I presented this talk together with Ilaria Mauric at Agile Business Day, in Venice on September 15th, 2018. Since 2013, our company has grown from 5 to 16 people. Over the years, we've spent lot of effort to define our values and what we care about when we design. Now we have a shared understanding about how our process works, why it needs specific roles, how each role can evolve from junior to senior, how we can support our team and contribute to a project. The role matrix we have shown is helping us to communicate with our colleagues about their career paths. It is also helping us to see our strengths and weaknesses, to make better business and strategic decisions. The shape of our role matrix is never done and we guess it will keep evolving as our company does.

1. Modeling Roles
Modeling Culture
Agile Business Day
Venezia, September 15th 2018
Agile Business Day
Venezia, September 15th 2018

2. Ilaria Mauric
Head of design
@ilariamauric
Nicolò Volpato
Founder
@nicolovolpato
Agile Business Day
Venezia, September 15th 2018

3. Sarah Nelson
Leading Design 16
London
Agile Business Day
Venezia, September 15th 2018
5 11 20 35 70 150 >150

4. • team of 11
• end of year retrospective
reveals some mismatches
• Agile reset
• team of 5
• clearer vision
• mindset switch
• we start building a
team
• team of 13
• culture and values - round 2
• Talent Canvas
• skills matrix
• we launch our new brand
2013
2004
2016
2017
• team of 8
• we look for a brand
that tells who we are
2015
2018
• 2 people
• small design studio
• team of professionals
who work together
• team of 16 (+1)
• retrospective: how do I
grow? how can I
contribute? how do I
… ?😓
• roles matrix and career
paths
2014
• we start working on
culture and values
as as team
Agile Business Day
Venezia, September 15th 2018

5. Agile Business Day
Venezia, September 15th 2018
5

6. Agile Business Day
Venezia, September 15th 2018
9 - 12

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Venezia, September 15th 2018
12

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Venezia, September 15th 2018
12

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Venezia, September 15th 2018
12

10. Agile Business Day
Venezia, September 15th 2018
Labeling roles is not easy
and is a consequence of our
company culture

12. Agile Business Day
Venezia, September 15th 2018
Internal roles might be different
from the ones we use to advertise
our services on the market

13. Agile Business Day
Venezia, September 15th 2018

14. Roles Culture
Agile Business Day
Venezia, September 15th 2018

15. Agile Business Day
Venezia, September 15th 2018
UX Designer is not a role,
UX is the outcome of team
collaboration and multiple skills

16. Market roles
Seniority
Junior
Mid
Senior
Director
PM SD RES IXD UI DOPS FE TECHGLOBAL
Agile Business Day
Venezia, September 15th 2018

17. Agile Business Day
Venezia, September 15th 2018
Show me the matrix

18. RES IXD UI DOPS FE TECH
Role = skills + responsibilities
SKILLS RESPON.
IXD
Agile Business Day
Venezia, September 15th 2018

19. Agile Business Day
Venezia, September 15th 2018
Junior
Mid
Senior
Director
PM SD RES IXD UI DOPS FE TECHGLOBAL
Interaction Designer Service Designer

20. Agile Business Day
Venezia, September 15th 2018
Mid
Senior
Director
PM SD RES IXD UI DOPS FE TECHGLOBAL
IxD as the foundation
Service Design as an upgrade

21. Agile Business Day
Venezia, September 15th 2018
Junior
Mid
Senior
Director
PM SD RES IXD UI DOPS FE TECHGLOBAL
UI Designer Brand Experience Director

22. PM SD RES IXD UI FE TECHGLOBAL
Agile Business Day
Venezia, September 15th 2018
Design Ops is definitely a thing
DESIGN
OPERATIONS

23. Agile Business Day
Venezia, September 15th 2018
Junior
Mid
Senior
Director
PM SD RES IXD UI DOPS FE TECHGLOBAL
Frontend Developer Design Engineer

24. Agile Business Day
Venezia, September 15th 2018
Junior
Mid
Senior
Director
PM SD RES IXD UI DOPS FE TECHGLOBAL
Vertical growth is possible

25. Agile Business Day
Venezia, September 15th 2018
Junior
Mid
Senior
Director
PM SD RES IXD UI DOPS FE TECHGLOBAL
Horizontal growth is possible as well

26. Specialists
• specific skills
• innovators
• “evangelists”
• technicians
• efficient
• focus on quality
Generalists
• cross-discipline
• enablers
• coordinators
• big picture
• effective
• focus on outcomes
Agile Business Day
Venezia, September 15th 2018
PM SD RES IXD UI DOPS FE TECHGLOBAL PM SD RES IXD UI DOPS FE TECHGLOBAL

27. Agile Business Day
Venezia, September 15th 2018
Junior
Mid
Senior
Director
PM RES IXD UI DOPS FE TECHGLOBAL ICON ADMINSD CONTENT
Project Manager is not a role
but a set of responsibilities and skills

28. Agile Business Day
Venezia, September 15th 2018
Junior
Mid
Senior
Director
PM SD RES IXD UI DOPS FE TECHGLOBAL
Design Director
Work in
progress…

29. Agile Business Day
Venezia, September 15th 2018
Managers used to be practitioners
and have strong design experience
Mid
Senior
Director
PM SD RES IXD UI DOPS FE TECHGLOBAL

30. Agile Business Day
Venezia, September 15th 2018
Management is a choice.
It’s not a promotion,
it’s a career change.

31. Designing teams is a design exercise
and is human-centered
Agile Business Day
Venezia, September 15th 2018

32. Agile Business Day
Venezia, September 15th 2018
Henrik Rydberg
Interaction 16
Helsinki

33. Junior
Mid
Senior
Director
PM RES IXD UI DOPS FE TECHGLOBAL ICON ADMIN
Agile Business Day
Venezia, September 15th 2018
Help Tangible grow as a company
business + market + people
SD CONTENT

34. Agile Business Day
Venezia, September 15th 2018
Help team growth
• Hire more accurately
• Set clearer expectations about roles
• Balance teams
• Stronger competences

35. Agile Business Day
Venezia, September 15th 2018
Help individual growth
• Clear career paths
• Different options to grow
• More objective one-on-one reviews
• Better spending of the training budget

36. Agile Business Day
Venezia, September 15th 2018
So far, so good ❤
• Feedback
• Talent Canvas (thanks Marco!)
• Conversations
• Team morale
• Trust

37. Agile Business Day
Venezia, September 15th 2018
Tricky… 🤔
• From personal to relationships
• From rules to a playbook
• Feedback from the market
• Scalability and sustainability as a
company

38. Agile Business Day
Venezia, September 15th 2018

39. Agile Business Day
Venezia, September 15th 2018
Possible shitstorm ahead 💩
• Hierarchy: needed? How much?
• Economic transparency: desirable?
• Salaries and bonuses: how are they tied
to the roles matrix?

40. Things to monitor
• Eyes open on behaviors (unhealthy
competition, envy, conflicts…)
• One-to-one followups and updates
over time
Agile Business Day
Venezia, September 15th 2018

41. Things to remember
• It’s a process, not a tool
• Alive and iterative, never done
• Shared and explained
• The goal is autonomy, not control
Agile Business Day
Venezia, September 15th 2018

42. Doing the work of translating someone else’s methods
to fit your culture is hard work. It needs to be designed.
It needs to be assimilated, not just applied.
—Dave Malouf, IXDA founder
Agile Business Day
Venezia, September 15th 2018

43. Start from people
Agile Business Day
Venezia, September 15th 2018

44. Agile Business Day
Venezia, September 15th 2018
Ilaria Mauric
Head of design
@ilariamauric
ilaria@tangible.is
Nicolò Volpato
Founder
@nicolovolpato
nick@tangible.is
Thank you!