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

by Peter Merholz

Schedule a series of conversations with team members as well as key people outside of design. Limit the number of conversations to no more than six. A typical day for a product designer, content strategist, UX researcher, or design program manager would feature these interview participants: Potential design team peers The candidate’s probable manager Product manager they would likely work with Engineer they would likely work with Design program manager A communication designer would likely not speak to product management and engineering, but should definitely speak with people in marketing and copywriting. For the peer interviews, feel free to have two on one. Such conversations can stoke camaraderie and gives the candidate a little more insight into whom they’d be working with. Keep the other conversations as one on one, either because of potential sensitivities (with a prospective manager) or because the people from different functions (engineering, product management) will have different avenues they want to explore. Each conversation should have a natural set of topics, though the hiring manager will want to coordinate the interviews to ensure a complete picture develops. Make sure potential design peers probe across matters of process, skills, collaboration style, behavioral traits (how the candidate performs under certain situations), and personality and cultural fit. If the hiring manager conducted the first phone screen, then this onsite conversation is an opportun...