Design Management Models in the Face of Transformation
Summary
As a startup in hyper growth mode, the design teams at Signifyd immediately faced the unique challenges in meeting the demands of a fast-paced, agile environment which rarely looked the same everyday. With growth, the pace of change continued, leading challenge of managing an organization in a constant state of transformation. How do you build and nourish teams to be both agile and hardy, having both flexible branches and strongly planted roots? Sharing stories from across two design teams–the largely centralized Brand and Marketing team, and the mostly embedded Product team–Kincade and Ortiz-Reyes will illustrate how in just three years, those teams have transformed models through cross-pollination and shared best practices. Brand and Marketing’s centralized model has become more embedded, and Product’s embedded model now largely resembles a centralized model. The result? Signifyd’s design teams are among the most highly ranked in terms of employee satisfaction. Join this session and gain valuable firsthand insights that will empower you to: Prepare your organization for transformation Implement and manage a participatory visualization of the org Understand and apply the psychology of change management
Key Insights
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Transformation in design teams is inherently messy but necessary to create systems out of chaos and requires a mindset shift paired with strong foundations.
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Building a team with freelancers initially can accelerate validation and proof of concept before securing full-time headcount.
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Centralized design teams can become bottlenecks and be perceived as slow-moving black boxes by stakeholders.
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Hybrid pod models, combining skill-complete pods with leadership and mentoring, improve communication, reduce blockers, and support scalability.
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Embedded design models yield deep expertise and closer teamwork with product but risk siloed goals and limiting design influence at scale.
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Design pairs provide strength in numbers, faster turnarounds, and more cohesive outputs, positively impacting sales cycles and business influence.
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Regularly revisiting and adapting organizational models is critical as company needs and priorities evolve over time.
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Establishing shared design principles and a mission or north star aligns teams and provides decision-making clarity through transformation.
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Leaders must actively nurture psychological safety, transparency, and communication to mitigate fear and resistance during change.
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Breaking down silos and building bridges obsessively as leadership fosters empathy and collaboration necessary for successful transformation.
Notable Quotes
"Transformation is metamorphosis; it's often messy and aims to create systems out of chaos."
"Doubt and fear come up if you haven’t established the right communication and trust."
"Pairing up as design soulmates was the first foundation that made all the difference for Signified’s design journey."
"Using program dollars to hire freelancers helped me avoid difficult conversations with HR and finance early on."
"Stakeholders saw design as a slow-moving black box — exactly what we were trying to move away from."
"We needed to revise our plan; we couldn’t just keep adding talented folks and hope everything falls into place."
"The pod system gave leads more credibility and leadership opportunities while supporting junior growth."
"Embedding designers gave them deep expertise but siloed goals prevented consistent cross-product experiences."
"Design pairs gave strength in numbers, faster turnarounds, and more impact especially when paired with product managers."
"Transformation is new ways of thinking and eventually doing; we won’t have all the answers at the start and that’s okay."
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