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Stages 1-5

The following comes from Chapter 5 of Org Design for Design Orgs. I include it to provide context for the next two stages, which are new material.

Five Stages of Design Organization Evolution

The roles just defined are the players in the game. Now the question is “When do they come out onto the field?” The rest of the chapter depicts the evolution of a design organization, from the first hires to when it has dozens of members, and shows when those roles are needed:

  • Stage 1: The Initial Pair
  • Stage 2: A Full Team
  • Stage 3: From Design Team to Design Organization
  • Stage 4: Coordination to Manage Complexity
  • Stage 5: Distributed Leadership

STAGE 1: THE INITIAL PAIR

Companies that start by hiring a single designer force themselves to work through a series of trade-offs. Should they hire for experience and management savvy, someone who can build out a team, but who might be overqualified or disconnected on matters of delivery, and be expensive to boot? Or hire someone strong but junior, who can execute rapidly and with quality, but places design in a role subservient to others? Should emphasis be placed on pixel-level polish, or more on the structural level of workflows and wireframes?

Core to the philosophy of the Centralized Partnership is to orient around teams, not individuals. When that is done, the answer to these questions becomes clear: “Yes.” From the outset, establish a design team with at least two designers who complement each other (Figure 5-1).

The design team starts with a Head of Design (HD) and a Product Designer (PD)

If the organization is serious about design as a competency, starting with two should not be too much to ask. Two designers allows for leadership experience and output velocity, structural competence, and surface savvy. The senior-most designer is the Head of Design, a role worth establishing as early as possible. This person is peers with lead product managers and engineers, contributing to product strategy and definition, as well as getting their hands dirty with the work. The other is a Product Designer, focused on execution. Together they set a strong foundation for design within the organization.

Updated on Jun 9, 2025