Design Staffing Models
Summary
Determining a staffing model for the success of your design teams is one of the key elements for driving success. By reviewing the differences between dedicated and agency (or flexible) staffing models, Alicia Mooty will walk the group through a case study of applying these types of models in her work at Adobe.
Key Insights
-
•
Dedicated staffing fosters deep vertical expertise and long-term relationships with product teams.
-
•
Agency (pooled) staffing offers designers horizontal breadth and varied growth opportunities through rotations.
-
•
Neither model alone perfectly fits complex, changing environments; a hybrid approach can leverage both strengths.
-
•
Hybrid staffing enables quicker filling of critical design gaps without waiting for new hires or headcount approvals.
-
•
Careful bandwidth assessment across design, product, and engineering partners is key to reallocating resources.
-
•
Designers’ preferences vary; some crave stability and mastery, others seek variety and career growth.
-
•
Changing a staffing model requires proactive relationship building, clear communication, and managing stakeholder expectations.
-
•
Splitting designers’ time across multiple projects can cause work-life balance challenges, needing close oversight.
-
•
Ongoing communication is essential to renegotiate priorities and maintain alignment as projects and staffing evolve.
-
•
Short-term agency assignments raise questions about maintenance responsibility and require explicit planning.
Notable Quotes
"How do you organize a design team to work within a changing environment without freaking everybody out."
"Dedicated staffing gives designers deep vertical mastery but limits horizontal experience."
"Agency style staffing allows designers to bring learnings across multiple projects and grow through new challenges."
"One designer's security in a dedicated model may be another designer's stagnation."
"It took a lot of relationship building and conversations to break down the perception that designers' time was owned by particular teams."
"We covered critical design gaps without waiting for headcount allocation or hiring delays."
"Splitting people’s allocation across different teams created work-life balance issues requiring more oversight."
"Constant communication is necessary; agreement emails can’t be one-and-done."
"Some needs proved full-time, so hybrid staffing models are often short term or mixed part-time."
"Involving designers early in the process is crucial to avoid the 'fast-food' model where they feel like order takers."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Research’s role may shift to orchestrators of AI-synthesized insights and gap analyses rather than just primary data collectors."
Kate Towsey Basel Fakhoury Oren Friedman Graham GardnerParticipant Recruitment and Management Tools
March 12, 2026
"Users were initially excited but six months later expressed frustration and uncertainty about the tool’s usefulness."
Jennifer KongJourneying toward AI-assisted documentation in healthcare
June 5, 2024
"Project management is the ecosystem connecting everyone to deliver the best branded dog communication technology."
Kevin M. HoffmanTheme 2: Enterprise Team Journey
June 3, 2019
"Find your senior executive ally who understands design and go talk to them first — it works."
Amy MarquezINVEST: Discussion
June 15, 2018
"Pair design is about two perspectives coming together as peers to quickly try and evaluate ideas."
Gretchen AndersonScaling the Human Center
June 8, 2017
"The pandemic and climate change have shown how tightly interwoven and global our challenges truly are."
April ReaganLook, Think, Act: The Futures-Smart Design Organization
October 1, 2021
"Employees with exceptional onboarding are 2.6 times more likely to be extremely satisfied with their workplace."
Dante GuintuHow to Crush the Talent Crunch
September 8, 2022
"Design system is basically an agreement that helps create a sense of consistency and familiarity in all the UIs that you create."
Jaime CreixemsBest Practices when Creating and Maintaining a Design System
June 7, 2023
"I like adding content to wireframes because they’re the best place for content design."
Billy CarlsonPrinciples of Team Wireframing
October 2, 2023
