Scaling a design function, sure. But how?
Upon my joining, FLYR was a 150-people scale-up with one designer. Yes, correct - one. I grew the team to seven, including a Design System-section.
Although the company grew to 750 people over that same period, I did choose for a centralised approach. Each designer was linked to their own product team, whilst still working with the rest of their design colleagues.
When I joined
Being managed by non-design people is not the ideal situation. There's no strategy. There's no processes. There was too much design work.
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Goes in three ways - my collaboration with the individual designers, - to make them feel at home and to support them. Then supporting the team, facilitating reviews. And obviously, cross-team collaboration: setting up bonds with engineering teams!
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It’s really simple. The better the process, the fewer you need to solve day-by-day. I set up processes working with the dev managers and leads.
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Continuous exploration works great for the design team - the rest of the company also needed a strong design perspective- where should we be going?
Building a Team. Going at it step-by-step
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I started hiring seniors. The FLYR environment is complex, so I first needed people who would challenge the status quo. Second mediors were able to support this approach and the seniors loved coaching them.
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I love having designers fail and solve stuff on their own. I just support when things don’t work out and keep an eye on the time. I talk as little as I can.
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The FLYR designers were full of ambition, - but ambition takes time. I promoted one designer to lead the Design System team, based on the approach “deliver first, then claim your position next”
Happy Team * Yeey *
Happy Team * Yeey *
This is a “high performing, high value team” (quoting the CPO) that’s having a lot of fun :)