As the move to establish in-house design teams accelerates, it turns out there’s very little common wisdom on what makes for a successful design organization. Books and presentations focus on process, methods, tools, and outcomes, leaving a gap of knowledge when it comes to organizational and operational matters. This workshop seeks to address this lacuna by shining a light on the unsung activities of actually running a design team, and what works and what doesn’t. Topics include: - How a service design mindset shifts standard organizational approaches - Organizational models for design teams, from centralized to decentralized and back again - Breadth and depth of skills and strategic thinking - The 5 Stages of Organisational Evolution - A New Taxonomy of Design Team Roles

1. Design Your
Design Organization
Peter Merholz
e: peterme@peterme.com
t: @peterme
Kristin Skinner
e: kristinskinner.ks@gmail.com
t: @bettay

2. Agenda
1. Your Product and Design Organization
2. The Expanded Role of Design
3. Organizational Models and Design Output
4. The 5 Stages of Design Organizations
5. The Untapped Opportunity for Design

3. 1.
Your Product and
Design Organization

4. Describe your Design Org
On a big sheet of paper:
• draw your org chart
• list your roles
• anything else (charter, OKRs, etc.)
ACTIVITY✍

5. What do you want to talk about?

6. 2.
The Expanded Role of
Design

7. Why are companies investing more in design?
Generates new business value Software is eating the world

8. Everything is, or is becoming, a service
(Debating on either showing
Everything is, or is becoming, a service

9. All design is service design

10. management marketing engineering manufacturing sales support
adapted from Rob Brunner’s talk at 2016 O’Reilly Design Conference
design

11. management marketing engineering manufacturing sales support
adapted from Rob Brunner’s talk at 2016 O’Reilly Design Conference
design

12. management marketing design engineering manufacturing sales support
management
marketing engineering
manufacturing
salessupport
adapted from Rob Brunner’s talk at 2016 O’Reilly Design Conference
design

13. Definition Execution
Definition
/ Requirem
ents
Iterative design
Im
plem
entation
Strategy and plan,
aka “Build the right thing.”
Working through tradeoffs to deliver optimal solution,
aka “Build the thing right.”
Ideation/Generation
Understand
the market
Product
Strategy
Prototype
Customer
empathy Ideation
Experience
strategy
Prototype
solutions
Flesh out
solution Refine
Sketch
options
Test
prototypes
User test Build
design makes strategy concrete design supports delightful, engaging experiences
Plan Ship
Analyze
By Peter Merholz, http://peterme.com. If you use it, please attribute it. Thanks.
Initial
Insight

14. Design informs planning
Henrik Kniberg

15. The Three-Legged Stool
product/service
business
technology
designAdapted from Don Norman

16. Design…
…generates value
…tames software complexity
…coheres service experiences
…enhances all practices
…defines new offerings
…informs planning

17. Drawn from running a design firm, going in-house
Concern that these big investments are not going to
pay off, at least not to nearly their potential
At issue is not the product of design, but the unseen
stuff ‘behind the scenes’ that ultimately affects that
quality
Why do we teach this?

18. 3.
Organizational Models and
Design Output

19. Centralized Internal Services
Your in-house agency
Project-based, organized by function
PROS
Strong design community
Clear lines of authority
Wide range of projects
Interface consistency
Efficiencies of work product
Optimized headcount
CONS
Design is not strategic
Little influence on important
“upstream” decisions
Designers easily dismissed
Us vs Them
Slow

21. Decentralized and Embedded
Everyone Gets A Designer!
Program-based

22. D D
DP P P P P P
E E
E
E E
E
E E
E
E E
E
E
E
EDE
DESIGN
PRODUCT
MGMT
ENGINEERING
Search/
Browse
Product
Page
CheckoutPersonalizationUGC/
Reviews
D D DDL
Leadership
Decentralized and Embedded
+n +n +n +n +n

23. Decentralized and Embedded
Everyone Gets A Designer!
Program-based
PROS
Business units gain control
Part of the team
Design included throughout entire
lifecycle
Feeling of ownership
Quick iterations post-launch
CONS
One narrow problem for a long time
Lonely
Fractured user experience
Less efficient use of time and people

25. So, you’re screwed either way?

27. Think in terms of design teams

28. D D
DP P P P P P
E E
E
E E
E
E E
E
E E
E
E
E
EDE
DESIGN
PRODUCT
MGMT
ENGINEERING
Search/
Browse
Product
Page
CheckoutPersonalizationUGC/
Reviews
D D DDL
Leadership
+n +n +n +n +n

29. S S
DP P P P P P
E E
E
E E
E
E E
E
E E
E
E
E
EDE
D D D
DL
DESIGN
PRODUCT
MGMT
ENGINEERING
Search/
Browse
Product
Page
CheckoutPersonalizationUGC/
Reviews
Leadership
CS
+n +n +n +n +n

30. S S
DP P P P P P
E E
E
E E
E
E E
E
E E
E
E
E
EDE
D D
TL
DESIGN
PRODUCT
MGMT
ENGINEERING
Search/
Browse
Product
Page
CheckoutPersonalizationUGC/
Reviews
Leadership
Centralized Partnership
+n +n +n +n +n
CS

31. Centralized Partnership
aka “hybrid”, “federated”
Designers supported in career, development, and day-to-day.
Design teams maintain commitment across a meaningful set of
products/features.
Yet centralization helps maintain a holistic view across the entire
customer experience.
Teams allow for complete spread of needed skills.
Freedom to shift after ‘tours of duty’.
“Load balancing” keeps designers most productive.

32. Let’s say you have a set of product teams…
Growth Seller Tools
Search/
Browse
Product Page
Shopping Cart
and Checkout
Reviews

33. Focus design on customer types
Buyer
Design
Team
Seller
Design
Team
Growth
Seller Tools
Search/
Browse
Product Page
Shopping Cart
and Checkout
Reviews
Buyer
Experience
Seller
Experience
S S
D D
TL
S S
D
TL
D

34. Make
an
Appointment
Buyer
Design
Team
Seller
Design
Team
S S
D D
TL
S S
D D
TL
Growth
Seller Tools
Search/
Browse
Product Page
Shopping Cart
and Checkout
Reviews
Buyer
Experience
Seller
Experience
D
Focus design on customer types

35. S
S
D
CSDD
Purchase
Design Team
S
D
D D
TL
S
D
D
TL
Growth
Promotions
Search/
browse
Detail Page
Shopping
Cart
Reviews
Make a
Reservation
Checkout
Share
experience
Redeem
D
CS
TL
PM
UR UR
And stick with it as you scale…
Post-Purchase
Design Team
Discovery
Design Team
Buyer
Design
Team

36. Ken Norton
Noah Weiss
From Ken Norton’s “Don't Ship The Org Chart” Parts 1 and 2
Organize your product managers around
customers, not code repositories.
Connect PM areas of ownership to users and
their product experiences. Maybe you have a
buyer PM and a seller PM instead of back-end
and front-end PMs.
“
”
Just like it’s ideal to organize your PM team
around customers and use cases, the same
goes for engineering.
Otherwise, you risk having a PM responsible
for a use case having to work with half a
dozen engineering teams to ship a feature:
server, web, iOS, Android, infra, etc.
“
”

37. How could you embrace the Centralized
Partnership?
Design in teams
Organize by customer journey
DISCUSSION

38. One design organization to tie it all together,
organized by customer journey
management
marketing engineering
manufacturing
sales
support
design

39. …which requires a lot of skills!
Software Products
Hardware Products Environments
Communications
Interaction Design
Information Architecture
Visual Design
Prototyping
Industrial Design Wayfinding
Interior Architecture
Brand Identity Design
Graphic Design
Information Design
Motion Graphics
Packaging
The Journey
Service Design
Content
Copywriting
Content Strategy
Videography
Photography
Research
Ethnographic research
Usability testing
Quantitative studies

40. …and presence at all levels of scale
1 ft
Surface
Typography, colour, layout, interface design, spacing, animation,
transitions
10,000 ft
1,000 ft
The Big Picture
Integrated view of company’s entire offering, brand traits
100 ft
Strategy
Requirements, briefs, desired results, planning, vision,
campaign concepts
10 ft
Structure
Flows, service blueprints, wireframes, wayfinding, navigation,
brand standards and guidelines, visual language

41. A team Peter inherited…
CD
CDCD
CD
CD
CD
CD
CD
UXR
UXR
UXR
PjM
VP
PD
PD
PD
PD
PDPD
PD PD
PD
PD
PD
PD
PD
PD
PD

42. 10,000 ft
1 ft
10 ft
100 ft
1,000 ft
VP
UXR
UXR
CD
CD
CD CD
CD
CD
CD
CD
PjM
PD
PD
PD
PD
PDPD
PD
PD
PD
PD
PD
PD
PD
PDPD
UXR

43. 1 ft
Surface
Typography, colour, layout, interface design, spacing, animation,
transitions
10,000 ft
1,000 ft
The Big Picture
Integrated view of company’s entire offering, brand traits
100 ft
Strategy
Requirements, briefs, desired results, planning, vision,
campaign concepts
10 ft
Structure
Flows, service blueprints, wireframes, wayfinding, navigation,
brand standards and guidelines, visual language
✍ ACTIVITY
Assess your levels of scale %

44. 1 ft
Surface
Typography, colour, layout, interface design, spacing, animation,
transitions
10,000 ft
1,000 ft
The Big Picture
Integrated view of company’s entire offering, brand traits
100 ft
Strategy
Requirements, briefs, desired results, planning, vision,
campaign concepts
10 ft
Structure
Flows, service blueprints, wireframes, wayfinding, navigation,
brand standards and guidelines, visual language
✍ ACTIVITY
Assess your levels of scale %
5%
40%
15%
40%

45. Structure of each design team
4-7 folks
Singular strong leadership
• Manages down – gets the most and best out of their team
• Manages across – collaborates with cross-functional partners
• Manages up – presents to executives and other stakeholders
Dedicated to a customer type and their journey
Spread of skills – strategy, planning, research, IxD,
IA, visual design, prototyping
10,000 ft
1 ft
10 ft
100 ft
1,000 ft
S
S
CS
D
D
TL

46. How capable is your team in delivering
across the entire customer journey?
Across skills and scales?
How could you augment?
How integrated is the team to all corporate functions?
DISCUSSION

47. Where does design live?

48. Design
Director
Design
Director
Design
Director
Design
Director
VP of
Product
Dir of
PM
Dir of
PM
Dir of
PM
Dir of
PM
Who's the head of design?
that guy/gal

49. A design team needs to be in charge of its own destiny,
and this requires:
Focused leadership with autonomy
and executive access.

50. Focused leadership
Head of
Design
Design
Director
Design
Director
Design
Director
VP of
Product
Dir of
PM
Dir of
PM
Dir of
PM
Dir of
PM

51. Autonomy
Head of
Design
Design
Director
Design
Director
Design
Director
VP of
Product
Dir of
PM
Dir of
PM
Dir of
PM
Dir of
PM

52. Executive Access
Head of
Design
Design Design Design
VP of
Product
Dir of
PM
Dir of
PM
Dir of
PM
Dir of
PM
CEO

53. Does your design leadership have
autonomy and access?
Is design leading design?
Can they shape their org as they see fit?
Are they two or fewer rungs from the CEO?
QUICK DISCUSSION

54. 4.
The 5 Stages of
Design Organizations

55. Stage 1: The Initial Pair
HD
PD
Head of Design
•creative
•managerial
•operational
•(and, at this stage,
a maker)
Product Designer
• Structure
and/or
• Surface

56. Stage 2: A Full Team
HD
PD PD
PD
CS CD
PD
Content Strategist
•Voice and tone
•Content structure
•Copywriting
Communication Designer
• Visual designers
• Online and offline
• Brand
• Information design

57. Stage 3: From Design Team to Design Org
HD
PD
PD
CS
TL
PDPD
CS
UXR
CD
PD
Team Lead
•Not (necessarily) a
people manager
•Manages down,
sideways, and up
UX Researcher
•Generative and
evaluative
•Highly leveraged
Head of Design, revisited
•May struggle with scale
•Might need a new one

58. DM
Stage 4: Coordination to Manage Complexity
HD
PD
PD
CS CD
PDDM
PD
CS CD
PD
PM
TL
PDPD
CS PD
UXR UXR
SD
Service Designer
•Strategy and
Structure
•Integrates across
teams
Program Manager
•Design Operations
•Organizational
effectiveness
•Not delivery
Design Manager
•Might be Team Lead
•People manager
•Still practices

59. Let’s take a little detour…

60. Does your team suffer these issues?
• trouble coordinating internally, particularly around
process, communications, and file management
• difficulty collaborating with other parts of the
organization
• inappropriate staffing on projects and programs
• lack of visibility into related work streams
• duplicated efforts
• non-existent measurement

61. Little “o” Operations
“The sand in the gears”
Scheduling and budgets
Tools and procedures
Communication and coordination
Measured by effectiveness

62. Big “O" Operations
Annual planning ensuring adequate headcount
Compensation packages that are fair for the market
Adjustments to performance reviews to suit designers
Facilities and IT to support collaborative work styles
Policy changes to support real customer research
Big “O” Operations

63. How effective is your design team?
Do people feel like they’re spinning their wheels, putting in
a lot of effort but seeing few results?
Are projects/programs appropriately staffed?
Does the team have the resources they need to do great
work? (Machines, devices, physical space)
DISCUSSION

64. DM
Stage 4: Coordination to Manage Complexity
HD
PD
PD
CS CD
PDDM
PD
CS CD
PD
PM
TL
PDPD
CS PD
UXR UXR
SD

65. Stage 5: Distributed Leadership
HD
UXR
PM
PM
UXR
DD DD
CrD
UXR
UXR
CT CT
PDPD
CS PD
PDPD
CS PD
DM
PD
PD
CS CD
PD
PD
PD
CS CD
PD
SD SD
PD
CS CD
PD
PD
CS CD
PD
DR
Design Director
• Oversees a swath of
teams/experiences
• Integrates across
teams
TL
TL
DM
DM
DM
Creative Director
•Focused solely on
creative leadership
•Establishes quality
standards
Director of Research
•Leads research team/
efforts
•Insights hub
Creative Technologist
•Prototypes new
experiences
•NOT a Front-end Dev

66. The Roles, Revisited
Leadership
Head of Design
Design Manager/Director
Creative Director
Team Lead
Director of Research
Director of Design Program
Management
Staff
Product Designer
Communication Designer
Content Strategist
UX Researcher
Service Designer
Program Manager
Creative Technologist

67. How do these stages resonate?
How about the roles?
DISCUSSION

68. 5.
The Untapped Opportunity
for Design

69. Designers can keep a lot
of other people busy

70. S S
DP P P P P P
DL E
E E
DL E
E E
DL E
E E
DL E
E E
DL
E
E
E
DE
D D
TL
DESIGN
PRODUCT
MGMT
ENGINEERING
= 6
= 31
E E E E E E E E E E
Search/
Browse
Product
Page
CheckoutPersonalizationUGC/
Reviews
Leadership
CS

71. With a
1) centralized partnership,
2) teams with strong leadership,
3) influencing definition, and
4) a relatively small team,
you have leverage.

72. Leverage = Power
There’s no reason design can’t be the
driving force.
We just need confidence, evidence, and
commitment.

73. One more thing...

74. D D
DP P P P P P
E E
E
E E
E
E E
E
E E
E
E
E
EDE
DESIGN
PRODUCT
MGMT
ENGINEERING
Search/
Browse
Product
Page
CheckoutPersonalizationUGC/
Reviews
D D DDL
Leadership
Decentralized and Embedded
+n +n +n +n +n

75. S S
DP P P P P P
E E
E
E E
E
E E
E
E E
E
E
E
EDE
D D
DL
DESIGN
PRODUCT
MGMT
ENGINEERING
Search/
Browse
Product
Page
CheckoutPersonalizationUGC/
Reviews
Leadership
Centralized Partnership
+n +n +n +n +n
CS

76. Technology Features Experience

77. S S
DP P P P P P
E E
E
E E
E
E E
E
E E
E
E
E
EDE
D D
DL
DESIGN
PRODUCT
MGMT
ENGINEERING
Search/
Browse
Product
Page
CheckoutPersonalizationUGC/
Reviews
Leadership
Still stuck in a ‘features’ world
+n +n +n +n +n
CS

78. Design
Team
Shopping
Experience Gifting
Merchandising
Sharing
Social
Wishlists
In-store pickup
Style guide
PLUS
Search/
Browse
Product
Page
CheckoutPersonalizationUGC/
Reviews
S S
D D D
DL
CS

79. Thank you for your
consideration.
Peter Merholz
e: peterme@peterme.com
t: @peterme
Kristin Skinner
e: kristinskinner.ks@gmail.com
t: @bettay