How to Structure Design Teams

Summary

This video script explores the pivotal role of design in business success, emphasizing the importance of establishing effective design teams. It outlines three common organizational structures: centralized, cross-functional, and flexible, each with its benefits and drawbacks. The script also highlights the critical role of design operations in streamlining processes and enhancing the design function. The video encourages businesses to invest in design to optimize their teams and considers external resources like Superside for scalable design support.

Takeaways

• 🌟 Good design has a significant impact on a company's bottom line and is essential for business success.
• 🛠️ Investing in good design involves more than just logos and brand colors; it requires a strong design team.
• 👥 Design teams can range from a single individual to a large department, and their organization is crucial for effective leadership.
• 📊 Three common design team structures are centralized, cross-functional, and flexible, each with its benefits and drawbacks.
• 🏢 Centralized design teams have a focused vision and well-defined roles but may suffer from bureaucracy and creative roadblocks.
• 🔄 Cross-functional teams improve trust and collaboration but can face issues with inconsistent design and siloed work.
• 🔄 Flexible design teams offer the ability to adapt to varying design needs and improve collaboration but may struggle with decision-making clarity.
• 💡 Design ops plays a critical role in improving the design function of an organization, including tech stack, communication, and process streamlining.
• 🛑 Design teams need to balance the ability to handle surges in production with ongoing projects, which can be challenging with a fixed team structure.
• 🔗 Companies like Superside offer support to fill gaps in design team structures, providing project managers and creative directors as needed.
• 📚 Design ops is vital for optimizing the current team and streamlining processes, and there is a 'Design Ops 101' video available for further learning.
• 🚀 Superside enables companies to free up their internal design teams for strategic projects by offering a fully managed and dedicated design team service.

Q & A

Why is good design considered important for a company's success?

Good design is making a real impact on the bottom line of businesses worldwide, as it enhances the company's brand and products, leading to better customer satisfaction and increased revenue.

What are the three main types of design team structures mentioned in the script?

The three main types of design team structures are centralized, cross-functional, and flexible.

What is the role of a centralized design team in an organization?

A centralized design team operates as its own department, servicing other areas of the organization such as marketing and product sales. It is characterized by having a focused vision, well-defined roles, and reduced internal conflict.

What are some benefits of having a centralized design team?

Benefits include a consistent vision across projects, clear team roles, and reduced internal conflict, which can streamline the design process and decision-making.

What are the potential disadvantages of a centralized design team structure?

Disadvantages may include bureaucracy, creative roadblocks, the creation of silos, and a tendency to become an in-house design service focused on scale rather than strategic design.

Can you explain the cross-functional embedded design team model using an example?

An example of a cross-functional embedded design team is Spotify's tribe model, where designers are embedded with other teams like marketing, engineering, and product teams, fostering cross-departmental trust and collaboration.

What are the benefits of a cross-functional design team structure?

Benefits include improved cross-departmental trust, faster project delivery, and the opportunity for designers to become experts in specific project types.

What are some drawbacks of the cross-functional design team structure?

Drawbacks may include designers lacking feedback from peers, work getting siloed, inconsistent designs, and difficulty in learning from each other due to different values.

How does a flexible design team structure differ from the other two structures?

A flexible design team structure adjusts to meet arising design needs by bringing on external resources to fill in skill gaps, focusing more on the design process and collaboration with other product teams.

What are the benefits of a flexible design team structure?

Benefits include increased flexibility to address design needs, a stronger focus on the design process, and improved collaboration between design and other product teams.

What are some potential issues with implementing a flexible design team structure?

Potential issues include confusion among designers about leadership and decision-making, difficulty in managing large projects that require more time and resources, and challenges in implementation within large organizations.

What is the role of design operations (design ops) in a design team?

Design ops focuses on improving the design function of an organization by implementing the right tech stack, setting up communication channels, hiring the right team, streamlining processes, building design systems, and more.

How can a company like Superside help a design team?

Superside offers dedicated project managers and creative directors to fill in the gaps of a design team's organizational structure when needed, helping the team stay on track to complete ongoing major projects.