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
"Don’t be afraid to poke the bear; controversy can help make your talk stand out and provoke meaningful discussion."
Louis Rosenfeld Jemma Ahmed Christian Crumlish Uday Gajendar Chris GeisonCoffee with Lou #3: What Makes for a Successful UX Conference Presentation?
May 2, 2024
"We couldn’t find just one word to describe our third value so we made one up: humbladent—humble and confident together."
Jilanna WilsonDistributed Design Operations Management
October 23, 2019
"It’s actually embarrassing how little code there is and you get these incredible emergent effects."
Matt WebbContext Window: Five Futures for AI
June 11, 2025
"Accessibility features like voice assistants and captions make the world better for everyone, not just people with disabilities."
Sam ProulxAccessibility: An Opportunity to Innovate
September 8, 2022
"Don’t bluff regulated healthcare UX experience; everyone will know, and it’s harmful to your team and clients."
Theresa NeilDesigning for Wellness: Specializing in Healthcare
May 22, 2024
"Model companies are students in a classroom wanting good points—they’re happy to run external expert evals to improve."
Peter Van DijckHands-on AI #2: Understanding evals: LLM as a Judge
October 15, 2025
"Why pick sides between product and design ops leadership? Why not both as user success leadership?"
Rachel Posman John Calhoun"Ask Me Anything" with Rachel Posman and John Calhoun, Authors of the Upcoming Rosenfeld Book, The Design Conductors
September 25, 2024
"Building trust across functions means simple acts like scheduling lunch or coffee meetings with no agenda."
Tricia WangThe most popular design thinking strategy is BS
January 27, 2022
"Always design a thing by considering it in this next largest temporal context — a day in a month, a decade in a century."
Sarah Auslander Betsy Ramaccia Gordon RossInsights Panel
November 18, 2022
Latest Books All books
Dig deeper with the Rosenbot
What strategies help UX teams translate usability findings into stakeholder-relevant outcomes like cost savings or risk reduction?
How can imperfect research still deliver valuable insights and maintain project survivability?
How is the role of research operations evolving with AI and broader data integration?