Org Design for Design Orgs: Building and Managing In-House Design Teams

by Peter Merholz

I’ve often thought about design teams in terms of organization and operation — the structure and methods created to help designers do their best work.

We get better at building services and experiences, not just features. We get better at seeing the bigger picture.

Instead of design practice methods and tools, it features maturity models, organizational frameworks, guides for staffing and retaining talent, and recommendations for successful cross-team collaboration.

As design practitioners, we can design experiences, organizations, communities, our lives. And as design managers, we naturally focus on others — our teams, customers, and the participants in the design and delivery of the experience.