How a Design Can Shape Outstanding Work
Harnessing the wild spark of design into crafted excellence
What makes for an effective design team?
The most effective design leaders create environments where creativity flourishes while maintaining consistent quality output. I think it's all a balancing act between structure with creative freedom, nurturing talent, and championing the team's work throughout the organization. Here's what I think is important to ensure that success and some things I try to do early on when I join a company.
Set clear expectations and timelines
First, establish clear expectations and processes. Design teams thrive when objectives and success metrics are well-defined. Create documented workflows and quality standards that provide guardrails without stifling creativity. This clarity helps team members understand their roles and how their work contributes to broader goals and well established expectations help out if work is not up to par.
Remove all ambiguity
Designers exist to find direction when it isn't necesarrily there. For that reason - it's really important to remove as much ambiguity as early as possible. This is best done through workshops, conversations, PRDs and just putting early concepts down on paper.
One job at a time
It's faster to do five projects in a row than to work on the same five different projects at once. Eliminate context switching and allow designers to immerse themselves fully in the problem they are trying to solve. If a designer is unclear of what their priorities are - then leadership has failed at articulating their vision and success metrics.
Create a "light weight" and honest culture that encourages problem solving over designer evaluation.
Prioritize quick desk checks over big presentations. Designer's don't do their best work when they are worried about being evaluated so keep them and their designs focused on the problem. It leads to faster solutions and a more fun atmosphere.
Build a team with complimentary skills.
Everyone should be able to teach someone else something (and they should!), but you want experts and people who can give the final say in a few key areas on a design team.
I try to have a designer on my team who can say they are a:
Design Systems Expert
UX Copy Expert
Interaction / Animation Expert
Illustration or Photography expert
Accessibility Expert
Architecture Expert
And then depending on the product - it might require a:
Growth Expert
Dashboard Expert
Branding Expert
Do things in person
Zoom is not great for designers and other creative fields. You want the ability for people to talk about problems on the fly, go on walks together and grab a whiteboard when creativity strikes.
As few meetings as possible
With well defined timelines, structure and priorities - the meetings should flow naturally and work should be getting reviewed almost daily because designers are quickly iterating and adjusting as feedback comes in.
Invest in your teams growth
There are a few key ways to help a designer level up and enjoy their time working at your company.
Education - either problem specific like design systems at memorisely or a more high level class like learn figma
Connect them to designers at other companies who have solved similar problems - sites like intro.com are great for that.
Find other people at the company who are already experts in the field and set up time for them to work together and learn from eachother.
Give them opportunities on products that require them to learn new skills (this is happening in AI right now)
Create growth plans that they actually stick to
Encourage thought leadership and publishing
Create spaces where learning and sharing are encouraged (a moment in a weekly where people show the cool things they have seen, a slack group where people can post articles)
Advocate for your team within the organization
Communicate the value of design to stakeholders, secure necessary resources, and create space for design to influence strategic decisions. When design leaders successfully position their function as essential rather than decorative, teams gain the influence needed to deliver truly excellent work.
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