Structuring an Effective Team
Scaling and structuring of a growing design team
Design Operations - Design Thinking
Overview
The early-stage start-up was growing rapidly and needed a more effective way of meeting the needs of our customers. I identified existing gaps in service and defined new job roles based on skill sets and needs.
Outcomes
Increased completion rate by 15%
Grew the contract team from 20 people to over 70 people in under 1 year.
Maintained quality control by instituting multiple ways of getting feedback
Goals
Identify specific skill sets and place designers in roles best suited to their skill sets
Increase the completion rate of students by improving the quality of design reviews
My Role
I worked as Program Manager and managed the day-to-day operations of our staff. I worked closely with the founders to rapidly grow our operations to meet the needs of the business.
Scaling a design team
When I was brought into the company, I quickly identified the need to scale our design contractor team while improving quality
Pain points to address
1
Strengths not considered when placed in roles
A wide range of expertise in the design process was needed and most of the contractors had strengths in one area and not another, making it difficult for them to fulfill responsibilities without compromising quality.
2
All students were treated equal
Doesn’t seem like a problem, right? But as an organization that values equity - or recognizing not everyone starts at the same place - we needed systems in place to help the students who needed more attention than others to succeed.
Improved Team Structure
Overtime the mentorship program evolved to include new roles and better place contractors in roles that best fit their skill sets.
Existing Design Structure
As a smaller company, a relatively horizontal structure worked really well. As the company grew, so did growing pains with managing design quality and matching people to the best work based on their skill sets. People were too generalized, which made the review process frustrating for both mentors (design contractors) and students.
3
Scaling and maintaining quality became difficult
The program evolved as a small cohort learning design from a person to an asynchronous e-learning platform with over 70 mentors and 100’s of students, scaling the mentor program meant rethinking how best to support students while the program grew.
1
Strengths were identified during hiring and onboarding, placing contractors in the most effective area role that matched their skillset.
2
A new role was created to work with students who needed extra assistance and only contractors with the best people skills were placed in this role.
3
As the mentor team reached over 70 people, a vertical structure was adopted to assist me in managing the mentors. The “mentor leads” helped identify quality issues and identified any areas of concern that needed intervention.
Impact
Restructuring the design contractors allowed us to increase the speed and quality of service. We saw completion rates increase 15% and a reduction in completion time by 12%. Overall satisfaction of the students also increased, making the e-learning program a more enjoyable experience.