visibility into workflow breakdowns.
• Clear articulation of systemic accessibility challenges.
• Actionable recommendations for managers and product teams.
• Executive discussion around ownership and process alignment.