Building and Scaling your Design Team

How do you do your best work? A lot of this conference is devoted to the matter of “craft” - of becoming a better designer, a better developer and so on. However, how do you do your best work when part of a larger team? Throwing more people at the problem is not always the solution; and design management has historically been worse than other types of management. Most business leaders aren’t designers, and many design leaders have risen due to their proficiency in the practice of their craft - not because of their managerial, emotional or operational skills.

This talk is an attempt to provide an answer to that question. What structures do you need? What new processes does one put in? How do you ensure that designers (designers are often hyper-sensitive to the imposition of structure and restraint) do not chafe against these? What organisational structures are right at different points in a company’s growth?

Transcript

1. Building and Scaling The Design Organisation Rahul Gonsalves • Obvious
2. Why is this interesting?
3. Introducing Myself • Built and scaled uncommon to a team of 30+ • Worked with 100+ clients across tens of verticals • Worked with almost every Indian unicorn • Regularly help our clients today in-source and scale their own design teams and capabilities • More info: obvious.in
4. The 12 Qualities of Effective Design Organisations
6. Foundations Output Management
7. A Shared Sense of Purpose 1/
8. Focused and Empowered Leadership 2/
9. Authentic User Empathy 3/
10. Understand, articulate and create value 4/
11. Foundations Output Management
12. Support the entire journey 5/
13. Deliver at all levels of scale 6/
14. Establish and uphold standards of quality 7/
15. Value delivery over perfection 8/
16. Foundations Output Management
17. Treat team members as people, not resources 9/
18. Diversity of perspective and background 10/
19. Foster a collaborative environment 11/
20. Manage operations effectively 12/
21. Foundations Output Management
22. Design Org Evolution
23. Stage 1: The Initial Pair
24. HoD PD Head of Design Product Designer Creative Managerial Operational (Still a Maker)
25. Stage 2: A Full Team
26. HoD PD Head of Design PD PD PD CD CS Communication Designer Content Strategist
27. Stage 3: Design Team to Design Organisation
28. HoD PD PD PD PD CD CS Communication Designer Content Strategist Voice and Tone Content Structure Copywriting Visual Designer Online/Offline Brand Information Design
29. PD PD PD CD HoD PD PD TL CD CS People Person Domain Expertise Generative Evaluative UX Researcher
30. Stage 4: Coordination and Complexity
31. UX Researcher PD PD PD CD HoD PD PD TL CD CS
32. PD PD TL CS PD PD PD DM CS CD PD PD PD DM CD CS UXR UXR SD PM HoD Strategy and Structure Integrates across Teams Communication Organisational Effectiveness Operations
33. Stage 5: Distributed Leadership
34. PD PD TL CS PD PD PD DM CS CD PD PD PD DM CD CS UXR UXR SD PM HoD
35. PD PD TL CS PD UXR UXR SD PM HoD PD PD DM CD CS PD PD DM CD CS PD PD PD DM CD CS PD PD PD TL CS PD PD PD DM CD CS UXR UXR HR DD DD CT CT PM SD CrD
36. PD PD TL CS PD UXR UXR SD PM HoD PD PD DM CD CS PD PD DM CD CS PD PD PD DM CD CS PD PD PD TL CS PD PD PD DM CD CS UXR UXR HR DD DD CT CT PM SD CrD Oversees a number of teams/processes Integrates across Teams Solely focused on creative leadership Establishes Quality Standards Leads Research Team Insight Hub Prototypes new experiences Not front-end dev - looks at design tool gaps/opportunities
37. Design Roles Leadership • Head of Design • Design Manager/Director • Creative Director • Team Lead • Director of Research • Director of Design Program Individual Contributors • Product Designer • Communication Designer • Content Strategist • UX Researcher • Service Designer • Design Program Manager • Creative Technologist
38. Professional Growth • Levels and Career Paths • Core Design Skills • The Myth of the Design • The Manager vs Maker Path • Design Community Participation and Leadership • Growth through the org • Climb the corporate trellis, not a ladder
39. Design Hiring • Establishing Headcount - A Black Art (~1:5/10) • Recruiting - don’t do it like the other kids • ABR - Always Be Recruiting • Schools/Training Programs • Career Fairs • Internships • External Recruiting/Evaluation Help • Not a sprint, but an ultra-marathon
40. Acknowledgements • Ideas/Further Reading: • Org Design for Design Orgs, Peter Merholz and Kristin Skinner • The Mythical Man-Month, Frederick Brooks • The Cathedral and the Bazaar, Eric S. Raymond • Design is a Job, Mike Monteiro • Creative Strategy and the Business of Design, Douglas Davis • The International Journal of Design (IJD) • Icons: The Noun Project
41. @gonsalves_r rahul@obvious.in calendly.com/gonsalves obvious.in