5 things I’ve learned about scaling a (design) department: part one

Trying to find information on this subject is hard. There are plenty of articles on adding people to a team, but scaling is another thing entirely. There are no playbooks to show you how to do that, no recipes for success. Everything I’ve learned so far has resulted from a lot of reading, chatting with others, a lot of staring off into the distance, and much trial and error. So I’m sharing these reflections in the hope that someone else facing this new challenge has something to start from. In this piece, I’m thinking about what I’ve learned after a year as the Head of Design in a tech org during hyper-growth. As the person leading the design practice, it’s my job to scale it as the business grows. Though I’ve written from the perspective of design, I am confident these lessons apply to anyone facing the daunting task of scaling their department. Here’s what I’ve learned so far: <h1>Scaling doesn’t mean magnifying the as-is</h1> There is a tendency to think about scaling in terms of numbers alone. But headcount isn’t everything. Headcount is people, and adding more people to your team is something that magnifies complexity. If your systems are informal and your processes are ad hoc, you will feel the pain of this more acutely. <a href="https://bootcamp.uxdesign.cc/5-things-ive-learned-about-scaling-a-design-department-part-one-ab57327df1">Website</a>