Summary
Scaling a design organization can introduce changes that may increase feelings of instability if not done thoughtfully. And when attrition and burnout levels are at a high, it is especially important to focus those changes on processes and structures that provide stability and growth for designers. Based on her experiences building teams at Amplitude and Adobe, Courtney’s talk will give you tools to scale your team while investing in individual designer’s career growth. Even if DesignOps is not your full-time job, this talk will show how small changes can make a big difference in the designer experience. Hear Courtney interviewed on the Rosenfeld Review Podcast: The Rosenfeld Review Podcast (Rosenfeld Media) · Scale Your Org and Grow Your Designers
Key Insights
-
•
Design organizations scale best when focusing on designer growth and emotional well-being, not just output.
-
•
Psychological safety, defined by Amy Edmondson as speaking up without fear, is critical for design teams due to subjective critique.
-
•
In hybrid meetings, enforcing video use increases inclusion, visibility, and participation for remote team members.
-
•
Low-effort rituals like icebreakers and retrospectives build trust and uncover process improvements.
-
•
A team skills workshop using strength assessments can bolster self-awareness, camaraderie, and complementary hiring decisions.
-
•
Creating individual and team charters provides hope and clarity, reducing churn especially during periods of uncertainty.
-
•
Aligning career ladders with shared operational principles helps designers own their career growth and managers have structured development conversations.
-
•
Introducing tools like Jira for design work, separate from engineering, enhances transparency but requires consistent usage and training.
-
•
Quarterly planning spreadsheets support realistic workload commitments and aid in prioritization without overburdening designers.
-
•
Compassionate leadership acknowledging human hardships is essential to successfully navigate scaling amidst rapid change and external crises.
Notable Quotes
"Scaling a design org can be exciting but also fraught with uncertainty, churn, and change management."
"Humans experience life 30% rationally and 70% emotionally, which means emotions dominate how we engage at work."
"Your people are not just resources or pawns in an organizational chess game—they are humans with fears and hopes."
"You can’t innovate or evolve as designers if you don’t learn, and learning requires psychological safety."
"Everyone putting their video on in hybrid design crits creates better engagement and makes remote folks feel included."
"Creating a career ladder is high effort but critical to help designers own their career journey and growth."
"A team charter provides a rallying point and purpose, especially important during times like the pandemic."
"Implementing Jira requires thoughtfulness, buy-in, and consistency more than the choice of tool itself."
"Having visible work through Jira or spreadsheets helps designers set boundaries and ask for support objectively."
"Our most important role as leaders is to grow people and help them develop resiliency to endure change."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Start with trust by default; most people won’t disappoint you and will deliver responsibly."
Ana FerreiraDesigning Distributed: Leading Doist’s Fully Remote Design Team in Six Countries
January 8, 2024
"One of the best parts is seeing people from Ops, recruiting, marketing and product interacting together in Slack."
Roy Opata OlendeHow Zapier Uses ‘All Hands Research’ to Increase Exposure to Users
August 6, 2020
"Designers often come out of schools without ever doing competitive analysis or considering existing design patterns."
Kit Unger Jackie Ho Veevi Rosenstein Vasileios XanthopoulosTheme 2: Discussion
January 8, 2024
"We focused on consolidating frameworks and landed on Canvas, which now supports 45 teams and growing."
Abbey Smalley Sylas SouzaScaling UX Past the Size of Your Team
January 8, 2024
"Building skepticism into users is essential because if you’re not skeptical as a designer, it’s hard to build it into your customers."
Helen ArmstrongAugment the Human. Interrogate the System.
June 7, 2023
"We answer questions differently when we’re living life and doing activities than when we’re sitting down facing the camera."
Bas Raijmakers, PhD (RCA) Charley Scull Prabhas PokharelWhat Design Research can Learn from Documentary Filmmaking
March 11, 2022
"Giving parents something meaningful to do during sessions helps keep them engaged and supportive."
Mila Kuznetsova Lucy DentonHow Lessons Learned from Our Youngest Users Can Help Us Evolve our Practices
March 9, 2022
"Qualitative synthesis is like watching a movie in a cinema; AI synthesis feels like watching a recap on YouTube—fast but missing the immersive experience."
Weidan LiQualitative synthesis with ChatGPT: Better or worse than human intelligence?
June 4, 2024
"Product managers are responsible for value – making sure something valuable is being created that meets real needs."
Christian CrumlishAMA with Christian Crumlish, author of Product Management for UX People
March 24, 2022
Latest Books All books
Dig deeper with the Rosenbot
What are effective tactics to build organizational buy-in for service design practices over time?
What is the spectrum of research democratization and how can organizations select the right level?
How can organizations democratize accessibility knowledge among designers, developers, and researchers?