Summary
Quite bluntly, all of you are fierce competitors — for design talent. From start-up to established companies, we're all feeling the effects of the Great Resignation. But what happens when it's discovered that internal processes sandbag efforts to acquire designers, onboard, promote, and retain them? Join us as we uncover some cringe-worthy problems and share practical takeaways for outsized success. Dante won’t be offering cookie-cutter solutions since, as he puts it, “many eggs were cracked in this messy process. This is not for the faint of heart — dirty laundry could be aired!” Takeaways How to hire, onboard, and retain designers How to tackle dysfunction in your org as a decentralized practitioner
Key Insights
-
•
IBM's design team grew from a few hundred to over 3,000 designers globally under Phil Gilbert's leadership before the pandemic reversed this trend.
-
•
High turnover during the pandemic involved even long-tenured and new hires leaving within months.
-
•
Design Ops at IBM operates under a hybrid model with centralized design leadership and decentralized team support.
-
•
Hiring challenges include long periods of radio silence for candidates and recruiters lacking specialized knowledge about design roles.
-
•
Onboarding suffers from information overload due to multiple overlapping checklists from HR, design, and business units.
-
•
Only 12% of employees strongly agree their company does well at onboarding, and only 29% feel fully prepared when starting their role according to Gallup data.
-
•
Consolidating onboarding materials and creating timelines to spread knowledge transfer improves new hire experiences.
-
•
Peer-to-peer coaching programs matched designers from different domains to promote cross-team skill sharing and engagement.
-
•
Engagement is the common denominator affecting hiring success, onboarding effectiveness, and retention of design talent.
-
•
Design Ops leaders must embrace discomfort and uncertainty while learning to focus on high-impact activities that truly move the needle.
Notable Quotes
"My superpower is to connect the dots between people, places, ideas, and opportunities."
"The pandemic flipped the equation, and IBM became the place that design talent left."
"Candidates sometimes got rejected within hours despite active recruiting efforts, and recruiters lacked visibility into the system issues."
"Lead with empathy because a lot of solutions will live outside of your wheelhouse."
"Onboarding is a marathon, not a sprint. Spread knowledge transfer over a feasible timeline."
"Only 12% of employees strongly agree their organization does a great job onboarding new employees."
"Employees with exceptional onboarding are 2.6 times more likely to be extremely satisfied with their workplace."
"We matched designers with new peer buddies outside their usual domains to encourage learning and networking."
"Engagement at hiring, onboarding, and growth stages prevents talent churn."
"The hardest lesson is being comfortable when you're uncomfortable and finding the best use of your time to create impact."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"If you’re doing research with people with disabilities, consider using the Accessible Usability Scale to get more accurate insights."
Sam ProulxSUS: A System Unusable for Twenty Percent of the Population
December 9, 2021
"Government is seven plus years behind industry – not bleeding edge, more like the dull butter knife edge."
Michael LandEstablishing Design Operations in Government
February 18, 2021
"Going from 100 to 200 people, suddenly product managers started hearing from a dozen people a week with conflicting requests."
Shipra KayanHow we Built a VoC (Voice of the Customer) Practice at Upwork from the Ground Up
September 30, 2021
"Communication matters—sending an email to an executive with spelling mistakes can ruin your respect."
Ian SwinsonDesigning and Driving UX Careers
June 8, 2016
"Emotional intelligence is key to navigating situations with senior leaders multiple grades above you."
Isaac HeyveldExpand DesignOps Leadership as a Chief of Staff
September 8, 2022
"Design takes on a new role as governance practitioner, overseeing branding, content, and accessibility."
Amy EvansHow to Create Change
September 25, 2024
"Design ops is undergoing a transformation into a CX focused team with a refined mission to drive efficiency and customer experience excellence."
Kate Koch Prateek KalliFlex Your Super Powers: When a Design Ops Team Scales to Power CX
September 30, 2021
"Change only happens in the present moment, not the past or future."
Dave GrayLiminal Thinking: Sense-making for systems in large organizations
May 14, 2015
"What if the atomic unit of research wasn’t the reports, but it was the insight within those reports?"
Matt DuignanAtomizing Research: Trend or Trap
March 30, 2020
