In the world of tech startups, adaptability is essential to longevity — particularly on design teams.
Growth can be quick and even exponential, with team members finding themselves wearing a range of hats across the company to reach big goals with limited resources.
Rather than find this daunting, the senior manager of product design at Definitive Healthcare, Michael Boyer, sees an exciting opportunity for experimentation. “When goals are clear and a support network is in place, you might discover wearing a fedora and beret together looks good on you.”
According to 2018 research by McKinsey, businesses that embrace and nurture design teams and processes generate 32 percent more revenue and 56 percent more shareholder returns. This boost can be a game changer for new companies, but how do businesses utilize the power of their design teams — and avoid burnout — when working with limited resources and financing?
Justin Henry, a senior product design director at Jobcase, thinks it’s all about knowing and encouraging the strengths of your team. “When you run lean, you quickly come to realize that perfection really is the enemy of progress,” he said. “We work much faster by dividing and conquering tasks, leaning into each other’s strengths even when wearing multiple hats.”
Companies must ensure their small teams are working and scaling effectively, even when wearing multiple hats, but this is often easier said than done. Built In Boston spoke further with Boyer and Henry about maintaining efficiency in lean startup design teams — and how they avoid burnout along the way.
When design teams have limited resources, team members are often asked to wear multiple hats. In your experience, which hats go best together and which don’t mix well?
I’m a strong believer in the Jeffery Phillips quote, “Wearing many hats is better than having too many heads.” The product design team is encouraged to explore new skill sets when there is a clear benefit or purpose, and it’s my responsibility to define goals and provide a safety net as team members try these new skills.
How do you structure a small design team for business success without burning everyone out?
Product design teams have a flexible structure but well-defined process. We strive for an ego-free environment and emphasize collaboration. This mindset enables us to pick up each other’s work to balance capacity. Creativity is a finite resource that needs to be recharged like a battery.
Creativity is a finite resource that needs to be recharged like a battery.”
Beyond organizational structure, what are your go-to best practices for boosting efficiency on a small design team?
I am obsessed with LEGOs — shout-out to all my fellow adult fans of LEGOS (AFOLs). Sometimes generic bricks find their way into my collection, but these pieces don’t match or fit the others, making it frustrating when you stumble across offbeat bricks. I have a similar obsession with design systems. Designers rely on interconnected patterns that reliably fit together. We groom our design system to eliminate mismatched pieces and because of that, I might toss out a generic brick.
The advantages of a good design system cascade beyond designers. Product owners, front end engineers and QA all benefit from component reuse. Most importantly, end-users adopt features more quickly when design patterns are familiar.
When design teams have limited resources, team members are often asked to wear multiple hats. In your experience, which hats go best together and which don’t mix well?
Product designers are an integral step in the product development process. They are responsible for researching, concepting, designing and implementing a product by working closely with developers, product owners and other teams. They are also responsible for creating style guides and speaking to users about their pain points or what they want to accomplish with a product.
This means that a product designer needs to be adept in several disciplines, but it’s hard to be good at everything. Because our team is small, I try to take stock of the talent on the team, lean into each individual’s strengths and allow them to be the subject matter expert in a particular area. For example, we have designers that are good at creating icons while another designer is efficient at creating user tests. When you run lean, you quickly come to realize that perfection really is the enemy of progress. We work much faster by dividing and conquering tasks, leaning into each other’s strengths even when wearing multiple hats.
A product designer needs to be adept in several disciplines, but it’s hard to be good at everything.”
How do you structure a small design team for business success without burning everyone out?
I try to focus each designer on particular business efforts. This way they own the entire end-to-end experience of their effort and are aligned with the strategy and goals of it. For example, there is a design lead who owns a surface called the “Community.” This designer is responsible for creating tools and experiences that bring members together. This is their primary focus for a quarter or two and it ensures that they are laser-focused on solutions for that problem space. Keeping designers focused helps to not overwhelm or burn them out — it eliminates the stopping and starting of learning something entirely new.
Another way to help with burnout is encouraging designers to embrace a balanced work-life culture and allow for much-needed time off. There is a common understanding at Jobcase that when the organization needs you, they really need you. Designers understand this mentality and will work their time off around major projects and deadlines.
Beyond organizational structure, what are your go-to best practices for boosting efficiency on a small design team?
One go-to best practice for building efficiency on a design team is introducing a design system. This is a complete set of standards intended to manage design at scale using reusable components and patterns. Our design system is so effective because it alleviates strain on design resources and allows us to focus on larger and more complex problems. It has also helped the organization create a unified language cross-functionally, which has saved a lot of time. Lastly, a design system can also serve as an educational tool for new designers and engineers because it serves as an onboarding tool on the company’s ways of doing things.
Another best practice is keeping up with industry standards as our environment changes. This became important during the pandemic when we found ourselves working in a completely remote work environment. This meant that research tools that were previously used in person were now entirely online. Being adaptive, curious and flexible is what it’s all about for boosting efficiency on a small design team.
