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."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Clear outcomes and defined secure behaviors are better than vague goals like 'be more secure'."
Heidi TrostTo Protect People, You Have to Protect Information: A Human-Centered Design Approach to Cybersecurity
January 23, 2025
"Systems thinking can help us design more explicitly for resilience, as seen in distributed manufacturing of PPE during the pandemic."
Sheryl CababaExpanding Your Design Lens with Systems Thinking
February 23, 2023
"UXPin is a full-stack platform that bridges the gap between design and development disciplines."
Jack BeharHow to Build Prototypes that Behave like an End-Product
December 6, 2022
"Carbon is just the starting point for what can be imagined. We're hired for our expertise to adapt, not just follow directions."
Mitchell BernsteinOrganizing Chaos: How IBM is Defining Design Systems with Sketch for an Ever-Changing AI Landscape
September 29, 2021
"The internal champion is the ideal choreographer who builds trust, invests in onboarding and bridges the agency and the client teams."
Séamus ByrneAligning Teams with Choreography
January 8, 2024
"People eat with their eyes before they eat with their mouths — polish makes a big difference."
Dave Hoffer Joanne WeaverUX Job Search AMA #2 with Joanne Weaver and Dave Hoffer
May 21, 2025
"Encourage adoption by sharing documentation in relevant channels, referring team members to it, and including it in onboarding."
Gabrielle VerderberDocumentation Your Team Will Actually Use
October 3, 2023
"Testing with people who have low vision shows that even passing contrast ratios can still result in unreadable text if font weights are too thin."
Kate KalcevichIntegrating Accessibility in DesignOps
September 23, 2024
"Research is inherently a silo-busting activity because customers experience the whole, not just parts divided by departments."
Robin BeersResearch as a Catalyst for Organizational Transformation
March 12, 2021
