Rosenverse

This video is only accessible to Gold members. Log in or register for a free Gold Trial Account to watch.

Log in Register

Most conference talks are accessible to Gold members, while community videos are generally available to all logged-in members.

Scaling Design Culture

Gold
Monday, November 6, 2017 • DesignOps Summit 2017
Share the love for this talk
Scaling Design Culture
Speakers: Meredith Black
Link:

Summary

When design teams start to grow within hyper-growth startups, there is often a natural fear that the design culture will change as a result. It doesn’t have to. By encouraging best practices on recruiting, hiring, onboarding, and interviewing for “culture fit” you can benefit from a more diverse and culture rich team. Join Meredith Black for a talk on the vision and values of scaling the design culture at Pinterest while also designing for 175 million users.

Key Insights

  • Pinterest’s co-founder Evan Sharp, a designer, ensures design has a strong seat at the company’s decision table.

  • The design team at Pinterest grew over 650% in three years, from 10 to 75 members, emphasizing diverse global representation.

  • Cross-functional teams combining designers, engineers, and product managers work collaboratively on roadmap and launch decisions.

  • Internal events like NITCON inspire employees with classes, keynotes, and social activities, supporting culture and learning.

  • Non-glamorous tasks such as design standard updates are gamified using events like Bash Bingo Days to maintain motivation.

  • The Workshop program acts as an innovation incubator where designers collaborate away from their desks to solve product problems.

  • Hiring focuses on portfolio presentation, deep product knowledge (both strengths and flaws), and cultural fit prioritizing humility.

  • Program managers (called producers) buffer designers from meeting overload and distractions, improving focus and productivity.

  • Diversity is a key pillar, with one in three designers from international backgrounds, to better understand users worldwide.

  • Maintaining culture at scale involves deliberate slow hiring, integrating diverse skill sets, and evolving shared learning programs.

Notable Quotes

"Design always has a seat at the table at Pinterest because our co-founder is a designer."

"We call our collaborative decision-making process knitting — it’s one of our core values."

"Burnout isn’t caused by working too much; it happens when people aren’t stimulated."

"When hiring, we want candidates who know the product well — both what works and what doesn’t."

"We will not hire an asshole. Culture trumps even exceptional talent."

"The Workshop is an outlet for innovation, pushing designers out of their day-to-day to solve problems quickly."

"Fika is our weekly tradition where designers share projects inspired from Pins over coffee and dessert."

"One in three designers on our team is from another country — diversity improves relevance for our global users."

"Instead of flashy outings, the team prefers simple park days with rosé, blankets, and games that build trust."

"Hiring is hard, but firing the wrong person is harder — so we must be thoughtful and deliberate."

Ask the Rosenbot
Uday Gajendar
Leading through the long tail of trauma
2022 • Advancing Research Community
Josh Clark
Sentient Design: Crafting Intelligent Interfaces with AI
2026 • Rosenfeld Community
Sheryl Cababa
Thinking in systems to address climate with Sheryl Cababa
2024 • Climate UX Interest Group
Anat Fintzi
Delivering at Scale: Making Traction with Resistant Partners
2022 • Design at Scale 2022
Gold
John Cutler
Prioritization for designers and product managers (1st of 3 seminars)
2024 • Rosenfeld Community
David Cronin
The GE Design System and Thoughts about Craft at Scale
2015 • Enterprise UX 2015
Gold
Ellen Chisa
The Values of Design
2023 • Design in Product 2023
Gold
Andy Barraclough
From Costly Complexity to Efficient Insights: Why UX Teams Are Switching To Voxpopme
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2024
Gold
Patrizia Bertini
The (r)evolution of designOps: It’s Time to Think (really) BIG
2025 • DesignOps Summit 2025
Gold
Indra Klavins
A Design Ops Girl in a Dev Ops World
2019 • DesignOps Summit 2019
Gold
Snehal Pendharkar
Conducting pre-research with AI agent personas: Pressure-testing concepts for expert workflows
2026 • Designing with AI 2026
Conference
Matt Stone
Scaling Empathy, A Case Study in Change Management
2021 • Design at Scale 2021
Gold
Jon Fukuda
The Big Question about Innovation: A Panel Discussion
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2024
Gold
Lily Aduana
5 Reasons to Bring Your Recruiting in-House (and How To Do It)
2021 • Advancing Research 2021
Gold
Kyria Stephens
Power to Heal: Civic Design in the Aftermath of Tragedy
2022 • Civic Design 2022
Gold
Josina Vink
Navigating the pitfalls of systems thinking in service design
2024 • Advancing Service Design 2024
Gold

More Videos

Bria Alexander

"It’s about us, the design ops practitioners, and what we need today to be better at our jobs."

Bria Alexander

Theme Two Intro

October 3, 2023

Ariba Jahan

"People were taking vacation days just to homeschool or take care of a loved one."

Ariba Jahan

Team Resiliency Through a Pandemic

January 8, 2024

Cornelius Rachieru

"Design projects in product design are led by designers, but in service design they are facilitated or co-facilitated by designers among many perspectives."

Cornelius Rachieru

Handling Complexity: Framing a Scale of Design

June 9, 2021

Megan Clegg

"Making accessibility a shared activity turns it into a team effort, involving co-workers, stakeholders, and customers."

Megan Clegg Michael Haggerty-Villa Alexis Morin

Space for Everyone: Reframing Accessibility Through a Wider Lens

June 10, 2021

Saara Kamppari-Miller

"Who works here anyways? I knew about immediate teams but beyond that, it was a fog."

Saara Kamppari-Miller

Cartography for Design Communities

September 10, 2025

Kara Kane

"High-level leadership changes in government often result in shifts in organizational moods and priorities."

Kara Kane

Theme One Intro

November 16, 2022

Natalia Radywyl

"Nearly a third of the 65 mental health commission recommendations call for co-design, which is pretty exciting."

Natalia Radywyl

Co-Designing New Power in Australia's Public Sector

November 16, 2022

Nancy Douyon

"Soap dispensers and water sensors often fail on darker skin because they rely on light reflection."

Nancy Douyon

We'll Figure That Out in the Next Launch: Enterprise Tech's Nobility Complex

June 15, 2018

Peter Van Dijck

"When GPT came out, my kids immediately adopted it at school and couldn’t pry it from their dead hands."

Peter Van Dijck

Building the Rosenbot

June 4, 2024